On Nov. 3, 2020, Election Day, two young entrepreneurs received a call from the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with some important news. Luana Lopes Lara and Tarek Mansour had spent the past 18 months trying to get permission to start an ambitious and controversial new type of financial exchange—one where, rather than betting on equity prices or commodity futures, people could trade instruments tied to the outcomes of real-world events, such as the passage of legislation, the weather on a particular day, or the winner of best actor at the Oscars. “Congratulations,” boomed Heath Tarbert, a Republican who’d been appointed by President Donald Trump the previous year. “You now stand with markets that have been around since the 1840s. And I have no doubt that in time you’ll…

In Kyrgyzstan, a member of parliament urgently called on the government to start creating jobs and setting up temporary housing for the information technology professionals now arriving daily from Russia. Even a poor Central Asian nation that exports cheap migrant labor for Russian construction sites and fast-food restaurants looks like a safe haven to thousands of educated Russians fleeing the cataclysm Vladimir Putin created by invading Ukraine. This can no longer be described as brain drain: It’s a stampede for the exits. Konstantin Sonin, an economist at the University of Chicago, has estimated that some 200,000 Russians fled in the first 10 days of the invasion—to Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Israel—any country that admits Russians visa-free. That’s a small number compared with the 2.8 million refugees who’ve left Ukraine, but…

For the past decade, while cryptocurrencies, Fed policy, meme stocks, and Elon Musk have captured all the headlines, investors have been quietly funneling a billion dollars a day into the greatest money-transfer machine in the history of capitalism: Vanguard. Yet the company shouldn’t even exist. An asset manager owned by its investors? That invests in passive indexes? That charges only microscopic fees? That’s made millions of Americans fabulously wealthy and bankrolled countless retirements without succumbing to Wall Street? The money manager now has more than $8 trillion in assets—second only to BlackRock, which it could surpass in a few years—as well as the three biggest funds in the world and another three in the top 10. Vanguard’s influence extends well beyond the numbers on any scoreboard. The entire investing universe now…

The McDonald’s in Great Barrington, Mass., had hired extra employees to keep up with the flow of hungry customers from a marijuana shop nearby. What its managers didn’t realize, on a Saturday afternoon in December, was that the payment processing technology at the dispensary was misidentifying a purchase of pear-flavored THC chews as a withdrawal from an ATM—at the burger joint’s address. The dispensary, Theory Wellness, didn’t know about the wrong address either. But why did the purchase show up as a cash withdrawal? Theory’s payment machine, which looked to a customer a lot like a card reader at a coffee shop, was in fact running a so-called cashless ATM. Instead of spitting out $20 bills, the machines work with software that programs them to send signals down debit rails, where…

Londra, una città alimentata dall’energia e dall’attività delle comunità di immigrati, sta perdendo le infrastrutture sociali autenticamente multiculturali, sostituite da quartieri artificiosi destinati al divertimento, imposti dagli interessi di chi ne ha la paternità. È difficile andare in giro in luoghi con l’energia giovanile di Barking o Tottenham e poi non avere voglia di ricreare quella stessa atmosfera in una nuova zona –e al contempo edificare migliaia di nuove abitazioni a prezzi accessibili– realizzata con metodi di costruzione sostenibili. Il sistema di pianificazione urbanistica di Londra deve innanzitutto tenere conto dell’aumento della popolazione e delle difficoltà che derivano dal dover immaginare un modo per costruire case in una città vincolata dalla Green Belt. Ma ha bisogno anche di sviluppare strumenti per tenere a freno l’attitudine degli investitori immobiliari a realizzare…

AUTHORS To stay competitive, today’s business leaders are investing millions in digital tools, agile methodologies, and lean strategies. Too often, however, those efforts produce neither the breakthrough operational processes nor the blockbuster business models companies need—at least not before their competitors introduce their own advances. And a key culprit is the inability to make quick and effective innovation decisions. The discovery-driven innovation processes companies now rely on involve an unprecedented number of choices, from big go/no-go gates that govern which ideas are pursued to countless decisions about how to conduct experiments, what data to collect, how to interpret findings, and how to act on them. But in companies that are just learning to experiment, too many decisions are made inefficiently or informed by past experience and narrow perspectives. As a result, critical risks…

Bikes have always been a form of freedom for Petor Georgallou. From exploring the outdoors as a boy – when his parents would have preferred him to be inside playing video games – to building any bike he could dream up as Dear Susan. Now he’s setting himself free from the workshop to take on a new challenge: running the Bespoked Handmade Bicycle Show. ‘I went to a weird all-boys boarding school in the woods. It was basically hell and incredibly dehumanising. I don’t think I was even a person until I left school,’ he says. ‘Then I had the freedom to do what I wanted and I was like, “What do people do?” So I just rode my bike a lot.’ That encompassed commuting on his fixie 20 miles each way…

