In 2017, Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales – the Wikipedia cofounder whose plaintive face used to haunt the free encyclopedia’s homepage during fundraising campaigns – decided to save journalism. As an avid consumer of news, The Guardian board member, and all-around internet wise man, he had noticed some alarming trends in the media industry: the advertising-based revenue model was starving online news outlets while pushing them towards clickbait sensationalism; bias and partisanship were rife, which made the general public increasingly distrustful of the media; alternative sources and outright “fake...…In 2017, Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales – the Wikipedia cofounder whose plaintive face used to haunt the free encyclopedia’s homepage during fundraising campaigns – decided to save journalism. As an avid consumer of news, The Guardian board member, and all-around internet wise man, he had noticed some alarming trends in the media industry: the advertising-based revenue model was starving online news outlets while pushing them towards clickbait sensationalism; bias and partisanship were rife, which made the general public increasingly distrustful of the media; alternative sources and outright “fake...WW…

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .The proposed European Super League (ESL) is football for the Vine generation: condensed down to its most marketable essence, chopped into bite-size chunks for social media, bookended by adverts for betting companies, or telecoms providers in emerging markets.Twelve of Europe’s wealthiest teams have announced their intention to form a breakaway continental competition, to run on weekday nights alongside the domestic season, with 15 founder clubs guaranteed a seat at the top table every season, regardless of...…We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .The proposed European Super League (ESL) is football for the Vine generation: condensed down to its most marketable essence, chopped into bite-size chunks for social media, bookended by adverts for betting companies, or telecoms providers in emerging markets.Twelve of Europe’s wealthiest teams have announced their intention to form a breakaway continental competition, to run on weekday nights alongside the domestic season, with 15 founder clubs guaranteed a seat at the top table every season, regardless of...WW…

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .The sealed chest was found off the coast of the Orkney Islands. Reeled up from the ocean deep – coated in algae, barnacles and sea anemone – the haul had been sunk, deliberately, years before. But what lay within wasn’t some long-lost plunder of precious pearls or rare stones. Instead, this payload contained enough power to store the knowledge, arts and secrets of millions of people.This was Microsoft’s underwater data centre, the ‘Northern Isles’: 864 servers and 27.6 petabytes of disk (roughly equivalent...…We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .The sealed chest was found off the coast of the Orkney Islands. Reeled up from the ocean deep – coated in algae, barnacles and sea anemone – the haul had been sunk, deliberately, years before. But what lay within wasn’t some long-lost plunder of precious pearls or rare stones. Instead, this payload contained enough power to store the knowledge, arts and secrets of millions of people.This was Microsoft’s underwater data centre, the ‘Northern Isles’: 864 servers and 27.6 petabytes of disk (roughly equivalent...WW…

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .The pandemic has been quietly accelerating the steady slog towards a cashless Britain. A decade ago, across the UK. Since then, national cash usage has plummeted – overtaken by digital payments in 2018 – to less than a quarter of all transactions last year. Now, Covid-19 has propelled us into a future where notes and coins are even scarcer.ATM withdrawals when lockdown began in March, according to Link, the UK’s largest ATM provider. Constituency data obtained from the GMB trade union shows that cash...…We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .The pandemic has been quietly accelerating the steady slog towards a cashless Britain. A decade ago, across the UK. Since then, national cash usage has plummeted – overtaken by digital payments in 2018 – to less than a quarter of all transactions last year. Now, Covid-19 has propelled us into a future where notes and coins are even scarcer.ATM withdrawals when lockdown began in March, according to Link, the UK’s largest ATM provider. Constituency data obtained from the GMB trade union shows that cash...WW…

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .It started with one doctor. On January 22, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws published an interview with Kris Van Kerckhoven, a general practitioner from Putte, near Antwerp. “5G is life-threatening, and no one knows it”, read the headline. One scientifically-baseless claim in this article, published in a regional version of the paper’s and since deleted from its website, sparked a conspiracy theory firestorm that has since torn through the internet and broken out into the real world, resulting in fires...…We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .It started with one doctor. On January 22, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws published an interview with Kris Van Kerckhoven, a general practitioner from Putte, near Antwerp. “5G is life-threatening, and no one knows it”, read the headline. One scientifically-baseless claim in this article, published in a regional version of the paper’s and since deleted from its website, sparked a conspiracy theory firestorm that has since torn through the internet and broken out into the real world, resulting in fires...WW…

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .Hilde Fålun Strøm didn’t realise it was a polar bear at first. Reaching the crest of the ridge on her snowmobile, she could make out Bamsebu, the remote trapper’s cabin where she and her expedition partner, Sunniva Sorby, were spending the long, dark months of the Arctic winter. But as she peered through the blackness of the February afternoon, the familiar shape of the hut appeared to be hidden behind what looked like a large snowdrift.For the first time, the pair had decided to leave their dog, a...…We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .Hilde Fålun Strøm didn’t realise it was a polar bear at first. Reaching the crest of the ridge on her snowmobile, she could make out Bamsebu, the remote trapper’s cabin where she and her expedition partner, Sunniva Sorby, were spending the long, dark months of the Arctic winter. But as she peered through the blackness of the February afternoon, the familiar shape of the hut appeared to be hidden behind what looked like a large snowdrift.For the first time, the pair had decided to leave their dog, a...WW…

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .Brian Chesky is no stranger to big lifts. The 38-year-old former bodybuilder and Airbnb CEO has, in the space of 11 years, hauled his property rental dream from a single air mattress to a multi-billion dollar startup success story. But as hosts rage and debt piles up, the huge weight of the coronavirus pandemic might be too much for Chesky to bear.The numbers are devastating. According to AirDNA, an online rental analytics firm, new bookings on Airbnb are down 85 per cent; cancellation rates are close to 90...…We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .Brian Chesky is no stranger to big lifts. The 38-year-old former bodybuilder and Airbnb CEO has, in the space of 11 years, hauled his property rental dream from a single air mattress to a multi-billion dollar startup success story. But as hosts rage and debt piles up, the huge weight of the coronavirus pandemic might be too much for Chesky to bear.The numbers are devastating. According to AirDNA, an online rental analytics firm, new bookings on Airbnb are down 85 per cent; cancellation rates are close to 90...WW…

We will see a shift in the way people play, work, learn or simply hang out in 2021. Some of this connection will move into the Metaverse, a digital place where people seamlessly get together and interact in millions of 3D virtual experiences. Early iterations of the Metaverse emerged in the 1980s with VPL Research’s DataSuit and Linden Lab’s Second Life in 2003. However, it started to feel very real in 2020 as several platforms have been envisioning – and building – their own versions of the Metaverse.The pandemic, with its requirements of physical distancing, has brought people into online...…We will see a shift in the way people play, work, learn or simply hang out in 2021. Some of this connection will move into the Metaverse, a digital place where people seamlessly get together and interact in millions of 3D virtual experiences. Early iterations of the Metaverse emerged in the 1980s with VPL Research’s DataSuit and Linden Lab’s Second Life in 2003. However, it started to feel very real in 2020 as several platforms have been envisioning – and building – their own versions of the Metaverse.The pandemic, with its requirements of physical distancing, has brought people into online...WW…

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .Language mutates. As society changes, neologisms sprout, new words become codified – app, selfie, meme, troll – and old ones die out. And the rise of new technologies also impacts our non-verbal communication.Linguistics professor Vyv Evans has suggested that some of our basic hand gestures, or “emblems”, will soon die out due to younger generations not understanding them: things like scribbling on your hand in a restaurant to signal for the bill, or making a winding motion to ask someone to put their car...…We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .Language mutates. As society changes, neologisms sprout, new words become codified – app, selfie, meme, troll – and old ones die out. And the rise of new technologies also impacts our non-verbal communication.Linguistics professor Vyv Evans has suggested that some of our basic hand gestures, or “emblems”, will soon die out due to younger generations not understanding them: things like scribbling on your hand in a restaurant to signal for the bill, or making a winding motion to ask someone to put their car...WW…

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .It’s hard to imagine now, but when the US-version of The Office first premiered on NBC in 2005, the show was panned by both critics and audiences. People thought it was unoriginal, unfunny and a bad clone of the UK version. But NBC made the call to renew the show anyway. It seemed to be the right one, because from season two onwards, The Office US was winning plaudits everywhere, which lasted nine glorious seasons.In the age of streaming, however, many TV shows aren’t afforded the same courtesy, nor given...…We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site. .It’s hard to imagine now, but when the US-version of The Office first premiered on NBC in 2005, the show was panned by both critics and audiences. People thought it was unoriginal, unfunny and a bad clone of the UK version. But NBC made the call to renew the show anyway. It seemed to be the right one, because from season two onwards, The Office US was winning plaudits everywhere, which lasted nine glorious seasons.In the age of streaming, however, many TV shows aren’t afforded the same courtesy, nor given...WW…