Links for June 13 2016

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As Quora user Joos Meyer explains in response to the question, "What uncomfortable things such as cold showers can improve your life?" pushing your comfort zone is the key to self-improvement. "I think the best methodology is to every day or week set a task or find a situation that makes you slightly uncomfortable. Do that thing. This will incorporate the experience into your model of 'normality' and hence expand your 'comfort zone,'" he writes.

These uncomfortable deeds could change your life - Business Insider

Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas is a very big boat, an 18-layer wedding cake that seriously alters the skyline and the population wherever it docks. You’ve probably seen the figures: a billion dollars to build, 362m long, 226,963 tonnes, 23 pools including waveriders and waterslides, 20 restaurants. There’s a theatre, ice rink, casino, gym, spa, nursery, hospital, jail, morgue and much much more. My favourite stat is that 15,000 eggs are consumed on board every day.

The Harmony of the Seas is a monstrosity, but I’m beginning to see its point | Travel | The Guardian

Ever wanted a bigger brain? According to research conducted by US neurologist Dr Richard Haier, playing new video games could be the answer, after a study he conducted in the 1990s recorded a thickening of the cerebral cortex in first-time players of Tetris. Essentially, new tasks and sensory input activates neural circuits and improves overall brain health. The perfect reason to play new games while you’re pretending to do some work at your desk.

10 things men should do every day (according to science)

Most existing studies examine the variation in income and consumption growth across individuals by sorting on ex ante or contemporaneous income or consumption levels. We build on this literature by showing that differential shocks to household net worth coming from elevated household debt and the collapse in house prices play an underappreciated role. Using zip codes in the United States as the unit of analysis, we show that the decline in numerous measures of consumption during the Great Recession was much larger in zip codes that experienced a sharp decline in housing net worth. In the years prior to the recession, these same zip codes saw high house price growth, a substantial expansion of debt by homeowners, and high consumption growth.

Who Bears the Cost of Recessions? The Role of House Prices and Household Debt

It looks as if Amazon is getting into the food business. A new report from The Wall Street Journal says the online retail giant is gearing up to launch its first brand of foodstuffs by "as soon as the end of the month." These "private-label brands" will reportedly include Happy Belly (including nuts, tea, and oil), Wickedly Prime (snacks and treats), and Mama Bear (baby products). But they are designed and created by Amazon, with all the profits going straight to the company.

Amazon to launch own-branded food: report - Business Insider

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OPPO, the fast-rising Chinese smartphone maker that targets younger buyers, has sold an unprecedented number of its newest marquee devices in the three months since launch. Guangdong OPPO Electronics Co., ranked fourth in worldwide smartphone sales in the first quarter, has sold 7 million of the R9 since its March debut. Figures for the device, which sells for 2,799 yuan ($425), were announced at a media event in Shanghai. OPPO is one of a coterie of Chinese smartphone makers aggressively grabbing market share from the likes of Samsung Electronics Co. and Lenovo Group Ltd. as the industry undergoes its worst downturn on record. Cheaper yet reliable phones priced at around 3,000 yuan, large marketing budgets and a rapid expansion of distribution -- including through physical stores -- have fueled its ascendancy.

Chinese Upstart OPPO Scores a Hit With Newest Marquee Phones - Bloomberg

Apple made a big deal at the event about how it now has four main computing platforms: one each for wearables, smartphones, desktop computers, and big screens like televisions. But Apple actually sneakily introduced even more new platforms on Monday. In addition to the big ones for maps, Siri voice assistant, and messaging, Monday's keynote heralded the official arrival of HomeKit for smart-home notifications, one-touch checkout for Apple devices on the web, and the phone app as an interface for other apps.

Apple WWDC 2016 recap and analysis - Business Insider

A law firm that specialises in contesting claims for children with special educational needs (SEN) has apologised after publishing a series of tweets that appeared to gloat at parents. Baker Small, a law firm that acts for local authorities, triggered widespread anger among parents of children with disabilities with the remarks made on social media on Saturday. The firm subsequently deleted them and made a donation to charity. One of the tweets said: “Crikey, had a great ‘win’ last week which sent some parents into a storm!”

