Ready for a Four-Day Work Week?

Of a crisis — and of new hope. California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Monday that America’s largest state might have to move back into lockdown soon amid a spike in COVID-19 cases that has led to record hospitalizations. All as U.S. pharma firm Moderna applied for emergency authorization for its vaccine, days after Pfizer did the same. (Sources: LA Times, BBC)

2. Daggers Drawn

This is peak 2020. In a year marked by actual death and devastation, China and Australia are fighting over a doctored image shared on social media by a Chinese official showing an Australian soldier slashing the throat of an Afghan child, in a reference to a recent war crimes report. Beijing has refused to apologize. (Source: Al Jazeera)

3. Four Days a Week

“I ain’t got nothing but work, babe … four days a week.” It’s time to tweak the iconic Beatles song. Unilever has given us another reason to move to New Zealand, where it’s testing a four-day work week for its employees. Meanwhile, Dubai’s planning to lure investments by decriminalizing alcohol consumption. (Sources: CNN, FT)

4. Amazon Grace

Is it time for a memorial to one of the planet’s great natural wonders? Brazil’s Amazon rainforest suffered deforestation in 2019 at the highest levels in 12 years amid the anti-conservation policies of President Jair Bolsonaro. (Source: Guardian) 

They’re rabbit-sized bundles of cuteness. But don’t make the mistake of kissing theAfrican crested rat: It could be the kiss of death. Scientists have discovered that the rodents — found in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda — suck toxins from poisonous plants and then slather them over their fur to deter predators.

This 28-year-old Amazon alumna with a hearty laugh and dimples is doing what the tech giant won’t: integrating Africa into global e-commerce delivery networks. At the moment, Amazon doesn’t deliver anywhere on the continent. Anuna’s Lagos-based online fashion retail startup Klasha has developed its own payment and delivery solutions, which it’s integrating into the systems of global brands so African consumers can have goods shipped from across the Atlantic faster than DHL.

2. Scott Munguia

He’s making your guacamole even greener. The chubby-cheeked Mexican chemical engineer takes avocado stones and uses the polymer they contain to make biodegradable cutlery that’s gained in popularity across 19 nations as the global demand for avocados surges. The cutlery disintegrates in 240 days. Biofase, his firm, is already the largest biopolymer maker in Latin America. But he’s hoping to scoop out a bigger chunk of the global $5.8 billion bioplastics industry.

3. Neha Satak

The 36-year-old Indian engineer with cropped hair and a ready smile is challenging the giants of the private space industry, promising something Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ OneWeb can’t offer yet. Her startup Astrome is building satellite transponders that have 11 times more capacity than traditional transponders, and could revolutionize internet access in remote parts of the world. Read more on OZY.

Don’t turn up your nose — this could save the planet. Japan Airlines plans to use fuel made from household waste on its flights between Japan and the U.S. from 2022. It has invested $8.6 million in a startup that’s developing recycled aviation fuel. Think about it: The plane’s toilets could become its new engine.

2. Ions

Those charged particles you read about in high school chemistry? It turns out they can fly a plane. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are usingwinds generated by the flow of ions to propel planes without moving parts, increasing their efficiency. Could this be the future?

3. Weird-Shaped Planes

What if a plane had just one giant wing? The shape of passenger airplanes has remained almost unchanged for decades. Now American and Dutch researchers and giants Airbus and Boeing are testing bizarre new designs that could dramatically cut fuel consumption. Read more on OZY.

Jack Sparrow wasn’t a patch on them. The 17th century Republic of Salé in present-day Morocco relied on piracy as its chief economic engine.The short-lived nation — it merged with Morocco after five years — would target ships across the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. And the legacy of its founder, a Dutch pirate called Jan Janszoon, lives on: according to pirate legend, he’s an ancestor to Humphrey Bogart and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

2. Rubber Rebellion

Arubber boom in the then-Bolivian state of Acre in the 19th century drew Brazilian migrants who seized control and set up an independent Republic of Acre. It lasted less than a year before Brazilian troops intervened, defeated the rebels and gave Acre back to Bolivia. But the rebels attacked twice more. In the end, Brazil incorporated Acre as a part of its own territory in 1903.

3. Sikh Empire

At its peak, it extended from theKhyber Pass on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to western Tibet. The state, built amid the ruins of a weakening Mughal Empire in the late 18th century, united different Sikh clans. Its court included a Quaker from Philadelphia. It was the last major region in the Indian subcontinent to fall to the British in 1849.

She’s hilarious. She’s inappropriate. She’s Kathy Griffin. Watch the Guinness World Record holder for most stand-up comedy specials describe herself later today as a “comedy zombie,” and talk about being interviewed by the U.S. Secret Service over that infamous Trump photo. 

1. Yut Nori

Instead of dice, this Korean family game relies on four wooden sticks, with one face flat, and the other rounded. You throw them in the air and move your four tokens on the board based on how many sticks land with the flat side up. The aim is to race your tokens — each represents a farm animal — around the board first. Watch this tutorial.

2. Fanorona

It’s Madagascar’s version of chess, played on a 9-by-5 grid board where tokens can move diagonally, vertically or horizontally. It’s made its way to popular video games like Assassin’s Creed III. But there’s nothing like the original version, played on the streets of Antananarivo. Watch.

3. El Sapo

It means “the frog” in Spanish. A small statue of the amphibian, its mouth open, sits at the top of a board with other holes in this game that’s originally from Peru. You and your opponent throw coins from a distance. You get maximum points — and luck, according to tradition — if they go into the frog’s mouth. Watch.

On Thursday, we asked you to match popular names to places where you might hear them. Here are the answers: 

• Israel: Tamar 
• Slovenia: Zala  
• Bahamas: Coraline

Ivan H., Vicki S., Barbara J., Louise S., Irena Z., Alexandre I., Jennifer P., Linda F., Annette T., Georgina R., Bert P., James R., Steve W., Csilla B., Gabriela P., Brenda M., Matt D., Jane L, Shelley S., Jon T., Michael G., Jacqueline T., Arlene M., Danelle P., Timothy S., Anne B., Lorenzo H., Jacki T., Jill N., Cathay S., Peter F., Paulette W., Gus R. and Renee B. — congratulations!