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If you watch movies, you’ve probably heard the “Wilhelm scream,” a stock sound effect of a man screaming that’s become something of a Hollywood inside joke. Since debuting in the 1951 film Distant Drums, the scream has appeared in hundreds of others, including Star Wars, Batman, The Lord of the Rings, and virtually every film […]Read More

Hunger Games come and Fifty Shades go, but StrengthsFinder 2.0 is here to stay. The popular self-assessment book has made the Amazon Top 10 bestseller list every year for the past decade. No other book appears even three times—though a volume from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series shows up in six of ten […]

Scrutiny comes down hard on the families of US politicians, and most of all on the presidency and its hopefuls. Twenty-five years ago, George H. W. Bush knew that lesson well. A 1988 letter (pdf) from Bush Sr. warns his son, who would later serve two terms himself, against the appearance of wielding family influence. […]

Most of us give up on a stolen phone when police can’t find the thief—but not one Dutch filmmaker. After Anthony van der Meer’s phone got pinched while he was eating lunch in Amsterdam, he tried locating it using the Find my iPhone program, but it was too late—the thief had already removed the SIM […]Read More

If you’re looking to get your hands on Amazon’s hottest gadget, the Echo, before Christmas, you need to drive to a store. That’s right—no free two-day delivery, no brown cardboard box, no drone flights. Brick and mortar, baby. Due to an Amazon supply-chain “quirk,” the only place as of Monday to get an Echo is […]Read More

So far this year, 922 people were shot and killed by the police in America. Nearly all of those people were men. Nearly half of those victims were white, while a quarter were black, reports the Washington Post. That sounds good until you account for the fact that, according to the 2015 census, just 13.3% […]

Uber is partnering with India’s biggest homegrown smartphone maker in a bid to woo millions of Indians into using its ride-hailing service. On Dec. 20, the US-headquartered company announced an exclusive partnership with Gurgaon, India-based Micromax. Over the next three years, the two companies will work to create a “unique on-device native experience” for Micromax’s […]Read More

A massive explosion ripped through Mexico’s best-known fireworks market outside its capital on Dec. 20, killing at least 29 and injuring a dozen people. The blast struck San Pablito marketplace in Tultepec, north of Mexico City. A video captured by a passerby showed what initially appeared to be a huge, colorful fireworks show that quickly […]

The majority of Filipinos are worried a family member will be a victim in Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, but still, many say they’re satisfied with how the government is handling things, a recent survey revealed. These contradicting feelings about the crackdown that has killed close to 6,000 people are in the latest report released […]Read More

Achal Bakeri could have taken an easier way out if he wanted. After all, he is the heir to one of India’s oldest real estate companies, the Rs109-crore ($16 million) Bakeri Group. But as a young MBA graduate returning from the US in 1986, the then 26-year-old Bakeri had other plans. “I felt I wasn’t […]Read More

When it comes to taking classes online, Indians are dedicated to technology and English lessons. In 2016, most of the top 10 courses taken up by Indians on online learning platform Coursera were on technology and English grammar and conversation skills. India is Coursera’s second-largest market, after the US, with nearly 2 million users. Coursera […]

Up until today (Dec. 21), 22 countries recognized the Republic of China’s government in Taipei over the People’s Republic of China’s in Beijing. Now, that figure has shrank to 21. Today China’s foreign ministry announced the nation of São Tomé and Príncipe has switched its diplomatic allegiance to Beijing. “China expresses appreciation of this, and […]Read More