Best Companies

Shine United (Madison, Wisconsin)

    In the past five years, this Wisconsin-based advertising agency has shared more than $500,000 in profits with its employees through the company's ShineShares program. The agency partnered with the University of Wisconsin's oncology department to develop the Ride, a biking event that benefits cancer research. Employees also get snacks every day, "Beer Thirty" on Thursdays, and Summer Fridays, a program that lets employees leave at noon.

GroundFloor Media (Denver, Colorado)

    The key for workers at this midsize public relations firm in Denver is that employees work anytime, anywhere. Headquarters are in a former warehouse downtown, near Coors Field. The offices are spread around the central space that doubles as a wet bar every Thursday when the company's "bear club" brings in a new brew.

Ergodyne (St.Paul, Minnesota)

    The St.Paul-based company has grown to operating out of a retired storehouse with plenty of natural light. Rules about dressing? "Wear something." Its purpose? To create cool, comfortable, and tough safety workwear for those who need it to get the job done. Ergodyne has around 50 employees, who enjoy hot dish cook-offs, tickets to sporting events, and at least one happy hour every quarter.

Southwest Michigan First (Kalamazoo, Michigan)

    It's family first at this Michigan economic development advising agency. CEO Ron Kitchens says that in the past year, the company has made a push to go green, initially started by the millennial employees who make up half the agency's workforce. A new staff position was created for the purpose of making sure every employee is able to balance working and cheering at their kids' sporting events or going fishing.

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    Dutch beachcomber (海滩拾荒者) Wim Kruiswijk has accumulated a collection of 1,200 messages-in-bottles over the course of nearly 4 decades and has responded to almost all of them,

    68-year-old Kruiswijk says that his unusual hobby began in 1983 when he found three drift bottles (漂流瓶) on his local beach, each containing letters and return addresses. He wrote to all three addresses and was surprised to receive responses from each one. It was this experience that aroused his interest in hunting and collecting messages in bottles, and he hasn't stopped looking for them since.

"I find my messages in bottles on the beach of Zandvoort, where I live, and on the Dutch Islands," Kruiswijk recently told Great Big Story. "Messages in bottles is slow mail. It takes you days, or weeks, or months to find a bottle. "

In the early years, Kruiswijk would find as many as 50 bottles a year, but since 2000 that has slowed to around 20-30 finds, mainly due to beach cleaning efforts. He believes that the rise of the Internet has also played a role in the diminishing number of messages in bottles, telling Dutch newssite PZC, "I used to get a response at half the bottle messages that I answered. Now that's less; many people want 'instant satisfaction'."

    Throwing a message in a bottle out into the sea is a longstanding human tradition dating back to the time of the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, about 310 BC，who used the bottles to study water currents. Scientists still apply the method to this day, as a means to help researchers develop ocean circulation maps, and to crowdsource scientific studies of ocean currents.

    In the past bottles have also been used to send distress messages from sailors in trouble. They also have been used for memorial tributes, or to send loved ones' ashes on a final journey. One of the more common uses though is just to send invitations out to prospective pen pals, a quaint notion in these modern times, but, as Kruiswijk so clearly shows, an effective one.

    5000 B.C.— People began to farm along the Nile River in Egypt.

    2950B.C. — Egypt was first united under MENES.

    2600B.C. — The first pyramid of Egypt, the Pyramid of Djoser, was built.

    2500 B.C. — The great Pyramid of Gina was built.

    2000 B.C. — The Bantu Peoples began to migrate into central and southern Africa.

    1279 B.C. — Rameses II became pharaoh（法老）of Egypt.

    1070 B.C. — The kingdom of Kush gained its independence from Egypt.

    814 B.C. — The city of Carthage was established by the Phoenician Empire.

    715 B.C. — Kush conquered Egypt and ruled it until 662 B.C.

    650 B.C. — Cathage became independent. It grew into one of the most powerful cities on the Mediterranean Sea.

    590 B.C. — The capital of Kush was moved from Napata to Meroe.

    525 B.C. — The Persians conquered Egypt.

    332 B.C. — The Greeks led by Alexander the Great conquered Egypt.

    264 B.C. — Carthage fought in the First Punic War.

    146 B.C. —Cathage was defeated by Rome. Roman forces destroyed the city.

    30 B.C. — Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of Egypt, died. Egypt became part of Rome.

    Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival

    Where: Becket, Massachusetts

    When: June 15-Aug. 24

    Each summer, this influential dance center presents a number of classes and performances by more than 50 companies from around the world. Highlights(精彩的部分) this season include the Dance Theater of Harlem's production of Alvin Ailey's “The Lark Ascending”, which opens the festival.

