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