We have art expositions, galleries, and Instagram and we have the urban walls to show our feelings in a creative way. Right now they are very powerful superficies to express oneself, privately or publically. José Félix Valdivieso, head of the “IE China Center”, has recently published a book about the force of graffiti, many of them are not from as famous artists like Banksy, but even anonymous. As a real fanatic about cultures and languages his bilingual version of “Grafitis del mundo” (Premio Internacional “Cuadernos de laberinto” de Pensamiento, 2020) in Spanish and English, tells us stories, sometimes fiction and sometimes real, about the art on the walls in big cities around the planet. However, the reader gets an idea that there is a global link between all of them. It is a protest most of the time and sometimes an expression of love.
Monaco is the European country with the longest duration of alien visits, with UFO sightings lasting an average of 45 minutes. Liechtenstein, Latvia and Ukraine follow closely behind with the average sighting exceeding 20 minutes. San Marino stands as the European country where UFOs visit for the least amount of time,with no official sightings, followed by Georgia. Ireland has the most alien visits with 105 recorded UFO sightings, followed by France and Spain.
Americans have a new president but not a new country. While most Europeans rejoiced at Joe Biden’s victory in the November US presidential election, they do not think he can help America make a comeback as the pre-eminent global leader. This is the key finding of a pan-European survey of more than 15,000 people in 11 countries commissioned by the European Council on Foreign Relations and conducted in November and December by Datapraxis and YouGov.
A survey shows that Europeans’ attitudes towards the United States have undergone a massive change. Majorities in key member states now think the US political system is broken, that China will be more powerful than the US within a decade, and that Europeans cannot rely on the US to defend them. They are drawing radical consequences from these lessons. Large numbers think Europeans should invest in their own defence and look to Berlin rather than Washington as their most important partner. They want to be tougher with the US on economic issues. And, rather than aligning with Washington, they want their countries to stay neutral in a conflict between the US and Russia or China.
Childcare tops the list as the happiest sector with 239 points, despite being the most unsatisfied with their remuneration (-76 points) and then:
- Second is Finance & Banking (232 points), followed by police and firefighters from the Public Security sector (227 points)
- Health Care and Education are the least satisfied sectors when it comes to mental health and employee empowerment
- Marketing & Digital Media professionals are the most unsatisfied with the sector’s toxic culture (-54 points)
- Hospitality professionals overall are the least satisfied sector with just 83 points in total!
China is in volume the country with the most installed renewable energy plants, but its investment in coal worldwide destroys every good effort in the long run. It’s first direct investment in Turkey, the Hunutlu Power Plant, is an environmental sin and besides it is not profitable at all. Based on an investment cost of $1.7 billion, Hunutlu coal-fired thermal power plant will only break even 26 years after becoming operational. When the construction period is added to the calculation, break-even period extends to 30 years. Based on an investment cost of $2.1 billion, the plant is unable to pay back the investment over its 30-year long economic life in Adana, Turkey. The report ‘Feasibility of Coal in the Age of Renewable Energy: Hunutlu Thermal Power Plant Case‘, jointly prepared by WWF Turkey and SEFiA (Sustainable Economy and Financial Research Association), analyses 16 different scenarios with variables related to electricity price and calorific value under different capital and fixed operational costs. It turned out that in none of these scenarios did the plant make a profit.
Arabic is the hardest language to learn, with learners giving up less than halfway through. Those trying their hand at Hindi also give up quickly – the average amount learned is just over half (51.9%). Meanwhile, Dutch language learners are least likely to give up – on average 89.7% of the way through their course. 42% of learners claim they gave up due to lack of motivation, with difficulty a close second (31%). English is the global language of business, yet it places in 18th with only 59.6% completion on average. The unique alphabets, omitted vowels, and unusual writing style can make Arabic incredibly difficult to learn, with TheKnowledgeAcademy finding that learners are likely to give up just 42.3% of the way through their course on average.