Monkey reacts to Cheating!

Monkeys hate Cheating!

Business in China: End of the Good Times

Business:
"The Chinese government has begun turning a cold shoulder to Western corporations hoping to cash in on its consumers. Meanwhile, corporations are paying much closer attention to the risks and hidden costs of supplying their home markets with stuff made thousands of miles away in China. None of this necessarily means an end to the extraordinarily co-dependent economic relationship that China and the U.S. in particular have built up over the past decade. But it does mean big changes."

"The End of the Big Business-China Love Affair" Time magazine
China and Big Business

Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang

Buildings:
They have once again resumed construction on the huge pyramid shaped hotel in the middle of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Construction began in 1988, but stopped in 1992. Construction has once again been resumed in late 2008.

Interesting Posts from Blogs

BLOGS:
This is an interesting post about a stock simulator. Here instead of investing money, you can practice your stock picking skills with fake money. Once you learn how to invest, then you can go stock-picking with real money!
Stock Simulator

Post on comedians to follow on Twitter.
Comedians to Follow on Twitter

Comments by Marc Lynch(Abu Aardvark) on the recently released survey of Arab public opinion
Arab Public Opinion 2009

How to gather intelligence on the intentions of groups like Hezbollah? Spy agencies try to do it through wire-tapping, secret agents and the like, but one big source is sometimes overlooked: open-source intelligence!
Open-Source Intelligence

The Five Eras of Social Marketing. Comments by Joshua Owyang.
Five Eras of Social Marketing

Home Security Bots at Popular Science. Now you can make your home finally safe!
Home Security Bots

The Hubble Telescope always fires up the imagination. Here are some of its greatest discoveries.
Greatest Hubble Telescope Discoveries

Post on the current level of evolution within the human species.
Has Human Civilization Turbo Charged Evolution?"

The Pirate Party in Sweden

Politics:
There is one potential new party from Sweden that could make it into the European Parliament this year. It's the Pirate Party! They have been gaining a lot of popularity lately, especially after the recent conviction of the founders of Pirate Bay, a torrent sharing site. Their platform is based around the idea of copyright law reform. In their opinion P2P sharing on the internet should be legal. This comes at a time when many media and music companies have been trying to crackdown hard on downloaders. They have enlisted the help of many politicians. For example in the recent telecoms legislation at the EU level, the French, led by Nicholas Sarkozy, had tried to make it mandatory for internet providers to cut connection to downloaders. Luckily, the EP did not pass this package.

Pirate Party
Pirate Party

The Most Distant Object in the Universe

Astronomy:
A NASA satellite recently snapped a picture of the most distant object in the universe discovered so far. It's located 13.1 billion light years away from Earth! Meaning the light had to travel that many years to get to our planet. So basically we are looking at the distant past.

"NASA's Swift satellite and an international team of astronomers have found a gamma-ray burst from a star that died when the universe was only 630 million years old, or less than five percent of its present age. The event, dubbed GRB 090423, is the most distant cosmic explosion ever seen."

"New Gamma-Ray Burst Smashes Cosmic Record" NASA
Most Distant Object in the Universe

Brain Parasites spread by Cats drive Human Culture

Biology:
This is actually a serious scientific study. According to research by one scientist brain parasites spread to humans by cats shape how humans behave.

"Now, Kevin Lafferty from the University of California, Santa Barbara, has found startling evidence that a common brain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, could be influencing human culture across the globe.

Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled brain parasite spread by cats. Our feline companions are its preferred home and only there can it mature and reproduce. So like most parasites, T.gondii has a complex life cycle designed to get it into its final host."

"Brain parasite drives human culture" NotExactlyRocketScience
Brain parasite drives human culture

AI is Coming!

Robotics/Computer Science:
Researchers in artificial intelligence aim to create machines that think. Science is still at its early stage on this path and nowhere close to designing machines that are self-aware or robots like seen in science-fiction movies. As Michio Kaku puts it: "the smartest machines today are about as smart as cock-roaches." However, there has been some amazing progress. A machine was able to beat the world's best chess player at chess and many machines can perform actions that were impossible not that long ago, such as walk up and down stairs or dance.

"The concept of ultrasmart computers--machines with "greater than human intelligence"--was dubbed "The Singularity" in a 1993 paper by the computer scientist and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge. He argued that the acceleration of technological progress had led to "the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth." This thesis has long struck a chord here in Silicon Valley.

Artificial intelligence is already used to automate and replace some human functions with computer-driven machines. These machines can see and hear, respond to questions, learn, draw inferences and solve problems. But for the Singulatarians, A.I. refers to machines that will be both self-aware and superhuman in their intelligence, and capable of designing better computers and robots faster than humans can today. Such a shift, they say, would lead to a vast acceleration in technological improvements of all kinds."

"The Coming Superbrain" The New York Times via CNET
The Coming Superbrain


Will the Machines take over?

Missing Link in the Evolution of Apes and Humans Found

Anthropology:
Scientist on a dig in Germany discovered a 47 million-year old fossil of an ancient primate. Some have called it the "Missing Link" as it is probably located at one of primate evolution's turning points, when the ancestors of monkeys and apes split off from the line that also included lemurs. Click on the link below!

"Missing Link Found: New Fossil Links Humans, Lemurs?" National Geographic
Missing Link


Will the Apes take over?

Fristajlo!

From the Kazakhstan Superstar (Idol)! Borat move over!

Hot Cars

Hot Cars
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport

Car hotness means how the car looks overall (the exterior). Car coolness means how smooth the ride is (and the features).

Alternative Energy and the Future of the World

Hydrogen Economy:
The current addiction of the world economy to fossil fuels is unsustainable in the long-run. Fossil fuels are a finite resource and will run out. Currently we can see that most of the easy to get to oil fields are getting depleted and oil companies have to drill in harder to reach places to get more oil. This of course brings the oil prices up, as it is rentable to drill in those places if the prices of oil are high. Plus fossil fuels are dirty and contribute to global warming. That's why the world needs alternatives. One long-run possibility that is being discussed is to replace the hydrocarbon economy (fossil fuels) with a hydrogen economy. In a hydrogen economy, things such as cars would run on fuel cells powered by hydrogen, houses and the entire economy would be powered by hydrogen. Hydrogen is not a primary energy source, but instead an energy carrier. Hydrogen will give off energy, when it is combined with oxygen. The problem with this is that in order for this to happen, some other type of energy needs to be used first. At the moment this is very expensive. However scientists are trying to find way to bring this about, for example by using alternative energies. Maybe when the price of alternative energies such as solar power will come down enough, then a hydrogen economy might be more rentable.

"Why we need the solar-hydrogen economy now" Hydrogen Now
Solar-Hydrogen Economy

"How the Hydrogen Economy Works" HowStuffWorks
How the Hydrogen Economy Works

Alternative Energy:
There is an interesting proposal on how Europe could generate its power in the future. North Africa and the Middle East are full of desert and sunlight, ideal places for solar energy. There is a plan that in the future that area would be dotted by concentrated solar power stations. These would then bring the electricty through undersea cables to Europe.

"How Africa's desert sun can bring Europe power" The Guardian
CSP in the desert plan

Desertec
Desertec

Multiverse

Physics:
Multiverse: Multiverse theory states that our universe is just one of many universes. Imagine if you could go back and redo some decision that you had made in the past. According to multiverse theory, there probably is a universe where you made the decision differently. "You" in one dimension could be a millionaire, in another a sports star, in another a bum living under a bridge and in some not exist at all! Under the premise of multiverse theory, the universe divides at each quantum decision. So each second just by waving your hand you're creating millions of new universes!

"How to map the multiverse" New Scientist
How to map the Multiverse

Social Media:
We have entered the era of social media. Social media basically means content created by people. This can be anything such as forums, blogs (by writing a blog you're participating in social media!), wikis and all types of other things. Big social media platforms have emerged such as facebook, where you can create your profile and stay connected to your friends, twitter, where you post micro-comments, or youtube, where you can post your own videos. All this means that user-generated content is becoming dominant over traditional media on the internet such as newspapers or static webpages. This could mean a revolution in ways how our society is organized, how we buy products and how these products are sold. Social media is changing fast. A few years ago, things such as facebook didn't exist and now many people cannot stay connected to their friends without it. The future will bring new ways of using social media.

"The Future of Social Media" Social Media Explorer blog
The Future of Social Media

Social Media/ Government:
The advent of social media could mean a new relationship between the people and their governments. It is impossible to control the internet and it has emerged as the primary source of news and information for many people. Traditionally the government has been in many ways disconnected from the people. Even in democratic societies it was very hard to comment on legislation and control what the government is doing. In many ways this disconnect resulted in democratic deficits. However social media could mean a new way of tracking what is being done by the government and the legislators and even greater individual citizen participation in the drafting and commenting on legislation. There is an interesting website, which tracks what bills are being discussed and passed in the US Congress. People can write their opinions on those bills, make suggestions on improvements or comment on how these bills could impact everyday life.

Open Congress
Open Congress

Business:
The business world is quickly changing and there are different ways to approach it. Several top business professors keep blogs with their comments on the current economic situation, their theories on different aspects of business and on many other things such as strategy.

Top 50 Business Professor Blogs
Business Professor Blogs