A 19th-century cash crunch forced Japan to shorten its fiscal year and move the start to April. The fix outlived the crisis, and now governs hiring, school terms and earnings season for the world's fourth-largest economy.

A coffee stain or a peeling sticker shouldn't kill a QR code, and usually it doesn't. Here's the redundant-data trick, borrowed from deep-space communication, that keeps damaged codes readable.

Tuesday's magnitude 7.1 Kumamoto earthquake struck as one sudden jolt, while sequences in the Philippines and the Canary Islands unfolded as sprawling swarms. The difference comes down to fluid, not fault size.

Twice behind in Dallas, Japan twice levelled, with Kamada's goal a minute from time denying Ronald Koeman's Netherlands a winning start.