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☆ In the 'Garden of England', loss-making orchards are cut down
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Sarah Young | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The fruit that helped give the "Garden of England" its name hundreds of years ago no longer makes money so farmer James Smith is tearing down his orchards. Turning a profit from selling red apples to supermarkets has been a struggle for years, he said. In Kent, Smith is removing 80% of his orchards. Last year growing apples lost him 150,000 pounds ($186,000), a loss which would have been higher had it not been cushioned by other income streams from his land. He's also planting a vineyard and is growing small amounts of cherries, the fruit which legend has it prompted King Henry VIII to first call Kent the "Garden of England".

☆ A software CEO ditched Chicago for a Midwestern college town and said the move was 'huge upgrade' for his whole family
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Software firm CEO Ravi Bhatt moved his family from Chicago to Bloomington, Indiana, in 2021. In the spring of 2021, my family and I moved to Bloomington, Indiana, a Midwestern city of 85,000 people, home to Indiana University Bloomington. What made the area attractive to us was that Indiana University Bloomington is a major research university. Bloomington, Indiana. A lot of people are stressed out about work and think life will become easier once they get out of the big city.

☆ Europe Moves to Revive Mining to Cut Reliance on China
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Eric Sylvers | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

INSHEIM, Germany—Near the Rhine river in this part of western Germany, little indicates that beneath the picturesque villages, vineyards and rolling hills there lies enough lithium to make millions of batteries for electric vehicles. Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd., an Australian-German mining company, recently began extracting lithium from a mix of scalding water, minerals and metals almost 2 miles underground. The same hot brine has for years powered a geothermal electricity station, which Vulcan bought. The company has big expansion plans in the valley, backed by contracts to supply the auto industry.

☆ First Big U.S. EV-Battery Plant Offers Lessons as Industry Springs Up
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( River Davis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SPARKS, Nev.—A pioneer in making electric-vehicle batteries in the U.S. has a message for newcomers: It takes time to power up. Japan’s Panasonic Holdings Corp. started building what would become America’s first large-scale EV-battery plant in 2015, at a site owned by Tesla Inc. in the rolling hills outside of Reno, Nev.

☆ Truffle hunters in Italy are poisoning their competitors' dogs with snail bait in a war for the 'black gold' that goes for up to $5,000 per pound
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Truffle foragers in Italy have long sought to get rid of competition in search of "black gold." "It's all about getting rid of the competition," The Wall Street Journal reported Saverio Dogliani, a 57-year-old truffle hunter whose dog, Floki, has been poisoned twice, said. PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP via Getty ImagesThe poisoned treats claim the lives of multiple dogs and wildlife such as deer and foxes, each year. A group of truffle hunters wearing camouflage searched the area where Brando was poisoned, hoping to rid the brush of leftover poison. "It's getting worse," Agent Emanuele Gallo told The Wall Street Journal.

☆ The not-quite-redemption of South Africa's infamous ultra-marathon cheats
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Ryan Brown | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +35 min

"A runner can always recognize another runner," Eugene tells me. Ryan Brown for insiderIn those days, they didn't run for South Africa, but for QwaQwa – one of ten "homelands" established for Black South Africans. Tiny, non-contiguous territories – supposedly, the original territory of different Black South African ethnic groups – dotted across the country. It didn't turn out like that, but it didn't turn out like that for most Black South Africans either. As I sat speaking to Sergio, South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, was fighting for his political life after revelations that wads of cash, potentially ill-gotten, had been stolen from inside his sofa.

☆ Demand for rural homes in Britain drops as pandemic effect fades, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Hannah Ward-Glenton | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Demand for rural homes in Britain dropped as the pandemic trend of relocating to the countryside faded, according to real estate website Zoopla. In the wider Lake District national park area, demand dipped 5% compared to the same period, and in mid-Wales it fell 10%. In April 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, 46.6% of people in employment did some work from home, according to the Office for National Statistics. The U.K. mortgage market fell into crisis in September following drastic policy shifts by then-Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng. Some market watchers are now predicting a major downturn in the U.K. property market as a result of the country's weakened economy and sticky high inflation rate.

☆ Hydrow's compact, affordable rowing machine is perfect for holiday gifting
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Maria Cassano | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Designed by rowing experts, made for everyoneA Hydrow rowing machine has two main components. Then there’s the crystal-clear display, which immerses you in scenes of actual waterways from around the world and brings you rowing workouts led by world-class athletes and Olympians. This holiday season, there are plenty of sales and freebies to get either rowing machine in a loved one’s home (or your own) for less. Until Dec. 23, each Hydrow Wave comes with free Jaybird headphones, a free Polar heart rate monitor and free standard delivery (a $240 value). Check out the two Hydrow rowing machines below.

☆ A Rural Town on Martha’s Vineyard Is Home to New England’s Priciest Properties
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-31 | by ( Jessica Flint | Photographs Larisa Stinga For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Seven miles off the shore of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Martha’s Vineyard is a roughly triangular-shaped, 96-square-mile Atlantic Ocean island with six towns. One of these communities is Chilmark, whose 02535 ZIP Code has the priciest residential real estate in all of New England, according to Realtor.com. (News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, also operates Realtor.com under license from the National Association of Realtors.) Rural and private, Chilmark has a pastoral landscape: rolling hills, stone walls and sheep grazing on hillsides. It also encompasses the small working fishing village of Menemsha, which has a public beach where people congregate to watch spectacular sunsets across the Vineyard Sound.

☆ The flat-pack electric OX Truck is making deliveries on Rwanda's dirt roads
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-20 | by ( Tommy O'Callaghan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

But British-Rwandan delivery startup OX Delivers is looking to change that through its electric OX Trucks, which are designed to negotiate dirt roads while carrying up to two tons of goods – roughly 20 times a cyclist’s capacity. “They were taking bikes from their farm … and they would be gone for a long time – around two days.”The OX Truck boasts large tires and high ground clearance. “Bananas cost 10 times in Kigali (Rwanda’s capital) what they cost in a village,” says OX Delivers managing director Simon Davis. OX Delivers says its truck is an effective solution for areas that lack paved roads. But OX Delivers is aimed squarely at undeserved rural traders looking to get their goods to market.

☆ Made Men: A photo tour of the most notorious sites of New York Mafia history – and what they look like now
▼ + stars: | 2021-07-23 | by ( Andrew Lichtenstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +25 min

Andrew Lichtenstein for InsiderManhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, on the western edge of Midtown, got its name from its crowded tenements. On March, 13, 2019, Gambino family crime boss Frankie Cali was shot dead in the driveway outside his Todt Hill home. Andrew Lichtenstein for InsiderThe service road to the Belt Parkway runs through the northern edge of the Brighton Beach neighborhood. John Gotti's Family Home, Howard Beach, QueensThe home where John Gotti, the leader of the Gambino crime family. It's here that John Gotti, the leader of the Gambino crime family and thus the 'Godfather' of the American mafia, lived and raised his family.

☆ I moved my family from California to Austin, Texas, and regretted it. Here are 10 things to consider before making an expensive mistake.
▼ + stars: | 2021-01-20 | by ( Brett Alder | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

Brett Alder moved to Austin, Texas, for work and regrets the choice. A lot of people, including myself, move from California to Austin because of the hype and the perception that California and Austin are reasonably comparable in lifestyle. Water: Water is also shockingly expensive. Expensive pool maintenance, expensive landscaping services, expensive home repairs, expensive dining and movies. Expensive pool maintenance, expensive landscaping services, expensive home repairs, expensive dining and movies.

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