Almost half of the world’s food thrown away

Figures from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers show as much as 2bn tonnes of food never makes it on to a plate. 

Highlining across the face of the full moon

Adventure filmmaker Bryan Smith shot this remarkable clip of American free climber Dean Potter as he traverses a highline tied to Cathedral Peak in Yosemite National Park.

10 Images of Where Children Sleep Around the World

Children can really give us an insight into life around the world and their own private sanctuary (which is not always their own as you will see) gives an even deeper look at how they live. The idea of where children sleep seems innocuous at first, but on closer inspection these images reveal incredible stories of courage, despair, and – for the lucky few – joy. The source of this list is an incredible book which is called “Where Children Sleep” and the author (and photographer and copyright holder of all the pictures found here) is James Mollison. 

The Unspeakable Truth About Rape in India

   by Sonia Faleiro, the author of “Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars.”

I LIVED for 24 years in New Delhi, a city where sexual harassment is as regular as mealtime. Every day, somewhere in the city, it crosses the line into rape. As a teenager, I learned to protect myself. I never stood alone if I could help it, and I walked quickly, crossing my arms over my chest, refusing to make eye contact or smile. I cleaved through crowds shoulder-first, and avoided leaving the house after dark except in a private car. At an age when young women elsewhere were experimenting with daring new looks, I wore clothes that were two sizes too large. I still cannot dress attractively without feeling that I am endangering myself. 

Five Great Speeches In Modern History

Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Harvey Milk, Martin Luther King. 

Best pictures of week (no25)

How Japan Lost Its Electronics Crown

Sony, Sharp and Panasonic Fixated on Hardware Breakthroughs; ‘Sometimes, It’s Easier to Run From Behind. 

Jobs of the future

As technology shifts the workforce, some surprisingly traditional jobs are on the chopping block. 

Do sad songs make us feel better?

Adam Brent Houghtaling, a New York-based author, should be in quite a sour mood by now. After all, he spent months listening to the saddest music ever made, from sorrowful symphonies to tearjerker Billie Holliday tunes to just about every Leonard Cohen song ever. 

8 Things The iPhone 5 Still Can’t Do

In terms of specs, performance, and features, the iPhone 5 is Apple’s best to date.  This doesn’t mean it’s as good as it could be, however. There were a few egregious omissions from the keynote presentation – features that we not only want in our iPhone, but that we feel are overdue. 

Best pictures of week (no24)

Golden Years Truly Are Golden

It doesn’t matter whether you’re employed, whether your children still live at home, or even whether you’re married. Life gets better after age 50. A new phone survey of hundreds of thousands of Americans confirms that people tend to be happier, less anxious, and less worried once they pass the half-century mark. 

Three (Incredibly Simple) Questions The Most Successful People Use To Change The World

I’ve heard it said that the most brilliant business ideas are often the simplest. From my experience, it’s true. In fact, when I am fortunate enough to receive sage advice from a famously gifted person, I’ll often ask myself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” So here I humbly share with you a winning formula that I see leaders use again and again and again…to change the world. 

Best Earth Footage

Climate change over the next 50 years is expected to drive a quarter of land animals and plants into extinction, according to the first comprehensive study into the effect of higher temperatures on the natural world.

Best pictures of week (no23)

Understanding gambling addiction

Odds are that you imagine gamblers as people simply trying to get lucky and win a big payoff. But when Natasha Schull, an associate professor in MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS), began researching the lives of gamblers in Las Vegas, she found a very different motivation at work. 

How To Forgive, And Why You Should

The deepest wounds feel like they’ll last a lifetime: The absent mother who robbed you of the mother-daughter bond you craved and deserved. The eighth-grade bully who turned the classroom into a living nightmare. The boyfriend who broke his promises and chose her instead. 

Is There Something Wrong With People Who Do Not Use Facebook?

Recent news stories have suggested that employers may be reluctant to hire people without a Facebook profile on the grounds that Facebook usage has become so common that not having an account is seen as somehow abnormal. This concern appears to have been compounded by a lurid report in a German newspaper that alleged mass killers James Holmes and Anders Behring Breivik did not have Facebook accounts, leading to the rather hysterical conclusion that not having an account “could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer.” 

How Long Do You Want to Live?

