Facebook established a growth team dedicated to increasing the company userbase. Photo/getty Images.
Facebook established a growth team dedicated to increasing the company userbase. Photo/getty Images.
The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best stories of 2019 from our premium international syndicators, including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Times of London and Harvard Business Review.
This morning we look at the astronomical growth of Facebook, Singapore's Changi Airport, Indonesia's child jockeys,Prince George and Princess Charlotte's school and cyborgs.
How Facebook grew too big to handle
The tech giant's 'growth team' brought it over a billion users – but did it also sow the seeds for current troubles?
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has faced some tough questions this year. Photo / Getty Images
My 27-hour vacation in Singapore's Changi Airport
On an overnight stay, Stephanie Rosenbloom wandered from the Shiseido Forest Valley to the Canopy Park, eating prawn dumplings, salted-egg potato chips and chrysanthemum gelato under a glass sky.
With a soaring waterfall, forests, endless shops and restaurants, and even a sound-and-light show, a few hours' layover in Changi Airport may not be enough time. Photo / Lauryn Ishak, New York Times
Where jockeys retire at age 10, after five years in the saddle
In the city of Bima on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia's sprawling archipelago, the use of child jockeys in professional horse racing is part of a long-standing tradition.
And the average age is dropping, with jockeys as young as 5 bestride a horse and most 10 or younger.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive at Thomas's Battersea with their children, Prince George, six, and Princess Charlotte, four, on the latter's first day earlier this month. Photo / AP
Why the cyborgs are coming — but they won't kill us
Cyborgs will rule the world by the end of this century. They're already here in the form of sophisticated computer programs that think for themselves. Soon they will leave us behind by thinking thousands of times faster than humans. To them, we will be as slow-witted as plants. But don't worry, the cyborgs will need us.
