11 Horrible Things That Happen If You Don't Get Enough Sleep | ||
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There are some really unfortunate physical and mental risks to partial or total sleep deprivation. The video is based on a smart science piece from Lauren Friedman. Produced by Matthew Stuart Follow BI Video: On Facebook Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Toyota Is Bringing In The Future With A New Fuel Cell Car | ||
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Toyota is launching a new hydrogen-powered car that will first be available in Japan in mid-December this year. The Mirai — a Japanese words that means future — uses a hydrogen fuel cell generate electricity instead of batteries, as in Toyota's Prius. The car is powered by an electric engine of 113 KW (152 bhp) and has a maximum speed of 110 mph (almost 180 km/h), the company said in a statement. It has a recharging time of three minutes. The benefit of this car is that it emits no carbon dioxide pollutants as its being driven. The Mirai will be available in the UK, Germany, and Denmark in September 2015. The Guardian reports that that the new energy-efficient car will retail in Japan for about 6.7 million yen (£37,000 to $57,000). The new car has an aggressive look from the front, as if it just came out of a futuristic video game:
The same cannot be said of the back end, which looks a bit heavy for a sedan, although the hydrogen engine does not take too much space from the boot:
The core part of the engine is the fuel cell, located in the front of the car:
The tanks are located underneath. They are recharged with oxygen, hydrogen, and water, which is also used to cool down the system.
The testing process lasted for years. Toyota says that this car is extremely fun to drive.
For other tests, the team had to travel to the hottest deserts:
A big applause to the developers:
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Apple Has Forced Samsung Into A Massive Rethink Of Its Entire Corporate Strategy (AAPL) | ||
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For years, this was the main criticism of Samsung: The company isn't really innovative, it simply throws out a tonne of different products and then looks to see which ones stick. Look at its smartphone product lineup, which features dozens — maybe hundreds? — of different models and versions of those models. This image, from a phone sales web site, gives you an idea of how comically extensive Samsung's phone lineup is. It shows only a tiny portion of Samsung's countless phones. Which phone would you prefer, the Galaxy S Duos 3 or the Galaxy Ace NXT? Who knew Samsung even made either one? Now, Samsung is rationalising its product line, by cutting up to one third of its product lineup. If another company had done that, take consumer products company Procter & Gamble, for example, that would be huge news. The move comes because Samsung's revenues and profits have both been falling, for two reasons:
The company is being squeezed at both the top and bottom of the market, in other words. That wasn't so much of a problem when the main competition was on low-margin phones where there are few profits. But now Apple is forcing a real choice in terms of big-screen, high-end phones. So now Samsung must act. Fewer phones will reduce its manufacturing costs, making Samsung more profitable. It should also focus Samsung's legendarily gargantuan marketing budget, bringing further efficiencies. That added focus ought to help Samsung do the one thing it has always done really well: Flood the market with the remaining phones that are succeeding with customers. At the low-price Android end, Samsung is having its lunch eaten in China by Xiaomi. The Chinese company just overtook Samsung as the No.1 seller there. Samsung needs to fight back by offering something like a stripped down, cheap version of the Galaxy S5, with its hardware mostly intact. A small, budget phone with lousy hardware won't cut it there. Samsung needs to copy the miracle that Xiaomi has wrought, offering a superior phone at a low price.
Samsung will need to make some serious decisions about that. The company does have the talent to innovate on the Android platform successfully — the Note 4 is a seriously great phone. The S-Pen writing/drawing stylus is a genuine treat to use (and if Apple had come up with it the tech blogosphere would be cheering). But Samsung has a habit of cluttering up its great hardware with a bunch of Samsung-branded stuff that no one ever asks for in the store. The company needs a creative director with taste and focus, and — crucially — the power to say no to the company's many, many partners and stakeholders. The battle is existential: The company is already seeing its market disappear. If Samsung doesn't develop the focus and discipline to stay on course it knows what will happen: Relegation to the sub-brand phone layer occupied by HTC, LG and others — companies that make perfectly good phones that no one cares about. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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On the high end, Samsung's problem is difficult. Apple is setting the pace here. Although the Galaxy S5 and the Note 4 have comparable features to Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung's problem is that customers will have a choice of buying a £500 ($700) Samsung Android or another Android several hundred price points below that. It's difficult to make the case that consumers should spend top dollar for Android when the entire advantage of Android is that it's a lot cheaper than iPhone, and you get pretty much the same thing. 11 Horrible Things That Happen If You Don't Get Enough Sleep | ||
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There are some really unfortunate physical and mental risks to partial or total sleep deprivation. The video is based on a smart science piece from Lauren Friedman. Produced by Matthew Stuart Follow BI Video: On Facebook Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell (DIA, SPY, SPX, QQQ) | ||
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Good morning! Here are the major stories you need to hear about before markets in London and Paris open. Japan Delays Tax Hike And Calls For A Snap Election. "Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told reporters he will delay Japan's scheduled consumption tax hike and dissolve the Lower House on Friday for a snap election," NHK World reports. "This comes in the wake of data that shows GDP has contracted 2 quarters in a row." From Bloomberg: "He’ll probably pick Dec. 14 for the election, according to people with knowledge of the ruling party’s strategy" Japan Surges. The Nikkei index jumped 2.2% in the wake of the news. The yen fell to as low as 117.05 per dollar. World Markets Rally. In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 is up 0.4%, France's CAC 40 is up 0.7%, and Germany's DAX is up 1.2%. US futures are flat. US Inflation Data Is Coming. The producer price index report gets released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists estimate PPI fell 0.1% in October, but climbed 0.1% excluding food and energy. On a year-over-year basis, prices are forecast to