South Korea: Urban greenery redefines cityscape
Modern architecture has created the same gray skyline in metropolitan cities, losing the link with the nature that surrounds them. Inviting nature back into the city can offer the sense of comfort that nature provides and give a unique character to cities, according to Toyo Ito, winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2013.
“Modernism and the technologies architects apply to their buildings make them look alike. Imagine a man living in a modernized building and surrounded by furniture and artwork, is he really happy?” ... (Read more)
The Korea Herald
Italy: Google Art eyes Sistine Chapel
Google creative head Amit Sood dreams of bringing Rome’s Sistine Chapel into the virtual walls of the innovative Google Art Project. “My secret fantasy? To bring the Sistine chapel to Google Art,” Sood, founder of Google Art Project and Director at Google Cultural Institute ... (Read more)
Ansa
UK: The man who saw time freeze
One day, a man saw time itself stop, and as David Robson discovers, unpicking what happened is revealing that we can all experience temporal trickery too.
It started as a headache, but soon became much stranger. Simon Baker entered the bathroom to see if a warm shower could ease his pain. “I looked up at the shower head, and it was as if the water droplets had stopped in mid-air”, he says. “They came into hard focus rapidly, over the course of a few seconds” ... (Read more)
BBC
Germany: Rescued from the deep
A rescue team brought injured spelunker Johann Westhauser back to the surface after he was injured about one kilometer beneath the surface. They emerged from the cave earlier than expected. ... (Read more)
DW
Australia: Bully birds of Australia
Naturalist Tim Low says Australian birds are noisier, more aggressive and more intelligent than in any other country in the world. ... (Read more)
ABC
Sweden: Swedish festivals soon to be cash free
Many music festivals in Sweden are soon to be completely cash free and concert-goers will instead be fitted with armbands with chips, revealed organisers.
In explaining the armbands with chips idea, music festival organisers FKP Scorpio’s marketing director, Niklas Westergren, said that before going to the festival, people will be advised to create a profile that contains their bank details. ... (Read more)
Ice News
New Zealand: How much is enough?
Labour’s proposal to make KiwiSaver compulsory has sparked an interesting debate in Your Money about how much people need to save to live off in retirement.Retirement is a long way off for me but I'd still like to know I am on track.
Let’s face it by the time you reach your 60s it’s too late to save a big nest egg unless you are earning a large amount of money or sell a valuable asset like a business or a property. ... (Read more)
The New Zealand Herald
*Image of Australian Galahs in a Gum Tree via Shutterstock
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