Much of the rhetoric around human resources strategy involves the idea that working in a team is the key to succees. But in some cases, researchers say, it can even breed laziness.
Month: April 2014
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A Peruvian Painting
Strong foreground, nice depth of field, striking colors, llamas … What more could you ask for in a picture?
Though denied by Putin, there is evidence emerging that investment projects elsewhere in Russia are being held up in order to divert funds to projects in newly annexed Crimea.
Did you notice that the Geneva deal on Ukraine made no mention of Crimea? Actually it may have been an unspoken license for Russia to continue to pursue control of the rest of the country.
Just before last week’s death of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, El Espectador spoke with arguably the only other Latin American author in his league, 2010 Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.
Residents of Ballarpur city in India woke up to an unpleasant surprise this week, after a full-grown leopard had taken shelter in a cowshed during the night. Early Monday morning, local residents of the busy neighborhood, with the help of a forest department team, eventually managed to capture the leopard. The one injury reported can […]
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The Floating City
On this beautiful spring day, little did we or these two gondoliers suspect that only five months later, on Nov. 4, 1966, the most disastrous acqua alta — “high water” — would hit the city, with canals rising by almost two meters (6.5 feet).
Falsely considered a type of magic, achieving hypnotic trance is already part of our everyday lives. Its potential applications for medical science are vast, if still largely unexplained.
As President Obama arrives on an Asian tour, yet another sign that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to undo Japan’s pacifist policies that are a vestige of World War II.
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11 Animals In Unlikely Places
In case you missed this gem on our homepage, check out our world tour of animals in places you wouldn’t usually expect them… Read it here. Photo: Dromedar61
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Pardoned Just As He Was Hanged
BANDAR ABBAS — A “few seconds” after an Iranian man’s hanging began, his victim’s relatives called prison officials to grant a pardon, as Iranian laws allow. According to prison authorities in the south of the country on April 20, the man survived the hanging — which was on an unspecified recent date — and is […]
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The Solemn Sweeper
When we went to Thailand, we chose not to go for the usual touristy spots along the coast, exploring instead the beauty of the country’s inland regions and their adorned buddhas. Upon rediscovering that slide, I couldn’t help but think: What did this devoted sweeper do with the gold leaves he picked up from the […]
Results from the world’s large largest airline rating portal Skytrax give high marks in Asia: Exactly seven airlines in the world have been give five-star ratings: ANA (All Nippon Airways), Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Hainan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines. But at the other end of the scale is another Asian […]
MOSCOW — Amidst the showdown over Ukraine, the United States tried in vain to pressure China into joining the international sanctions against Russia. Moscow officials have said that while other countries were trying to tie a noose of sanctions around Russia’s neck, China has unexpectedly turned out to be an “absolutely solid partner.” And yet […]
It was about noon on a Friday last August, and Jawdat Ghorab was fishing some 100 meters away from the shore. “I was throwing out my net, and pulling it up slowly, just like I always do,” he said. All of a sudden, the net became very heavy, so heavy that he couldn’t pull it […]
A new German study shows that half of people born today will live to be 100. Surely this calls for a new way to think about life – and lifestyle.
It may be a new weapon to strike fear in store clerks around the world: a grocer in Colombia has died days after two individuals injected him with an unknown poison outside his store, in the district of Facatativá west of Bogotá. The Colombian daily El Espectador reported this past weekend that authorities had not […]
Some see signs that the world’s tectonic plates are positioned in such a way to set off “the mother of all quakes.” Seismology has made advances, but is still not a perfect science.
Even if you don’t judge him South America’s greatest writer, there’s no denying that his life lived with joy and principle is the stuff of modern legend for a country, and continent.
Being overly shy isn’t always a simple personality trait, something kids will “grow out of…” It can also reach the point of clinical illness. How to know when your child needs treatment.