    Many events are free. Ticketed performances start at $22.

    Moab Music Festival

    Where: Moab, Utah

    When: Aug. 29-Sep. 9

    This area is better known for mountain biking than for music. But since 1992, it has hosted a private festival that brings classical, jazz, Latin and other types of music to the land. This year there will be 16 concerts, including three “Grotto Concerts”, where guests take a 45-minute boat ride down the Colorado River to performances.

    Events start at $25.

    Cheyenne Frontier Days

    Where: Cheyenne, Wyoming

    When: July 19-28

    There's something for everyone at this 117-year-old festival, from an “Indian village” and Old West museum to country concerts. But the competition is still the main attraction, with cowboys(牛仔) and cowgirls competing for major money in the world's largest outdoor stage.

    Competition tickets start at $18, and concert tickets at $23.

    The Glimmerglass Festival

    Where: Cooperstown, New York

    When: July 6-Aug. 24

    Each summer, opera lovers from around the country (and the world) travel to upstate New York to watch productions that include stars like Nathan Gunn and Ginger Costa-Jackson. This year's performances include Wagner's “The Flying Dutchman” and Verdi's “King for a Day”, in honor of the 200th birthdays of both composers.

    Tickets start at $26.

    They were a happy family: four daughters all in the same school in different grades. The youngest, Janice, who was in my class, seemed to be glued (粘) to her mother's skirts. The three older girls took the bus to school every morning, but Janice was always driven to school by her mother.

    One Friday, Janice's mother asked for a talk with me. She said in a soft voice, "My husband is going to Europe on business for two weeks, and he insists that I go with him. I have tried to explain over and over that Janice needs me here. But he thinks that she will be fine without me so I have no choice; I have to go. I have told the babysitter to drive her every morning. Will you please give Janice special attention and help her? I want to be sure everything goes well for her."

    I told her that we would make every effort to support Janice. I even volunteered to meet Janice at her car so she would see a familiar face. As a mother myself, I'd like to help. Janice's mother thanked me for our understanding.

    On Monday morning, expecting a tearful, anxious child, I planned a special program of fun and games. I waited outside to greet Janice, but just then the bus arrived and not three, but four girls got off. Janice skipped along joyfully, saying "goodbye" to her sisters as she ran with two friends into the classroom. I walked slowly into the classroom and called Janice over to ask how the bus ride went. Impatiently she said, "Oh, I always want to take the bus with the other kids, but Mother needs to be with me. You see there won't be any more babies, so I have to be a baby a little longer. While she is away, I'll just ride the bus every day. I am five, you know."

    In the space of just two years, the app Douyin, created by Beijing-based company ByteDance, has gathered more than half a billion users—around 40%of them outside China—who share short videos of themselves lip-syncing (假唱), cooking, dancing or just being silly. What sets ByteDance apart is its success in the social media category, which is controlled by Facebook, Twitter and Snap—all Western companies.

    ByteDance calls itself an artificial intelligence company. It uses machine learning and algorithms (算法) to figure out what people like most and give them more of what they want to see. On Douyin, people can edit and beautify 15-second videos before posting them online. The app has even made a phrase to describe people glued to their customized feeds: "shua Douyin" or "scrolling through Douyin". Last year, the company released TikTok, the overseas version of Douyin. ByteDance's growing video empire has made it the world's fifth biggest app maker. ByteDance says TikTok and Douyin together have more than 500 million monthly active users.

    Investors like ByteDance because its hundreds of millions of users attract a lot of advertising money. The video apps are lucrative because they attract a lot of users in their teens and 20s, who are more generous with the money. ByteDance also makes money through income sharing deals. People on TikTok, for example, can buy digital coins to give to other people on the app—like throwing money in a performer's tip jar. ByteDance takes a cut of those earnings.

    ByteDance's founder and CEO is Zhang Yiming, a 35-year-old former Microsoft employee. People who have worked with Zhang describe him as someone who thinks deeply about technology and spends much of his free time writing code.

    Like Facebook and Twitter, ByteDance is also battling fake news and inappropriate content. ByteDance promises to add thousands more employees to review content on Douyin.