China has adopted a slew of policies aimed at boosting its long-suffering blue-chip stocks, mired at depressed valuations, but analysts say it will take years to change an investment culture focused on speculation in small caps

Regulators in uphill battle to boost blue chips as retail investors dominate

2:03am EST

By Lu Jianxin and Gabriel Wildau

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China has adopted a slew of policies aimed at boosting its long-suffering blue-chip stocks, mired at depressed valuations, but analysts say it will take years to change an investment culture focused on speculation in small caps. Read more of this post

“Day To Night” – 24 Hours Captured In A Single Frame: The Photo Gallery

“Day To Night” – 24 Hours Captured In A Single Frame: The Photo Gallery

Tyler Durden on 12/25/2013 11:17 -0500

“I wanted to take something that everybody had an idea of — ‘I’ve been there, I’ve seen the statue of liberty’ — but I wanted to show it to you in a way that you could never see it”

– Stephen Wilkes

With markets closed around the world (and since 2008 some would say), here is something different. Below is a sampling of some of the most iconic Day to Night photos by Stephen Wilkes, each of which captures the passage of an entire day in a single frame and which, as Wired states, takes an “absurd amount of time and effort to produce” including up to 15 hours to shoot and weeks to edit. “Wilkes says he is “maniacal” in his attention to detail when making these his information-dense, hyper-curated and highly polished accounts of a single day in some of the world’s most iconic locations. Every inch of his photos, some as big as 10 feet wide, are meant to tell a story. He says telling that story is an all-consuming process.” More on this distinctly unique creative processThe amount of work that goes into these photos is insane. After intensively scouting a location and planning the shoot, Wilkes spends as long as 15 hours behind the camera, often on a crane high above the scene. He’ll shoot more than 1,000 frames between sunrise and sunset, trying to capture the shifting light and activity throughout his field of view. Through it all he remains as still as possible for fear the slightest move will shift the camera even a fraction of a degree. He and his assistant pore over the photos for weeks, creating dozens of digital collages that typically comprise 50 images. He uses a complex grid system to arrange the most interesting parts of each shot into a strong composition while staying true to the time of day that they were taken. The attention to detail reveals itself when you’re right next to the massive prints, which when seen up close stretch well beyond natural peripheral vision. The smallest oversight, like a slightly shifted shadow, can shatter the illusion by betraying the fact the epic image is in fact a collage of smaller images shot at different times of day. But when everything comes together perfectly, the viewer can step back or get nose-deep in the image without losing the sense of cohesion. Another important aspect of the work is how Wilkes teases visual narratives out of seemingly chaotic public spaces. A few hundred tourists snapping selfies in front of the Sacre Coeur or an arrest on the Santa Monica Pier become nodes of intrigue in a network connecting individual frames that form the final collage. Wilkes says finding ways to connect the countless moments held within the image and the sweep of time it captures is one of the most exciting parts of the process. “It’s as if I’m a writer and I’ve been given this incredible thesaurus, so I have all these new words to write with,” he says.

And the photos:

America Cup_0 Read more of this post

China’s Xi notes Mao’s ‘mistakes’ on 120th anniversary

China’s Xi notes Mao’s ‘mistakes’ on 120th anniversary

Thursday, December 26, 2013 – 18:58

AFP

SHAOSHAN, China – Communist China’s president Xi Jinping acknowledged Thursday its founding father Mao Zedong made “mistakes”, as admirers celebrated the 120th anniversary of the late leader’s birth with noodles and fireworks. Read more of this post

E.R. Costs for Mentally Ill Soar, and Hospitals Seek Better Way

December 25, 2013

E.R. Costs for Mentally Ill Soar, and Hospitals Seek Better Way

By JULIE CRESWELL

RALEIGH, N.C. — As darkness fell on a Friday evening over downtown Raleigh, N.C., Michael Lyons, a paramedic supervisor for Wake County Emergency Medical Services, slowly approached the tall, lanky man who was swaying back and forth in a gentle rhythm. Read more of this post

