Lego faces are getting angrier, study finds; Scientist says classic, smiling face of Lego figures is increasingly being replaced, with more themes based on conflict

Lego faces are getting angrier, study finds

Scientist says classic, smiling face of Lego figures is increasingly being replaced, with more themes based on conflict

Alexandra Topping and agencies

The Guardian, Wednesday 12 June 2013

Lego faces are becoming more angry, a New Zealand researcher has found. Photograph: Corbis

Life in Legoland used to be so simple – smiling doctors helped cheerful patients, contented petrol pump operators filled the tanks of satisfied drivers and classrooms of ecstatic children were taught by beaming teachers.

But then life became more complicated. Anger, puzzlement and confusion started to set in – the beatific existence of the Lego figurine was over.

The number of happy faces on Lego toy mini-figures has been decreasing since the 1990s, and the number of angry faces has increased, giving rise to concerns that children could be affected by the negativity of the toys. Read more of this post

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas: The Movie Industry Is About To Implode

STEVEN SPIELBERG: The Movie Industry Is About To Implode

HENRY BLODGET JUN. 13, 2013, 10:17 AM 12,274 34

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas made some startling comments at USC yesterday, David Cohen of Variety reports. The two movie moguls said the movie industry is about to implode. What’s happening, Spielberg and Lucas said, is that Hollywood is betting ever more heavily on a handful of massive-budget general-interest blockbusters each year, while losing the regular movie-going audience to the Internet and TV. And soon, Spielberg predicted, some of these humongous bets will blow up, demolishing the industry: “They’re  going for the gold,” said Lucas of the studios. “But that isn’t going to work forever. And as a result they’re getting narrower and narrower in their focus. People are going to get tired of it. They’re not going to know how to do anything else.” Spielberg noted that because so many forms of entertainment are competing for attention, [the studios] would rather spend $250 million on a single film than make several personal, quirky projects. “There’s eventually going to be a big meltdown,” Spielberg said. “There’s going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen of these mega-budgeted movies go crashing into the ground and that’s going to change the paradigm again.” Lucas predicts that the movie-theater industry will soon evolve into something like Broadway, where huge blockbuster movies are shown for long periods on huge screens and tickets cost fantastic amounts of money: Lucas predicted that after that meltdown, “You’re going to end up with fewer theaters, bigger theaters with a lot of nice things. Going to the movies will cost 50 bucks or 100 or 150 bucks, like what Broadway costs today, or a football game. It’ll be an expensive thing. … (The movies) will sit in the theaters for a year, like a Broadway show does. That will be called the ‘movie’ business.” “There’ll be big movies on a big screen, and it’ll cost them a lot of money. Everything else will be on a small screen. It’s almost that way now. ‘Lincoln’ and ‘Red Tails’ barely got into theaters. You’re talking about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can’t get their movies into theaters.” Read more of this post

The Astronomical Math Behind UPS’ New Tool to Deliver Packages Faster; The cost to UPS per year if each driver drives just one more mile each day than necessary is $30 million

The Astronomical Math Behind UPS’ New Tool to Deliver Packages Faster

BY MARCUS WOHLSEN

06.13.13

In a sense, all business boils down to math. But some companies have tougher equations to solve than others.

At UPS, the average driver makes about 120 deliveries per day, says Jack Levis, the shipping giant’s director of process management. To figure out how many different possible routes that driver could travel, just start multiplying: 120 * 119 * 118 * . . . * 3 * 2 * 1. The end result, Levis likes to say, far exceeds the age of the Earth in nanoseconds.

If that number sounds big, imagine having to make those calculations for 55,000 drivers every day. Until recently, UPS used a software tool that gave drivers a general route to follow but allowed wide latitude for human judgement along the way. Over the next five years, however, the company will roll out widely a more exacting algorithm designed to steer drivers away from well-worn paths toward often counterintuitive routes calculated to make delivery faster. Read more of this post

Oakmark’s Bill Nygren: Easier Today to Be a Value Investor Than When I Started

June 12, 2013, 7:13 P.M. ET

Nygren: Easier Today to Be a Value Investor Than When I Started

By Brendan Conway

Bill Nygren, manager of Oakmark Fund (OAKMX), isn’t having the line that active fund managers are hampered by the last few years’ market volatility, high-speed trading or other modern boogeymen. Asked by an audience member at the Morningstar Investment Conference whether it’s more difficult to be a fund manager today than in the past — a theme in the conference’s opening panel — Nygren argued it’s actually easier. The junior analysts his company hires are “definitely” smarter than recruits were when he started out. But that’s not the defining factor, he explained. “One of the things that has changed is the time horizon of investors,” Nygren said. “Investors might be smarter than 20 or 30 years ago, but they are focused on such a different time period than what we are looking for. I’ve seen sell-side reports [where they argue,] ‘It might take more than two quarters for the good news to start coming out.’” He chuckles. “[Ours is] 5 to 7 years. [So] there’s actually less competition for cheap stocks today than when I started in the business,” he said. “Indexing, the percentage of momentum investors, very short term events — I think is higher than ever. [It] makes it easier for a long-term value investor to do well.”

Shaolin Temple Pilots: Monks can be astronauts, says abbot

Shaolin Temple Pilots: Monks can be astronauts, says abbot

Tsai Meng-yu and Staff Reporter

2013-06-13

A young Shaolin monk displays his mastery of gravity in Kaifeng, Henan province. (Photo/Xinhua)

Shaolin monks can also practice Buddhist teachings in outer space because Buddhism depicts a boundless universe, and even believes in life outside Earth, the temple’s abbot says.

Shi Yongxin, head of the temple in Henan province known as the home of Chinese kung fu, told the state newswire Xinhua said that those who master the teachings of Buddhism can reach buddhahood and travel to other worlds, which could be the outer space of popular imagination. Read more of this post

“Tmura is the Hebrew word for change or metamorphosis and also means value for money; it is also a play on the word truma”, which means donation”

An unexpected winner in the Waze exit: a not-for-profit Israeli fund

Founded in attempt to entice the high-tech community to get more involved in Israeli non-profits, the Tmura fund is slated to receive $1.5 million from Waze’s sale to Google.

By Inbal Orpaz | Jun.12, 2013 | 4:58 PM |  2

The enormous exit for Waze, the Israeli navigation app start-up sold to Google for $1.03 billion, has created long list of new millionaires – including the company’s management. Founder Ehud Shabtai, who is also the chief technology officer, will receive $63 million. Amir Shinar, founder and head of research and development, will receive $51 million. Uri Levine, founder and president, will receive $30 million.

One of those profiting is a bit unusual in high tech-terms: Tmura – The Israeli Public Service Venture Fund, founded by Yadin Kaufmann. Read more of this post