The Telegraph (August 20)
China and Japan are “two nations locked in mutual loathing” and the “historic enmity between the two countries – now resurfacing in a dispute over sovereignty – threatens stability in East Asia.”
Tags: China, East Asia, Enmity, Japan, Sovereignty
New York Times (August 18)
Competition over territorial status in the South China Sea ”has become a virtual free-for-all. Confrontations over territorial control are alarmingly frequent and could get out of hand, with dangerous consequences.” The East China Sea is also the scene of rising tension. While “China would prefer to deal with territorial disputes bilaterally because it thinks it can strong-arm its neighbors,” the U.S. has an important role to fulfill by taking “a neutral position on the claims” and proposing fair negotiations to settle the disputes.
Tags: China, Confrontation, East China Sea, Negotiations, South China Sea, U.S.
The Economist (August 18)
“People are not just people. They are an awful lot of microbes, too.” Convention holds that the body is comprised of 10 trillion cells and some 23,000 genes. Some scientists are coming to view humans differently, as “superorganisms made up of lots of smaller organisms working together.” These revolutionaries believe that “in the nooks and crannies of every human being, and especially in his or her guts, dwells the microbiome: 100 trillion bacteria of several hundred species bearing 3m non-human genes.” They aren’t freeloaders. They are “fully paid-up members of a community of which the human ‘host’ is but a single (if dominating) member.”
“People are not just people. They are an awful lot of microbes, too.” Convention holds that the body is comprised of 10 trillion cells and some 23,000 genes. Some scientists are coming to view humans differently, as “superorganisms made up of lots of smaller organisms working together.” These revolutionaries believe that “in the nooks and crannies of every human being, and especially in his or her guts, dwells the microbiome: 100 trillion bacteria of several hundred species bearing 3m non-human genes.” They aren’t freeloaders. They are “fully paid-up members of a community of which the human ‘host’ is but a single (if dominating) member.”
Time (August 16)
Mobile phones have rapidly transformed our lives. “It is hard to think of any tool, any instrument, any object in history with which so many developed so close a relationship so quickly as we have with our phones. Not the knife or match, the pen or page.” We have grown “accustomed to having all knowledge at our fingertips. A typical smart phone has more computing power than Apollo 11 when it landed a man on the moon. In many parts of the world, more people have access to a mobile device than to a toilet or running water.”
Mobile phones have rapidly transformed our lives. “It is hard to think of any tool, any instrument, any object in history with which so many developed so close a relationship so quickly as we have with our phones. Not the knife or match, the pen or page.” We have grown “accustomed to having all knowledge at our fingertips. A typical smart phone has more computing power than Apollo 11 when it landed a man on the moon. In many parts of the world, more people have access to a mobile device than to a toilet or running water.”
Tags: Apollo 11, Knowledge, Mobile phones, Smart phones
Wall Street Journal (August 15)
Singapore is “the world’s richest country.” According to a report from Knight Frank and Citi Private Wealth, Singapore’s per capita GDP (purchasing power parity) of US$56,532 in 2010 “is the highest in the world, topping Norway (US$51, 226), the US (US$45, 511) and Hong Kong (US$45, 301).” According to a report from the Boston Consulting Group, Singapore also “has the highest percentage of millionaire households in the world.”
Singapore is “the world’s richest country.” According to a report from
Knight Frank and Citi Private Wealth, Singapore’s per capita GDP (purchasing power parity) of US$56,532 in 2010 “is the highest in the world, topping Norway (US$51, 226), the US (US$45, 511) and Hong Kong (US$45, 301).” According to a report from the Boston Consulting Group, Singapore also “has the highest percentage of millionaire households in the world.”
Institutional Investor (August 14)
“Hedge funds are increasingly in a fighting mood. Although overall activism is roughly at the same level as last year, the number of proxy fights initiated by hedge funds is on the rise.” In 2011, hedge funds engaged in 46 proxy fights. In the first 7 months of 2012, they have already been involved in 42 proxy fights, with a higher percentage ending in success.
Financial Times (August 13)
“One of the enduring aspirations of post-imperial Britain has been to remain an important player on the world stage. But the country’s self-declared aspiration to “punch above its weight” has sounded increasingly vainglorious and delusional. The fact that Britain is building a new aircraft carrier but cannot currently afford to build the aircraft to go with it seemed to symbolise this losing struggle to stay in the big league…. In these Olympic Games, however, Britain genuinely did punch above its weight.”
Tags: Aircraft carrier, Britain, Olympics, World stage
The Economist (August 11)
How much has changed in North Korea? “If the young Kim really is his country’s Gorbachev, then the West should seize every opportunity to help him go further. If it is merely another charade, then more pressure needs to be applied to the world’s ugliest regime. So far there seems to be room for (very) limited encouragement.”
How much has changed in North Korea? “If the young Kim really is his country’s Gorbachev, then the West should seize every opportunity to help him go further. If it is merely another charade, then more pressure needs to be applied to the world’s ugliest regime. So far there seems to be room for (very) limited encouragement.”
Tags: Change, Gorbachev, Kim, North Korea, Regime
Washington Post (August 10)
The Earth is warming up as climate change creates increasingly extreme weather. “The average temperature last month was 77.6 degrees — a full 3.3 degrees warmer than the 20th-century norm for July. This follows the warmest 12-month period ever recorded in the United States, and it continues a long-term trend that is obvious to all except those who stubbornly close their eyes: Of the 10 hottest years on record, nine have occurred since 2000.”
The Earth is warming up as climate change creates increasingly extreme weather. “The average temperature last month was 77.6 degrees — a full 3.3 degrees warmer than the 20th-century norm for July. This follows the warmest 12-month period ever recorded in the United States, and it continues a long-term trend that is obvious to all except those who stubbornly close their eyes: Of the 10 hottest years on record, nine have occurred since 2000.”
Tags: Climate change, Earth, Global warming, Temperature, U.S.
New York Times (August 9)
“This new landing — a triumph of scientific technology — tells us as much about the human imagination as it does about the fourth planet from the sun…. The spark of actuality is far more captivating than anything we can imagine. We have been seeing detailed images of Mars for years. And yet when Curiosity began transmitting from Gale Crater, it presented us with the cognitive shock of seeing Mars in something close to real time.”
