06-03-2014, 10:58 AM
The projected 1km-high building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is set to be the world’s tallest, but what’s interesting is that it was meant to be a kilometre-and-a-half. So what’s stopping us from going higher?
BBC - Future - How high can you build a skyscraper?
Research has repeatedly found that sleep improves people's ability to come up with creative solutions to problems. Psychologists from UC San Diego found that REM sleep improves the creative process more than any other state--asleep or awake. And often the solutions to problems come to us when we are sleeping because of a phenomenon cognitive scientists call "pattern recognition."
Twenty million trees are cut every year to meet Chinese demand for chopsticks.
Mind-Blowing Facts About China - Business Insider
A storm alert today from Simon Derrick at the Bank of New York Mellon. He cites three warnings from leading central bankers, all alarmed by the remarkable disregard for risk in the equity, credit, and currency markets.
Global watchdogs rattled by lack of fear in the markets – Telegraph Blogs
Here is a story to cheer us all up. Wuxi Suntech Power expects the cost of electricity from solar modules match to coal-powered stations in China as soon as 2016. If so, we are entering a dramatically different world.
Solar to match coal in China by 2016, threatening fossil dominance – Telegraph Blogs
institutional clients are net sellers of US equities since Mid-April (and are cumulative net sellers year-to-date).
Based on studies in elite performance, Gladwell contended that it's "an extraordinarily consistent answer in an incredible number of fields ... you need to have practiced, to have apprenticed, for 10,000 hours before you get good."
Malcolm Gladwell Explains 'The 10,000 Hour Rule' - Business Insider
The profit margin on a medium soda is about $1.20, says John Gordon, principal at Pacific Management Consulting Group, which focuses on the restaurant industry. The cost of goods for each sub is about $2.40. That’s bad math for store owners, says Gordon: “It’s a violation of the franchise agreement if you don’t honor the coupons,” not to mention a sure way to upset clientele. But making good on the offer means losing money.
Subway Is Giving Away Free Sandwiches. Will Franchisees Pick Up the Tab? - Businessweek
This new nationalism takes different economic forms: trade barriers, asset protection, reaction against foreign direct investment, policies favoring domestic workers and firms, anti-immigration measures, state capitalism, and resource nationalism. In the political realm, populist, anti-globalization, anti-immigration, and in some cases outright racist and anti-Semitic parties are on the rise.
Even though OLED TVs deliver the most amazing display quality we’ve ever seen, things aren’t looking too great for the next-gen TV tech lately. In the last few months, Sony, Panasonic and Samsung have all indicated they are stepping back from OLED, leaving LG as the only player in town.
In other words, manufacturers can’t sell more OLED TVs until they get cheaper, and they can’t get cheaper until they sell more. It’s a chicken-or-the-egg scenario that requires a company with deep pockets to keep pushing forward, even when the juice isn’t worth the squeeze today. No wonder so many manufacturers are stepping back from OLED.
Down but not out: OLED TVs aren't dead, despite what you've read | Digital Trends