Business Unusual

The internet and the web promised to be humanity’s greatest project to share information and enable co-operation. It was created by the military and developed by the academic and scientific community. Since the web’s launch in 1991 over half the world has moved online and the other half are joining at an increasing pace. It took 23 years for 2,4 billion users to join and just five more to grow it to 4,3 billion...

Forbes has maintained a list of the worlds richest people for over 30 years. The richest comprise a little over 2 000 billionaires and in March this year, a then 21-year-old Kylie Jenner was added to the list becoming one of just eight that were under 30 and the youngest ever to amass a worth of over $1 billion. The calculation is based on publically available data but is not always easy to determine. Billionaires typically have ways to limit who knows how much money they actually have...

Just because it is free does not mean there is no cost though TikTok is not even five years old and is part of a Chinese group called Bytedance that operates a short video app in China called Douyin for the Chinese market and TikTok for the rest of the world. It is based on another Chinese short video app that it acquired in 2017 called Musical.ly which had a sizable US user base...

Considering that in 1982 the cutting edge technology was the Compact Disc (CD). Technology experts wondered if the new laser-powered mini disc could disrupt the cassette tape and vinyl LP. Computers were big and expensive. The internet existed, but the web was still a decade away. Mobile phones were so big they could only be used in cars and briefcases and they were expensive to use...

Until everyone in the world can live happily and sustainably, which is not any time soon, there will be a need for those that can help to assist those that need it. Philanthropy was coined over 400 years ago and for much of it, help came from the few that had the most to assist those that didn’t. It still does, but technology has made human-loving (the meaning of philanthropy) at lot easier and allows many more to help others...

A look back to some of the developments from previous Business Unusual shows and which disruptors remain as winners and which have fallen by the way side.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here are four related stories that may offer an insight to better address poverty. How better research can lead to better programmes to combat poverty How you can earn money for doing nothing How being poor causes you to make bad decisions How to pay for lifting the poor out of poverty   Image credit: The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are over seven billion people on the planet which means at any time there are a lot of us not feeling very well. A 2015 review determined that 95% of us have health problems, a big part of that is that there are a lot more of us that are older and so are affected by age-related conditions. We are also able to diagnose many more conditions than ever before...

Guest: Colin Cullis/ Business Unusual Correspondent at the Money show.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If a 16-year-old can understand climate change, why do so many still fight it? Greta Thunberg, the environmental activist would not think she is doing anything that anyone else could have done. Yet in less than 12 months from her first climate strike in front of the Swedish Parliament, she has inspired millions of others to join her and been invited to speak at the UN and World Economic Forum. Guest: Colin Cullis/Business Unusual Correspondent at the Money Show...