Why Prices Differ Around the World
If you have ever traveled somewhere, especially to countries that are either a good deal richer or poorer than your own, you might have noticed that some places are certainly a lot more expensive than others. There seems to be a strong correlation between the average wealth of a country and the cost of goods and services.
How We’ll Forget John Lennon
The report, “The universal decay of collective memory and attention,” concludes that people and things are kept alive through “oral communication” from about five to 30 years. They then pass into written and online records, where they experience a slower, longer decline.
The Divers Rescuing A Drowning Island
Vaan Island in India’s Gulf of Mannar has been rapidly disappearing into the Laccadive Sea. These waters are home to India’s most varied and biodiverse coastlines. But a team of marine biologists is working to save it.
The Truth Behind Brands’ Secret Formulas & Recipes
Why brands are so protective of their signature formula or recipe. Is there really a thing like “secret formula” or it’s just that you are being persuaded into believing that such a thing exists. What would happen if you steal the Coca-Cola secret formula?
Raising The Minimum Wage By $1 May Prevent Thousands Of Suicides, Study Shows
Between 1990 and 2015, raising the minimum wage by $1 in each state might have saved more than 27,000 lives, according to a report published this week in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. An increase of $2 in each state’s minimum wage could have prevented more than 57,000 suicides.
China Aims To Launch The World’s First Official Digital Currency
Dozens of central banks have started looking at whether to issue digital currencies. But only a few have run trials and none has gone as far as China, which appears set to become the first country to put a central-bank digital currency (cbdc) into limited use.
How ‘Landscape Urbanism’ Is Making Gentrification Look Like Fun
The High Line and its imitators are examples of “landscape urbanism,” a growing design movement that places green space in collision with old infrastructure. Rehabilitation projects follow a familiar playbook, aestheticizing the labor of the past even as they support a gentrified future.
What Do Political Databases Know About You?
American citizens are inundated with political messages—on social networks, in their news feeds, through email, text messages, and phone calls. If you live in the US, you’re almost certainly being tracked by political organizations. They know a lot about you—but some data is just guesswork.
The Case For More Silent Meetings
Talking meetings have much merit, but can also be subject to a host of problems. Current research supports the benefits of holding a “silent meeting” as one way of better leveraging the ideas, perspectives, and insights of organizational talent.
America’s Cocaine Habit Fueled Its Migrant Crisis
During the 90s, traffickers started shipping their drugs through Central America and over land to Mexico. That created a violent and competitive turf war between gangs and organizations in Guatemala and Honduras, and after the governments cracked down, violence only increased, forcing people to flee, often to the US.
What Happens To Your Body After You Die?
Whatever your beliefs, most people seem to agree that the body left behind when we depart this mortal coil is just a heap of bones and flesh. Assuming that nature is left to its own devices, our bodies undergo a fairly standard process of decomposition that can take anywhere from two weeks to two years.
The Million-Dollar Hacker
Tommy DeVoss used to break into websites illicitly. But after serving time for his crimes, he now uses his skills to earn an honest living. Through arrangements known as bug bounty programs, companies pay him to find security holes in their systems. He’s now earned more than $1 million in this emerging profession.
Minimum Wage: A Life Full Of Difficult Choices
Despite Ontario’s recent minimum wage increase, workers are still struggling to make ends meet. Even for those who have full-time jobs, earning minimum wage means they have to make a lot of difficult choices.
When The Sahara Was Green
The climate of the Sahara was completely different thousands of years ago. And we’re not talking about just a few years of extra rain. We’re talking about a climate that was so wet for so long that animals and humans alike made themselves at home in the middle of the Sahara.
Britain’s Collapsing Coastline
Coastal erosion is occurring along 17 per cent of the UK coastline. The worst affected is the town of Happisburgh in Norfolk, predicted to lose the most land over the next 20 years.
How To Stop Plastic Getting Into The Ocean
By 2050 there could be more plastic in the ocean by weight, than fish. Plastic pollution is definitely one of the largest threats our oceans face today. Meet the engineers who are using rubbish-guzzling boats to stem the flow at its source.
Modern Slavery Of Disabled People In South Korea
30 Years A Slave: A moving report from South Korea where the police have rescued hundreds of modern-day slaves tricked into working on salt and seaweed farms on a chain of remote islands. Shockingly, many of those rescued have learning disabilities.
Hagia Sophia: Church Of Divine Wisdom And Subject Of Global Dispute
Hagia Sophia has been the ‘apple of discord’ between the Greeks and the Turks, the ‘east’ and the ‘west’ for 567 years, but as history likes to repeat itself we are now witnessing a revival of this old dispute. A museum has been converted to a mosque.
How Climate Change Is Shaping Business In Iceland
While Iceland as a whole is experiencing the negative effects of climate change stronger than many other nations, Finnafjord actually aims to profit from the changing climate. The construction of a large container port is supposed to turn Iceland into a new hub for international merchant shipping.
The City Where They Murdered Yugoslavia
The Bosnian War happened because a war criminal in waiting didn’t care where his ideology led him. Ratko Mladic did not believe in Yugoslavia. But he did believe in the unity of his people. And in his attempt to get to that natural dead end, he would destroy the dream of Gavrilo Princip. He would destroy all the work of Tito.
The Oldest Tattooing Family In The World
Wasim Razzouk is a tattoo artist in Jerusalem’s Old City. Ink runs deep in his family. The Razzouks have been tattooing visitors to the Holy Land for 500 years (and in Egypt for 200 years before that). Christian pilgrims flock to Razzouk Tattoo to get a cross tattoo based on one of the designs on wooden stamps that have been in the Razzouk family for generations.