europe

This is rather mind-boggling when you think about it. This Dutch bond has been paying interests non-stop for the last 400 years! Perplexity News: Oldest Bond Turns 400 "The world's oldest perpetual bond, issued in 1624 by the Dutch water authority Hoogheemraadschap Lekdijk Bovendams, recently...

Whenever American citizens meet other Westerners and discuss their working conditions and rights it always comes as a shock to both sides how grossly exploited American workers are. It's pretty eloquent. This is the world map of the Labour Rights Index for 2024. The index is computed based on...

I have created maps of traffic-related deaths per 100,000 inhabitants for the Unites States and Europe. When looking at the statistics per country from Wikipedia, I noticed that the US states with the worst road fatality rates were way above anything observed in other developed countries and...

Abstract Modern humans arrived in Europe more than 45,000 years ago, overlapping at least 5,000 years with Neanderthals1–4. Limited genomic data from these early modern humans have shown that at least two genetically distinct groups inhabited Europe, represented by Zlatý kůň, Czechia3 and Bacho...

I've discussed before (notably here) the difference between American and European food, and in particular how so many food additives, hormones and chemicals typically found in food in the US is banned in Europe and even in countries like China. Here is a video about American food products banned...

The euro is probably the only currency in the world that issues banknotes with a face value of zero. These are collectibles and there are hundreds of different designs, but they are genuine —although unofficial — banknotes with real security features like holograms, microprints and UV ink. At...

Global warming is one of the most important global issues at the moment and for the foreseeable future. Carbon taxes are one of the main tools to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, essentially by increasing the price of fossil fuels. This both decreases demand for goods and services that...

This video captures exactly how I've been feeling all my adult life about modern architecture. Many famous architect strive to create the most original buildings possible without thinking about their functionality, how it fits within the city where it is built, or even whether they are...

Here is some map showing the cities in Europe that have a metro with their logo. There are in total 60 European cities that have a metro system (as opposed to 13 cities in the United States and also 13 in Japan). The second map shows the number of cities that have a tramway network in each...

I was wondering how various countries compared in their murder clearance rates, so I had to look at the data and found something rather concerning. In the US the percentage of homicides that have been solved has been steadily declining since the 1960s. This graph shows that it declined from 91%...

Ashton, an American woman from Illinois with a PhD in human geography, urban planning and architecture, who moved to Freiburg in Germany 5 years ago, decided to compare how much money someone would earn in the US vs Germany was a similar job and life situation once all the taxes, social security...

I often hear that American supermarkets are much bigger and have a greater diversity of products than in Europe. For example this American guy who has lived 5 years in the Netherlands (but apparently nowhere else in Europe) says that he prefers life in general in Europe, but that the shopping...

Statistics about religious beliefs evolve surprisingly quickly. In the USA the number of non-religious people has been increasing steadily by about 1% per year in the last 20 years. The same trend can be seen in Europe, although religiosity has fallen much faster in some countries than others...

It may sound like a strange question. Many Westerners still have an image of Sub-Saharan Africa as an underdeveloped place where people live in huts and hunt with spears like in the early 20th century. But even if some tribes of hunter-gatherers survive in isolated parts of the continent, this...

Here are some of the biggest construction projects at the moment.

Euronews : Real teacher salaries in Europe are down. Which countries pay the highest and lowest wages? This article has a very detailed analysis of teachers' salaries at pre-school, primary and secondary level by country, comparing: Average annual gross actual salaries Annual gross statutory...

About 9% of global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the methane emitted from cattle flatulence. Additionally, large swathes of the Amazon rainforest are being destroyed (usually burned) to expand cattle ranching. Tropical deforestation itself is responsible for 10% of global warming, and...

LGBT rights have come a long way since 2001 when the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise gay marriage. Many Western European countries followed suit soon afterwards and gay marriage has been adopted by even more nations, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, in the...

The Guardian: Germany legalises possession of cannabis for personal use The new law will allow the growth of up to three plants for private consumption, holding 50g of cannabis at home, or 25g in public. This makes Germany the third European Union member state to legalise cannabis for personal...

It may be due to the Covid-19 effect or just the economy catching up, but in only two years many countries have seen their percentage of Internet users rise quite a lot, as can be seen on the two maps below. If data is correct, the share of Internet users dropped in a few countries though...