Author: James Martin

(CNN) — There’s something strange going on in this Oregon neighborhood.Sony and vacation rental company Vacasa have teamed up to offer one courageous group of friends an exclusive three-night stay in the Ghostbusters Firehouse.The building, recreated from the 1984 film “Ghostbusters,” is in Portland — not New York City, where the film takes place. But it’s still the perfect place from which to launch a ghost-catching business.Ecto-1 is parked in the firehouse bay.Courtesy VacasaThe three-story firehouse features all the essentials: a P.K.E. Meter, Ghost Traps, Proton Packs, an Aura Video-Analyzer and an Ecto-Containment Unit to store the evil spirits you…

(CNN) — Lisbon is in the midst of a renaissance. The latest European capital of cool’s affordable rents, great nightlife and gorgeous streets — which wind high into the hills from the River Tagus — have seen younger travelers arrive in their droves in recent years, enjoying extended stays thanks to dedicated “digital nomad” visas. As a result, the city has taken on a youthful, multicultural and international vibe, helping to pull in tourists from around the globe in the process.It isn’t just those looking to live and work here that are driving this change, though. Walk the streets of…

(CNN) — It’s super strong, fennel-flavored, as transparent as water — and in many households across Sardinia it’s still produced illegally. Filu ‘e ferru, or “iron wire,” is an old drink with a dangerous past and an alcohol concentration of up to 45% that knocks out even those with a high tolerance. Rosa Maria Scrugli was barely 23 years old when in 1970 she was sent on a work mission to the small town of Santu Lussurgiu, set in the wild Oristano area of western Sardinia amid rocky hills and caves. For 400 years, this place of barely 2,000 residents…

Comment on this storyCommentThe outcome of the midterm elections has left lingering uncertainty in Washington, including the question of what fiscal policy might look like in the new Congress. But even if Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives and/or the Senate, the landscape as we close out 2022 is completely different from the end of 2010, when Republicans last took back control of the House.In 2010, the economy was weak and Republicans believed that they had a mandate to cut spending, which then held back the economic recovery. This year’s economy has been affected by a lot of fiscal drags…

Comment on this storyCommentIn a startling about-face, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform, said Wednesday that it was walking away from a deal to buy rival exchange FTX. The announcement came one day after Binance said it planned to acquire FTX amid a surge of customer withdrawals.Binance said in a statement that it was abandoning the deal because of “mishandled customer funds” turned up by its review of FTX’s books and because of press reports that U.S. regulatory agencies would be investigating FTX.An FTX spokesman declined to comment. It is unclear what will become of the company or its…

(CNN) — A rich palette of shimmering caramel swirls, ochers, creams and pinks unfolds across the landscape like an enormous handwoven carpet. Stands of poplars line paths carved by ancient lava flows from three now extinct volcanoes, crisscrossing valleys studded with conical peribacı. This is Cappadocia, central Turkey, famous for its whimsical “fairy chimneys,” to give peribacı their English name.Cappadocia has an abundance of them, as well as rock churches and monasteries. The region is dotted with former farming communities with dwellings and outbuildings carved out of stone, where ordinary people lived next door to monks. When the volcanic ash…

Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Sleep, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has helpful hints to achieve better sleep. CNN  —  Americans are failing In their endless quest for adequate slumber, leading to deficits that can impact health, according to a new study on sleep habits in the United States. The study, which authors called the the first to separately evaluate sleep duration between workdays and free days, analyzed sleep data on over 9,000 Americans age 20 and older collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2017 and March 2020. Almost 30% of respondents had…

Comment on this storyCommentCryptocurrencies were supposed to usher in a new and better era of finance. Instead of relying on fragile, stodgy and often discriminatory banks for deposits, loans and the like, people could transact directly through platforms brilliantly designed to obviate the need for trust.If further evidence was required, the travails of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.com this week have demonstrated just how far from that ideal crypto remains.Most of the millions of people who have piled into Bitcoin, Ether and other digital tokens make little to no use of the underlying technology. On the contrary, they blindly put their trust…

Editor’s Note: Sign up to CNN Travel’s free nine-part Unlocking Italy newsletter for insider intel on Italy’s best loved destinations and lesser-known regions to plan your ultimate trip. Plus, we’ll get you in the mood before you go with movie suggestions, reading lists and recipes from Stanley Tucci. CNN  —  For over 500 years, Michelangelo’s sculpture of David in Florence has stood unchanged, the marble icon of masculinity, and one of the world’s most famous works of art. But as Italy emerges from the pandemic, the David has got a whole new look. A new lighting system has revolutionized how…

CNN  —  Alongside the many impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on pediatric care, researchers have seen a stark increase in young adults seeking treatment for disordered eating behaviors. Across the United States, inpatient admissions for young adults and adolescents with eating disorders rose by a rate of about 0.7% a month in the two years before the pandemic, according to a new study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. But in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, that growth increased to 7.2% a month on average. From the spring of 2020 — when most Covid-19 restrictions/lockdowns were first…