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No Juan Should Be Left Behind, Pulanglupa I, Manila (2025)

20/09/2024

The World's Best Hotels in 2024
50 best by Anna Fleck,
Sep 18, 2024

Capella Bangkok in Thailand has been named the best hotel in the world by William Reed Business Media's The World's 50 Best Hotels list. The roundup of luxurious hotels was announced at an awards ceremony in London on Tuesday night, marking only the second-ever edition of the list. The ranking was based on the answers of 600 anonymous voters from across the globe, including travel journalists, hoteliers and seasoned luxury travelers.

Capella Bangkok, located on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, is a fairly new hotel, having opened its doors in 2020. It is complete with a Michelin-starred restaurant, a spa and seven villas, each with their own whirlpool bath plunge pool. The hotel jumped up 10 spots from 2023, overtaking last year’s winner, the Passalacqua on Italy’s Lake Como, which now places second. Passalacqua is set in an 18th-century villa with terraced gardens and just 24 rooms. In third place comes the 65-storey Rosewood Hong Kong, with harbor views, a modern style and 11 restaurants.

Asia dominates this year’s edition of the 50 Best, with 19 hotels making an appearance in total, four of which are in Thailand’s Bangkok. Europe has 13 hotels on the list, with four properties in each of France, the United Kingdom and Italy, while North America has nine properties featured. The top performing U.S. hotel is The Carlyle (rank 30), which is located on New York’s Upper East Side and known for its Art Deco aesthetic. Its bar, Bemelmans, is famed for jazz and martinis.

09/07/2024

SUMMER OLYMPICS
by Felix Richter, Jul 9, 2024

With the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics less than three weeks away, the French capital is bracing for an onslaught of visitors from all around the world. Along with 10,500 athletes, 20,000 accredited journalists and 45,000 volunteers, millions of spectators will descend on Paris in the coming weeks to watch the 329 events at 35 venues located in Paris, across the country and, with Tahiti’s iconic Teahupo’o wave, even overseas.

As our chart shows, Paris 2024 is on track to be historic in terms of paying spectators. With roughly 9 million of the available 10 million tickets sold as of April 2024, the Paris Olympics have already exceeded the previous record of 8.3 million tickets sold for Atlanta 1996. Given the expected record-breaking attendance, Paris 2024 will be in stark contrast to Tokyo 2020, which was postponed to 2021 and held behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It remains to be seen whether Paris 2024 can achieve something that neither Rio, nor London or Beijing have managed: sell out all available tickets. With 97 percent of all available tickets sold, London 2012 came closest to selling out in the past four decades, while Athens 2004 struggled most to fill the venues with just 71 percent of tickets sold.

02/07/2024

A World of Feminists? Far From It …
by Katharina Buchholz, Jul 1, 2024

If you think feminism is a firmly established and respected concept globally, think again. In a recent survey by Ipsos, only 39 percent of respondents from 31 mostly high and upper-middle income countries said that they identified as feminists, while an average of 51 percent disagreed with this description for themselves.

Only two countries out of 31, India and Spain, had a majority agree that they saw themselves as feminists - despite a mixed records of gender rights in both nations. The tally rises to a still meager seven countries when only counting the responses of women, showing that while some countries have big gender gaps in the response to this question, many do not.

In Japan, the country ranked lowest, 15 percent of both men and women agreed that they were feminists, while overall, 61 percent disagreed with the statement - highlighting the overall negative connotations connected with the concept of feminism in the country. Japan and second-lowest ranked South Korea have come under fire for a lack of women's rights, lack of identification with feminism and the tendencies of a growing group of men that have been described as anti-feminist or even incel. A new article by The Economist describes a backlash against feminism in the context of women excelling at universities while traditional role models long holding strong in society are fading. This observation is underscored by surveys finding that 79 percent of young South Korean men believed in reserve discrimination in 2021, while the same year, 43 percent of young Japanese men say they hated feminism.

Economic hardships hitting developed economies around the globe, but that seem most disruptive in East Asia, are adding to the feeling of unfairness when policies champion women. An excess of men - a legacy of the now faded preference for sons - is also making life harder for males at work and in personal affairs like dating, which has been identified as another factor of frustration that sometimes comes to a boil online, the place where incel culture has been flourishing.

12/06/2024

Generative AI: A Jack of All Trades?
by Felix Richter, Jun 11, 2024

More than one and a half years after OpenAI released ChatGPT, starting a craze around large language models and generative AI, Apple has officially boarded the AI hype train. On Monday, the iPhone maker unveiled a whole suite of AI features that will be baked into the upcoming versions of iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Apple of course wouldn’t be Apple if it didn’t have its own take on the matter, so it didn’t just call those features AI features but a “personal intelligence system” called Apple Intelligence.

With a focus on privacy, as most tasks will be completed on-device, Apple Intelligence showcases the wide-ranging capabilities of AI, as it will help users craft texts, create images, take actions across app and make everyday tasks easier by understanding context and drawing appropriate conclusions.

The wide range of new features Apple announced on Monday highlights not only the many strengths of AI at its current stage, but also one weakness. While AI is a jack of all trades, doing a lot of things quite well, a true killer feature has yet to emerge, perhaps explaining the limited usage of ChatGPT and other AI tools so far. While it’s great to play around with these novel tools, few users really rely on AI in their everyday routines, which of course, Apple’s entrance into the field could change.

According to a recent survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, “playing around or experimenting” is in fact one of the most popular use cases for generative AI tools so far and even so, just 11 percent of more than 12,000 adults surveyed across six countries have used an AI tool for that purpose. Answering factual questions is another widespread use case, although “widespread” is a bit of a stretch at 11 percent. Summing up several activities, 28 percent of respondents had used an AI tool to create media in some way, while 24 percent had used artificial intelligence to get information. With writing tools, an ”Image Playground” and deep Siri integration, Apple is addressing both these use cases with Apple Intelligence – but only time will tell what will emerge as the killer feature.

30/05/2024

WORLD NO TO***CO DAY
The Effects of Quitting Smoking by Martin Armstrong,
May 29, 2024

The negative effects of to***co smoke are well known, but what about the potential positive effects of kicking the habit? Is there any way back for a smoker's body? As part of a report previously released by the World Health Organization for World No To***co Day shows, the potentially devastating effects of smoking are actually far from a one way street.

After just 20 minutes, the first health improvements begin, with a drop in heart rate and blood pressure. Within 12 hours carbon monoxide levels return to normal and after a few weeks lung function increases and circulation improves. Even the heightened risk of stroke or coronary heart disease is gone within 15 years. Lung cancer also becomes a much less significant threat after about ten years.

28/05/2024

Are Ethics Taking a Backseat in AI Jobs?
by Anna Fleck, May 22, 2024

Data published jointly by the OECD and market analytics platform Lightcast has found that few AI employers are asking for creators and developers of AI to have ethical decision making AI skills. The two research teams looked for keywords such as “AI ethics”, “responsible AI” and “ethical AI” in job postings for AI workers across 14 OECD countries, in both English and the official languages spoken in the 14 countries studied. According to Lightcast, out of these, an average of less than two percent of AI job postings listed these skills. However, between 2019 and 2022 the share of job postings mentioning ethics-related keywords increased in the majority of surveyed countries. For example, the figure rose from 0.1 percent to 0.5 percent in the United States between the four years and from 0.1 percent to 0.4 percent in the United Kingdom.

According to Lightcast writer Layla O’Kane, federal agencies in the U.S. are, however, now being encouraged to hire Chief AI Officers to monitor the use of AI technologies following an executive order for the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use Of Artificial Intelligence. O’Kane writes: “While there are currently a very small number of postings for Chief AI Officer jobs across public and private sector, the skills they call for are encouraging: almost all contain at least one mention of ethical considerations in AI.”

21/05/2024

Who Drinks Tea?
by Anna Fleck, May 21, 2024

Tea is the second most widely consumed drink around the world, coming in only after water. The FAO estimates that some 6.7 million tonnes of tea were produced worldwide in 2022, with China, India, Kenya and Sri Lanka among the main tea producers in terms of production volume. According to the Statista Consumer Market Outlook, the global tea market size is expected to hit $134.4 billion by 2025.

