View time: 2 min 21
Level : Advanced
Author: natixis-ezine
Too many people, not enough management: A look at the chaos of ‘overtourism’ in the summer of 2024
Read time : 3 mins
Level : Advanced
By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press
SINTRA, Portugal (AP) — The doorbell to Martinho de Almada Pimentel’s house is hard to find, and he likes it that way. It’s a long rope that, when pulled, rings a literal bell on the roof that lets him know someone is outside the mountainside mansion that his great-grandfather built in 1914 as a monument to privacy.
There’s precious little of that for Pimentel during this summer of “overtourism.”
Travelers idling in standstill traffic outside the sunwashed walls of Casa do Cipreste sometimes spot the bell and pull the string “because it’s funny,” he says. With the windows open, he can smell the car exhaust and hear the “tuk-tuk” of outsized scooters named for the sound they make. And he can sense the frustration of 5,000 visitors a day who are forced to queue around the house on the crawl up single-lane switchbacks to Pena Palace, the onetime retreat of King Ferdinand II. Continue reading
One thing that hasn’t changed in Hollywood: male characters still more than double female ones
Read time : 2 mins
Level : Intermediate
By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — In recent years the movie industry has gone through the streaming revolution, the pandemic, labor strikes and “Barbenheimer.” But after countless upheavals in Hollywood, you’re still more than twice as likely to see male speaking characters in theatrical releases than you are female ones.
Just 32% of speaking characters in the top 100 movies at the box office in 2023 were women or girls, according to the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative annual report released Monday. That’s very nearly the same percentage as when Stacy L. Smith first began the study in 2007. Then, it was 30% of speaking characters. Continue reading
Warming waters threaten Galapagos’ unique species
View time : 1 min 12
Level : Intermediate
UN asks nations to better prepare as ‘extreme heat epidemic’ breaks records
View time: 1 min 17
Level : Advanced
From Paris to Los Angeles: How the city is preparing for the 2028 Olympics
Read time : 3 mins
Level : Advanced
By JAIMIE DING and ANDREW DALTON Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s Los Angeles’ turn for the torch. Mayor Karen Bass accepted the Olympic flag at the Paris closing ceremony Sunday, before handing it off to a key representative of LA’s local business — Tom Cruise — who in a pre-recorded trek via motorcycle, plane and parachute kicked off the countdown to 2028.
The city will become the third in the world to host the games three times as it adds to the storied years of 1932 and 1984. Here’s a look forward and back in time at the Olympics in LA. Continue reading
The “greenhouse effect”- how an oft-touted climate solution threatens agricultural workers
View time : 1 min 40
Level : Intermediate
America’s Favorite Hobbies Revealed: Our Ten Favorite Ways To Spend Free Time
Read time : 2 mins
Level : Intermediate
Melanie Allen | Wealth of Geeks undefined
Americans spend more than five hours every day on leisure activities and hobbies, ranking second only to sleep in the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2023 time use survey.
Though we all love leisure time, we don’t spend it the same way. Some pastimes are far more popular than others.
America’s Favorite Hobbies
A Statista survey of more than 60,000 Americans determined which hobbies we love the most. Discover something new to try as we explore America’s favorite pastimes. Because respondents could choose more than one hobby, reported percentages surpassed 100. Continue reading
A year after Maui wildfire, chronic housing shortage complicates recovery
View time: 3 min 28
Level : Advanced
Is college worth it? Poll finds only 36% of Americans have confidence in higher education
Read time : 2 mins
Level : Advanced
By JOCELYN GECKER Associated Press
Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value and cost of college, with most saying they feel the U.S. higher education system is headed in the “wrong direction,” according to a new poll.
Overall, only 36% of adults say they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, according to the report released Monday by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. That confidence level has declined steadily from 57% in 2015.
Some of the same opinions have been reflected in declining enrollment as colleges contend with the effects of the student debt crisis, concerns about the high cost of tuition and political debates over how they teach about race and other topics. Continue reading