15 Weird Facts You Dont Know About Labor Day (Deluxe Edition with Videos)

A variety of Olympic and professional athletes tell us how they made it and what they sacrificed to get there. So why is everyone there so optimistic? So why does it make so much noise? Because it reflects — and often amplifies — just about every political, economic, and social issue of the day. We all know the standard story: She argues that the government, by funding so much early-stage research, is hugely responsible for big successes in tech, pharma, energy, and more. But the government also does a terrible job in claiming credit — and, more important, getting a return on its investment.

The technologists say that human ingenuity can solve just about any problem. We head to Denmark to learn the secrets of this happiness epidemic and to see if we should steal them. After every mass shooting or terrorist attack, victims and survivors receive a huge outpouring of support — including a massive pool of compensation money. How should that money be allocated? He was once the most lionized athlete on the planet, with seven straight Tour de France wins and a victory over cancer too. Then the doping charges caught up with him.

Now, five years later, he says he is. Do you believe him? We hear from psychologists, economists, and the golfer who some say committed the greatest choke of all time. The World Is Hard. The founder of behavioral economics describes his unlikely route to success; his reputation for being lazy; and his efforts to fix the world — one nudge at a time.

We voted for number 2. In Praise of Incrementalism What do Renaissance painting, civil-rights movements, and Olympic cycling have in common? In each case, huge breakthroughs came from taking tiny steps.

For the rest of us? Not so much, especially since the U. Nearly two percent of America is grassy green. Sure, lawns are beautiful and useful and they smell great. But are the costs — financial, environmental and otherwise — worth the benefits? But they also encourage employees to misbehave. Evolution, Accelerated A breakthrough in genetic technology has given humans more power than ever to change nature. It could help eliminate hunger and disease; it could also lead to the sort of dystopia we used to only read about in sci-fi novels.

So what happens next? But today the U. Atul Gawande — cancer surgeon, public-health researcher, and best-selling author — has some simple ideas for treating a painfully complex system. So why are we willing to pay big fees for subpar investment returns? Enter the low-cost index fund.

The revolution will not be monetized. Because the Year of the Dragon, according to Chinese folk belief, confers power, fortune, and more. Research shows that female executives are more likely to be put in charge of firms that are already in crisis.

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Are they being set up to fail? Or that consumer preferences changed. Or that new technologies have blown apart your business model. The gig economy offers the ultimate flexibility to set your own hours. She also had a portfolio full of junk food just as the world decided that junk food is borderline toxic. Jack Welch blew the roof off a factory. Carol Bartz was a Wisconsin farm girl who got into computers. How the leaders of Facebook, G. What makes a good C. She is also one of just 15 Democratic governors in the country. Would there be more of them if there were more like her?

Most of us feel we face more headwinds and obstacles than everyone else — which breeds resentment. We also undervalue the tailwinds that help us — which leaves us ungrateful and unhappy.

Neoliberalism has brought out the worst in us | Paul Verhaeghe

How can we avoid this trap? Trust Me Societies where people trust one another are healthier and wealthier. What can we do to fix it? Make Me a Match Sure, markets generally work well. Christine Lagarde, who runs the institution, would like to prevent those crises from ever happening.

She tells us her plans. The public has almost no chance to buy good tickets to the best events. Ticket brokers, meanwhile, make huge profits on the secondary markets. Economists have a hard time explaining why productivity growth has been shrinking. So what should we do next? But we do love to play the lottery. So what if you combine the two, creating a new kind of savings account with a lottery payout? They are the most-trusted profession in America and with good reason. They are critical to patient outcomes especially in primary care.

Could the growing army of nurse practitioners be an answer to the doctor shortage? Corporations and rich people donate billions to their favorite think tanks and foundations. Should we be grateful for their generosity — or suspicious of their motives? But to truly prove the value of a new idea, you have to unleash it to the masses.

