Skip to content

Culture

Tipping in America: How a $2.13 Wage Floor Became Everyone's Checkout Prompt

A clear plastic tip jar with a white label that reads "THANK YOU :)" and a one-dollar bill behind the label, standing on a wooden counter in a restaurant in New Jersey

Tipping in the United States no longer waits for the end of a sit-down meal. It turns up on tablet checkouts at coffee counters, in ride-hailing apps, on delivery screens and, in some places, at self-checkout kiosks. In a Pew Research Center survey from November 2023, 72% of American adults said tipping is expected in more places than it was five years earlier.

Underneath that spread sits a structure most diners never see. The federal wage floor for tipped workers has been $2.13 an hour for more than three decades. State laws cut across it, and the federal rules around it were rewritten twice in two years.

The custom is old. The arithmetic behind the prompt is not.

Technology and connection: what the evidence says about dating apps, dancing and children

People dancing in front of a brass band at the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans

"No one my age has children." That is the first of four claims in a clip from the Nexus Conference 2025 in Amsterdam that keeps circulating. The speaker is AI researcher Connor Leahy, co-founder of EleutherAI and founder of the AI-safety company Conjecture. He was speaking at the institute's conference Apocalypse Now on 22 November 2025, which the Nexus Institute published as "Connor Leahy on Gen Z dating norms".

The other three claims are about dancing, dating and the internet. Young people stopped dancing because everything gets filmed. Dating apps are built to bring you back rather than to find you someone. And the internet never delivered the democracy, freedom, happiness and economic growth it promised.

Three of the four claims can be checked against data. The third one has documents attached: the company that owns Tinder has described, in its own words, what its recommendation engine optimises for. What the numbers say turns out to be stranger than the claims in some places, and duller in others.

Breda's nachtleven: een avondje uit voor jong en oud

Caféterras bij nacht van Vincent van Gogh

In de meeste Nederlandse steden heeft een avondje uit een heldere leeftijdsopbouw: de uitgaansstraten kleuren jong, de bars zijn trendy en de mensen boven de veertig blijven thuis. Breda is anders. In deze compacte, historische Brabantse stad lijkt het nachtleven werkelijk voor iedereen te zijn: tienerstudenten, dertigers en gepensioneerden belanden vaak in dezelfde bruine kroeg of op hetzelfde terras, en niemand kijkt daarvan op. Dat generatieoverschrijdende karakter is de meest onderscheidende sociale signatuur van Breda.

Four Phases of the Parisian Art Ecosystem: From Royal Academy to Global Art Fair

A Session of the Painting Jury by Henri Gervex

For the better part of three centuries, Paris was the art capital of the Western world. But the ecosystem that made it so — the network of academies, juries, dealers, critics, collectors and exhibition spaces that decides who gets seen and who gets paid — was never static. It went through four distinct phases, each defined by a different gatekeeper: the royal court, the official Salon jury, the private art dealer, and finally the global market of fairs and mega-galleries. Tracing those phases explains not just how Paris became the home of modern art, but why it lost that crown — and why it is fighting for it again.

The Same Height Party: Where Everyone Meets at Eye Level

Stilt walkers in front of Torre Chigi and Palazzo del Podestà, San Gimignano, Italy

Imagine a party where every single guest is exactly the same height — not because they happened to be born that way, but because the host built them shoes. That is the "same height party": a simple, slightly crazy idea that everyone in the room, no matter their actual height, meets at eye level. CNN brought the concept to a wide audience in May 2026 after an Oakland host turned it into a wearable social experiment with about fifteen guests — and the results were as much about psychology as about engineering.

Tivoli Gardens: The Perfect Centerpiece for a Small Copenhagen Trip

Historic view of Tivoli Gardens around 1900

If you are planning a small trip — a long weekend, a city break with a difference — Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen is hard to beat as a centerpiece. The park opened on 15 August 1843, making it the second-oldest operating amusement park in the world, and with 4.25 million visitors in 2024 it is the most visited amusement park in Scandinavia. It sits right next to Copenhagen Central Station, which makes it a perfect anchor for a short stay: you can be inside one of Europe's most charming historical playgrounds within minutes of stepping off the train.

Baroeg Open Air 2026: twee dagen punk, metal en rave in Rotterdam

Publiek op Baroeg Open Air 2017

Baroeg Open Air keert op vrijdag 11 en zaterdag 12 september 2026 terug in het Rotterdamse Zuiderpark, en voor het eerst in de geschiedenis duurt het festival een heel weekend. De 16e editie propt ongeveer veertig acts op meerdere podia, met punk, metal, post-punk, gothic, breakcore en rave in één uitgestrekte viering van harde en alternatieve muziek, georganiseerd door het legendarische Rotterdamse poppodium Baroeg.

Huis Bergh: heropening van het grootste waterkasteel van Nederland

Historisch gezicht op Kasteel Huis Bergh en de kerk van 's-Heerenberg

Op donderdag 17 september 2026 heropent koning Willem-Alexander Kasteel Huis Bergh in 's-Heerenberg, na een restauratie van bijna drie jaar. Ter gelegenheid daarvan slaat hij met een historische slingerpers een herdenkingsmunt. Twee dagen later, op 19 september, gaat het kasteel volledig open voor het publiek. Voor het grootste waterkasteel van Nederland, met bijna 900 jaar geschiedenis, begint daarmee een nieuw hoofdstuk.

Lowlands 2026: het jaar dat de ticketoorlog uitbleef

Lowlands-kaartje uit 1993

Lowlands, voluit A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise, keerde van 21 tot en met 23 augustus 2026 terug op de velden van Biddinghuizen en er gebeurde iets ongewoons: het festival raakte niet uitverkocht. Voor het eerst in jaren was er geen koortsachtige online jacht, geen gecrashte servers en geen bord met "uitverkocht" binnen enkele minuten. In plaats daarvan vonden zo'n 60.000 bezoekers merkbaar meer lucht tussen de twaalf podia, en de meesten van hen leken dat heerlijk te vinden.