The Economist published a barometer of world business according to 1,500 senior executives. It’s a complicated graph but very interesting because it shows North America will once again lead the world out of trouble. Read it as follows, “Balance of respondents expecting:” global business conditions to improve (let side) their companies to have more employees …
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Changes are brewing in the equatorial Pacific, and they could profoundly affect weather across the U.S. and much of the globe next winter and spring. La Nina, which has held sway since last fall, will be officially declared a goner Thursday, an official at the Climate Prediction Center in Maryland told InsideClimate News. And while …
Continue reading “La Niña leaves on Thursday – El Niño could be coming”
When it comes to exports, America brings movies to the world. So which ones are having the biggest impact? “The Avengers” is likely to stand with”Avatar,””Titanic”and iterations of “Harry Potter,” “Star Wars,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Lord of the Rings,””Toy Story” and”Transformers,” as one of a new breed of globally dominant film franchises. via LA Times These are …
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In the past 60 years, California has experienced two heatwaves – in 1955 and 2006 – in which temperatures in its urban centers were greater than 37.8 degrees C (100 degrees F) for three or more consecutive days. A new analysis prepared by other Scripps researchers indicates that by century’s end, those kinds of heatwaves …
Continue reading “Climate Change in California means heats waves…lots of them”
Yes, it does take the shape of a footprint! China and the United States clearly dominate, but you can also see how certain continents (like Europe) add up to a lot as well. View the full size at Visual.ly
The largest private employer in China, Foxconn with over 1 million employees, is finally facing stiff labor costs. This is great news for the U.S. manufacturing sector who may be able to lure some work back to the United States. It will be interesting to see how this affects the global market, but for now …
Continue reading “One million robots in three years – Foxconn’s Robot Kingdom”
This visualization shows ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through Decemeber 2007. The visualization does not include a narration or annotations; the goal was to use ocean flow data to create a simple, visceral experience. This visualization was produced using NASA/JPL’s computational model called Estimating the Circulation and Climate …
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Kevin Slavin argues that we’re living in a world designed for — and increasingly controlled by — algorithms. In this riveting talk from TEDGlobal, he shows how these complex computer programs determine: espionage tactics, stock prices, movie scripts, and architecture. And he warns that we are writing code we can’t understand, with implications we can’t …
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In the last data update, I revealed that social network usage is rising, especially in Russia and Egypt. A good sign for the citizens of those disrupted countries. Now, we have data on cell phone use and it clearly shows the rise of smart phones in both developed and undeveloped countries. Japan has the highest …
From the Pew Global Attitudes Project: In 15 of 21 countries, at least 25% of those polled use social networking sites. Israel (53%) and the U.S. (50%) top the list. About four-in-ten of all adults in Britain (43%), Russia (43%), Spain (42%), Lithuania (39%) and Poland (39%). Among this group, Russia is the only country …
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