Smart government policies, good industrial relations, and high-end products have helped German manufacturing beat back the threats of globalization. Time to Take Back the Toilet Public bathrooms are noisy, poorly designed, and often nonexistent. And he thinks the Trump Administration is wrong on just about everything. A language invented in the 19th century, and meant to be universal, it never really caught on. So why does a group of Esperantists from around the world gather once a year to celebrate their bond? The search for a common language goes back millennia, but so much still gets lost in translation.

Will technology finally solve that? What are the costs — and benefits — of our modern-day Tower of Babel? But after a new study came out linking football to brain damage, he abruptly retired. Bad Medicine, Part 3: Death by Diagnosis By some estimates, medical error is the third-leading cause of death in the U. How can that be? Our third and final episode in this series offers some encouraging answers. Bad Medicine, Part 2: Drug Trials and Tribulations How do so many ineffective and even dangerous drugs make it to market?

On the other hand, sometimes the only thing worse than being excluded from a drug trial is being included. Bad Medicine, Part 1: The Story of In the first episode of a three-part series, we look at the grotesque mistakes produced by centuries of trial-and-error, and ask whether the new era of evidence-based medicine is the solution. What Are You Waiting For? Standing in line represents a particularly sloppy — and frustrating — way for supply and demand to meet. Is it possible that we secretly enjoy waiting in line?

And might it even be gulp good for us? The human foot is an evolutionary masterpiece, far more functional than we give it credit for. Surely the fracking boom reversed that trend, right? Part 2 Charles Koch, the mega-billionaire CEO of Koch Industries and half of the infamous political machine, sees himself as a classical liberal. So why do most Democrats hate him so much? In a rare series of interviews, he explains his political awakening, his management philosophy and why he supports legislation that goes against his self-interest.

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Part 1 Charles Koch, the mega-billionaire CEO of Koch Industries and half of the infamous political machine, sees himself as a classical liberal. A series of academic studies suggest that the wealthy are, to put it bluntly, selfish jerks. A trio of economists set out to test the theory. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz has spent years parsing the data. In the real world, everybody lies. A kitchen wizard and a nutrition detective talk about the perfect hamburger, getting the most out of garlic, and why you should use vodka in just about everything.

We hear from a regulatory advocate, an evidence-based skeptic, a former FDA commissioner — and the organizers of Milktoberfest.

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We start with — what else? The biggest problem with humanity is humans themselves. Too often, we make choices — what we eat, how we spend our money and time — that undermine our well-being. An all-star team of academic researchers thinks it has the solution: By night, they repurpose those tricks to improve their personal lives. They want to help you do the same. How Safe is Your Job? But has creative destruction become too destructive? Where a Kid Can Learn Price Theory The pizza-and-gaming emporium prides itself on affordability, which means its arcade games are really cheap to play.

Does that lead to kids hogging the best games — and parents starting those infamous YouTube brawls? But almost none of those dollars stay in America. What would it take to bring those jobs back — and would it be worth it? Big Coal What happens when a public-health researcher deep in coal country argues that mountaintop mining endangers the entire community? No big surprise there. For years, economists promised that global free trade would be mostly win-win. Just a few decades ago, more than 90 percent of year-olds earned more than their parents had earned at the same age.

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What happened — and what can be done about it? And what if deliberate practice is the secret to excellence? Those are the claims of the research psychologist Anders Ericsson, who has been studying the science of expertise for decades. How to Be More Productive In this busy time of year, we could all use some tips on how to get more done in less time.

First, however, a warning: The No-Tipping Point The restaurant business model is warped: So what happens if you eliminate tipping, raise menu prices, and redistribute the wealth? New York restaurant maverick Danny Meyer is about to find out. How to avoid it? The first step is to admit just how fallible we all are. But after a series of early victories — and a helpful executive order from President Obama — they are well on their way. One recent MRI study sheds some light, finding that a certain kind of storytelling stimulates enormous activity across broad swaths of the brain. The takeaway is obvious: It facilitates crime, bribery, and tax evasion — and yet some governments including ours are printing more cash than ever.

