New York City in winter

6.11.2015

“There are endless reasons to love New York City in every season, but something special happens when the snow falls – from Lunar New Year celebrations in Flushing and the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center, to watching the Polar Bear Club brave the frigid waters on Coney Island. People from around the world feel the pull of New York City…,” raves Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Yet, it can get pretty chilly in New York City in winter and even a metropolis of this caliber is confronted with receding visitation numbers especially during the months of January, February and March, a typically slower period of travel. In order to counteract this trend and to stimulate and expand winter arrivals to its five boroughs, NYC has unleashed the large-scale promotional campaign unlock nyc. To make the destination more affordable for global travellers, NYC entices its future clientele with hotel room discounts of 22 per cent on average plus attractive dining and theatre deals during the first term of the year.

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One can mix concrete - or ideas, and become a multipotentialite.

TED Talk. Emilie Wapnick: Why some of us don’t have a true calling

26.10.2015

You have varied interests, are blessed with subtle potential in a number of fields and a rapid learner? You have changed jobs often because you got bored quickly? Well, then perhaps you are what Emilie Wapnick calls a „multipotentialite“ – a person well-versed in a wide range of disciplines. Multipotentialites are never glued to their comfort zone, readily take on new challenges, are used to being beginners and thus, not afraid to start from scratch – over again. The most intriguing and valuable part may be ascribed to synthesis: by combining two or more areas, something new is being created at the intersection. And this is where innovation happens.

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The World Obesity Federation initiates the Healthy Venue Award

12.10.2015

„The obesity crisis is one of the biggest challenges of our time and it is more important than ever that there is strong and unified global action to tackle it“. In the United States alone there are an estimated 225 million visitors to conventions, conferences, congresses, exhibitions, incentives or corporate meetings. Even if these events are organised around health issues: sadly, they often are unwholesome affairs caused by an unwise choice of food types. Aggravated by a lack of physical activities to compensate the caloric intake, subtle weight-gain is sowing the seeds for obesity-related diseases. In order to promote and secure health and well-being within conference venues, the Healthy Venues Award was conceived as part of World Obesity Federation’s Action Initiative. The organisation represents professional members of the scientific, medical and research communities from over 50 regional and national obesity associations, whose mission it is to reduce, prevent and treat obesity on a global scale.

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19th century drawing: ladies in the gym. The German Gymnasium: A successful structural modification at King's Cross.

London: The German Gymnasium at King’s Cross

7.10.2015

For the conscientiously-thinking German of the past centuries, keeping physically fit was equal to a national duty to be fulfilled – like going to church on Holy Sundays. Not a chance of ever playing truant. The constant surveillance by a rigorously watchful society saw to these rules not being neglected. Meanwhile in Germany, like in any place else in the world, people who work out regularly on a voluntary basis have become rarer and those zigzagging between sporadic exertion and hard-core couch-potatoing a sad majority.

German discipline was worthwhile being exported to ensure that far-away expats would not forget to stay in shape. And this is how the German Gymnasium at King’s Cross came to be. The money for „the first purpose-built gymnasium in the United Kingdom“, opened in 1865, was raised entirely by the German Gymnastics Society and the German community in London. 6,000 pounds well invested. Even women were allowed to use the facility: a freedom otherwise alien to ladies of that era.

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Statue of a Buddha in China + preservation of heritage

Saving China’s Heritage

5.10.2015

Preservation and Technology

A guest post by Brian Yin

Throughout China, with the massive increase in tourist traffic both international and domestic, there are artifacts and sacred sites that are being damaged, often irreparably so by the sheer numbers of visitors. There is always a balancing act between access and preservation: If access is too limited, sites lose their draw card, but if it is too open, then there will be a finite lifespan to them. The Terracotta Warriors in X’ian are an example of how this problem was approached decades ago – when China was just opening up. When the excavated warriors were exposed to the environment, the paint rapidly deteriorated, leaving the clay soldiers “plain earth” as we see them today. The response was to re-bury the majority of the army, to preserve it for future generations.

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