https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092178288195

Maria SmIt, Kyiv (2025)

11/09/2023

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has closed its investigation into the debut flight of SpaceX's giant Starship vehicle, which ended with a bang in April.

The investigation — which SpaceX led and the FAA oversaw — identified "multiple root causes" of the April 20 launch failure and 63 corrective actions the company "must take to prevent mishap reoccurrence," FAA officials said in an emailed statement today (Sept. 8).

The end of the investigation marks a major step toward the second-ever Starship test flight, which SpaceX wants to launch soon from its Starbase site near the South Texas town of Boca Chica. But, FAA officials stressed, it doesn't clear the path completely.

14/07/2023

The tradition of tavillonnage, or wood-shingled roofs, can only be found across the landscape of French-speaking Fribourg and Vaud, two of Switzerland’s western cantons.

The clang of a hammer rang out from the chalet roof and echoed against the serene Pre-Alps of Fribourg, Switzerland. Vincent Gachet, one of the country’s few remaining master tavillonneurs, or traditional Swiss roof architects and shingle-makers, carefully placed a wooden shingle on the roof frame. He’d finally completed a square metre – a labour-intensive task that took an hour and required 250 shingles, of which only 12 were visible – and he needed to do 200 more to finish the job. This artful but tedious work of Gachet and other tavillonneurs like him are what keep this Swiss living tradition alive.

Dating to Gallo-Roman times, the tradition of tavillonnage, or wood-shingled roofs, can be found across Switzerland, but is particularly strong in French-speaking Fribourg and Vaud, two of Switzerland’s western cantons, which border the Jura mountain range where the best trees for the roofs grow. Like wandering through the pages of the Hansel and Gretel story, chalets dot the hillsides like a trail of gingerbread crumbs into the mountain passes. Swiss architecture in these cantons continues to be a significant cultural icon, with many villages imposing strict historical guidelines that must be met and followed. From the selection of the trees in autumn and the making of shingles in winter, to the monotonous work of stacking shingles thick enough to keep nasty weather out but thin enough to dry without rotting, tavillonnage goes far beyond simply meeting guidelines.

Wandering through the Fribourg countryside, I could easily spot newly timbered roofs against the silver tones of those that have weathered season after season for the past 40 to 100 years. Sometimes I saw a tiled roof, a necessary modern change due to the risk of fire.

“In many villages and quarters, it is forbidden to cover the roofs with wood because of the danger of fire. So tavillonnage is only possible for historic buildings and isolated buildings, but not in situations where the houses are [close] to each other,” said Isabelle Raboud, director of the Gruyère Museum and Bulle Library in Fribourg.

11/07/2023

West African okra stew gave rise to Louisiana gumbo along the trans-Atlantic slave route. One Louisianian travelled to Benin to discover its origins.

Fried cheese was the last thing I thought I'd see going into a traditional West African dish, but especially into an okra stew. It was just one of several ingredients that surprised me as a Louisiana-born Cajun who cut his teeth on gumbo, a pillar of southern Louisiana cuisine that's made up of seafood or meat cooked in a roux – but never with cheese.

The origins of Louisiana gumbo can be traced to West Africa, during a time when enslaved Africans brought okra (or gombo as it is known in regional tongues) with them to the Caribbean and the US South, including where I'm from, the port city of New Orleans.

But what changed from the stew that originated in the coastal cities of West Africa and ultimately became the flagship stew of Cajuns (an ethnic group of Acadian descent) and Creoles (people of mixed European, African, Caribbean and Native American ancestry)?

I wanted to see how West African okra stew was made, so I travelled to Benin. In the capital city of Cotonou, I met up with Jean-Paul Houndagnon, a mild-mannered Beninese national who invited me to Dantokpa Market, the largest open-air market in West Africa, to gather the ingredients needed for the dish. He asserted that his mother, Augustine, would happily host us in her home to cook everything, and I couldn't have been more delighted to accept such a generous invitation.

Before arriving at the food area of Dantokpa, we made our way through the market's alleyways and crevices, replete with locals selling everything from clothing, fabrics and electronics to metal pots, firewood and toys. Augustine had already created a shopping list, and Jean-Paul helped me locate the vendors that were selling them.

06/07/2023

Johnson-Jones, now 30, says the changing definition of prestigious work is also trickling up to older generations, including millennials, like herself.

She moved out of investment banking “for her health”, and eventually started her own company: Flexa Careers, a global directory of flexible-work companies. She believes older workers are expressing sentiments similar to Gen Z’s, also having a reckoning with what defines an elite job; they’re similarly re-defining the term as careers that enable better lifestyles.