SINCE 1900, the life expectancy of Americans has jumped to just shy of 80 from 47 years. This surge comes mostly from improved hygiene and nutrition, but also from new discoveries and interventions: everything from antibiotics and heart bypass surgeryto cancer drugs that target and neutralize the impact of specific genetic mutations. 

‘Legitimate rape’ – a medieval medical concept

The idea that rape victims cannot get pregnant is a very old medical theory. 

Best pictures of week (no22)

Last words of Texas death row inmates: a kind of gallows poetry

Texas executed a man with an IQ of 61 last week for murdering a 21-year-old police drug informant in 1992. Lawyers for Marvin Wilson, 54, had battled his execution for years, building a mountain of appeals that Texas prosecutors demolished again and again until the executioner finally strapped him down. There, Wilson uttered his last words on Earth: 

9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money

Don’t show ‘em the money (even if you have it). Here are nine better ways to boost morale. 

The Accidental History of the @ Symbol

Once a rarely used key on the typewriter, the graceful character has become the very symbol of modern electronic communication. 

Will we ever… find life elsewhere in the universe?

The idea of aliens may seem absurd. But times change, as does science, says Phil Plait, and this makes the idea far more plausible than it once appeared. 

Portraits of Classrooms Around the World

Since 2004, Julian Germain has been capturing the inner lives of schools around the world, from England to Nigeria to Qatar, in his large-scale photographs of schoolchildren in class. the book Classroom Portraits revealed through more than 450 portraits of schoolchildren from 20 countries. 

Best pictures of week

A history of exchange-rate regimes

The international monetary system has come a long way over the last 200 years. It’s experienced a pretty tumultuous history along the way, including the rise of central banks, world wars, and ad-hoc exchange rate mechanisms that have all shaped the system we have today.

The ultimate TV dinner

Can you survive four weeks eating only food advertised on TV? 

Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram

A bioengineer and geneticist at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have successfully stored 5.5 petabits of data — around 700 terabytes — in a single gram of DNA, smashing the previous DNA data density record by a thousand times. 

5 friends pose for the same picture every 5 years for 30 years

Five friends from Santa Barbara, California go on vacation every 5 years to the same place to take the same group photo and they have been doing it since 1982. They started as teenagers when they were just 19 years old. In 2012, at age 48, they have taken their 7th photo, 30 years after it began. They visit the same lake. They stay in the same cabin. They sit on the same bench. They sit in the same order. They make the same pose. They even make the same facial expressions. And, starting five years ago, some of them began wearing the same clothes.

Why I am always unlucky but you are always careless

From lost keys to failed interviews, we blame other people for their mishaps but never ourselves when we do the same. Why? Because assuming causes helps us to make sense of the world. 

Why French Parents Are Superior

While Americans fret over modern parenthood, the French are raising happy, well-behaved children without all the anxiety. Pamela Druckerman on the Gallic secrets for avoiding tantrums, teaching patience and saying ‘non’ with authority. 

Jungle nomads

At the foothills of Himalaya, along the border separating India and Nepal.

The Art of Motion

Art of Motion by Manuel Cafini is a recent project that explores the concept of motion, the human body form and plays with lighting and effects. 

Pictures That Changed The World

Photographs that captured history in the making.

The 11 Ways That Consumers Are Hopeless at Math

You walk into a Starbucks and see two deals for a cup of coffee. The first deal offers 33% extra coffee. The second takes 33% off the regular price. What’s the better deal?

Surreal Photography by Irene Z

Estonia-based artist Irene Z digitally manipulates photos to produce surreal environments flourishing with marine life. Each of the digital artist’s female subjects are immersed in an aquatic setting, whether her environment be defined by the physical oceanic habitat or the surrounding sea-dwelling creatures roaming about. The unusual dream worlds that Irene Z creates are somewhat post-apocalyptic, leaving the viewer mystified.

A day in the internet (infographic)

This infographic illustrates and highlights how much activity goes in a day on theInternet. Would you believe that 294 billion emails are sent? That 2 million blog posts are written? That 864,000 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube alone? 

The world in a village

If it were possible to reduce the population of the entire world to 100 inhabitants, maintaining the proportions of people which currently exist in the world, it would be made up as follows: