A Brief History of Timekeeping

Imagine trying to catch a train without a watch, or landing on the moon without knowing the exact second. For most of human history, people managed just fine without precise timekeeping. However, once we figured out how to measure time accurately, everything changed.

Too Good A Deal

Imagine this: you're scrolling through an electronics retailer's website during Black Friday season, and you spot a premium tablet. It normally costs around a thousand dollars, but it's listed for just seventeen dollars. This isn't a typo in the advertisement—it's the actual checkout price. Do you click buy? And if you do, can the company take it back later?

Why Italy Holds On to Its Gold

Deep beneath the Bank of Italy's headquarters, just a short walk from the Colosseum, sits a treasure worth three hundred billion dollars. Italy now holds the world's third-largest national gold reserve, behind only the United States and Germany. And despite mounting pressure to sell off some of this glittering stockpile, Italy refuses to let go.

What is Cool?

Who is undeniably cool? Charli XCX, certainly. David Bowie, of course. But what exactly makes someone cool, and more importantly, can the rest of us learn it? A recent international study claims to have discovered the secret of coolness, identifying six key characteristics that make someone seem effortlessly desirable.

LEARNING BY DOING

Effective workplace learning doesn't happen in classrooms or online libraries. It requires hands-on practice, peer teaching, and the right support systems—backed by brain science that shows why struggle and repetition matter more than convenience.

Historic Roman Tower Collapses During Renovation Work (B1/B2)

On a November morning in Rome, renovation workers were inside the Torre dei Conti when the medieval tower began to collapse. Within ninety minutes, two separate structural failures had torn through the building. One Romanian worker lost his life and another was injured. Now, investigators are trying to understand what might have caused an eight-hundred-year-old survivor to suddenly give way.

Food Park Italy (B1B2)

When Too Much Pasta Becomes a Problem: Italian Cities Fight Food Tourism Overload – Imagine this scene: thirty-one restaurants packed onto a single street in Palermo, Sicily. Bright orange Aperol spritzes on every table. Deep-fried rice balls and cannoli everywhere you look. For tourists, it's paradise. However, for the mayor of Palermo, it was finally too much. He's banned new restaurants from opening in the historic center. And he's not alone in taking this action.

Crab People!

Why Evolution Keeps Reinventing the Crab – A joke has been spreading across the internet recently, and it suggests that humanity's ultimate destiny isn't to become cyborgs or upload our consciousness to the cloud. Instead, according to viral memes, we're all eventually going to turn into crabs. The strange part is that there's actually some real science behind this humorous idea.

Insta-Tourism

There's a small fishing village on the coast of Portugal that used to be a traveler's secret. Local fishermen would haul in their catch each morning while a handful of backpackers sipped coffee at a single family-run café. - Today, that same village has seventeen restaurants, three souvenir shops, and a line of tourists waiting to photograph the same weathered boat that's been featured in ten thousand Instagram posts.

PHARMA COMPANY GETS SUED

Johnson & Johnson Must Pay $966 Million in Baby Powder Cancer Case

Can Your Choice Of Dinner Change Your Politics?

New research suggests that eating international food could actually be making you more tolerant of immigrants and immigration.

Skiing Down Everest

Polish Climber Makes History Skiing Down Everest Without Bottled Oxygen

EUROPE PLANS TO BUILD A 'DRONE WALL'

The European Union has agreed to build a 'drone wall' to protect its eastern borders from airspace violations.

CAN A DRIVERLESS CAR BE FINED

IgNobel 2025

Can a tipple help you speak better in a foreign language. Research seems to say it can.

IgNobel 2025

Can a tipple help you speak better in a foreign language. Research seems to say it can.

PASTA GRANNIES

In Bari, Italy, old women make special pasta called orecchiette. Some women are in trouble because they sold factory-made pasta to tourists.

NOT IN THE POT

A remarkably rare orange lobster, with only a one-in-30-million chance of existing, has been rescued from a New York supermarket and returned to the ocean.

ITALIAN CITY TO TAX TOURIST DOGS

Visitors must pay money to bring dogs to Bolzano, Italy from 2026.