Common Knee Surgery Does Very Little for Some, Study Suggests

December 25, 2013

Common Knee Surgery Does Very Little for Some, Study Suggests

By PAM BELLUCK

A popular surgical procedure worked no better than fake operations in helping people with one type of common knee problem, suggesting that thousands of people may be undergoing unnecessary surgery, a new study in The New England Journal of Medicine reports. Read more of this post

Schroeders to Julius Baer Avoid Singapore: Southeast Asia

Schroeders to Julius Baer Avoid Singapore: Southeast Asia

Schroders Plc and Baring Asset Management Ltd. are avoiding Singapore stocks, the cheapest in Southeast Asia, as slower economic growth in the region and cuts to Federal Reserve stimulus drive capital outflows. Read more of this post

Internet cafés losing out in China’s online battle

December 26, 2013 2:29 am

Internet cafés losing out in China’s online battle

By Sarah Mishkin in Taipei

Cyber cafés were once a social hub for China’s twentysomethings – and, for authorities, a convenient way to monitorwhat Chinese citizens were doing online. But as usage of smartphones and tablet devices expands, internet cafés are becoming the collateral damage in the battle to get the country online. Read more of this post

Alibaba Unit Wins License to Compete in China Wireless Market

Alibaba Unit Wins License to Compete in China Wireless Market

China took a step toward opening the world’s largest wireless market by awarding licenses to operate to 11 companies, including a unit of Alibaba Group, the industry regulator said. Read more of this post

Pettis on Debt, Malinvestments, Hidden Losses, and China’s GDP

Pettis on Debt, Malinvestments, Hidden Losses, and China’s GDP

Posted: 25 Dec 2013 11:24 PM PST

Heading into 2014, Michael Pettis at China Financial Markets remains adamant that growth estimates for China are too high and that rebalancing (while necessary), implies lower growth than most expect. Via email …

It is widely acknowledged that perhaps the most important reason to change the Chinese growth model is its excessive reliance on debt to generate growth. Debt has soared in recent years, to the point where many economists simply look at credit growth in the current quarter in order to determine what GDP growth over the next few quarters are likely to be. Read more of this post

Sony to sell its Gracenote audio-recognition software business to Tribune Co for $170 million

Sony to Sell Gracenote Business to Tribune for $170 Million

Sony Corp. (6758) agreed to sell its Gracenote audio-recognition software business to Tribune Co. (TRBAA) for $170 million, part of the consumer-electronics maker’s effort to shed units as it focuses on fewer products. Read more of this post

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed questioned the wisdom behind the government’s decision to increase the prices of goods and services at a time when people were suffering a financial pinch

Dr M questions Malaysian government decisions to increase prices

Thursday, December 26, 2013 – 17:31

The Star/Asia News Network

PETALING JAYA – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed questioned the wisdom behind the government’s decision to increase the prices of goods and services at a time when people were suffering a financial pinch. Read more of this post

Yudhoyono braces for election turmoil

Yudhoyono braces for election turmoil

Thursday, December 26, 2013 – 15:10

Ina Parlina

The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

INDONESIA – The recent meetings between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and presidential hopefuls Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto and Yusril Ihza Mahendra have caused speculation about possible political turbulence ahead of the 2014 elections. Read more of this post

Jakarta warns local leader who blocked runway

Jakarta warns local leader who blocked runway

Thursday, December 26, 2013 – 03:00

Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja

The Straits Times

JAKARTA – A local leader in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province, angry that he could not get an airline ticket to fly home, ordered a blockade at his airport to prevent the plane from landing. Read more of this post

Thailand’s political unrest major risk to investors if unresolved

Thailand’s political unrest major risk to investors if unresolved

Thursday, Dec 26, 2013

The Nation/Asia News Network

The Securities Analysts Association (SAA) says political unrest will be a risk for investing |in the equity market next year, and if the dispute cannot be resolved, the forecast for growth in gross domestic product could be lowered from the currently anticipated 4 per cent. Read more of this post

