The Future Of Airliners?
One that could shake up the duopoly of Boeing and Airbus to force competition and new designs? Take a look at the D8, nicknamed the Double Bubble, developed by Aurura, MIT and with the help of NASA.
How One NASA Image Tells Dozens Of Stories
In 2016, NASA used the Suomi NPP weather satellite to create a high resolution image of the earth at night. It can help us better understand the current developments and conflicts underway. The amount of light pollution is most severe in heavily populated areas, as well as in regions of high prosperity.
La Linea, Europe’s Narco City
La Linea is a Spanish coastal city built on the drug trade. Smugglers and policemen often come from the same street. Off the Grid met people on both sides of the divide.
Why Ban Dollar Stores?
Dollar-discount stores get the blame for “food deserts”—neighborhoods without supermarkets. It’s claimed, these stores drive out supermarkets with their low prices and saturate poor neighborhoods with junk food. But are dollar stores really to blame for bad diets?
A Hero In The Sky (And On The Ground)
Ann Sim lives a double life. A member of Singapore Airlines cabin crew, she is also a volunteer medic with the Singapore Civil Defence Force, which responds to all kinds of emergency situations. While her job offers her the opportunity to see the world, Sim’s volunteer work enables her to give back to her community.
What Comes After TV?
A mobile-storytelling platform called Quibi has loomed on the content horizon, promising that, when its app launches this spring, it will be a home to a huge library of short-form shows made specifically for your phone. But Snapchat has been operating in that space for years. It’s harder than you’d think.
Offices Can Be Hell For People Whose Brains Work Differently
Work spaces today come with strong smells, harsh light, lots of chatter, and constant messages on email or Slack. For neurodivergent people, this can be a big ask.
When Artists, Engineers, And Pepsico Collaborated, Then Clashed At The 1970 World’s Fair
A year and a half in the making, the Pepsi Pavilion drew eager crowds and elicited effusive reviews. Just a month after the opening, the partnership with Experiments in Art and Technology—E.A.T.—collapsed amidst a flurry of recriminating letters and legal threats.
Life Against The Odds In Australia’s Underground Town
Coober Pedy is at the center of Australia’s opal mining industry. Now the town, where 60% of its residents live underground, is becoming a leader in sustainable living.
McMillions: How A McDonald’s Employee Helped Take Down a $24 Million Crime Ring
For years, the beloved McDonald’s Monopoly game was rigged by a motley crew of mobsters, ex-cops, and one Mormon church leader. The Rhode Island “McSting” was the catapult for a much larger undertaking to bust the restaurant industry’s most notorious criminal ring.
L’Oréal’s Clip-on Sensor Tracks Your Exposure To UV Rays
The future of wearable skincare technology is roughly the size of an M&M. L’Oréal’s La Roche-Posay My Skin Track UV sensor clips onto clothing and measures the wearer’s exposure to UV radiation, a form of radiation that is known to damage skin and, in large amounts, cause skin cancer.
Why Recycling Isn’t Quite Working Anymore
Is recycling worth it? When it first took off recycling was seen as one of the environmental movement’s great successes. But recent market forces have made more and more countries reconsider the cost of going green.
I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave
My brief, backbreaking, rage-inducing, low-paying, dildo-packing time inside the online-shipping machine, under conditions that were surprisingly demoralizing and dehumanizing, even to someone who’s spent a lot of time working in warehouses, which I have.
Can Eco-Tourism Help Save The Ocean?
Indonesia’s Coral Triangle is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, but destructive fishing practices are threatening ocean life. Meet the conservation pioneers who are reviving these waters—bringing species back from the brink of extinction.
Ashes To Ashes, Dust To… Compost? An Ecofriendly Burial In Just 4 Weeks
Also known as “natural organic reduction,” composting burial is the brainchild of Katrina Spade, CEO of alternative burial company Recompose. The process involves decomposition of the corpse in soil—but not within a traditional cemetery.
Buyers Club: The Network Providing People With Affordable Hepatitis C Medicine
In 2013, a cure was found for hepatitis C. It could save millions of lives, but its price tag of between $40,000 and $84,000 for 84 pills puts it far out of most patients’ reach. Greg Jefferys defied the US pharmaceutical company that holds the patent to set up a worldwide supply network for the generic version.
Why China’s First Military Base Abroad Is In Africa
For many countries, the Republic of Djibouti has become the central anchor point in the region. It hosts military bases from France, the United States, Japan, Italy and, since 2017, China. The fact that so many countries want to be present here has to do with the location, which is important for a lot of reasons.
Medieval Spanish Ghost Town Becomes Self-Sufficient Ecovillage
It’s a utopian fantasy, discover a ghost town and rebuild it in line with your ideals, but in Spain where there are nearly 3000 abandoned villages, some big dreamers have spent the past 3 decades doing just that. One of the first towns to be rediscovered was a tiny hamlet in the mountains of northern Navarra.
“3,000 Miles”, A Short Doc About Life In New York Through Voice Mails
On July 5th, 2016, Sean Wang moved across the country to work and live in New York City for one year. This is a personal documentary of his year, chronicled by voicemails left by his mom.
The 10/10/10 Rule For Tough Decisions
It’s good to sleep on it when there are tough choices to make, but you also need a strategy once you wake up–which is why you should employ the 10/10/10 rule. How will we feel about it 10 minutes from now? How about 10 months from now? How about 10 years from now?
The Road That Links China And Pakistan, A Journey Across India & Pakistan
Adnan Sarwar drives along the Karakoram Highway, one of the highest paved roads on Earth to Attabad Lake. Babita’s journey takes her into the state of Jammu and Kashmir, a region which is still being fought over by India and Pakistan, who both claimed it at Partition.