Fury as law firm boasts of 'great win' over parents of vulnerable children | Law | The Guardian

Canada's latest jobs report crushed it. The Canadian labor market added 13,800 jobs in May, above expectations of 1,800. The report noted that full-time employment surged by 61,000 last month, but this increase was offset by a decline of 47,000 in part-time work.

Canada jobs report May - Business Insider

Apple Inc. (AAPL) rallied off a two-year low at 90 in May and lifted into the April 27th gap between 99 and 104 two weeks later, stalling at the 50% retracement of the April into May selloff. That level roughly marks the 50-day EMA and the psychological 100 level. It pulled back for a week and found support under 97, bouncing into a test of triple digits in Thursday’s session.

Apple Rally Failing to Attract Strong Hands (AAPL) | Investopedia

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French startup Aerial Coboticus aims to fly industrial-grade robotic tools affixed to a king-sized remotely controlled drone. Created in May 2015, the startup has patented the concept and is in early stages of R&D, hoping to deliver its first operational demonstrator by 2018.

Removing the need for scaffolds: tool-equipped drones | Electronics EETimes

How Not to be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking, by Jordan Ellenberg. Mathematician Ellenberg shows readers how mathematics touches nearly every element of our lives, from language to the obesity epidemic to the existence of God. Ellenberg calls math “an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength.” Gates notes that sometimes the math does get “quite complicated” but adds that Ellenberg “always wraps things up by making sure you’re still with him.”

5 books Bill Gates wants you to read this summer - MarketWatch

Think: better battery life (of course), VR-ready graphics, and the ability to run at peak speeds for an entire game without killing your battery. You would even be able to pull 8-megapixel, still photos out of a 4K video you shot (we all know how hard it is to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time). Essentially, you'll be able to do more with your phone for much longer, enabling the spread of new uses like augmented reality and virtual reality.

Graphics in Samsung's next super phone will look much prettier thanks to this chip - CNET

Of course, the gap between the second biggest spender and the U.S. remains extremely large throughout. In 1990, the U.S. spent as much on defense as the six next biggest spenders: the U.S.S.R., Germany, France, the U.K., Japan and Italy. There’s a familiar ring to that. In 2014, the U.S. spent as much as the seven next biggest countries: China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, the U.K., India and Germany.

Watch America beat everyone else on military spending over 25 years - MarketWatch

The first residents of the landmark development arrived in October 2013, but many of the homes are barely occupied, with some residents saying they only use them for a fraction of the year. The revelations about the Tower are likely to be seized on by campaigners and politicians as the starkest example yet of the housing crisis gripping the capital, in which too many new homes are sold abroad as investments and left largely empty while fewer and fewer young people can afford to buy or even rent in the city.

The London skyscraper that is a stark symbol of the housing crisis | Society | The Guardian

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All that glitters is not gold. Especially when another, even more precious, metal is trading at a historical discount to gold. Many investors are familiar with the gold/silver ratio, or that recently that ratio was saying it was time to buy silver. But platinum, the "rich man's gold," has also seen its price fall relative to gold's. In fact, platinum is now cheaper than gold -- something that has only happened a few times in the past 100 years. What this means is that platinum prices are probably going to move up over the next few months.

Forget About Gold -- This Is the Precious Metal to Buy Right Now - TheStreet

Short-sellers hate being caught short a stock that reports a blowout quarter. When this happens, we often see a tradable short squeeze develop as the bears rush to cover their positions to avoid big losses. Even the best short-sellers know that it's never a great idea to stay short once a bullish earnings report sparks a big short-covering rally. Short-squeeze candidates are something that I tweet about on a regular basis. These are also the exact type of stocks that I love to trade and alert to my subscribers in real-time. This is why I scan the market for heavily shorted stocks that are about to report earnings. You only need to find a few of these stocks in a year to help enhance your portfolio returns -- the gains become so outsized in such a short time frame that your profits add up quickly.