climb 1.2% and 1.5%, respectively. The US Senate Is Heading For A Vote On The Keystone Pipeline. "Backers of the Keystone XL oil pipeline hope a vote in the U.S. Senate late on Tuesday will send a bill to the desk of President Barack Obama," Reuters' Timothy Gardner and Richard Cowan report "Backers of the bill in the 100-seat Senate need 60 votes to prevent a filibuster by opponents. A companion bill easily passed the House of Representatives on Friday." Chinese House Prices Dropped For A Second Month. Chinese property prices dropped by the steepest amount in October since the current data series began three years ago, the FT reports. UK Inflation Tick Up. Prices climbed by 1.3% in October, which was right in line with expectations, but up from 1.2% in September. The core figure, which strips out the most volatile prices, like food and tobacco, came in slightly higher at 1.5%. German Investor Confidence Booms. Germany's ZEW index, which measures investor sentiment, jumped to 11.5 in November from -3.6 in October. This was much stronger than the 0.5 level expected by economists. European Carmakers Had The Best October For Five Years. Sales are up 6.5% on the same month last year in Europe, despite poor economic performance generally, according to the FT. Traders Aren't Using The Hong Kong-Shanghai Stocks Link Much. Investors largely turned away from the link-up between the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges on Tuesday, a day after it launched to much fanfare and ambitions for billions of dollars in daily cross-border transactions. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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This Is Nokia's First Post-Microsoft Product — And It Looks Just Like The iPad Mini | ||
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Nokia has unveiled its new N1 tablet, the first hardware product launched by the company since Microsoft purchased its smartphone division. While it's not making smartphones anymore, Nokia still has a consumer business to tend to, and the new N1 tablet is its first big launch. The Nokia N1 is a 7.9-inch Android tablet that retails for $249. The new N1 tablet is the same size as Apple's iPad Mini, although it's cheaper than the $399 device. It looks like the iPad Mini, too.
Nokia's new tablet certainly looks similar to the iPad Mini. The silver case and the placement of the speakers and camera are very close to Apple's smaller iPad model.
The Nokia N1 tablet is going to be rolled out around in the world in quite an unusual way. Engadget reports that it will first go on sale in China ready for the Chinese New Year (February 15) before a release in Russia shortly after. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The IMF Helped Push Japan Into Disastrous Sales Tax Increase | ||
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has again become mired in controversy over its economic advice. Earlier this year the Fund admitted that it had "got it wrong" in its warnings to the UK government over its budget plans. If that wasn't bad enough, it may now face a similar embarrassment in Japan having given the country what now looks to be some very bad advice. In July the IMF published its consultation report on the country following bilateral discussions with the authorities there. Below was one of its main conclusions: "The consumption tax rate increase in April to 8 percent was a major achievement, but is only a first step towards fiscal sustainability...The second consumption tax rate increase in 2015 to 10 percent with a uniform rate should be confirmed. Raising the tax rate further at a moderate pace would help establish fiscal policy credibility. Staff estimates that fiscal consolidation in 2015 would slow growth by ½ percent, leaving growth in 2015/16 still above potential under the baseline."
However, despite these concerns Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced plans to indefinitely delay the second consumption tax increase, which was scheduled to take place next October. This comes after the country fell into a recession in the third quarter after it posted its second consecutive quarterly fall in output.
In its report, the IMF advocate a scenario where the authorities would commit to "increasing the consumption tax to at least 15%" post 2015. This now seems almost wholly implausible without a marked improvement in wage growth. All that remains to be seen now is whether the IMF will accept its claim in 2011 that raising the consumption tax rate "is less detrimental to growth compared with other taxes" has proven overoptimistic and that its suggested remedy for Japan's debt problems has in reality set the country's recovery back. It may already be past time for another mea culpa. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The Fund was responding to concerns surrounding Japan's rising government debt burden. Under its baseline scenario public debt is set to increase to over 275% of GDP by 2030 without significant steps taken to address the problem.
Japanese GDP fell by 0.4% in the third quarter following a 1.8% contraction in Q2, mainly due to a collapse in consumer spending. India's 'untouchable' toilet cleaners forge new lives | ||
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Nekpur (India) (AFP) - For nearly four decades, Kela Devi worked for a pittance emptying her high-caste neighbours' toilets with her bare hands in the small Indian village where she lives. But in the last two years she has turned her life around, learning to read and write and opening her first bank account. Devi is among 21 women in the village of Nekpur who managed to escape their desperate situation with the help of the charity Sulabh International, which provided shelter and a basic education. The organisation stepped in two years ago, when India's government banned the building of non-flushing toilets that must be emptied by hand in an attempt to end the practice known as manual scavenging. Sulabh International has built new toilets for the community and established a centre called Nai Disha, or New Direction, where the women learn vocational skills such as sewing and making detergents and other disinfectants. Devi, who is in her mid-60s, was one of the oldest and is the mother of three sons and four daughters. "These women used to get food, clothes and a little money for their work," said Suman Chahar of Sulabh International. "Now, they make over 3,000 rupees ($50) each month, and they have their dignity." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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UK Inflation Ticks Up | ||
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UK inflation ticked up to 1.3% in October, according to figures just released by the Office for National Statistics. Analysts had expected inflation to come in at 1.3%, up from September's 1.2% reading. The core figure, which strips out the most volatile prices, like food and tobacco, came in slightly higher at 1.5%. Despite the slight increase, with oil prices dropping, inflation will probably remain below the Bank of England's 2% target in the coming months. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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