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Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Survey, By Comparing The Cost In Dollars For Goods And Services In 173 Cities, Has For The First Time Named Tel Aviv, Israel, As The World’s Most Expensive City To Live In, While Paris And Singapore Came A Joint Second. Zurich Came Third. Damascus, In War-Torn Syria, Remains The World’s Cheapest City.

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An Indian Government Survey, Between 2019 And 2021, Shows That, For The First Time In History, India Now Has More Women Than Men, With 1,020 Women For Every 1,000 Men. The Survey Of 650,000 Households Also Shows A Decline In India’s Reproductive Rate, Implying That India’s Current Population Of 1.4 Billion May Be Near Its Peak.

India…

NASA Has Launched A Spacecraft To Test The First Technology That Could Save The Earth From Catastrophic Asteroid Impact. The Nasa’s Dart Mission Will, In Late Sept. Or Early Oct. 2022, Crash A Spacecraft Into A Non-threatening Asteroid Called Dimorphos, At 15,000 Miles/Hour, To Test How Difficult It Is To Stop A Huge Space Rock From Colliding With Earth.

Portugal Has Passed A Law That Bans Employers From Contacting Employees After Work Hours. The Law, Amid A Surge Of Home Workers, Is Part Of An Effort To Appeal To Remote Workers Coming To Portugal And To Promote Healthy Work-Life Balance. Employers, According To The Law, Could Face Financial Penalties For Contacting Employees Outside Of Work Hours.

A New Record May Have Been Set For The Longest Flight Over Water By An All-Electric Plane. The 48-Mile Flight Was Made Across The Cook Strait, New Zealand. And The Plane Was Piloted By Gary Freedman, The Founder Of The Record-Setting All-Electric Plane Company, ElectricAir, For ~40-Minutes From Omaka To Wellington Airport. Cool!

William Shatner, Who Played Captain James T. Kirk In The Original “Star Trek” Series More Than 50 Years Ago, Has Overthrown Wally Funk To Become The Oldest person, At 90 Years Of Age, To Venture Into Space. He Became A Real “Space Explorer” Via Jeff Bezos Blue Origin’s New Shepard On Wednesday The 13th Of October 2021.

France Will Ban Plastic Wrapping For Almost All Fruits And Vegetables, From Jan. 2022, To Reduce Plastic Wastes And Their Impact On Climate And The Environment. The Measure Is Expected To Prevent The Use Of >One Billion Plastic Packaging Items Per Year. France Previously Banned Plastic Straws, Cups, Cutlery, And Styrofoam Takeaway Boxes.

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The Largest Floating Office In The World, A 3,700 Sq M Building, Has Been Built In Rotterdam, Netherlands. The Building, Said To Be Self-Sufficient And Climate Neutral, Is Built Of Wood, Reusable And Recyclable Materials. The Building Is Headquater To The Global Center On Adaptation (GCA), An International ThinkTank On Climate Issues.

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Betty Soskin, Who Turned 100 Years, Is Now The Oldest National Park Ranger In USA. Soskin, Born In Detroit On Sept. 22, 1921, Is Currently A Park Ranger At Rosie The Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park In Richmond, California. Soskin Has Had A School Named After Her And Has Also Received A Presidential Commemorative Coin.

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Umeno Sumiyama And Koume Kodama, Two Japanese Twin Sisters, Were Certified As The World’s Oldest Living Identical Twins By The Guinness World Records. The Twins, Born On 11/5/1913 On Shodoshima Island, Are Said To Be Over 107 Years And 300 days Old. The Previous Record Holders, Kin And Gin, From Japan, Were 107 Years And 175 Days.

Gui…

The Volcanic Eruption, Near Reykjavik, Will Be Iceland Longest In 50 Yrs. The Lava Began Spilling On 3/19/2021, For ~6 Mths, From A Fissure Close To Mount Fagradalsfjall. However, The 143 MCUM Lava Spew, Is Smaller Than Iceland Biggest Lava Flow, In 230 Yrs, From The Shorter-Lived Holuhraun Eruption. Iceland Longest Eruption Lasted 4 Yrs.

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Scotland Wants To Trial A 4-Day Work Week To Boost Worker’s Happiness & Productivity. Scotland Will Model The Trial After Iceland, One Of The Countries, Which Includes Spain, Japan, New Zealand, To Have Undergone A Trial And May Be Exploring A Permanent Switch. Scotland Workers Will See A 20% Work Hours Reduction Without Change In Wages.

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NASA’s Perseverance Rover, On Sept. 1, 2021, Snagged The First Rock Samples From Mars At A Ridge Dubbed “Citadelle” (French For “Castle”). The Samples Are Expected To Be Delivered To Earth As Early As 2031 By A Joint NASA-European Space Agency Mission. The Samples, Once Delivered, Will Be The First Piece Of Another Planet On Earth.

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The Swiss Alps, A Popular Tourist Attraction, Is Being Protected From Increasing Summer Melt, Due To Global Warming, By Covering It With Special Blankets That Reflects The Sun’s Ray, Thereby Reducing Seasonal Melt By 70%. The 5 Mile Swiss Glacier Is Said To Have Shrunk, Over The Last 10 Years, With The Disappearance Of ~131 Ft Of Glacier.

A New Assessment Indicates That 30% (17,500) Of The ~60,000 Tree Species On The Earth May Face Extinction, Due To Factors Like Grazing And Farming, Fire, Logging, Development Etc. Preserving Existing Forest And Expanding Protection Areas; Utilizing Seedbanks And Botanic Gardens, Coupled With Reforestation Education Could Stem The Tide.

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Ms. Josephine Baker, Who Died In 1975, Will Be The First Black Woman To Be Given One Of The Highest Honors In France–Honored With A Memorial Plaque At The Panthéon Monument, Paris, On Nov. 30th. The Late Ms. Baker Was A French-American Singer, Dancer, And Actress Who Fought Against Racism And In The French Resistance During WWW II.

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Recently Released US Census Data Shows That The US White Population Declined For The First Time In History, Over The Past 10 Years. The White Population Fell From 63.7% In 2010 To 57.8% In 2020, The Lowest On Record, Driven By The Falling Birthrates Among White Women Compared With Hispanic And Asian Women. This Data Implies An Increasingly Diverse USA.

Samantha Ramsdell, Age 31, From Connecticut, Has The Biggest Mouth Gape For A Female. This Is According To The Guinness World Records, Based On Her Mouth Gape Measurement Of 6.56 cm Or About 2.5 Inches. Her Mouth Reaches More Than 10 cm, Or 4 Inches When Measured Across. Samantha Is Also Popular With 1.7 Million TikTok Followers.

Scientific Projection Is Indicating The Lagos, Nigeria, A Low Lying City On The Atlantic Coast And Home To More Than 24 Million People, May Become Unliveable At The End Of This Century Because Of Sea-Level Rise Due To Climate Change. And This Is Worsened By The Poor Drainage And Uncontrolled Urban Growth That Plague The City.

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Oliver Daemen, The Son Of Somerset Capital Partners CEO Joes Daemeno, Will Be The Youngest Person, At Age 18, To Fly to Space. He Will Join 82-Year-Old Wally Funk In The Jeff Bezos First Human Flight To Space By His Company. Oliver, A Physics Student, Replaces The Anonymous Bidder Who Could Not Fly Due To Scheduling Conflict.

18-yea…