Features

  TNS Well, this is a bit troubling. A new survey conducted by industry group The Alternative Board (TAB) found that nearly two out of every three small business owners (or 59%) think social media is not that essential to business operations. It’s an interesting result given how much social media has invaded every area of our lives. Tweets pop …

  AFP Grain by grain, truckload by truckload, Laos’ section of the Mekong River is being dredged of sand to make cement — a commodity being devoured by a Chinese-led building boom in the capital. But the hollowing out of the riverbed is also damaging a vital waterway that feeds hundreds of thousands of fishermen and farmers in the poverty-stricken …

  AFP Two years after devastating floods, banana planters in Ivory Coast have staged a comeback, eyeing an increase in production and new markets for the popular fruit. The west African country, which has grown bananas for more than 50 years, was annually exporting almost 300,000 tonnes of fruit before disaster struck. In Nieky, a vital banana-growing region, many have …

  Bloomberg Kamleshkunwar, a mother of three living in a village in central India, first used cooking gas to prepare a meal about a month ago. Her family struggled for years with the ash and smoke that comes from burning wood, until they received a free gas connection from the government as it tries to change how India’s poor cook. …

  AFP From Jakarta to Bali and Yogyakarta, the Indonesian art world is flourishing. Buoyed by a growing, affluent middle class at home as well as interest from international buyers, numerous boutique galleries and artists’ communities have sprung up, while events such as the Jakarta Biennale, the annual ArtJog fair, and Bazaar Art Jakarta have fuelled interest. But critics warn …

  Paderborn / DPA You may have used one at a theme park to find the nearest hair-raising ride, or to plan a walk in magnificent mountain scenery. Pictorial maps lay out your surroundings not as a map, from above, but in an oblique, eagle’s-eye panorama. Alexander Koenigs is one of the world’s few pictorial map illustrators able to do …

  TNS Google does not rank websites. It ranks web pages. “On-Page” search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the process of optimizing the content, images, internal linking, URLs, and meta tags of each and every page of your website. Through much testing with clients, which range from law firms to e-commerce companies, I’ve seen that the homepage is the most …

  Lisbon / AFP Alfama, one of the oldest and most picturesque areas of Lisbon, is becoming a victim of its own charm. Short-term lets to tourists are driving up rents and driving out old residents. “They want to throw me out to rent my home to tourists,” complained retired salesman Antonio Melo, 70. His house has changed owners four …

  Immokalee / AFP Armed with an orange staple gun and dozens of burlap squares entwined with ratty green roots, Mike Kane wades hip-deep into the swamp to restore what generations of thieves have stolen. The ghost orchid. Once abundant in the Florida Everglades, experts say fewer than 2,000 ghost orchids (Dendrophylax lindenii) are left in the state, where it …

  Eindhoven / AFP Former refugees Massoud and Mahmud Hassani stunned the world three years ago with an invention like a dandelion puffball that sought to rid the world of landmines. Now the Afghan brothers are back with their latest creation: a low-cost drone to detect and destroy mines, which each year claim thousands of lives. Ridding the world of …