On May 20, Elon Musk flew to São Paulo to announce an expansion of his satellite internet service, Starlink. The moment could, and perhaps should, have been regarded as the latest in a list of achievements that have made Musk the best-known technologist of his generation and the richest person in the world. His rocket company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., was the first private company to carry astronauts to the International Space Station. It now sends so many rockets to orbit, with such regularity, that it has put in place a constellation of thousands of satellites—Starlink—to provide internet service just about anywhere on Earth. The business serves hundreds of thousands of customers around the world, including in Ukraine—which has relied on Starlink-provided connectivity during the Russian invasion—and, according to the new…

The Dadisi Crew is an eclectic bunch. Dre is athletic and passionate about astronomy, Maya is adventurous and loves to code, and Amara is a budding environmental scientist who encourages her friends to recycle. A couple of things bind the group together: Each member is fascinated with a cutting-edge discipline, and they’re all Black characters. The fictional clique and their circle of friends are the creation of Terri-Nichelle Bradley, a Black mom of four who’s determined to inspire Black kids to pursue well-paying careers in STEAM—science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. The characters are at the heart of her company, Brown Toy Box, which makes educational play kits featuring fields such as chemistry, museum arts, and robotics. “My dream is for a child to walk up to me 10 years from now,…

It’s unusual for a governor to denounce one of his state’s biggest and most prominent employers. But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on Walt Disney Co. for criticizing a new law curtailing what schools can teach students about gender identity and sexual orientation aren’t likely to be a limited instance. Instead, they’re another sign that political fights—especially for presidential hopefuls like DeSantis—are expanding from legislatures to corporations and the business world. Last month, under pressure from activists and its own employees, Disney put out a statement declaring that the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, as critics have dubbed it, “should never have been passed and should never have been signed into law.” The company vowed to work to help get it repealed or struck down in court. Disney’s actions follow what’s recently become…

After helping Occidental Petroleum Corp. win a bidding war for Anadarko Petroleum by purchasing $10 billion of Oxy’s preferred stock in 2019 and then quietly buying up a sizable stake in regular shares during the following months, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. suddenly disappeared from the common stock in 2020, giving no reason for the investor’s about-face. Now, Buffett is once again on the Occidental bandwagon—and with more momentum than ever. Just as billionaire investor Carl Icahn exited his own stake in Occidental, Berkshire disclosed in a regulatory filing in March a rekindled interest that’s led to a buying spree. In just a few weeks, Berkshire stacked up an investment worth about $7.7 billion on top of its preferred stock holding, making it the biggest shareholder at Occidental and landing the…

夏夜在海邊的小屋裡，一個小男孩躺在床上，感覺有人把他抱了起來。他還在半睡半醒中，恍惚聽見母親低聲說時間已晚，也聽到父親在笑。接著如同做夢一般，他一下子被父親抱著走下門廊階梯，走向海灘。 頭頂是燦爛的星空。「看！」父親說時，一顆星星不可思議地移動了，在令人驚奇的天空閃現一道金色火光。這奇景尚未消逝，另一顆星星又一躍而下，然後是另一顆， 猛然衝向騷動不安的海面。孩子悄聲問：「那是什麼？」「是流星，每年都會在八月的某個晚上出現，我想你一定想看看這場大秀。 就只有這樣：眼睛只是出乎意料地瞥見了某種神祕美麗的東西，腦中留下揮之不去的印象。但孩子回到床上後，有很長一段時間凝視著黑暗，知道房子裡雖安靜無聲，四周卻充滿星星墜落的無聲樂音，這讓他欣喜若狂。 那已是幾十年前的事了，但我仍然記得那個晚上，因為我就是那個幸運的7歲男孩，父親相信對小男孩而言，新的體驗比連續的睡眠更重要。我當然也和一般小孩一樣有很多玩具，但那些現在都忘了，我記得的是星星墜落的那個晚上。我也記得曾經去坐守車（貨車工作人員乘坐的車廂）、剝鱷魚皮、發電報。我還記得走廊有一張「戰利品展台」，大人們鼓勵我們小孩子將自己發現的東西放上去展示：蛇皮、貝殼、花朵、箭頭，任何特殊或美麗的東西都可以。 我記得床邊那些為我拓展視野、甚至改變我人生的書。有一次父親送我麥克斯．畢爾邦的經典著作，談牛津大學生活的《牛津愛情故事》。我告訴父親我看了很喜歡，他隨口說：「你何不考慮去那兒上學？」幾年後憑著運氣和獎學金，我果然成了牛津的學生。 我父親有一種很厲害的天賦：能夠為孩子開啟一扇又一扇的大門， 引領孩子涉入精彩新奇的領域。這種為孩子拓展視野之巧妙的技藝未必要花很多時間，只需要更經常和孩子一起做事，而不是為孩子做什麼或強迫他們做什麼。我認識的一位女士有一本「為什麼不？」筆記，隨手記下各種極有趣味的另類想法：「為什麼不帶孩子去警局按指紋？」「為什麼不去農場嘗試擠牛奶？」「為什麼不安排去坐一趟拖船？」「為什麼不跟著河川疏濬挖泥船尋找鯊魚牙齒的化石？」而且還真的一一去實踐。 我問她哪來的靈感，她說：「喔， 我也不知道，但我小時候有一個遊手好閒但很奇葩的舅舅。」這位舅舅為她開啟了很多扇大門，就像她現在也為自己的孩子開啟大門。 除了父親，我們還有一位難忘的阿姨。她最擅長心血來潮提出妙點子，讓人一掃日常俗務的無聊。她會問我們幾個孩子：「你們會倒立嗎？ 我會耶！」說著她便用膝蓋夾住裙子倒立起來。她會喊道：「我們今天下午要做什麼？」然後立刻自己回答：「我們去當鋪當東西吧！」或 「靠近隔壁鎮那裡有一個看手相的，我們去算命吧！」每一次我們都耳目一新，每一次都見識另一扇神奇的大門被打開，每一次都是一場嶄新的經驗分享。這兩個字是關鍵：分享。 最容易為孩子開啟的門，通常就是引導他們做你自己熱愛的事。優秀的老師都懂得這個道理，也知道其終極的滿足是什麼：那就是你心中的火星爆發出火焰，而後自己發光發亮的那一刻。幾年前在美國高爾夫協會的錦標賽上，一個梳著辮子的10歲孩子在青少年女子冠軍賽中表現亮眼。 有人問她：「你是什麼時候開始對高爾夫產生興趣的？」 她說：「我9歲生日那天。」 「你的意思是你爸爸送了你一套球具？」 她耐心回答：「不是的，他給我的是高爾夫這項運動。」 看得出，在這個美妙領域占有一席之地的這位父親，一直都希望和孩子分享箇中境界。這無疑要花費時間、心力、耐心，還要將一腔熱忱神奇地移轉給孩子，但這為雙方帶來多大的回報啊！對任何領域都是同樣的道理，無論是音樂、天文、化學或是收集蝴蝶。 孩子天生好問，喜歡嘗試新事物，但必須有人提供各種選擇。許多年前有一齣兒童知識問答廣播節目，孩子的聰慧讓聽眾大為驚異。一位作家決定去發掘這些非凡兒童的背景有什麼共通點。他發現有些人來自貧窮家庭，有些則家境優渥，有的讀名校，有的並不是。但他調查的每個案例中，父母至少有一人會和孩子分享自己熱衷的事物， 觀察孩子感興趣的領域，鼓勵孩子，讚美孩子的成就，寓教於樂，特別費心提供學習的方法和工具。無疑地，孩子原本就具備傑出表現的能力，但必須有父母的愛、關心和陪伴才能展現出來。 我有位朋友是精神科醫生，他說這世界基本上有兩種人：一種認為人生在世是一種殊遇，另一種視之為難題。第一種人充滿熱情、活力與韌性，能因應挑戰；另一種人在認知上是封閉的，遇事常抱持懷疑、猶豫、保留的態度。對第一類人來說，人生是充滿希望的精彩旅程；對第二類人而言，人生到處潛藏危機。他又說：「只要跟我說你的童年是什麼樣子，我就可以判斷你可能屬於哪一類。」 所以說，父母嘗試為孩子推開一扇扇的大門，其真正目的並不是要愉悅孩子，或自我取樂，而是要培養孩子積極外向的態度，因應複 雜艱難的生存挑戰。這當然是我們能夠傳承給下一代最寶貴的資產—不是金錢、房子或傳家寶， 而是感知和感恩美好，洋溢活力和喜悅的能力。任何人只要關心孩子的未來，總要面對這種挑戰。沒有人能做到100分，但總有機會一次又一次出現。 星星墜落的那個晚上已過去很多年了，地球依舊轉動，太陽依舊西沉，夜幕依舊籠罩著亙古不變的海洋。明年流星降臨的8月再來時，我自己的兒子就滿7歲了。 英文首刊於《讀者文摘》英文版1964年10月號 plunge (v)驟降；跳進；扎入 trophy (n)戰利品；獵獲物；獎盃 tuck (v)把（衣服等的末端）塞入；把⋯藏入 transference (n)轉移；調動 inquisitive (n)好問的；愛鑽研的 heirloom (n)傳家之寶；祖傳之物 On summer night in a seaside cottage, a small boy felt himself lifted from bed. Dazed with sleep, he heard his mother murmur about the lateness of the hour, heard his father laugh. Then, with the swiftness of a dream, he was borne in his father’s arms down the porch steps, out onto the beach. Overhead the sky blazed with stars. “Watch!” Incredibly, as his father spoke, one of the stars moved. In a streak of golden fire it flashed across the astonished heavens. And before the wonder of this could…