Struggle for resources at root of Central Africa religious violence

Struggle for resources at root of Central Africa religious violence

6:47am EST

By Bate Felix and Paul-Marin Ngoupana

BANGUI (Reuters) – Mariam watched in horror as militiamen burst through the gate of her home in Central African Republic’s capital Bangui and demanded her husband say whether he was Muslim. When he said yes, they shot him dead. Read more of this post

33 Ways To Be Happier

33 Ways To Be Happier

DINA SPECTOR

Humans have remarkable control over their own happiness. In her book, “The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want,” psychology professor Sonja Lyubomirsky says a person’s happiness is 50% due to genetics, 10% due to circumstances, and the remaining 40% is “within our power to change.” Happiness is different for each person, which is why we’ve compiled dozens of different methods to help you find your inner sunshine.

Find your “flow.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a professor at Claremont Graduate University, says that the secret to happiness is finding your “flow” — the creative moment when a person achieves an “effortless state of concentration and enjoyment.” These exceptional moments are unqiue to each person, and generally occur when a person is doing his or her favorite activity — cooking, singing, or playing chess, for example. Writing in Psychology Today, Cikszentmihaly provides the example of someone who experiences “flow” while skiing: Imaging that you are skiing down a slope and your full attention is focused on the movements of your body and your full attention is focused on the movements of your body, the position of the skis, the air whistling past your face, and the snow-shrouded trees running by. There is no room in your awareness for conflicts or contradictions; you know that a distracting thought or emotion might get you buried face down in the snow. The run is so perfect that you want it to last forever. We engage in these activities for our own sake, and “the happiness that follows flow is of our own making,” Cikszentmihaly says.

Focus on what you’re doing right now.

Are you thinking about something other than what you’re currently doing? If the answer is “yes” then you are less happy than people who don’t have a wandering mind, according to research from Harvard University. About 46% of people spend their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing, say Harvard psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert. “The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost,” the study, published in the journal Science, concluded.  Read more of this post

Want to build a brand? Make one great product; “Money runs out faster than opportunities.” Make one thing great. Get one thing right.

Want to build a brand? Make one great product

BY ANDY DUNN 
ON DECEMBER 25, 2013

one

A lot of brands don’t make it, because in the process of trying to get many things right, they don’t get anything right. Why are they in such a hurry? A great brand is a privilege, and it’s a privilege best earned through an item, not through a collection. Designers and merchants and founders think about collections. Consumers think about items. Designers and merchants and founders think about one-stop shops. That kind of thinking may lead you to a no-stop shop. Read more of this post

How Choo Chiau Beng shaped Keppel for the future

How Choo shaped Keppel for the future

Outgoing CEO reflects on his five-year tenure – one of the group’s most profitable periods in its 45-year history

Lisa Lee lisalcc@sph.com.sg

MR CHOO
‘As the boss, when I see that something is not fair, I will voice it, so that people are fairly treated. So I think the key is to win the hearts and minds of the people. If you have that, then you have no problems.’ – PHOTO: ARTHUR LEE

‘As CEO of a multi-business company, one of the important skill sets you need to have is to know how to allocate capital and resources to your different businesses. So we looked at (incoming CEO) Loh Chin Hua . . .  When we wanted to start a property fund, we invited him to do it for us.’
Choo Chiau Beng, CEO, Keppel Corp

Singapore

AS Keppel’s group CEO Choo Chiau Beng hands over the baton to a new team over the next few weeks, it will be after a fairly short five years as head honcho – during which the group has experienced one of its most profitable periods in its 45-year history. Read more of this post

Leading by Letting Go

Leading by Letting Go

by Rob Markey  |   11:00 AM December 25, 2013

If you are running a large company anywhere in the world, you have almost certainly asked yourself some version of this question: “How can we get tens of thousands of employees to deliver memorable customer experiences that enhance our brand, all at a reasonable cost?” Read more of this post