5 Stocks Set to Soar on Bullish Earnings - TheStreet

The median U.S. worker enjoyed a pay increase of 3.5 percent year-over-year as of May, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's wage growth tracker. Wage growth has been accelerating since October, quickening to a pace not seen since January 2009:

More Evidence That the Job Market Is Tightening and Wages Are Headed Higher - Bloomberg

He said in the same interview: “Of course, when in 2018 the team will play at home in the World Cup, and before the start of the match, our national anthem will play, and 11 fellows will be proud to stand and sing along and tears will roll down their cheek, causing a feeling of patriotism, I would like these players to have Slavic faces.” A Dynamo Moscow fan, Shprygin works as an assistant to the politician Igor Lebedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s parliament, who also attracted controversy for a series of tweets yesterday in which he offered support to the Russian fans. “I don’t see anything wrong with the fans fighting,” he wrote. “Quite the opposite, well done lads, keep it up!”

Notorious far-right activist at Euro 2016 with Russian FA delegation | Football | The Guardian

There are many benefits to being tall: more Tinder swipes, an ability to reach the top shelf, and best of all, a higher salary. Tall people get an additional $789 a year in earnings for every extra inch, one study found. Other research has found that chief executive officers stand taller than their underlings. And in a sampling of about half of male Fortune 500 CEOs, author Malcolm Gladwell found that they have three inches on the less-successful members of their gender.

Another Benefit to Being Tall: Increased Productivity - Bloomberg

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"The critical similarity between the 1930s and the 2008 cycle is that the financial shock and the relatively high levels of indebtedness changed the risk attitudes of the private sector and triggered them to repair their balance sheets," wrote Ahya, Bartsch, and Ashworth. "During the deleveraging process, the private sector becomes risk-averse and shifts its attention towards restoring health to its balance sheets." And how did this cautious, low demand attitude end in the early 20th Century? Disastrously, in fact, as the private investment couldn't replace public investment, inflation expectations plummeted and deflation rocked the economy into a double dip recession. Unemployment rose again and the economy went back to struggling. "In 1936-37, the premature and sharp pace of tightening of policies led to a double-dip in the US economy, resulting in a relapse into recession and deflation in 1938," said the Morgan Stanley team.

We're headed for 1938 all over again - Business Insider

As Clark writes, "the Japanese are the world's biggest net savers and investors, and it is the movement of Japanese investments that cause the biggest moves in currencies and equities." During good times, like the current long-running global bull market, the yen tends to be a "funding" currency. Global investors borrow yen (at extremely low interest rates) to make investments in higher-yielding assets around the world. When those investments mature, they repay the loans in yen. This process boosts demand for the currency. True Wealth Publishing As Clark sees it, a weak yen leads to strong global equity markets. But a strong yen means global equity markets are likely weak. So far this year, the yen has rallied nearly 10 percent versus the U.S. dollar. That's a huge move for a major global currency.

Japan might be the 'canary in the coal mine' for the next stock market implosion

Yet the Fed is somehow responsible for the U.S. labor market's sudden slowdown? And should have egg on its face? No, the egg belongs on the face of my profession, which refuses to openly acknowledge that the economy's existential woe is a deficiency of aggregate spending, for which fiscal policy expansion — read dramatically larger fiscal deficits — is the solution, not near-zero Fed policy rates. To be sure, many in my profession will mouth these words in private. But in public, they demur, citing the lack of brains or courage, or both, of political leaders charged with fiscal policy to do the right thing.

Our nation can't afford past-its-sell-date economic orthodoxy | TheHill

As we sat and talked inside Adidas' headquarters in Portland, Ore., I asked Robusti how AlphaBounce compares to the Ultra Boost and NMD, two of the company's most popular runner lines. Unlike those highly coveted (and arguably fashion-centric) shoes, the AlphaBounce was designed primarily for performance, said Robusti, though it still needed a modern look. Adidas achieved that last part by mixing black, purple and orange colors, with a limited-edition speckled pattern meant to evoke the shoe used in Adidas' motion-capture tests.