EVEN BEFORE THE PANDEMIC, HOPIN WAS A good idea. The British startup, founded by first-time entrepreneur Johnny Boufarhat in 2019, offered an online venue for virtual talks, breakout rooms, and one-on-one networking – an engaging alternative to expensive, large-scale conferences. Hopin began 2020 with a 10,000-strong waitlist of conference organisers seeking early access. But, in February that year, when coronavirus swept in-person events off the table, potential customers got impatient. “We had a ton of people that were upset with us for not letting them through, so we decided we need to expand as fast as we can and to hire as quickly as possible,” Boufarhat recalls. “I was on Twitter looking for people who had just been furloughed, because I knew they’d be able to start tomorrow; I had people…

AUTHORS WHEN WE FIRST traveled to China, in the early 1990s, it was very different from what we see today. Even in Beijing many people wore Mao suits and cycled everywhere; only senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials used cars. In the countryside life retained many of its traditional elements. But over the next 30 years, thanks to policies aimed at developing the economy and increasing capital investment, China emerged as a global power, with the second-largest economy in the world and a burgeoning middle class eager to spend. One thing hasn’t changed, though: Many Western politicians and business executives still don’t get China. Believing, for example, that political freedom would follow the new economic freedoms, they wrongly assumed that China’s internet would be similar to the freewheeling and often politically disruptive…

China’s bookstores — once largely drab, state-run and pragmatic spaces — are slowly evolving to attract a new generation of social media–savvy clientele through daring design. Escher-inspired staircases and towering shelves are the country’s flavour du jour, an arrangement that plays well on camera but can feel as hollow as the fake books that sometimes adorn the shelves. Shanghai’s Wutopia Lab, however, is striving to return the bliss of reading to the heart of bookstore design. Marking the design studio’s 10th book-related project since 2013, Satori Harbor in China’s sprawling southern port city of Guangzhou is Wutopia’s most explicit spatial response to a typology in existential flux. Drawing from zha oche, the Taoist concept of enlightenment (known as “satori” in Japanese), the space is crisp and meditative. Yet, as this is…

Fifty years ago when U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China, there was a greater gap between China and the U.S. than there is now. Yet the two countries still chose to break the ice with the issuance of the Shanghai Communiqué, which laid the foundation for the two countries to establish diplomatic ties and advance cooperation in a wide range of areas. “Nixon’s historic visit opened a door for China to re-engage with the world, and Chinese students, business people, scholars, technicians and scientists had the opportunity to travel to the U.S. and Western Europe and to learn from them. These men and women then came back and helped transform China into a modern and prosperous country,” Xie Tao, Dean of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign…

Hey there! It’s me, the stock market. I know it’s weird to write you like this, but I felt like I needed to drop a quick thank-you note for everything you’ve done for me this year. I mean, your big ol’ balance sheet is almost $3 trillion larger since early March! You’re backing up the truck and loading it with Treasuries and corporate bonds and bond ETFs, all to keep the competition to stocks from fixed-income yields as limited as Jim Cramer’s understanding of me. It’s been a dream come true, honestly. I mean, fess up: Have you been reading my diary?! Maybe you’ve noticed, but everything else is a royal mess. Covid-19 is still killing people. Parents are dreading the beginning of “school.” U.S. unemployment is still above 10%, higher…

The Zisha teapot, produced in Yixing, Jiangsu, is well known throughout China. These teapots are mainly classified according to their typical shapes into Smooth-bodied and Floriated Zisha teapot. Rather than having ornate decoration, the Smooth-bodied Zisha teapot emphasizes its geometric shape and spatial form and relies on bright lines and plain, natural forms to embody the features of the shape of the teapot. By contrast, the Floriated Zisha teapot, based on the spatial modeling of the smooth-bodied Zisha teapot, is created by mimicking the vivid shapes found in nature (such as those of flowers, birds, insects, and fish). These floriated teapots have designs of bionic pictographic models delivered through relievo, demirelievo, and round carving in various parts of the teapot, such as the spout, handle, and base. Their external features,…

