A Sip Through Time: The Rich History of Chai
No doubt you’ve enjoyed a delicious chai latte at your local coffee shop, but do you know where your drink comes from? Chai, an aromatic beverage enjoyed worldwide, has a history as rich and diverse as its flavour profile.
We can trace the roots of chai back to ancient India. The earliest form of chai was
The Silk Road played a core role in the evolution of chai. The spices used in chai became valuable commodities
In the 19th century, the British East India Company wanted to establish dominance in the trade. Part of this involved
The East India Company introduced tea to India as a recreational drink, and soon the drink was adapted to Indian tastes,
After India’s independence, chai became deeply rooted in the land. Street vendors and small tea stalls became cultural hubs
In recent decades, chai has gone beyond its cultural origins and become a global phenomenon. Its distinctive flavour profile, combining the richness of black tea with the warmth of spices and milk,
Vertical Farms: Is the sky really the limit?
At a hyper-controlled indoor farm in industrial South San Francisco, four robots carefully transfer seeds from barcoded trays into 4.5-meter towers that then are hung vertically (垂直地) inside a 445 sq metre grow room. Workers in branded jumpsuits
Indoor farming raised more than $1 bn in 2021, exceeding the combined funding in 2018 and 2019. But critics say the massive energy costs
Designed to produce yields hundreds of times larger than traditional outdoor farming, vertical farms occupy spaces such as buildings or shipping containers while using 70 to 95% less water
Entrepreneurs like Irving Fain, CEO and founder of Manhattan-based Bowery Farming, say that they’re gathering knowledge about plant growth and agronomy (农学) that
We Britons have about 60 words for happiness: blissfulness, ecstasy, pleasure, delight...The list is as varied as it is surprising, given that we only just scraped into the top 20 happiest countries in the world this year. Finns, who
In the decade
For the fourth year running, the UK has slipped down the global happiness rankings,
In many ways, though, my admittedly luxurious stay revealed to me
Animal-rights activists often complain that cute beasts get more sympathy than ugly ones. If so, one would think a lovely creature like the mink (貂) would be easy to protect. Yet in the Netherlands, mink is the only animal
Dutch farmers normally raised about 2.5 million minks a year,
That was a win for the Netherland’s Party for the Animals, which has four seats in the 150-member parliament. In 2013,
Fur farmers say modern standards allow minks to be raised humanely, and
To better understand how people express gratitude in normal life, anthropologist (人类学家) Simcon Floyd, at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (心理语言学) in Netherlands and his colleagues organised a large, cross-cultural study covering five continents and eight languages. That
Floyd’s team left cameras in household and community settings and captured more than 1,500 instances of social interactions
They found that in every culture, people fulfilled requests, but expressions of gratitude, such as saying “thanks” or nodding in appreciation, were remarkably rare,
English and Italian speakers had slightly
Cha’palaa speakers had the lowest frequency of expressed gratitude,
Also surprised by the findings was David Peterson, linguist (语言学家) who developed the
The Art of Blooming Late
Mozart struggled during his teens and early twenties. Though already a productive composer, he had to work as an organist (风琴手)to make ends meet.
Underpaid by his frustratingly average work, he felt a
If you aspire to do more personally fulfilling work — say,
In Aristotle’s Way, the classicist Edith Hall describes the ancient philosopher’s belief
What, then, is holding you back? Rich Karlgaard, author of Late Bloomers, argues that our culture’s obsession with early achievement discourages us from pursuing our passions.
As a result, most of us end up choosing professional excellence over personal fulfillment and often we lose ourselves in the process.
The authors of Dark Horse, Todd Rose and Ogi Ogas of Harvard’s School of Education, noticed the negative effects of early specialization in a study of people who came out of nowhere to achieve great success. “Despite feeling
To prompt this kind of revolution in your own life, Rose and Ogas suggest creating a goal tailored to extremely specific activities
Have you ridden an electric bike? If not, you should probably stop reading this article and go find one. Hire one on the street. Borrow your neighbour’s. Steal one if you
Electric cars get the hype, but in 2021, e-bikes far outsold them in the US and nearly matched battery vehicles in the UK. They democratise cycling,
E-bikes have reinvented the wheel, in a helpful way. They break the dynamic of cyclists versus other road users,
But it’s not all good news. The London Fire Brigade has been called to an e-bike or e-scooter fire on average every two days this year. Tragically, in January, a 21-year-old woman became the first person
The rise of rental e-bikes has also annoyed pedestrians, who find them
Talking With — Not Just to — Kids Powers How They Learn Language
Children from the poorer families begin life not only with material disadvantages but cognitive ones. Research for decades
But just the quantity of words a child hears is not the most significant influence on language acquisition. Growing evidence has led researchers
A paper
The researchers confirmed the classic 1995 finding that, overall, kids from wealthier families hear more words. And small
The researchers calculated that a child’s verbal ability score increased
The study is a “very, very important” addition to a growing body of work, says developmental psychologist Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, director of the Infant Language Laboratory at Temple University. “We have known for quite a while that conversational turns — or
Signs You Are Eating Pre-Made Food at a Restaurant
Even at fine dining restaurants, serving pre-made food is a common practice most regular customers are not aware of. So how can you know for sure your food was made
You may be excited to see your waitress approaching with your food not long after you order it, but the biggest sign
A freshly prepared meal that’s made for people
An extensive menu means the chef
Often enough, the establishment you
Say you’re at a restaurant and you order a steak. You wait in anticipation, watering at the thought of
Every year, around 30 million visitors swarm into Venice, a place of under 50,000 residents. The population has shrunk by 70 percent in the past 70 years in Venice,
Burano—a one-square-mile island in the north lagoon—draws thousands of visitors daily. They take a 40-minute vaporetto (waterbus) ride from Venice
Now, as residents on the island, some Buranelli are fighting back,
Life on Burano has revolved around the water. A fishing settlement with a history
Yet
“I’m proud of my work but I’m also aware that in a few years there won’t be anyone left