The Big Mac Index is a price index published since 1986 by The Economist as an informal way of measuring the purchasing power parity (PPP) between two currencies and providing a test of the extent to which market exchange rates result in goods costing the same in different countries. It “seeks to make exchange-rate theory a bit more digestible.” The index compares the relative price worldwide to purchase the Big Mac, a hamburger sold at McDonald’s restaurants. read more…
Fondues are a group of distinct dishes that can be either savoury or sweet. Cheese fondue, originating in Switzerland, is the original fondue, hence the French term fondue for “melted”. Since the 1950s, however, the term fondue has been generalized to a number of other dishes in which a food is dipped or cooked into a communal pot kept hot. Fondue eaten as a communal meal is referred to as a fondue party. read more…
Lanai (Hawaiian: Lānaʻi) is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. It is colloquially known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineappleplantation. The island’s only settlement of note is the small town of Lanai City. The island is 98% owned by Larry Ellison, cofounder and chairman of Oracle Corporation; the remaining 2% is owned by the state of Hawaii or individual homeowners. read more…
Ecclesia and Synagoga, or Ecclesia et Synagoga in Latin, meaning “Church and Synagogue” (the order sometimes reversed), are a pair of figures personifying the ChristianChurch and the Jewishsynagogue, that is to say Judaism, found in medieval Christian art. They often appear sculpted as large figures on either side of a church portal, as in the most famous examples, those at Strasbourg Cathedral. They may also be found standing on either side of the cross in scenes of the Crucifixion, especially in Romanesque art, and less frequently in a variety of other contexts. read more…