IF THERE’S ONE UNASSAILABLE TRUTH ABOUT GRAVEL TIRES, it is that no tire is ever perfect for the entirety of a ride. Gravel roads and trail conditions can vary, so choosing which tire to use is often a compromise. For general gravel riding, pick the tire that’s best suited for most of the rides you undertake. If you’re racing, select a tire that offers the greatest benefits on the terrain that covers the largest share of that particular course. HOW TO PICK GRAVEL TIRES Bicycling editors evaluated tires in three general categories: knobby, mixed, and slick. These are tires we’ve ridden and recommend. We’re showing three options in each category, so you have choices based on your brand preferences and the shop you frequent. Nerd out on these tech details and use…

THE PREVAILING NARRATIVE in business today is one of ever faster change and creative destruction: Big Tech companies are taking over, the number of unicorns (start-ups worth $1 billion) keeps growing, the average tenure of old-economy companies on the S&P 500 is plummeting, and incumbency has never been worth less. The message to established firms—play catch-up or die—is bleak. But let’s look at the bigger picture. Yes, there’s no denying the exponential growth of the large tech companies or the cautionary tales of disruption’s famous victims (think Nokia, Kodak, and Blockbuster). However, over the past three decades many large sectors of the economy have not been disrupted—that is, taken over by tech-enabled competitors that serve customers more efficiently and cheaply than incumbents do—to any significant degree. Indeed, most established firms are…

Weight 8.35kg (Large) Frame HMX carbon Fork HMX carbon Gears Shimano 105 Di2 12-speed (50/34t, 11-34t) Brakes Shimano 105 Di2 Wheels Syncros RP2.0 alloy Finishing kit Syncros RR1.5 alloy stem, Syncros Creston 2.0 alloy handlebar, Syncros Duncan 1.0 Aero carbon seatpost, Syncros Belcarra Regular 2.0 saddle, Schwalbe One 700x28c tyres THE CURRENT-GENERATION SCOTT Addict RC was launched in 2019, and is the all-round road race bike Scott-sponsored teams, such as Team DSM, often use when the road tips uphill. The 40 is the brand’s entry-level model, featuring a Shimano 105 Di2 R7100 drivetrain but the same frameset as our 2022 Bike of the Year contender, the Addict RC 10. Yes, the frame’s beginning to look a little long in the tooth, with limited tyre clearance the biggest gripe when you…

This year’s Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference officially concluded on March 29, after four days of heated discussions among representatives from across the globe on Asia’s development strategies for 2024 and beyond. Amid a wide spectrum of trending topics, a novel concept stood out in this year’s agenda: new quality productive forces. But the concept was not just a buzzword that randomly made its way into almost every BFA panel. Over the past few months, it has become a key phrase in China’s economic lexicon that has set out to permeate every aspect of everyday life and reshape the country’s economic landscape in profound ways. Switching gears In the context of China’s economic development, new quality productive forces refer to innovation-led, advanced productivity that is freed from traditional economic growth models and productivity…

On May 31, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and National Energy Administration (NEA) issued a blueprint for the high-quality development of new energy, aiming to accelerate the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system in China. The following day, on June 1, nine government departments, including the NDRC and NEA, jointly released the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for Renewable Energy Development, outlining major targets for the sector (see graphics). Industry analysts believe the issuance of state-level policies conveys a positive signal for the development of the renewable energy industry, which will serve as a crucial means for the country to fulfill its commitment proposed in 2020 to reach a carbon peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. The time is now According to a report released by…

No hay nada mejor que tener un remanso de paz y tranquilidad en el que desconectar y descansar del ajetreo del día a día. Y quienes bien lo saben (y lo practican a conciencia) son los empresarios, artistas y deportistas que tienen sus refugios exclusivos en lugares recónditos en los que huir de la ciudad (o de la fama) y sentirse un vecino más. Una de las zonas de moda entre la alta sociedad en España es la comarca de La Vera, un rincón idílico entre Cáceres, Ávila y Toledo. En Jarandilla de la Vera cuentan con finca Alejandro Sanz (arregló varios secaderos de tabaco para convertirlos en El Sueño de los Parrales); Ana Rosa Quintana 7, que tiene una casita en Cuacos de Yuste; el empresario Florentino Pérez; y…