Business & Economics
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Lessons To Learn From China's Not-So-Big Spenders
about 7 hours ago
What is the Big Idea? In a recent trip to a Costco in Manhattan, shoppers were seen pushing around large shopping carts filled with items like family-sized jars of mayonnaise and bulging packs of fluffy, colorful tube socks. Moms navigated congested aisles with their screaming children and ... Read More
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How Diversity Inspires Innovation
3 days ago
What's the Latest Development? The essence of innovation is fusing ideas that have not been connected before, like Steve Jobs combination of calligraphy and technology to create Mac's graphical user interface. A fusion of business models can also inspire innovation, as when Netflix-style rentals ... Read More
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Is Your Boss a Robot? Here's How to Tell.
3 days ago
What's the Latest Development? At the annual Loebner Prize Competition, robots and humans compete to convince judges they are actually human. Imagine your boss took part. Would his or her communication style qualify as robotic or human? If during a discussion, your boss responds to the last ... Read More
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So Long, Lone Inventor. Hello, Collective Capitalism.
3 days ago
What's the Latest Development? The way America thinks of its innovative heroes probably needs to change, says Harvard research fellow Neal Gabler. Today, technological progress is too complex for one individual to advance and communication networks make sharing ideas, a powerful part of the ... Read More
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$100,000 to Drop Out of College
3 days ago
What's the Latest Development? Laura Deming, a 17 year-old undergraduate student, recently left MIT to pursue a venture capitalist career in California. The child prodigy, who learned calculus at 11 and was helping perform genetic research at age 12, now looks for donors willing to back new ... Read More
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Will Graphene Replace the Silicon Chip?
4 days ago
What's the Latest Development? A pair of Nobel laureates have created what might become the replacement to the silicon computer chip. Professor Andre Geim and Professor Konstantin Novoselov have constructed a multi-layer graphene transistor which succeeds where past models have failed ... Read More
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The Dark Side of Wind Power
5 days ago
What's the Latest Development? Wind energy is becoming big business, particularly in developing countries where traditional electricity infrastructure is lacking. Wind power also represents a kinder, greener version of economic development. But it is precisely this clean image which allows the ... Read More
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Russian Delays Renew Private Space Race
5 days ago
What's the Latest Development? A manned mission to the International Space Station has been delayed a month and a half after a Russian Soyuz rocket experienced a technical malfunction. During a test of the craft, air pressure was accidentally pumped too high, so another rocket is being readied ... Read More
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Bill Gates Backing Geoengineering Projects
5 days ago
What's the Latest Development? Hedging their bets against politicians and a United Nations which seem incapable of finding solutions to climate change, a handful of philanthropic billionaires are funding private geoengineering projects which seek to manipulate the Earth's climate on a global ... Read More
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Paul Ryan, Individual Liberty, and the Fate of Medicare
6 days ago
Just as Mitt Romney appears to be wrapping up the Republican nomination for the presidency, congressional Republicans are taking steps to set up their own political framework for the 2012 election. In short, the future of Medicare is on the line and a Romney vs. Obama match-up will surely address ... Read More
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Why Do People Become Digital Pirates?
6 days ago
What's the Latest Development? Enabling digital piracy must be one of the least profitable theft crimes ever. By the time 'James', as we'll call him, was just 19 years old, he had begun cooperating with many elite piracy sites, using his formidable technical knowledge specifically to not sell ... Read More
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It's Your Data: Why Facebook Should Pay You
6 days ago
What's the Latest Development? Facebook is seeking to raise $5 billion in cash by becoming a publicly traded company, an action the social networking firm is expected to take by this spring. Over 70 percent of the company's profits currently come from advertising revenue, which is tailored to ... Read More
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The New Hustle: Artists in the Digital Age
6 days ago
Enjoy the article, then check out the Big Think, Short Fiction Contest (#1: Sci Fi) - an Iron Chef-style event in partnership with Storiad. The Unrealized Utopia of DIY Artistic Success There was a lot of unexamined fist-pumping among the youth of 1998 when Napster "took down" the music ... Read More
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Why It Won't Be an American Century
7 days ago
What's the Latest Development? To hear Mitt Romney talk, you might think the US had just saved Europe from the Nazis. But that was over half a century ago and American exceptionalism is waning due to emerging economies and a weakened domestic front. China's GDP will catch ours within the decade ... Read More
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Achieving Sustainable Development for the Global Economy
7 days ago
What's the Latest Development? The global economy is on an unsustainable path. In other words, it cannot supply the resources required by future generations while preserving an ecosystem in which we can all live healthily. By 2030, the world's population will require 50 percent more food, 45 ... Read More
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European Debt and China's Marshall Plan
7 days ago
What's the Latest Development? China is seeking to calm its own population over concerns that it will use its vast currency reserves to bail out European countries weighed down by sovereign debt. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says it is in China's own interest to keep Europe from sinking, which ... Read More
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Islam and the Middle East: Jobs Over Jihad
7 days ago
What's the Latest Development? Despite the ascension of Islamic parties to political power as a result of the Arab Spring, the West need not be concerned about a concentrated effort to buck its influence, says French political theorist Olivier Roy. Political parties in places like Egypt and ... Read More
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Robot Nurses, Robot Doctors
9 days ago
What's the Latest Development? A well known robotics company is teaming up with a large health care provider, hoping to revolutionize the way patients receive medical care. iRobot, the company which makes the Roomba robo-vacuum, has invested $6 million in InTouch Health, a telemedicine company ... Read More
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What's the Best Degree for Entrepreneurs?
10 days ago
What's the Latest Development? Individuals with advanced engineering degrees may be more successful entrepreneurs than MBA graduates, according to a new online survey. The business blog Identified combed its Facebook Rolodex and found that engineering post-graduates outnumbered MBA grads three ... Read More
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Innovative Start Up Challenges 'Big Cell'
10 days ago
What's the Latest Development? A start up mobile phone company is refining a business model it believes can challenge the dominance of major cell phone carriers. Called Republic Wireless, the North Carolina-based firm offers unlimited voice, text, and data service for $19 per month, with no ... Read More