How Adidas is using motion capture to reinvent running shoes

According to multiple reports of the event, male attendees found themselves approached by attractive, glamorously dressed women who were not part of the conference and who began flirting with them, touching them and handing them their cards. Many people at the party concluded that these women were escorts. According to accounts heard by Fortune, some male attendees then mistook female entrepreneurs for escorts, and asked them if they could offer them any favors.

Escort Scandal Hits Noah Berlin Startup Conference - Fortune

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As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton seek to consolidate their base and prepare for the general election in November, other conversations are going on behind closed doors — with lobbyists and donors trying to exercise their influence. Money plays a huge role in the American political process, particularly since the Citizens United ruling in 2009 that effectively ruled campaign contributions are a form of speech — and those with deep pockets shouldn’t be denied the right to spend it as lavishly as they want based on their political views.

Top 10 list of corporate donors to political parties reads like a most-hated-companies ranking - MarketWatch

While the rest of the world wonders whether the U.K. will vote to leave the European Union, one group is confident it will not. Europe-based hedge funders overwhelmingly indicated in a recent survey that they believe a Brexit won't happen. Fully 79 percent say Britons will vote to stay in the June 23 referendum, according to a poll released Thursday by industry tracker Preqin.

European hedge funds say Brexit is not happening, Preqin poll says

Over the next several decades, the biggest and wealthiest generation in U.S. history will transfer roughly $30 trillion in assets to their Gen X and millennial children, and if studies are accurate, most of those children will promptly fire their parents' advisors.

The great wealth transfer has started

More Chinese consumers are demanding foreign-made products, and the nation's cross-border shopping is going to explode as a result. eMarketer estimates that more than 15% of the Chinese population will buy products from a foreign country in 2016, which would amount to more than $85 billion in sales. Forecasts expect this number to swell to $157 billion by 2020.

Chinese imports of US goods are about to soar - Business Insider

Said another way, companies are paying employees more, and they can't hike prices to keep up with the rising cost. Thus, profits fall. This increase, according to Mortimer-Lee, is strikingly like the lead-in to the 2001 recession, which was preceded by a drop in corporate profits. "We believe that in an economy with a significant profit-oriented private sector, the rate of profit and its dynamic is a key determinant of the business cycle," Mortimer-Lee wrote.

Drop in corporate profits could signal a recession

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Apps can be pretty cheap — some of our favorites are even free. But how about dropping $999.99 in the App Store just to check out all the fancy things you can with all your money? The VIP Black smartphone app is like Google for rich people. It's like a catalog for all the things you're money can buy, such as butler services, fancy hotel stays and stuff like a yacht and a private jet.  Of course, if you buy the app and make it through the vetting process — VIP is in the name for a reason — to make sure you're actually rich, you can get exclusive member benefits, like gifts, exclusive rates, priority access and other things only the rich get to enjoy. If you want a peek at what the app is like, you can download a free preview called VIP Red.

13 crazy pricy gadgets you wish you could afford

Andrew Left's latest target is Facebook. According to CNBC, the activist short seller with Citron Research is betting against the social network because it "is losing an extensive amount of relevancy." Facebook is not a bad company, but it "just will not be a $330 billion company in a year," Left told CNBC.

Andrew Left is short Facebook - Business Insider

Helen Hewitt lost her mother, her younger brother and her baby son to cancer. Having successfully overcome breast cancer herself, she is currently battling several tumours in her lungs, and – thanks to an inherited mutation in her DNA – is at high risk of developing other cancers as well. Yet Helen, 41, is pioneering an unfamiliar approach against this all too familiar foe. Alongside conventional chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy, she is taking a cocktail of experimental yet well-known medicines. Some of them might even be in your bathroom cabinet.

The cancer drugs in your bathroom cabinet | Science | The Guardian

​Critics say it has boxed itself in: By simply preparing to raise rates, the Fed triggers conditions that make it impossible to follow through. Yet this logic has perverse implications. It says the Fed tightens when it can, not when it should. This confuses the tool of monetary policy, interest rates, with​ its goal, which is low unemployment and stable inflation around 2%.