As part of a collaboration between Syria Deeply and Rookie, we’re publishing the memoirs of a teenage girl living in the midst of Syria’s war. Marah, as she’s chosen to be known, lives in a city under siege. She was 15 years old when the uprising began. This is the first in her series of articles. My city was once magnificent. In spring, it bloomed. We used to wake up to the sound of birds chirping and to the fragrant scent of flowers. Today, spring is here again. But what kind of spring is this? We now wake up to […]
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The Myth Of The Asian Math Genius
SHANGHAI — After the excellent performance of Shanghai children in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), an expert delegation led by British Education Minister Elizabeth Truss paid a visit to Shanghai recently to learn from the city’s experience in teaching – and teaching math, in particular. The local press reported that the visiting delegation […]
Below are some of the songs currently topping the charts around the world. Worldcrunch Pick Last month, the London-based band Gallon Drunk released their 8th studio album, The Soul Of The Hour, and it’s probably one of the best things you’ll hear this year, or ever. The Soul Of The Hour is as rock’n’roll as […]
PRO-RUSSIAN PROTESTERS REFUSE GENEVA DEAL Pro-Russian protesters in Eastern Ukraine have rejected the deal reached yesterday in Geneva, refusing to leave the official buildings they have been occupying over the past week in more than 10 cities, the BBC reports. Alexander Gnezdilov, a spokesman for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said that they would only […]
MOSCOW — The same picture that we saw at the end of 2013 in Kiev has now simply moved to Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Mykolaiv. Buildings stormed, barricaded streets, people in masks and flags flying. The differences, at first glance, appear insignificant. Before, there was just one center of the protests — Kiev — whereas […]
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Bad Weather Makes One Crank-y
We were usually rather lucky weather-wise on our travels. But it rained so much on our 1961 trip to Denmark (as shown in the above picture of cloudy Copenhagen) that our Peugeot 203“s automatic windshield wipers broke — forcing us to use the hand-crank wipers that cars back then still featured as a backup.
Adios Gabo! From Bogota to Warsaw and beyond, the passing of the great Colombian writer is marked with Page One features.
Infighting among Syrian rebel leaders and radicalization of certain groups are dissuading private donors in Kuwait and elsewhere in the Gulf, who’d backed the Syrian opposition since 2011.
The daughter of Lea Garofalo, who was brutally killed by her Italian mob husband in 2009, courageously speaks out against the dark underworld – and her own father and boyfriend.
An Argentine couple is accused of keeping their adopted daughter locked up in a garage for seven years, feeding her bread and water, and occasionally food left over by a dog and a monkey that were kept with her. Buenos Aires daily Clarín reports that the couple is expected in court next week to face […]
“It’s not easy being green.” — Kermit the Frog PARIS – For some of us, being green is a hard-to-quantify choice of using a reusable bag at the grocery storetaking or taking public transport. But for others, environmental friendliness is a hard calculation to reach carbon-neutral status. That means removing as much carbon dioxide from […]
KAPOOSAR — Pancho Mai is a villager in Kapoosar, located in the Tharpakar district. Today is the festival of Holi, but the 25-year-old mother is deep in mourning. Over the past three months, her three children have died. “They had fever for a few days, and then pneumonia killed each one of them,” she says numbly. Her mother-in-law, Kaplana Mai, had rushed the children to the only government hospital in the district. But it was too late. They died within days. This is not an isolated case. According to independent statistics reported by the local media, some 200 children, mostly […]
LANZHOU — Over the last few days, panic has been spreading about the drinking water in Lanzhou, the capital city of the northwest Gansu Province. The water contains dangerously high levels of benzene, a cancer-causing substance. Television reports show the public madly rushing to the supermarkets for bottled water. What if this also happens to […]
As the West wastes time with endless discussions and threats of sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to gain ground in Ukraine.
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The Pharaoh’s Battle
Though you can already catch of glimpse of the city in the background of the picture, in 1990 Cairo was still separated from the great pyramids of Giza. Nowadays the city almost completely surrounds them.
Critics of both Nestor and Cristina Kirchner have focused on the “populist” nature of their hold on power. But to understand their rule, it may be wiser to follow the money.
The news in numbers from gold teeth to a record-breaking Stradivarius to Beckett’s “lost” story.
After pleas for help on social media to defend pro-Russians across the border, soldiers and would-be soldiers have left Russia to travel to Eastern Ukraine. On the ground in Donetsk.
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Waxy Ex-Votos
Fifty kilometers (30 miles) west of Barcelona stands the beautiful Santa Maria de Montserrat Benedictine abbey. Like many holy places, it features ex-votos, or offerings — but I had never seen such a profusion of wax body parts, most of them given as a gesture of gratitude for having been cured from a disease afflicting […]
ALGIERS – Shaken by the strength of bloggers and Internet users opposed to a fourth term for outgoing Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the head of state’s campaign team didn’t wait long before equipping themselves with their own virtual communication tools. The unprecedented online confrontation has put the Bouteflika’s supporters on the defensive. His team opened […]