AK47 Creator Kalashnikov Should Have Made Farm Tools

Kalashnikov Should Have Made Farm Tools

Mikhail Kalashnikov, who died yesterday at the age of 94, once designed and built a lawnmower for his own use: Mass-produced mowers weren’t available in the Soviet Union. Oh, and he also designed the world’s most widely used assault rifle. A lot of the encomiums and obituaries on Kalashnikov have missed the ironies of a man who became a living symbol of the state and political system that ruined his family. Now, as President Vladimir Putin brings back some of the Soviet era’s distinctive features — such as state domination of the economy, censorship and the exile of dissidents — the Russian army is preparing to take on the fifth-generation Kalashnikov rifle, the AK-12. Read more of this post

What 21 Extremely Successful People Were Doing At Age 25

What 21 Extremely Successful People Were Doing At Age 25

VIVIAN GIANG AND MAX NISEN DEC. 24, 2013, 8:00 AM 458,929 6

Some people know what they want to do from an early age and focus on it relentlessly.Others are driven enough to reinvent themselves, changing careers and industries, and continuously push until they find the thing that works. Billionaire Mark Cuban, for example, faced hardship when he first started, writing in “How To Win At The Sport Of Business that “when I got to Dallas, I was struggling — sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment.” On the other hand, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was a Xerox salesman dreaming of good coffee. As a reminder that the path to success is not always linear, we’ve highlighted what Richard BransonArianna Huffington, and 19 other fascinating and successful people were doing at age 25. Read more of this post

The good people in our midst; They may be flawed, but their attempts at reaching something high and noble, no matter how grand or how small, is an inspiration and a comfort

Updated: Wednesday December 25, 2013 MYT 7:29:32 AM

The good people in our midst

BY AZMI SHAROM

They may be flawed, but their attempts at reaching something high and noble, no matter how grand or how small, is an inspiration and a comfort.

MY Students Union building in Sheffield University was called the Nelson Mandela building. There was a photo of the man along with a small write-up on his struggle near the entrance of the union. The picture showed a heavy set person, with a tough face bordering on thuggish. Read more of this post

What Costco can teach you about cash; Mastering the cash conversion cycle can speed your company’s growth

What Costco can teach you about cash

December 24, 2013: 5:00 AM ET

Mastering the cash conversion cycle can speed your company’s growth.

By Verne Harnish

FORTUNE — Every business can learn an important lesson from Costco. The fast-growing warehouse retailer did $103 billion in sales in the fiscal year ending in September, with pre-tax earnings of $3 billion. Membership fees brought in $2.3 billion — equal to about 75% of its profit. Read more of this post

WRONG: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them

WRONG: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them Hardcover

by Richard S. Grossman  (Author)

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In recent years, the world has been rocked by major economic crises, most notably the devastating collapse of Lehman Brothers, the largest bankruptcy in American history, which triggered the breathtakingly destructive sub-prime disaster. What sparks these vast economic calamities? Why do our economic policy makers fail to protect us from such upheavals?  In Wrong, economist Richard Grossman addresses such questions, shining a light on the poor thinking behind nine of the worst economic policy mistakes of the past 200 years, missteps whose outcomes ranged from appalling to tragic. Grossman tells the story behind each misconceived economic move, explaining why the policy was adopted, how it was implemented, and its short- and long-term consequences. In each case, he shows that the main culprits were policy makers who were guided by ideology rather than economics. For instance, Wrong looks at how America’s unfounded fear of a centralized monetary authority caused them to reject two central banks, condemning the nation to wave after wave of financial panics. He describes how Britain’s blind commitment to free markets, rather than to assisting the starving in Ireland, led to one of the nineteenth century’s worst humanitarian tragedies- the Irish famine. And he shows how Britain’s reestablishment of the gold standard after World War I, fuelled largely by a desire to recapture its pre-war dominance, helped to turn what would otherwise have been a normal recession into the Great Depression. Grossman also explores the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930, Japan’s lost decade of the 1990s, the American subprime crisis, and the present European sovereign debt crisis. Economic policy should be based on cold, hard economic analysis, Grossman concludes, not on an unquestioning commitment to a particular ideology. Wrong shows what happens when this sensible advice is ignored. Read more of this post

Book Review on Wrong: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn From Them by Richard Grossman

Book Review: ‘Wrong,’ by Richard S. Grossman

In addition to monetary reparations, Germany after World War I was required to fork over 120,000 sheep and 10,000 goats.

