The surprising choice to lead Vietnam’s Communist Party
Feb 4th 2021WHEN COMPARED with the vibrant bustle and chaos in the rest of Hanoi—where drag queens perform for rapturous audiences and break-dancers throw down moves on the city’s pavements—the five-yearly congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam could not have stood in starker contrast. The exactly spaced potted palms and bouquets; the serried ranks…
What a shortage of cars says about Algeria
IN MOST PLACES a new car is a bad store of value. Its resale price plummets the moment it is driven out of the dealership. But not in Algeria. Hassan Houicha has been getting offers to buy his Volkswagen for the same sum he paid for it in 2013. Still, he refuses to sell. “What…
Get Paid $13,000 To Lose Quarantine Stomach Fat
A fitness site is presently offering $13,000 to individuals interested in shedding their ‘quarantine love handles.’ Total Shape, a preeminent online platform for fitness and health guidance, is dedicated to helping folks live their lives to the fullest by feeling happier and healthier. A staggering amount of Americans have put on lockdown weight, prompting the…
Deep-ocean plastic is a haven for life
Feb 6th 2021THE OCEAN deep, where pressure is high, light absent and nutrients scarce, is often seen as a desert. But, as with other deserts, it has oases. Hydrothermal vents, methane-gas seeps and whale corpses are hot spots for marine wildlife. And observations reported in Environmental Science and Technology Letters by Song Xikun of Xiamen…
A tiny genetic alteration may have let vertebrates leave the sea
Feb 6th 2021ABOUT 370m years ago, in the latter part of the Devonian period, the ancestor of all land vertebrates stepped out of the ocean and began to take advantage of the untapped riches found ashore. This was a big step, both literally and metaphorically, and evolutionary biologists have long assumed that bringing about the…
Chinese investors’ access to foreign assets expands—a bit
Feb 6th 2021THE 55-KILOMETRE Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge is a quick drive but a technical challenge. The trip requires motorists to buy insurance in three jurisdictions. Those making the jaunt from Hong Kong to Macau must still buy a Chinese policy, because the waters below the bridge belong to the mainland. Traffic is low.Listen to this…
How should economists think about biodiversity?
Feb 6th 2021WHAT IS THE contribution of nature to the economy? Students of economics are well acquainted with production functions, which work out how inputs like capital and labour combine to yield output. These functions make all sorts of assumptions, many of which economists know well (that the contributions of capital and labour are subject…
Business cards are going online in Asia
IN ASIA MEETINGS do not begin until business cards have been swapped. It is no mere formality. Accept the card with two hands and carefully examine it, noting the giver’s title and other indicators of rank—essential information in any strongly hierarchical business culture. It is so important to master this ritual in Japan (just how…
Few young Japanese want to study or work abroad
SAITO CHIHIRO and Saito Seika have a lot in common: they are twins. Now 26, they grew up together in northern Tokyo. They share many interests, including a passion for Hollywood films. But their paths diverged when Chihiro moved to Hungary to study medicine, and Seika enrolled in a Japanese university to pursue art. “I…
Will his alliance with the ultra-Orthodox doom Binyamin Netanyahu?
HE WAS HARDLY a household name, but the funeral of Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik on January 31st may prove a turning-point in Israel’s election campaign. The event drew some 20,000 ultra-Orthodox mourners, in defiance of a nationwide lockdown to combat covid-19 (see picture). “It’s wrong to break the lockdown, but when a man like this…