Virgin Group founder and self-made billionaire Richard Branson dropped out of school at the age of 16 to start Student Magazine, and later founded Virgin Records—and a few other businesses along the way. Over time and various blog posts, he has recorded some thoughts on how to be successful in business and in life, apparently […]
Magnetic Poles You probably know that when you look at a compass needle, it doesn’t point exactly to the place at the very top of the world, called North Pole. The magnetized needle, instead, is attracted to the MAGNETIC North Pole, which is in a different location. In fact, the Earth’s Magnetic North Pole […]
Fit Travel to Personality Where should you go on your next vacation trip? Your satisfaction and enjoyment level may depend on who you are, according to psychologist Joshua Jackson, associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis. He identifies five core personality types—extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. And then he identifies a great potential […]
Crisis Continued We should probably all be celebrating the news that, after eight years of headlines predicting the worst sort of gloom and doom, the nation of Greece has emerged from its bailout program. Over that time period, the country received 289 billion euros ($330 billion) from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and […]
Peace in our Times Is America one of the world’s most peaceful countries, or one of the least? An organization called the Institute for Economics and Peace actually measures, for every country, something called the GPI (Global Peace Index). The measurement takes into account the societal safety and security of each country’s citizens, the extent […]
The World’s Most Polluted Cities Let’s say you’re a global tourist and instead of looking for ancient ruins, five star restaurants or sun-splashed beaches, your goal is to spend your time in cities ravaged by pollution. Where would you look? Beijing citizens have a cynical slogan: “Don’t trust air you can’t see,” but the city […]
A Better Place A recent global survey of more than 18,000 adults in nine countries asked a simple question: “All things considered, do you think the world is getting better or worse, or neither getting better nor worse?” As you can see from the graphic, the most optimistic country, regarding the future, is Sweden, and […]
Currencies and Protectionism There is no question, if the Trump Administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs lead to carefully-targeted tit-for-tat retaliations against American products around the world, the resulting trade war scenario would be terrible for the global economy. Many analysts have dismissed this escalating protectionist future as unlikely, saying that cooler heads are likely […]
Cause for Alarm? Quietly, without a lot of fanfare, the U.S. national debt moved past $20 trillion last September 8. On March 15, it exceeded $21 trillion. The next time the debt ceiling will come up for a vote is March 1, 2019, at which point the total could be another $2-3 […]
Global Optimism Most people tend to be optimistic about the future, and 2018 is apparently no exception. An online survey conducted by the Ipsos organization in 28 different countries found that 76% of global citizens think 2018 will be a better year than 2017. Overall, Latin Americans are the most optimistic this year and Europeans […]