The following chart uses survey data from Statista’s Consumer Insights to show the respective share of tea drinkers in selected countries. Turkey had the highest rate of tea drinkers of those polled, with around nine in ten people saying that they regularly have the hot drink. Kenya, a major producer and exporter of tea, also ranked highly out of the 56 countries analyzed, with 83 percent of its respondents saying they regularly drink tea. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, known as a nation that loves a cuppa, ranked slightly lower with 58 percent of people drinking it. While still high, this is six percentage points lower than neighboring tea drinking country Ireland. In the global comparison, Spain came closer to the bottom, with four in ten people regularly drinking tea.

May 21 is the UN’s International Tea Day, which aims to not only celebrate the cultural heritage, health benefits and economic importance of tea but also to “ensure that the tea sector continues to play a role in reducing extreme poverty, fighting hunger and safeguarding natural resources.”

16/05/2024

Where Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity is Protected by the Law
by Florian Zandt, May 16, 2024

56 countries and regions out of 196 areas analyzed by the crowdsourced platform Equaldex have laws in place that protect members of the LGBTQI+ community against discrimination based on s*xual orientation or gender identity. As our chart based on Equaldex data shows, most of these countries are in the Americas and Europe.

Notable exceptions in North and Latin America and the Caribbean include Guyana and Panama, where no such protection is currently in place, and bigger countries like Argentina, Venezuela or the United States, where it's partially illegal to discriminate against LGBTQI+ individuals. In Venezuela, for example, discrimination in employment and housing contexts has been forbidden by law since 2012. Argentina meanwhile limits its discrimination law to "race, religion, nationality, ideology, political or union opinion, s*x, economic position, social condition or physical characteristics" without mentioning gender identity or s*xual orientation while recognizing relevant international human rights treaties.

The United States no longer classifies homos*xuality or same-s*x marriages as illegal on a national level. Details on discriminatory practices in the workplace, gender-affirming care and other issues related to LGBTQI+ individuals are regulated by the states themselves and sometimes differ greatly.

Countries where there are no practices enshrined in law that prohibit discrimination of any kind because of the victim's s*xual orientation or gender identity are most common in Asia and Africa. In some of these countries, the treatment of non-heteronormative and non-cisgender individuals goes far beyond allowing discrimination against them. For example, in Saudi Arabia, Iran or Uganda, engaging in homos*xual activities can in theory and often also in practice result in the death penalty.

14/05/2024

Asia Races Ahead in Industrial Robot Installations
by Anna Fleck, May 13, 2024

Asia is the world’s largest market for industrial robotics, with nearly three quarters of all newly deployed robots installed there in 2022, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

More than 400,000 units were installed in Asia that year, up 5 percent from the year before. China is driving the vast majority of the region’s market, with over 290,000 units installed in the country in 2022. With over 550,000 robots installed worldwide in 2022 - the highest number on record (+5 percent from 2021) - every other robot installed globally was in China that year. The next largest national market in Asia in 2022 was Japan with more than 50,000 newly installed units (+9 percent). Japan showed continued recovery from the 2020 pandemic dip, with installations returning to 2019 levels. In third position came the Korean market with nearly 32,000 units (+1 percent).

In Europe, the second largest regional market, around 84,000 new robot units were installed in 2022 (+3 percent). Germany was the largest European market with over 25,000 robots installed, although this was a one percent downturn from 2021. The next largest markets in the region were Italy with 11,000 units (+8 percent) and France with 7,000 units(+13 percent). Meanwhile, in the Americas, the United States accounted for 71 percent of installations (40,000; +10 percent), followed by Mexico (6,000; +13 percent) and Canada (3,000; -24 percent).

