Hi everyone)
1. 
What if the Internet stopped for a day?
They argued that 
going offline even for a weekend would prevent them 
from completing work in other classes, ruin their social lives, and make
 their friends and family worry that something terrible had happened to 
them.- NPA
"They don’t even think about not
 having access to it.”- NPA
Malicious hackers could bring the internet to a standstill by 
releasing 
software that aggressively targeted vulnerabilities in routers – the 
devices that forward internet traffic.  _NPA
 
Shutting down domain name servers – the internet’s address books – 
would also cause massive disruption. -NPA
Cutting the deep-sea cables that carry vast volumes of internet traffic 
between continents would also cause significant disruptions.
Egypt did this during the Arab Spring 
uprising in 2011 to make it more difficult for protesters to coordinate their activity.  NPA
And American 
senators have proposed creating one in the US as a means to defend the country from cyberattack. NPA
Building a kill switch is not easy, however. NPA
“The internet service providers and the companies that make the routing 
equipment have plans and personnel in place for 
getting things up and 
running again if unexpected vulnerabilities are exploited.”NPA
Looking at quarterly financial reports from the 20 companies that 
claimed to be most affected in each case, as well as more general 
economic statistics, they discovered that the financial impact of an 
outage was surprisingly insignificant – at least for outages that lasted
 no more than four days, which is all they studied. NPA
It turned out that
 losing internet access for a few days just made people fall behind on their work.  NPA
Rather than twiddle their thumbs, employees did things that they would normally put off, such as 
dealing with paperwork.NPA
“I’ve suggested that people and businesses should have a plan in place 
in the event of internet loss, but I haven’t heard of anyone 
doing that 
yet,”  NPA
“So you have to realise that your reaction to the idea of
 losing the 
internet is likely to be based on your socioeconomic status,”npa
“Most people 
using the internet are actually more social than those who are not using the internet.” NPA
The loss of connection may make people more social in specific 
situations, such as 
forcing co-workers to speak to each other rather 
than 
sending emails, but overall the experience is likely to be 
distressing. npa
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And could you live without the Internet at least for a day?;))))
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2. 
Why millions of Chinese men are staying single?
By 2020, it’s estimated there will be 30 million more men than women 
looking for a partner npa
In 2015, a Chinese businessman in his 40s 
reportedly sued a Shanghai-based introductions agency for 
failing to find him a wife, having paid the company 7 million yuan ($1m) to conduct an extensive search. npa
Part of the problem is that the old – and new – ways of 
meeting people are not always working. npa
Online 
dating is growing fast in China, as elsewhere, and 
messaging apps
 such as WeChat are increasingly popular ways of 
getting to know people. npa
Hiring a girlfriend can cost up to 10,000 yuan ($1,450) a day  npa
And to avoid prying questions from inquisitive parents, some are even 
resorting to 
hiring “fake” girlfriends to present to their parents 
using
 apps such as Hire Me Plz. . npa
 “If men want to get married, the future mother-in-law will request that he first buys a house before 
discussing the next step.  npa
But this financial burden on men is also 
making it harder for many women to find a partner.npa
“So they pressure their child to find a partner, go 
dating and to prepare for a wedding”. npa
“Parents face big social criticism if their daughter or son does not 
get married so normally a girl’s parents are eager to let their daughter
 go on a blind date and get married before 
reaching 30.” npa
            
            
 The shift in how people meet and how men woo partners, is, above all, 
putting a greater emphasis on love rather than on practical 
considerations such as financial security.npa
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3 
Travelling 55,000 miles for dessert 
When Pichet Ong left the frenetic life of New York restaurants in 2009, 
he never imagined a career spent 
making dessert could take shape on the 
road.
The job comes with intense back-to-back travel,
 building intricate 
spreadsheets to keep pace and last-minute prep for restaurant launches 
that goes way beyond dessert. npa
Between 
consulting projects, he fills gaps while home in New York by 
styling food for magazines or cookbooks and 
catching up with friends, 
some of whom still work in the city’s kitchens. npa
Clients across regions often have the same concerns, such as
 using 
alternative flours, healthy dessert options and how their flavours can 
translate to a global audience. npa
Ong packs many ingredients that he has trouble 
finding in opposite corners of the globe npa
For instance, when 
working in Dubai, he sweetens his sticky toffee pudding with dates and brown sugar but omits alcohol.npa