Other countries, meanwhile, are ditching cash entirely. Presidency Become a Dictatorship? Sure, we all pay lip service to the Madisonian system of checks and balances. But as one legal scholar argues, presidents have been running roughshod over the system for decades. How worried should we be?

Yes, robots will probably take your job — but the future will still be pretty great. Are You Ready for a Glorious Sunset? So what if a patient could forego the standard treatment and get a cash rebate instead? Does this make sense — and is it legal? Which electoral and political ideas should be killed off to make way for a saner system?

Overt discrimination in the labor markets may be on the wane, but women are still subtly penalized by all sorts of societal conventions. How can those penalties be removed without burning down the house? But how much control do we truly have? How many of our decisions are really being made by Google and Facebook and Apple? And, perhaps most importantly: Could this be what modern politics is supposed to look like? The Suicide Paradox There are more than twice as many suicides as murders in the U.

Freakonomics Radio digs through the numbers and finds all kinds of surprises. The festival is all about community and sustainability proceeds go towards the Living Classrooms Foundation , so grab a drink and some food, enjoy the weather and scenery and celebrate with friends. That adds up to more than beers available for sampling, and of course, there will be plenty of tasty offerings that should pair up quite nicely. Grab tickets quickly, as this event — which takes place June 1 - 2 — sells out quickly.

During the four-day extravaganza taking place June , expect a full-on arts takeover of the District, with innovative music and dance performances, interactive and collaborative displays, art installations in every DC quadrant and late-night museum openings from the National Mall to the neighborhoods. Additional programming includes a civic dialogue series aimed at demonstrating progress between people on opposite sides of an issue, and an augmented reality city-wide art hunt. Some concerts are free; most are ticketed.

Considered one of the leading documentary festivals in the country, AFI Docs is an annual summer celebration of the power of storytelling in film. I liked the darker tones in the plot and cut-scenes. Some may argue that I'm comparing apples and oranges due to the changes in combat systems but, if that were the case, then anything past VI would be in its own category. Personally, I like the action-based combat system and Square Enix never disappoints with the graphics. So far, everything feels pretty fluid and the plot feels fresh to me. I'm not far enough along to really analyze the plot but it's captured my interest for now.

I do like the modern-medieval mixture Square has going on with this game although one of the reasons I liked Tactics, IX, and XII was the medieval "culture" from the architecture and dialogue. This is a long review, so I'm putting in sections in all caps. The INTRO is just a summary of my personal waiting period for the game and I've included it to give the reader perspective of where I was coming from when I first put the game into my PS4. Should also be noted that this is a review of the 1.

The director has promised more details to come, with further story clarification via free DLC, among other upcoming features, both free and paid, so this review isn't guaranteed to stand the test of time. I was at home, looking over a friend's copy of Game Informer when I saw the news ten years ago.

The trailer was just as violent as the title seemed to imply, with our hero coldly and stoically warping from soldier to soldier, killing them all with a kind of lazy ease. He was cool, if a bit edgy for my taste, and I wanted to fly around in the same fashion once I learned the game was going for action rather than the turn based format traditionally in tune with the franchise.

It made sense that they'd drop something, considering their risky Fabula Nova Crystallis direction which I never liked so I wasn't entirely surprised. XIII eventually came out, and hallways, less than stellar characters, and a gigantic circle that was supposed to be an open world later, I left impressed only with the visuals and moved on. XIII-2 and 3 arrived without much reaction from me, and Final Fantasy just kind of faded into great memories I had from the first ten games, and hope for the fourteenth and when that turned out to be a second online game, fifteenth installment for the franchise.

Then E3 happened and, around nine years after I thought I'd forgotten it, I saw that same black clad hero, warping from one enemy to another, fighting Titan, looking up at Leviathan, summoning Ramuh, running around in a huge open world with three friends who I recognized years before, with the freedom that XIII seemed to have abandoned. Somehow it came back under my nose. It was undeniably different, sure, but the changes didn't feel unwelcome, or even all that numerous. I got a Playstation 4 partially for that gameplay demo, and started following the now titled Final Fantasy XV again.