According to the IFR, China, Japan, the U.S., the Republic of Korea and Germany together accounted for 79 percent of global robot installations in 2022 (438,000 units). Worldwide, the major customer industries for robotics were electronics (28 percent of all robots newly installed) automotive (25 percent of new installations), metal and machinery (12 percent), plastic and chemical products (4 percent) and the food and beverage industry (3 percent).

18/04/2024

The Living Wage Gap
by Katharina Buchholz,
Dec 22, 2023

According to an analysis from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the minimum wage does not suffice to pay for a typical set of living expenses in any state of the United States. Hawaii, Georgia and Utah, where the living wage gap exceeded $10 per hour, fared the worst.

While Georgia and Utah only apply the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, Hawaii has a substantially higher minimum wage of $12 - once more to be increased to $14 on Jan. 1, 2024. Yet, the extremely high living costs on the inland group have created the highest living wage gap in all of the country this year.

In general, states which stuck to the federal minimum created above average gaps. Out of the 21 states which had a living wage gap above $8 this year, all except Hawaii were on the federal minimum wage. As states on the federal rate generally don't increase their minimum wage, employees' earnings were not adjusted in 2022 and 2023 for high inflation rates, causing living wage gaps to open up even more. While before the cost-of-living crisis, only three states saw gaps of more than $8 per hour, this increased to 21 in 2023 exclusively due to federal minimum wage states. Virginia was the state exiting the highest bracket, reducing the living wage gap from more than $9 to just over $7 by introducing a state minimum wage that marked the first increase to the rate in 11 years. The change started in 2021 and Virginia's minimum wage will reach $15 in 2026.

Some states on the East Coast that like Virginia include or are in the vicinity of major cities also had higher wage gaps but none exceeding $8. New York saw a gap of $7.26 per hour this year, while Florida had a gap of $6.72 and Maryland of $6.36 despite these states mandating higher minimum wages.

The smallest gaps could be found in Vermont, Maine and Connecticut, where cost of living remained below metropolitan rates and minimum wages of above $13 kept at least some pace with inflation.

09/04/2024

Solar Eclipses to Hit Major U.S. Metros Within the Century
by Katharina Buchholz, Apr 5, 2024

A solar eclipse is happening in the United States on Monday. The moon will fully obscure the sun in a band that crosses Mexico, 15 states and a small part of Eastern Canada including Montreal and Toronto. The biggest metro that falls within the area for this solar eclipse is Dallas, where the event will begin at 12.23 p.m. but might be hampered by bad weather forecast for the day. The eclipse area will then move across Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, upstate New York and parts of New England. In 2017, a solar eclipse had been visible in a small band between Oregon and South Carolina, passing over Kansas City, St. Louis, Nashville and Charleston.

According to reports, accommodation across the band has been booked solid for the upcoming Monday as many people are willing to travel to experience the event that for many happens only once in a lifetime. Within this century, however, full solar eclipses will pass over more major U.S. metros. After solar eclipses that will be visible in Northern Alaska in 2033 as well as Montana and North Dakota in 2044, the next major eclipse in the United States is coming up in 2045, hitting the Miami metro and other major Florida cities as well as Northern California, most of Colorado, Oklahoma City and once again, Arkansas.

In 2078 and 2079, dual eclipses will first hit New Orleans and Atlanta (while missing Houston by several hours) and then New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Chicago will have to wait until 2099 for an eclipse that also hits Minneapolis and Detroit and passes by very close to the nation's capital, Washington D.C. This makes the current century much more active for solar eclipses in the United States than the past one, which saw most events only skirt the lower 48. Eclipses passed through the Northwest in 1945 and 1979, the Great Lakes in 1925 and 1954, New York in 1925 and New England on three more occasion. In 1970, Northern Florida and the Atlantic Coast of Georgia and the Carolinas experienced another solar eclipse.

Finally, beyond this century, in 2106, a solar eclipse is passing near Los Angeles, only closely missing Santa Barbara while also passing by Salt Lake City and, once more, Minneapolis. This means that in the next roughly 100 years, the only U.S. metros with more than 5 million inhabitants as of 2023 that will not be in the path of a full solar eclipse or at least close to one will be Phoenix, Ariz.

