ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK How To Tell If Luxury Goods Are Worth It Key Takeaway: Designer fashion has seen significant growth since the pandemic, with luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Burberry experiencing 86% higher sales growth. The rise of athleisure and designer collaborations like Manolo Blahnik for Birkenstock, Gucci x Adidas, and Burberry x Supreme have made luxury more accessible. However, high prices can affect the longevity […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK The Secret Recipe Of Studio Ghibli Movies Key Takeaway: Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation studio, has been a global phenomenon since 1985, with its debut feature Laputa: Castle in the Sky. The studio gained international recognition with the releases of Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001), which won the Academy Award for best animated feature. The founders, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY How Technology Steals Our Time Key Takeaway: Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, but it is causing us to spend more time on tasks that wouldn’t be possible without technology. A study of 300 people across Europe found that people are filling empty periods with tasks that wouldn’t be possible without technology, such as brain training apps and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY Understanding The Sunk Cost Fallacy Key Takeaway: The sunk cost fallacy is a common tendency where people make decisions based on past costs rather than current events or future events. This can lead to high-stakes decisions and can affect choices that have bigger consequences for our lives. For example, Bob might base his decision on the original price of a […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK How Netflix Has Been Growing Itself Key Takeaway: Netflix, a streaming giant, experienced a decline in subscribers in 2022 due to competition from Disney and Amazon Prime. However, it has since rebounded, adding 8.8 million subscribers in Q3 2023. The company’s success can be attributed to its international approach, with over 70% of its subscribers coming from outside the US. It […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE Do Racehorses Even Know They’re Racing? Key Takeaway: Horse racing is a spectacle where horses race to win a race. From a horse’s perspective, winning a race has few intrinsic rewards. While being first to reach the finishing post is important for the horse’s human connections, there is little direct benefit to motivate it to voluntarily gallop faster. Horses are social […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE Are UFOs Actually Aliens? Key Takeaway: UFOs, or unidentified flying objects, have gained popularity in recent years, with 25%-50% of surveyed Americans believing at least some UFOs are alien spacecraft. The popularity of UFOs has been driven by market-driven stories, such as the Roswell Incident and the U.S. Navy’s 2017 Gimbal video. However, multiple investigations have found no evidence […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY TECHNOLOGY How Netflix Is Actually Mind Controlling You Key Takeaway The study by van Esler and colleagues analyzed the influence of streaming platforms on TV programmes’ success. They found that streaming services can make their content more likely to be watched. The study found that the strongest predictor of a programme’s viewing was the number of days the programme was available on the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE NASA’s Investigation Into UFOs Key Takeaway Nasa’s committee has examined around 800 reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), or unidentified flying objects, which cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena from a scientific perspective. The committee, led by astrophysicist David Spergel, is using declassified reports and images to try to explain some of the mysterious reports. The […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY How Groundbreaking Will Apple Vision Pro Be? Key Takeaway Apple unveiled its Vision Pro headset, blending VR, AR, and mixed reality. The headset uses 12 cameras and EyeSight to detect and display people in the real world, allowing users to adjust their immersion level. The Vision Pro is expected to revolutionize head-mounted devices and bring immersive technologies to mainstream use. Apple’s Vision […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Is A Space Tourist An Astronaut? Key Takeaway: The debate over who truly deserves to be called an astronaut has resurfaced with the recent all-women spaceflight aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin spacecraft. The term “astronaut” has been used to describe individuals who have travelled into space, but the definition varies widely. Some dictionaries define an astronaut as anyone who has travelled […] Written by Empirics Asia May 6, 2025May 6, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Consciousness Conundrum Key Takeaway: The mystery of consciousness has been a subject of debate for centuries, with numerous theories vying for the title. In 2024, the Cogitate Consortium conducted an “adversarial collaboration” between Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT) and Integrated Information Theory (IIT). The study aimed to test the theories under neutral conditions, revealing that confirmation bias […] Written by Empirics Asia May 2, 2025May 2, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Great Cosmic Riddle Key Takeaways: Dark matter, an invisible substance thought to outweigh all visible matter in the universe, remains a mystery in astrophysics. The idea of dark matter began in the 1970s when astronomers Vera Rubin and Kent Ford studied the rotation of the Andromeda galaxy. However, alternative explanations exist, such as Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and […] Written by Empirics Asia April 24, 2025April 24, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Is Big Tech Killing Free Speech or Saving It? Key Takeaway: President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” accused the previous administration of stifling free expression by working with social media companies to curb misinformation and label misleading content. However, recent research suggests that less regulation can actually make the internet a less free place for speech, […] Written by Empirics Asia April 23, 2025April 23, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How The Brain Learns Key Takeaway: Recent research published in Science has revealed that the brain uses multiple learning mechanisms simultaneously, revealing the complexity behind brain wiring. Neurons communicate through electric signals called synapses, which form complex networks of connections that transmit information. The traditional theory of synaptic plasticity assumes uniformity between neurons, but the new study found that […] Written by Empirics Asia April 22, 2025April 22, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Did We Just Discover Life On A Distant Planet? Key Takeaway: A new study published in Nature Astronomy claims that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected atmospheric signals on K2-18b, a distant world 124 light-years from Earth. The researchers found traces of molecules often associated with biological activity on Earth, including dimethyl sulphide (DMS). The scientists are 99.7% confident in the presence […] Written by Empirics Asia April 21, 2025April 21, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why So Many People Believe In The Supernatural Key Takeaway: Belief in the supernatural, including ghosts, spirits, astrology, and psychic powers, is more common than people might expect. These beliefs offer a sense of control, meaning, and comfort in the face of life’s unpredictability. They fall outside the boundaries of conventional science and include ideas like fate, spiritual forces, and life after death. […] Written by Empirics Asia April 18, 2025April 18, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked