The number of stories longer than 2,000 words published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, from 2003 to 2012.
Major U.S. newspapers have seen a sharp decline in the last ten years in the stories that are published that contain over 2,000 words. The Los Angeles Times has seen an 86% drop, The Washington Post down 50% and The Wall Street Journal down 35%.
Continue reading… “Longform meltdown at major newspapers in the U.S.”
Smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung have been focusing their efforts on the U.S. and more on China, but there are a few more countries that will soon demand their attention.
Continue reading… “Brazil, India, and Russia are the next smartphone battlegrounds”
Is plastic making us fat?
Are you looking for something to blame your weight issues on? Well, there is no shortage of scapegoats. Just some of the things that have shown over the years that contribute to weight problems include, genetically modified food, BPA, diet soda, and your fork are a few. Irvine researchers has added another excuse to the arsenal: PVC plastic, according to a new study from the University of California.
Continue reading… “PVC plastic is making us gain weight”
American factories are hiring again, but they’re not hiring union members.
Factory workers had a good month in July in Anderson, Ind., where a Honda parts supplier announced plans to build a new plant and create up to 325 jobs. But in the Cleveland suburbs it was a grim month, where an industrial plastics firm told the state of Ohio it was closing a plant and laying off 150 people.
Continue reading… “Unions are being left behind as manufacturing bounces back from the recession”
U.S. tax code complex
If anybody has the right to tell people “I told you so,” it’s Nina E. Olson, the national taxpayer advocate. She recently submitted her annual report to Congress and top on her list of things that need to be fixed is the complexity of the tax code, which she called the most serious problem facing taxpayers.
Continue reading… “Complexity of U.S. tax code runs amok”
Smog in Beijing
Beijing, China is frequently shrouded in dense, yellowish smog so thick that the other side of the road is obscured. But over the past weekend the deadly smog that enveloped the city was so bad that air-quality readings from a monitor on the roof of the American Embassy said simply: “Beyond Index”. (Chart)
Continue reading… “Most polluted cities of the world’s biggest economies”
82 percent of Egypt’s railway lines are less safe because they depend on mechanical signals.
In the wake of Monday’s deadly Badrashin train crash, which left 19 people dead and 117 injured, a Transportation Ministry report shows the country has experienced an average 550 train wrecks per year, including both serious and minor ones.
Continue reading… “Egypt experiences an average of 550 train crashes per year”
When it comes to making decisions, people are anything but rational.
Daniel McFadden, an economist has a new paper, “The New Science of Pleasure,” that shows the many ways economics fails to explain how we make decisions — and what it can learn from psychology, anthropology, biology, and neurology.
Continue reading… “Why economics is wrong about how we make choices”
There are as many as 12 million migrant laborers in Russia. Only 2 million work in the country legally.
Bek Takhirov, a 38-year-old ethnic Uzbek, knows all too well the problems that migrant workers face. In 2004, he came to Russia and worked illegally, stacking cargo in a warehouse for alcoholic beverages. Takhirov completed a lengthy application for Russian citizenship in order to step out of the shadows, two years ago. He now works legally in St. Petersburg as a translator by day and moonlights as a security guard by night.
Continue reading… “The migrant worker underclass in Russia”
Something transpires in social media every minute. Whether that is a new like, a new connection, a tweet, or social networks gaining unique visitors, we are spending a lot of our minutes socializing in various forms on an array of social sites. 2012 showed us that we prefer to share images and our location, and that Facebook and Twitter both still remain leaders in the social media world.
Continue reading… “What happened In 60 seconds on social networks in 2012 [Infographic]”
Is going public the beginning to the end of a startup?
A Stanford academic study has found that a firm’s IPO can put the lid on creativity and innovation. Shai Bernstein of the university’s Graduate School of Business studied thousands of startups between 1985 and 2003 to write a paper on the subject, and these are some of his findings:
Continue reading… “IPO’s stifle startups’ creativity and innovation: Study”
Record number of 349 military suicides in 2012.
More U.S. military service members have been lost to suicide than combat last year as the number of troops who took their lives rose to a record high.
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.