04/04/2024

FINE DINING
by Anna Fleck, Apr 2, 2024

In a ranking of Asia’s fine dining hotspots, a Tokyo restaurant took the top prize this year. Sézanne, which combines a neo-French style with local ingredients, was awarded the title of Asia’s Best Restaurant in a Best 50 ranking by business magazine William Reed.

Japan was the country most prominently featured in this year’s top ten roundup, with three dining spots in the capital of Tokyo making it onto the list and one restaurant, La Cime, in Osaka in rank 9. Thailand’s capital of Bangkok also performed well, with three top restaurants starring there: Gaggan Anand, Nusara and Sühring.

02/04/2024

Tips for Greener AI
Spectrum IEEE April 2024

26/03/2024

WORLD HAPPINESS DAY
by Anna Fleck,Mar 20, 2024

In 2012, the United Nations proclaimed March 20 as the International Day of Happiness or World Happiness Day, which has been held on this date every year since. The aim is to promote awareness for a "more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes the happiness and well-being of all people". Although happiness and satisfaction are subjective parameters, the team behind the World Happiness Report has once again produced a country ranking this year that reveals clear differences between Western industrialized nations and countries in Asia and Africa.

In order to map the satisfaction of respondents in the 143 countries surveyed, participants were asked to rate their level of satisfaction with their current life on a ten-point scale. This was used to calculate an average value for the results between 2021 and 2023 for each country. As this chart, based on the report shows, Finland (7.74), Denmark (7.58) and Iceland (7.53) are the countries with the most satisfied residents according to calculations, while the three lowest scores are found among the residents of Lesotho (3.19), Lebanon (2.71) and Afghanistan (1.72). The United States is ranked 23rd out of the 143 countries in this year's evaluation.

In addition to the clear differences in the geographical regions, there are also differences in satisfaction in different age groups. Looking at the results for the under-30s, Lithuania, Israel and Serbia take the top three places, while Denmark, Finland and Norway take the top three places for the over-60s.

It’s important to note here that the ranking of the World Happiness Report is not an objective survey based on key figures such as gross domestic product per capita, life expectancy or the quality of the social system. According to the authors of the report, these are analyzed as "supporting factors" but have no influence on the score.

18/03/2024

Will TikTok Be Banned in the United States?
TIKTOK VS. THE U.S.
by Felix Richter, Mar 14, 2024

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would force TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell the popular social media platform in order to cut any ties between TikTok, its current parent company and the Chinese government. The bill, officially called “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act”, alleges that TikTok is at least indirectly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, allowing the latter to “surveil and influence the American public” and thus poses “an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.”

The bill essentially says that ByteDance must sell TikTok or at least the U.S. arm of it to a company that has no ties to a “foreign adversary” within six months. If that is not the case, it would be unlawful for app stores and web hosting companies to distribute the app in the United States. But there are a lot of hurdles left to clear: Aside from the fact that the bill still faces a long legislative process and is widely considered unlikely to pass the Senate, it would be hard to find a buyer for what is one of the most popular social media platforms in the U.S. and globally. Paradoxically, the few companies that could afford to buy TikTok would likely be banned from doing so. Meta for example, already under antitrust scrutiny for its social media dominance, would never be allowed by the FTC to acquire another hugely popular social media platform.

In recent years, TikTok has surged in popularity in the U.S. and across the globe, captivating users with easily consumable content. With its innovative short-form video format, TikTok has become a cultural phenomenon, influencing trends in music, dance, comedy and beyond. Its algorithm-driven content recommendation system has proven highly effective in keeping users engaged, inspiring other social media platforms to turn lean heavily into algorithm recommendations as well (hello Instagram!).

According to Statista Consumer Insights, 4 in 10 U.S. adults aged 18 to 64 regularly used TikTok in 2023, making it the fourth most popular social media platform in the U.S., trailing only Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. That’s up from just 14 percent in 2020, showing how quickly TikTok has established itself as a key player in the social media landscape following its launch arrival in the United States in 2018. As our chart shows, the app is particularly popular among younger users with almost 60 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds using it regularly. It is also the most popular social media platform for U.S. teens according to another recent survey, which is why some lawmakers fear it could be used by the CCP to “indoctrinate” the American youth.

