Medical staff deliver a baby by cesarean section at a hospital in China.
Caesarean sections are on the rise globally. But China’s sky-high C-section rate is out of control and they are trying to get a handle on it.
Americans voted world’s ‘coolest nationality’
The world still thinks Americans are cool.
Americans may be witnessing their global superpower influence decline in the face of challenges from other emerging players on the world stage, but they have been voted the world’s “coolest nationality” in an international poll.
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What’s at the top of wish list for China’s wealthiest? To leave China
Goldlink Go-Abroad Consulting Co., an immigration consulting firm in Bejing assists Chinese to immigrate to Canada and the United States.
One of the people powering China’s economy on its path to becoming the world’s biggest is Chines millionaire Su, who builds skyscrapers in Bejing.
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America drops to 5th place in global ranking
U.S. falls to 5th place in world ranking.
The United States has fallen further down a global ranking of the world’s most competitive economies. The U.S. has landed at fifth place because of its huge deficits and declining public faith in government, a global economic group said Wednesday.
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Google now lets you export Google Voice data
Google Takeout, the recently launched “data liberation” service that lets you export files, photos and data from Google services like Picasa and Buzz, now includes support for Google Voice.
With the update, users of Google’s Internet-telephony service Google Voice are able to export call history, voicemail messages, greetings, call recordings, phone numbers and text messages…
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Why the Return Trip Always Seems Faster
Driving ‘home’ has a different perspective.
Does getting home from a trip seem to take less time than getting there? There’s a scientific explanation for that!
NPR’s Morning Edition explains the psychological phenomenon called the “return trip effect”:
Here’s what van de Ven thinks is going on..
Massive New Zealand cathedral to be rebuilt with cardboard
The temporary cathedral in New Zealand will use cardboard tubes, as shown in this scale model.
A New Zealand landmark that was destroyed in a natural disaster earlier this year will be resurrected using cardboard.
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Anti-inflammatory drugs double risk of miscarriage
Researchers say health records of 50,000 women link over-the-counter anti-inflammatories and deaths of fetuses.
Use of common anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen and naproxen if taken early in pregnancy may increase the chance of miscarriage, a new study suggests.
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Ammonia could be the answer to emissions-free fuel for cars at just 75 cents a gallon
John Fleming and Tim Maxwell claim they can make ammonia for 75 cents a gallon.
John Fleming of SilverEagles Energy and Tim Maxwell from Texas Tech University, say they have developed a way to make ammonia that is cheap enough so that it could be used as fuel for cars. If their claims turn out to be true, many consumers might consider switching over because ammonia, when burned in an engine, emits nothing but nitrogen and water vapor out the tailpipe. And if that’s not enough incentive, they claim they can make the ammonia for just 20 cents a liter (approximately 75 cents a gallon).
‘Sensing skin’ for concrete would detect tiny cracks
MIT researchers tested the ‘sensing skin’ by attaching it to the underside of a concrete beam, then applying enough force to cause tiny cracks to form in the beam under one patch of the skin.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), in 2009, assigned a grade of “D” to the overall quality of infrastructure in the United States, saying that ongoing evaluation and maintenance of structures was necessary to improve that grade. Since then, federal stimulus funds have made it possible for communities to repair some infrastructure, but high-tech, affordable methods for continual monitoring remain in their infancy. Instead, most evaluation of bridges, dams, schools and other structures is still done by visual inspection, which is slow, expensive, cumbersome and in some cases, dangerous.
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Scientists create see-through mouse brains
On the left is a mouse embryo soaked in saline solution compared with an embryo on the right washed in Scale.
Scientists may soon be able to see exactly what’s on your mind. They have developed a new chemical which turns brain tissue transparent.
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The complete guide to Freemium business models
The idea of offering your product or a version of it for free has been a source of much debate.
Pricing is always tricky. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs don’t give it enough thought. They will often copy the pricing strategy of similar products, base their decisions on pompous statements made by “experts” or rely on broken rationale (we worked hard so we should charge $X).
Free is even trickier and with so many opinions about it, we thought it would be refreshing to take a critical approach and dive deep into why some companies are very successful at employing the model while other companies fail. We’ve looked into economics academic papers, behavioral psychology books and strategies that worked for companies to come up with the key concepts below.
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