I had a college roommate from Hong Kong for a couple years. He specifically asked for an American roommate, and I think we both benefited from the exchange. His English was far better than most of his friends after that time. It's hard though, if I were in his place, I might have been more insular as well seeking out those with my native language.
He also got to laugh hysterically as he saw me try to pronounce some greetings/messages in Cantonese to his father who would call from Hong Kong, so there was that benefit too.
I think electing people from a wider range of backgrounds (instead of mostly lawyers) would be advantageous. Having some scientists, teachers, and many other educated professions, who can share their diverse perspectives with their other elected peers would be beneficial.
There's definitely been (at least in my anecdotal experience) a split between the larger malls and the small/medium size ones. The larger malls are still enough of a draw (with lots of shopping, dining, and entertainment options) to bring people there.
The smaller malls are losing business to the larger ones, since people going to the malls are often looking for 'something to do' instead of just looking to buy a widget. Once a large anchor store or two closes at the small/medium malls (as has happened with department store chains like Macy's or JC Penney), the death spiral of the mall begins.
Some malls have recovered but only with major revitalization, renovation, and often repositioning (adding more upscale stores if the area has the business for such). An example of this in NY is the Nanuet Mall in Rockland County. That mall started failing more due to the nearby Palisades Center that was built in the 90s as a mega-mall. The Nanuet mall closed (completely I believe) before being demolished and recreated.
Sadly, I can't add any comments based on the specific WSJ article, as it is behind a paywall.
Well another example of a mall that picked up on this and saved themselves was Bergen Mall in Hackensack, NJ. That mall was straight up frozen in the 90s up until the late 2000s despite being quite large. Few people went there, especially since Garden State Plaza was so close by and offered so much more.
Their owners COMPLETELY rebuilt the mall to complete with it in 2009 or so and turned it into a mid-upscale property. Completely turned it around.
The only time I imagine myself living in a big city again (I'm originally from Queens, NYC) is when I visit Montreal. Beautiful city, efficient immaculately clean subways compared to any city I've been in. If I weren't comfortable in the relatively rural part of the Hudson Valley I'm in, I'd seriously consider it.
Removal of the plugin may be increasingly common among technical users, but I don't think many average users are removing it. The thing that is really killing it is deprecation by browsers (click-to-play initially).
The FDA put the burden of proof on companies to show that the antibacterial additives had a positive effect on health. This was not done for the hand soap, but was done for the toothpaste, where studies DID show a positive effect from the additives in the toothpaste.
Because the US does not have well funded public television as the UK (the BBC) or Canada (the CBC) do. In the US, sadly, it is to the highest bidder that the broadcast & streaming rights go to. NBC paid $1.23 Billion for rights to the 2016 Summer Olympics, an astronomical amount.
They only provided streaming to those with cable packages above what is considered 'basic'.
Channel 7 here in Australia broadcast on 3 channels for free (with ads). They also offered free streaming on mobile devices for a range of sports and had a $20 deal for complete access to all content.
That said, they really annoyed me with the way they handled the time difference. They would open their prime time coverage with spoilers of all the previous day's events and then tell you which replays you could watch on the other channels later....
And the whole time the ABC news (Australian one) live stream was constantly being cutoff with "due to licensing restrictions blah blah blah". Sometimes for several minutes, I don't know if that was because of particular segments or just someone forgetting to switch it back on.
I pretty quickly went from casual interest to outright hostility to the olympics.
My friend once tried to watch a cycle race on BT sport's on-demand web player, to start the stream he literally had to click through a spoiler as to who had won. He was apoplectic, and has not used it since.
It's definitely necessary for some people. I'm allergic to NSAIDs, though to differing degrees. Really bad hives (to the point of needing epinephrine) from aspirin, less severe reaction to naproxen.
I can tolerate a single pill of ibuprofen, maybe 2 in 24 hours but that's it. I don't take acetaminophen frequently, but it is one of the only things I can tolerate for pain (sinus/tension headaches mostly).
He also got to laugh hysterically as he saw me try to pronounce some greetings/messages in Cantonese to his father who would call from Hong Kong, so there was that benefit too.