Remarkable stories from the web in a new, easier format.

Internet trolling is on the increase, according to recent reports. When people are bombarded with abuse and threats on social networking sites the common assumption is that a stranger is doing it, but it’s not always the case. Some people do it to themselves.

BBC News – Cyber self-harm: Why do people troll themselves online?

A train driver says he was experiencing “highway hypnosis” just prior to the derailment in which four people were killed last week in New York. So what is it? Driving long distances can cause the brain to behave in the same way as it does under meditation.

BBC News – Who, What, Why: What is ‘highway hypnosis’?

This kind of reasoning is all too common: the poor are stupid and they are poor because they make stupid decisions. Unsurprisingly, it’s mostly the rich who indulge in this kind of pop-psychology, because if true it would also mean that they are wealthy because they are smart. Had they cared to look up the actual data, they would have found that the rich don’t necessarily have higher IQ. There’s no correlation at all between wealth and IQ, not even a weak one.

The Causes of Poverty (73): Low IQ? | P.a.p.-Blog // Human Rights Etc.

The Bank of Japan’s unprecedented monetary easing will fail in its goal of spurring 2 percent inflation, according to Takahiro Mitani, president of the fund that manages the world’s largest pool of pension savings.

World’s Biggest Pension Fund Sees Japan Fail on 2% Inflation – Bloomberg

In late October, VivaAerobus placed an order for 52 A320s, Airbus’s signature medium-range plane, which is able to carry up to 220 passengers. It was a huge purchase for a company with only one international destination.

Why Latin America Is the Next Growth Market for Low-cost Air Carriers

In addition, Qualcomm’s new modem is likely to be the first of several announcements of 20nm chips. With the exception of Intel, which has its own 22nm process and is expected to roll out 14nm in the first half of 2014, all of the announced mobile processors are manufactured on 28nm technology.

Multi-core, 64-bit Mobile Processors On Tap for 2014

If you’re one of those investors starting to doubt the rally, however, what are your alternatives? “High-yield” CDs still sport a meager 0.9% annual return. Investment-grade corporate and government bonds are only slightly better, and long-term funds could take a hit if interest rates move higher.

3 low-risk stocks for market skeptics – Jeff Reeves’s Strength in Numbers – MarketWatch

His workday begins unfailingly at 9 a.m. — with two cans of beer, a down payment on a salary paid mostly in alcohol. He gets two more cans at lunch and then another can or, if all goes smoothly, two to round off a productive day.

Amsterdam has a deal for alcoholics: Work paid in beer

Making carbon dioxide by burning hydrocarbons is easy. A pair of novel catalysts recently made by researchers at the University of Illinois could make it far more practical to do the reverse, converting carbon dioxide and water into fuel.

A Cheaper Way to Make Fuel from Carbon Dioxide | MIT Technology Review

So where is the eurozone? Its unemployment is 12 per cent. Its gross domestic product in the second quarter was 3 per cent below its pre-crisis peak and 13 per cent below its pre-crisis trend (see chart). In the most recent quarter, Spain’s GDP was 7.5 per cent below its pre-crisis peak; Portugal’s, 7.6 per cent; Ireland’s, 8.4 per cent; Italy’s, 8.8 per cent; and Greece’s, 23.4 per cent. None of these countries is enjoying a strong recovery. The latest unemployment rate is 12 per cent in Italy; 13.8 per cent in Ireland; 16.5 per cent in Portugal; 26.3 per cent in Spain; and 27.9 per cent in Greece. These would be higher without emigration. Ireland’s plight is a warning: it has long since restored its competitiveness and is running a large current account surplus. Yet its GDP has stagnated for four years.

Germany’s strange parallel universe – FT.com

Economics is the most popular major at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Rightly or wrongly, these students and others will have an outsized impact on policy making, so it matters how the subject is taught. Yet many, especially those who only take first-year classes, get a misleading impression of how the economy works. We can do better.

Fixing What’s Wrong With Economics 101 – Bloomberg

Ford Motor Co (NYS:F) and its local partners in China sold a total 99,157 vehicles on a wholesale basis in November, up 47 percent from a year earlier, the company said on Thursday. That compared with a 55 percent increase in October.

Ford says November China auto sales up 47 percent year-on-year – Yahoo Finance

Developers are now figuring out how to use Watson’s processing power to replicate the experience of working with an “experienced in-store salesperson” when shopping for clothes. The software would combine databases provided by retailers with customer preferences for style and fit to help people find what they’re looking for.

A Computer Might Come After Your Job Next – Bloomberg

Smoke detectors, sufficient ventilation and a chair with ample back support are just some of the things that are mandatory for London School of Economics employees who want to work from home.

BBC – Capital – Could your home office kill you?

Ukraine, the route for half of OAO Gazprom (GAZP)’s gas shipments to Europe, faces a choice: cheaper gas and continued access to its traditional customers, or stronger ties with the EU’s $18 trillion market.

Putin Battles Europe for Ex-Soviet States Amid Kiev Protests – Bloomberg

After three years of slashing budgets bloated by recession and the stimulus deployed to fight it, U.S. and euro-area officials are finding less need to retrench as their previous efforts and improving economic growth help narrow deficits.

Age of Austerity Nearing End May Boost Global Economy – Bloomberg

But the really interesting thing to note is the display, which was a 5.5-inch example with a 2560 x 1440 resolution. This resolution is also known as 2K or, in the case of the LG display that was announced back in August, Quad HD. LG’s reveal of the world’s first ‘Quad HD’ display for smartphones was referred to as such because it offers four times the number of pixels of a standard 720p display.

Samsung Galaxy S5 may feature 2K ‘Quad HD’ display – News – Trusted Reviews

Bonanno’s work, which has redefined the science of grief research, revealed that Freud was wrong about work, Lindemann was wrong about repression, and Kubler-Ross was wrong about everything. The deepest grief is powerful, but sometimes short-lived, and most of us are wired to compartmentalize our most heart-breaking tragedies, even if it makes us feel ashamed to feel all right in the face of expectations that we feel terrible.

The Secret Life of Grief – Derek Thompson – The Atlantic