But the difference, says Johnson-Jones, is that many millennials are re-imagining this definition out of necessity, often having been ground down by the very competitive, long-hours industries they felt they ‘had’ to enter out of university. “We don't need to be working 60 hours a week in an office just for a title or decent pay,” she says. “Because how many people have time to spend the money, anyway?”

For his part, Roth believes many of his friends who did go the traditional prestige route are also re-thinking their choices. “I think a lot of them are actually looking at me with a little bit of envy and saying, ‘hey, I wish I would have done something similar to you did’. People are coming around to that mindset.

03/07/2023

The shipping industry is under growing pressure to dramatically curb planet-warming emissions from smokestacks.

Maritime transport emits as much CO2 in a year as Germany, but is the biggest global sector without a goal for cutting emissions to "net zero".

Some delegates at the UN summit starting on Monday want this by 2050 and emissions halved by 2030.

Campaigners say it would be the climate "deal of the decade" if agreed.

Reaching "net zero" would mean that any remaining shipping emissions were matched by actively removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

29/06/2023

I tell my Argentinian pal that I've been using ChatGPT to practise my Spanish and, excitedly, I explain what it can do.

It can correct my errors, I tell him, and it's able to give me regional variations in Spanish, including Mexican Spanish, Argentinian Spanish and, amusingly, Spanglish.

And, unlike when I'm chatting to him on WhatsApp, I don't have to factor in time zone differences.

My friend is less enthused. "So you've replaced me?" he jokes.

I haven't, of course. The convenience and breadth of an AI chatbot can't compete with the pleasures of chatting with someone whose personality quirks I've learned over the course of years. It is however a useful supplement.

And I'm just one of many people who have discovered in recent months the benefits of AI-based chat for language learning.

26/06/2023

Labour has confirmed it would "not grant licences to explore new fields" in the North Sea, a momentous shift for a sector which supports 200,000 UK jobs, including 90,000 in Scotland, according to trade body Offshore Energies UK.

But the party insisted it would honour any licences in existence at the time of the next election, which must be held by January 2025. That is likely to include the controversial new Rosebank development west of Shetland.

Sir Keir said: "Labour will deliver lower bills, good jobs, and energy security for Scotland and the whole UK, as Britain leads the world in the fight against climate change."

He said it would be a "historic mistake" to wait until North Sea oil and gas runs out and let the opportunities "pass us by".

The Labour leader said his party had "a credible plan to manage the change, protect good jobs and create good jobs. No cliff edges."

21/06/2023

Grab's last round of job cuts was in 2020, when it shed 360 positions due to the pandemic.

The company's New York-listed shares dipped by 1.2% on Wednesday.

The announcement comes as other gig economy companies across the world have also cut jobs.

Indonesian ride-hailing firm GoTo, Grab's rival in Southeast Asia, cut about 12% of its workforce last year and shed another 600 jobs in March.

Also in March, food delivery firm Just Eat said that it would cut 1,870 jobs in the UK after a slowdown in sales. The firm said it would stop employing its own couriers and use contractors instead, resulting in 1,700 job losses.

And in April, US ride-hailing app Lyft announced that it would cut more than 1,000 jobs, or more than a quarter of its workforce. It also said that it would not recruit for another 250 vacant positions.

13/06/2023

Cutting dependence on imports, reducing carbon emissions at site and in transit, and future proofing supply are just some of the benefits of growing food in the UK, which are some of the aims the government said it was trying to achieve.

But Prof Aled Jones, director of the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University said: "The UK currently does not have a definition around food security and government strategy is aimed at building resilience through all possible routes with no preference for sourcing.

"So if the UK wants to be more self-reliant on food then it is very true we need to grow more - around half our food is imported at the moment.

"If we want the food to be cheap, then it does need subsidising."

05/06/2023

All eyes are on Apple as it is expected to launch a mixed-reality headset at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), in California.

It would be the technology giant's most significant product release since it unveiled the Apple Watch, in 2015.

Boss Tim Cook is expected to use his keynote speech to say this new product is the future.

But its expected price tag of about $3,000 (£2,400) might make that a tough sell for consumers.

24/05/2023

How Germany treats parental burnout

Maria SmIt

11/09/2023

14/07/2023

11/07/2023

06/07/2023

03/07/2023

29/06/2023

26/06/2023

21/06/2023

13/06/2023

05/06/2023

24/05/2023

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category