Last year, we got a glimpse of what the world would look like without us – no crowds, no traffic, no nonsense. That led to the biggest drop in greenhouse gas emissions since World War II. Of course, all good things must end. Traffic in many areas is returning to pre-pandemic levels or even higher, […]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 138 million housing units in the United States, many of which are giant McMansions that don’t get much use. While the Australians are in a close second when it comes to average home sizes, a person in Hong Kong has just a quarter of the floor space […]
While we may not be able to explain the strong performance of the stock market year-to-date, we can understand why certain technologies are accelerating their rate of adoption. Telecommunications tools like Zoom, modular factory robots like Bright Machines, and autonomous last-mile delivery drones are all seeing strong interest from investors as we get used to […]
By 2050, 70% of the world’s population is expected to live in cities. This brings up some interesting questions around privacy in public spaces. What happens when, under the guise of public safety, we decide that everyone with a smartphone ought to have their movements monitored? In Russia, you might get away with identifying criminals […]
If you think that they’re watching you, you’re probably right, especially if you live in China … or the United States. A report last year found those two countries – rivals in everything from robotics to artificial intelligence – are also tops when it comes to the number of surveillance cameras. China leads the way […]
No matter how smart you can make your city, criminals will always find a way to beat the system. Take pickpockets for example. In one major European city, authorities couldn’t figure out why “Pickpockets operate in this area” signs kept cropping up in highly trafficked locations. When the signs were taken down, someone would immediately replace […]
When it comes to determining how safe it is to drive in any given country, you can read all the statistics you want, but the best way to get some ground truth is to rent a car and see for yourself. For example, take the country of Rwanda. It’s the second most dangerous country in […]
About one in three people on the planet currently lack access to safe drinking water, according to the World Health Organization. You might recall that Cape Town nearly ran out of freshwater last year, and cities from Tokyo to London could also face water shortages in the next few decades. You’re probably thinking that the […]
If you watch the news regularly, you might think the world is a dangerous place, especially if you subscribe to one of the many online news aggregators that feed your paranoid echo chamber with personalized news feeds. In reality, both violent and property crimes have dropped significantly over the last 25 years. Public perception is […]
One of the things that you learn after being a digital nomad for a while is that some cities are much better designed than others. There is a certain aesthetic quality to a well-laid out urban center like New York City compared to, say, Boston, which one article on the topic of city grids said […]