It was a long 5 to 6 month wait, and the anime and tie-in film, while enjoyable, did little to shorten it. When it did come out I was relieved, to say the least. The wait was finally over, and I was as ready as it got.

Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems

But was it worth the wait? I wasn't too sure at first. Its tone is very lighthearted at the early stages, and it does have some technical shortcomings, but now that I've really savored the contents of this game, and completed its story, I'd say yes. It was worth the wait. In fact I'd say it's the best Final Fantasy we've had since X was released fifteen years ago.

This game is genuinely beautiful, though like its predecessors, it tends to prioritize certain visuals in favor of others. NPCs, for example, won't look as good as the main characters and background food stands won't be full of the photorealistic dishes Ignis provides the party. That said, where the graphics shine, they really shine. Water dripping down the side of your car in the rain. Realistic and varied clouds floating through the sky. Detailed and well designed enemies. Great lip syncing during story cutscenes.

Dynamic effects such as snow on your clothes after casting Blizzard. Truly magnificent, even godlike, summons. Gorgeous and extravagant setpieces The most appetizing in game food to ever grace a video game. In contrast there is the occasional ugly NPC and low quality texture, with priority on what the team really wanted you to see and what they expected you to see often. To be clear, Final Fantasy XV's main narrative is the shortest since Final Fantasy 1, and it took me around 25 hours to finish.

Some characters also did feel left behind as the party moved onto the next destination, and it was clear that the director wanted total focus on its main characters and the game's primary antagonist. You'll find some development among some secondary characters, but they definitely took a backseat to the title characters. That said, it is steeped in character development and struggle from its main cast, is very subtly and atmospherically told, and it ends on a very satisfactory and emotionally impactful note.

I strongly recommend to watch the feature film, Kingsglaive included with the Deluxe edition or sold separately to fully understand parts of the narrative, as the post-patch cutscenes cover a very barebones version of events preceding the game. I'd also suggest watching Brotherhood, but only because it's free and decent in its own right. It bears far less to the main story than Kingsglaive, which I'd argue is vital to XV's narrative.

That said Brotherhood does get alluded to in the game, especially regarding one of the main characters. I also suggest you pay attention to everything. This story doesn't always jump out at you and is instead woven into the world. This is a kind of natural storytelling that really appealed to me, but it's easy to miss. The Active Cross battle system introduced in the final release is one of the coolest mutations of the Kingdom Hearts system I've ever played.

Aside from some foliage based camera issues in which leaves and trees can block your view, the combat is fluid, fun, very timing-based, and demands situational awareness on many fronts in order to be played well.

While overlevelling in the story can definitely happen, luckily this issue is being addressed via an upcoming level cap patch along with a new hard difficulty setting. I can't say anything about Wait Mode, as I had neither desire nor inclination to use it. The Ascension system was basically just a skill tree, but added plenty of spice to the combat, and the equipment variety made for an enjoyable experience.

The magic system and its experimental nature was fun to play with and beautiful to look at. You can tell that this is where the game really sought to stand out over Final Fantasy XIII, with its many straight corridors. No two dungeons in XV are alike, and are filled with traps, secrets, and unique features, like climbing a steep hill while trying not to slide to the bottom, or pushing through a maze of cubes while running into opposition on the way. On two occasions I got legitimately lost due to their labyrinthine and layered structures.

In a game full of little highlights, the dungeons are by far the most impressive, and I'd love to see this dungeon designer work again and more often in the future. The fishing minigame was a pleasant surprise thanks to the inclusion of limited line health that adds intensity and challenge, especially when dealing with larger fish. The randomly occuring camping minigames were also enjoyable, and sparring turned out to be a bigger challenge than I expected. Other games like Chocobo racing, Justice Monsters Five, monster fight betting, and small one-off games dotted here and there were all fun little distractions that reminded me of the PSX titles in a good way.

Quests range from common fetch quests to many many monster hunts; on the generic side, but the gameplay and dungeons make up for them. Yoko Shimomura's captivating and atmospheric compositions were a great fit for the game and its dual theme.