ROGER LOWENSTEIN

Dec. 25, 2013 4:01 p.m. ET

Why is economic policy so often wrong? This is the question that Richard S. Grossman, an economics professor at Wesleyan University, means to get at in his beguiling study of nine economic-policy disasters. His writing is every bit as clear as his title—”Wrong: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn From Them.” Naturally, there can’t be a definitive answer to the question Mr. Grossman poses, but his thesis provides a good start: Policy goes off track when it is based on “ideology” rather than on “cold, hard, economic analysis.” Read more of this post

Everything connects to everything: Regardless of which side of the mirror you stand, another you is facing back

Everything connects to everything

Regardless of which side of the mirror you stand, another you is facing back.

Dec 26,2013

*The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.
by Nahm Yoon-ho

As the saying goes, if things go well, you deserve credit, and if things go wrong, you blame the ancestors. It describes how shallow a person can be, depending on the outcome.  Read more of this post

Conflict Strategies for Nice People

Conflict Strategies for Nice People

by Liane Davey  |   12:00 PM December 25, 2013

Do you value friendly relations with your colleagues? Are you proud of being a nice person who would never pick a fight?  Unfortunately, you might be just as responsible for group dysfunction as your more combative team members. That’s because it’s a problem when you shy away from open, healthy conflict about the issues. If you think you’re “taking one for the team” by not rocking the boat, you’re deluding yourself. Read more of this post

4 Clever Ways To Connect With Powerful People: Interview them, Write about them, Do them a favor, Make yourself interesting

4 Clever Ways To Connect With Powerful People

DORIE CLARKBRAZEN LIFE

DEC. 25, 2013, 9:10 AM 2,904 1

Would you like to have a famous author, prominent entrepreneur, or well-heeled venture capitalist in your network? Of course. But they almost always appear out of reach. Unless your cousin went to college with Malcolm Gladwell or your dad spent his teens spinning records with Richard Branson, it may seem like there’s no way into their inner circles. Some people try anyway, sending industry leaders “cold call” emails with blithely optimistic requests: Can I buy you a cup of coffee? Could I pick your brain for an hour? Maybe we can schedule lunch? Those messages get ignored, and for good reason: they’re insulting to any successful, busy person. It’s not arrogance that prompts people to decline invitations; it’s the only way they can cope. No one has an hour, a half hour or even 10 minutes to spare on a stranger who doesn’t have the sense to lead with a value proposition. The real question is, what can you offer someone who’s better-known or more famous than you are? Here are four suggestions for how to get noticed: Read more of this post

55 Brilliant Louis C.K. Quotes That Will Make You Laugh And Think

55 Brilliant Louis C.K. Quotes That Will Make You Laugh And Think

OCT. 25, 2013

By NICO LANG

Louis C.K. is often compared to Woody Allen (whose new movie he’s even starring in), but to me, C.K. is this generation’s George Carlin, a savagely funny comedian who isn’t afraid to touch on real issues. Carlin was something of a people’s philosopher, who just happened to swear a lot, and C.K. has touched on issues ranging from politics, environmentalism, consumption, race, class, education and masturbation, one of his personal favorite subjects. He’s also just about the only male comedian I know who deals with sexual assault well. Louis C.K. just gets it. Here’s 55 of his greatest quotes, presented in no particular order. Read more of this post

Since starting her numerology business, Holistic Healing Mind, in September last year, clients have flocked to Brenda Tan mainly by word of mouth paying S$168 an hour asking for help in all aspects of their lives

Doing business by numbers

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SINGAPORE — Armed with pencil and paper, a calculator and a deck of cards, Ms Brenda Tan aims to deconstruct a person’s psyche to not only find out what makes him tick, but also how to make him tick faster and better.

BY FRANCIS KAN –

5 HOURS 48 MIN AGO

SINGAPORE — Armed with pencil and paper, a calculator and a deck of cards, Ms Brenda Tan aims to deconstruct a person’s psyche to not only find out what makes him tick, but also how to make him tick faster and better. Read more of this post

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