Once again Gursky makes bank with a picture which could have been taken by just about anyone. Unlike one of his truly interesting and talented pieces such as Chicago Board of Trade, Rhein II features some grass and then some water and then some more grass. Perhaps the effect is lost when looking at the image on a computer as opposed to it’s six foot tall physical form. Gursky’s print was just sold for $4,338,500 at auction, making it the most expensive photograph ever sold.
McDonalds’ McRib and its cult-like following are back. Thank goodness the “disconcerting” sandwich is only returning for a limited time only, says Meredith Melnick at TIME. Because if you knew about all the unpronounceable ingredients packed into the McRib, you might think twice about wolfing down the sauce-drenched pork concoction. Think you can stomach what’s inside?
I suppose there are dumber celebrations, but in the spirit of the occasion, we wish you Happy Toilet Day The commemoration is to spotlight the technical advancements of the toilet as well as bringing worldwide sanitation to the forefront.
Actually, scientists are finding that the ability to detect sarcasm really is useful. For the past 20 years, researchers from linguists to psychologists to neurologists have been studying our ability to perceive snarky remarks and gaining new insights into how the mind works. Studies have shown that exposure to sarcasm enhances creative problem solving, for instance. Children understand and use sarcasm by the time they get to kindergarten. An inability to understand sarcasm may be an early warning sign of brain disease.
In the past 30 years, the UK’s manufacturing sector has shrunk by two-thirds, the greatest de-industrialisation of any major nation. It was done in the name of economic modernisation – but what has replaced it?
This year forget buying your tech in the post-Christmas sales. Because a 20 per cent increase in Chinese minimum wage is gonna hike up electronics prices come January.
In fact, the increase is only hitting the Guangdong province of China. Doesn’t sound too big a deal, right?
Wrong. Because that one province has been the making of China. As a result, it’s filled with big electronics firms and state-owned companies, as well as plenty of smaller and medium-sized private firms. That means it accounts for a huge share of Chinese industrial output. It also makes it hugely influential, and means the rest of China is sure to follow suit and raise wages across the board.
The knock-on effect is that anything made in China is going to get more expensive — and that means most of the gadgets you’re planning on buying are gonna get pricier, too.
