Globe trekker

3.2

From 320,000 today to 3.2 million in 2050, the number of centenarians is expected to increase tenfold in the next thirty years, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Families will thus pass from three to four living generations: super seniors, their senior children, their active grandchildren and their great grandchildren.

World

Star of stars

The 9^th episode of the Star Wars saga has surpassed one billion dollars in worldwide box office takings. It is the 46^th film to vault this symbolic bar. In today’s money, the biggest box office success remains Gone with the Wind, with 3.7 billion in 1939 revenues.

Ireland

The idea of solidarity

Since 2014, the Irish charity My Streets has been training homeless volunteers to become tour guides. Over three months, they learn to explain the history of Dublin and Drogheda, whilst also confronting their own histories.
To date, 51 homeless people have been trained and more than 11,000 people have attended these unusual visits, which really are helping people to be a part of society again: half of those that were trained are now studying, are employed or have accommodation.

France

All-purpose hair

Tough, insulating, an absorber of pollution, hair certainly has many properties. Thanks to hairdresser Thierry Gras and his organisation ‘Coiffeurs Justes’, hair collected from member salons will be repurposed to manufacture anti-pollution tubes. Hair retains grease: one kilo can absorb up to 8 litres of oil! The tubes are reusable up to eight times and can then be recycled as insulation.
A truly circular economy is being born.

United States

Education, the greatest escape

Four years after their surprise victory in a debating competition against Harvard students, three prisoners from a New York prison have been in touch with the Wall Street Journal to let them know how they are getting on. The answer is rather well! The first is now responsible for the Bard Prison Initiative, the prison education programme which benefited both him and his comrades. The second works in an investment firm. The third, eligible for release in 2024, has obtained a bachelor’s degree in social studies and a master’s degree in professional studies from the New York Theological Seminary.

Canada

437,500

A pair of Nike Waffle Racing Flats, better known as the Moon Shoe, was sold for $437,500, breaking the previous record held by the sale of a pair of Converse worn by Michael Jordan, for $190,373 in 2017. The Moon Shoe — whose sole is reminiscent of the footprints left by astronauts on the moon — was designed for American athletes attending the 1972 Olympic Games. It was one of the very first trainers produced by Nike. Amongst the 12 known pairs of trainers in this series, these are the only ones which have never been worn. They will be exhibited in the private museum of collector Miles Nadal, the Dare To Dream Automobile Museum, in Toronto (Canada).