Felix Richter
Felix Richter
Data Journalist
[email protected]
+49 (40) 284 841 557

12/03/2024

Dragon Ball & Studio Ghibli: Domestic vs. Overseas Success
by Katharina Buchholz, Mar 11, 2024

At the Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, Calif., last night, new Studio Ghibli film The Boy and the Heron won Best Animated Feature. Director Hayao Miyazaki at age 83 was the oldest person to ever receive this award. He had previously won the same category for 2001 movie Spirited Away.

Another great of the Japanese animation world, Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, passed away unexpected earlier this month. His death from a hematoma was confirmed Friday. His most famous creation remains one of Japan's best-selling comics that was turned into TV series and feature-length films that were popular around the world in their 1990s heyday as well as in the 21st century.

Comparing the movies of both creators, Miyazaki and his studio dominate the Japanese domestic box office ranking, while Toriyama's Dragon Ball franchise rules the North American anime market.

Out of the top 6 of anime films which brought in the most money in Japanese theatres, three are Studio Ghibli films - 2001's Spirited Away as well as 1997's Princess Mononoke and 2004's Howl's Moving Castle. The highest grossing anime films are also the highest grossing Japanese films at the country's domestic box office. Looking only at Japanese movies' success in Japan, the first live action film comes in rank 7: 2003's Bayside Shakedown 2, which fittingly advertises itself as the "biggest box office hit in Japanese live action film history". Taking into account both domestic and international releases in Japanese cinemas, Titanic, Frozen as well as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone also make the top 10.

Stateside, on the other hand, the Studio Ghibli film with the highest lifetime gross is 2010's The Secret World of Arrietty by director Hiromasa Yonebayashi - rank 8 at $19.2 million earned. In rank 4 and 6 are the two newest Dragon Ball movies from the Super series, released in 2018 and 2022, grossing $31 million and $38 million. Also very popular with North American audiences are the Pokémon movies, the Yu-Gi-Oh! movie (rank 7), My Hero Academy (ranks 11 and 13) and Digimon: The Movie (rank 15).

04/03/2024

The Biggest Exporters of Beef in the World
by Anna Fleck, Mar 1, 2024

An investigation by the environmental and human rights group Global Witness, first reported by the BBC, has revealed that three of the world’s major meat producers are linked to acts of illegal deforestation in the Cerrado plains of Brazil. The investigation names JBS, Minerva and Marfrig for illegal deforestation, all of which deny wrongdoing. The investigation focused on the state of Mato Grosso, which is home to just a small part of the expansive Cerrado. It found that much of the land that had been deforested for ranches owned by the three companies did not have permits to remove the trees, suggesting it was illegal.

The news comes as the deadline for companies to comply with a new law in the European Union called the EU Deforestation Regulation draws near (30 December 2024 and 30 June 2025 for micro or small businesses). According to the EUDR, all companies that sell goods to the EU will need to prove that their produce was not grown on land deforested after 2020, or else face heavy fines. Observers say that this law will penalise smallholder farmers unable to provide the relevant data needed to comply, cutting off important streams of revenue.

Just some of the products affected by this law will be beef, coffee, palm oil and soy. Global Witness campaigners take another issue with the law, however, stating that it is not stringent enough, as its current wording means that unlike the Amazon, the Cerrado plains are not fully covered by the measures.

As the following chart shows, Brazil was the biggest exporter of beef in 2023, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Forecasts as of April 2023 predicted that the country would export more than 3 million tons of beef that year. The other major players in beef exports in 2023 were India, which exports water buffalo, the United States and Australia. When looking at the countries that produce the most beef, a different order appears. Then, the U.S. is in first rank, as it sells much of its beef domestically.

02/03/2024

The Screen is the Speaker. Piezoelectrics enable display to provide both high-quality audio and touch feedback.-Vineet Ganju
Source: IEEE Spectrum March 2024

No Juan Should Be Left Behind

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