It’s a Good Thing the Fed Has Missed its Chance to Raise Rates. Here’s Why. - Real Time Economics - WSJ

You probably already know you should stock your diet with more greens, but new research has drawn concrete connections between fruit and vegetable consumption and overall well-being. In a 2015 study published in the Journal of Health Psychology, researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand tracked what young adults ate over a couple of weeks, as well as their overall mood. The subjects' daily happiness, they found, was closely related to how many servings of fruits and vegetables they ate. “Fruit and vegetable consumption also predicted states of eudaemonic well-being—feelings of purpose and meaning, engagement in daily activities, curiosity for their environment, and feelings of creativity for that day,” said Kate Brookie, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at the University of Otago and co-author of the study. “This is important because it suggests that what we eat has a broad impact on our well-being, but also that daily fruit and vegetable consumption may be an easy route to improve our daily experiences.”

Make Your Desk Lunch Less Sad in Four Steps - Bloomberg

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Globalisation is fraying. Of course in some ways it looks to be in rude health — flows of people across borders continue to rise and the internet is driving ever higher flows of information. But some of the core beliefs that many people held about the world just a decade ago are under serious challenge. It no longer seems safe to assume that the volume of goods, services and capital moving across borders will continue to rise faster than global output growth. Take global trade growth, it has slowed sharply relative to GDP growth and the reasons for this are much debated.

Globalisation is fraying. Look under the Elephant Trunk — Bull Market — Medium

Numerous studies suggest that the background chatter of a cafe or coffee shop can spur the creative and problem-solving process. “Moderate levels of ambient or environmental noise, such as experienced at roadside restaurants or a busy café during lunch times, can distract a person from focal thoughts or a problem one is trying to solve,” said Ravi Mehta, Ph.D., an assistant professor of business administration at the University of Illinois College of Business. “Such distraction, our research shows, makes people assess the problem from a broader perspective that, in fact, results in more creative solutions.”

Make Your Desk Lunch Less Sad in Four Steps - Bloomberg

There is little doubt that with Euroscepticism on the rise, Brexit would strengthen populist, anti-Brussels parties across the EU, increasing the potential for fragmentation and leading to what some – including the former chief of Britain’s defence staff Lord Bramall – see as a real risk of the structure unravelling. A study published this week by the Washington-based Pew Research Center showed public support for the EU had fallen sharply across its largest member states over the past year. The survey of 10 large EU states showed strong support for the UK to stay in the EU, with an average of 70% of respondents in the 10 countries surveyed viewing Brexit as a bad thing. But the percentage of Europeans who viewed the EU favourably had plunged, Pew said, reflecting widespread unhappiness with Brussels’ handling of Europe’s refugee crisis and continuing economic woes.

Would Brexit trigger a domino effect in Europe? | Politics | The Guardian

If you’ve been on the hunt for the perfect oven, Roccbox may be just the appliance you need for your home. Not only does it cook with wood or gas, but it’s completely portable, which makes it versatile enough to go beyond what it was designed to do: make pizza. Roccbox is the creation of Tom Gozney, a man who simply wanted to bring wood-fired cooking to the masses. It can reach its top temperature of 932 degrees Fahrenheit in less than 10 minutes, thanks to a rolling flame and a stone cooking floor... The Roccbox allows cool air to flow through the device from the bottom and releases hot air from up top, similar to a convection oven. Within 90 seconds, Roccbox can have a pizza ready to go.

Roccbox Is a Portable Oven that Cooks Pizza in 90 Seconds | Digital Trends

An intense burst of consolidation will boost their profits more. Since 2008 American firms have engaged in one of the largest rounds of mergers in their country’s history, worth $10 trillion. Unlike earlier acquisitions aimed at building global empires, these mergers were largely aimed at consolidating in America, allowing the merged companies to increase their market shares and cut their costs.

Too much of a good thing | The Economist