I recently spent a week in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) while travelling for work and visited the enormous headquarters of CNN (Cable News Network) which broadcasts worldwide in over 200 countries. Founded by Ted Turner, upon its launch in 1980, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage.
During my previous trip to Wuzhen (an ancient canal town near Shanghai) I was lucky enough to come across an old silk production factory which was still in active use, albeit mainly as a living museum these days. The process of turning a silkworm cocoon into fabric, known as sericulture, is fascinating so I took some photos and videos to show how it’s done: Silkworms (technically moths) are cultivated in controlled environments with a female laying up to 400 eggs at a time. Once hatched, the larvae are fed huge quantities of mulberry leaves (up to 50,000 times its initial weight!) for around six-weeks after which it spins a silk cocoon around itself (pupating). During this time it produces about a kilometer of silk filament…