Hong Kong Media Mogul Dies at 107; Run Run shaw Helped Popularize Martial-Arts Films in the West

Hong Kong Media Mogul Dies at 107

Run Run shaw Helped Popularize Martial-Arts Films in the West

JEFFREY NG And PRUDENCE HO

Jan. 6, 2014 10:46 p.m. ET

Hong Kong film stars shown with Run Run Shaw in 1959. Associated Press

HONG KONG—Media titan Sir Run Run Shaw, who co-founded dominant broadcasterTelevision Broadcasts Ltd. 0511.HK -0.79% , died Tuesday morning at the age of 107, the company said. Read more of this post

It’s So Cold, This Guy Threw Boiling Water Into The Air And It Instantly Turned To Snow

It’s So Cold, This Guy Threw Boiling Water Into The Air And It Instantly Turned To Snow

ROB WILE

JAN. 6, 2014, 9:28 AM 13,598 15

Meteorologist Eric Holthaus just posted this insane video of him turning boiling water into snow. Shot in Viroqua, WI, near La Crosse, it was -21°F with a wind chill of -51°F.

Chris Meledandri, the man who has made millions from Minions

January 5, 2014 2:00 pm

Chris Meledandri, the man who has made millions from Minions

By Matthew Garrahan

Gofer made good: Chris Meledandri’s ‘Despicable Me 2’ was 2013’s top-grossing animated movie

As a boy growing up in 1970s New York, Chris Meledandri never saw any cartoons or animated movies. His early film experiences came courtesy of Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, rather than Walt Disney. Read more of this post

How EADS Became Airbus; Fifteen Years in the Making, Plane Maker’s Transformation Fraught With Sturm und Drang

How EADS Became Airbus

Fifteen Years in the Making, Plane Maker’s Transformation Fraught With Sturm und Drang

DANIEL MICHAELS

Jan. 5, 2014 3:36 p.m. ET

Airbus just lost some baggage.

With the new year, the plane maker’s parent company dropped one of the corporate world’s most unaerodynamic names: European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.EADSY -1.18%  It is now rebranded as Airbus Group NV. The Dutch-registered French-German-British-Spanish multinational’s transformation was 15 years in the making, fraught with the Sturm und Drang of Europe itself. Read more of this post

Thomas Chrystie, Creator of Cash Management Account, Dies at 80

Thomas Chrystie, Creator of Cash Management Account, Dies at 80

Thomas Chrystie, the Merrill Lynch & Co. executive who developed the Cash Management Account, a 1970s innovation that drove the firm’s growth into a full-service financial provider, has died. He was 80. Read more of this post

‘Polar Pig’ Threatens Coldest U.S. Weather in Two Decades

‘Polar Pig’ Threatens Coldest U.S. Weather in Two Decades

The coldest air in almost 20 years is sweeping over the central U.S. toward the East Coast, threatening to topple temperature records, ignite energy demand and damage Great Plains winter wheat. Read more of this post

Harnessing the power of extreme consumers; Product designers are using extreme users to glean ideas

January 6, 2014 4:41 pm

Harnessing the power of extreme consumers

By Alicia Clegg

Micah Melton has strong opinions about ice. The water to make it must be double boiled; small dense cubes are best for shaking cocktails; a 9-inch shard of ice chills a gin and tonic to perfection and imparts just the right dilution. Read more of this post

Spain king’s daughter summoned over financial crimes

Spain king’s daughter summoned over financial crimes

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 – 21:52

AFP

MADRID – A Spanish court summoned King Juan Carlos’ youngest daughter Cristina as a suspect in alleged tax and money-laundering crimes Tuesday, a historic first for a direct relative of the monarch. Read more of this post

Meat pumped with pond water in south China: state TV

Meat pumped with pond water in south China: state TV

1:56am EST

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China has held seven people in southern Guangdong province for injecting dirty pond water into lamb meat to swell its weight and raise its price, state television reported in the latest food scandal to hit the world’s second largest economy. Read more of this post

Dilbert creator Scott Adams: Read this if you want to be happy in 2014

Read this if you want to be happy in 2014

By Scott Adams, Published: January 3 | Updated: Saturday, January 4, 2:39 AM

I have no expertise whatsoever on the topic of happiness. But I do have a knack for observation and simplification. That’s what I do for my day job as the creator of Dilbert. Today — as some of you are already backtracking on those New Year’s resolutions — I’m going to strip out all of the mumbo-jumbo around the topic of happiness and tell you the simplest way to get some. You’re reading this in the business section because every bit of what follows on the topic of happiness is relevant to your career, especially if you have entrepreneurial ambitions. You’ll need all the good health, good looks and mental energy you can muster to influence people and survive the long hours. As luck would have it, the good habits that make you healthy and energetic help to make you happy at the same time, so it’s a double win.

As far as I can tell, people usually experience the sensation of happiness whenever they have both health and freedom. It’s a simple formula:

Happiness = Health + Freedom Read more of this post

The Path to Altruism: The desire to help others without consideration for ourselves is not just a noble ideal. Selflessness raises the quality and elevates the meaning of our lives, and that of our descendants; in fact, our very survival may even d

MATTHIEU RICARD

Matthieu Ricard, a French Buddhist monk who resides at Shechen Monastery in Nepal, holds a doctorate in molecular genetics and runs 130 humanitarian projects through his organization Karuna-Shechen.

JAN 3, 2014

The Path to Altruism

SHECHEN, NEPAL – “Cooperation,” the Harvard University biologist Martin Nowak has written, is “the architect of creativity throughout evolution, from cells to multicellular creatures to anthills to villages to cities.” As mankind now tries to solve new, global challenges, we must also find new ways to cooperate. The basis for this cooperation must be altruism. Read more of this post

You Can’t Take It With You, but You Still Want More: A new study illustrates humans’ deeply rooted desire to earn more than they possibly can consume

January 4, 2014

You Can’t Take It With You, but You Still Want More

By MATT RICHTEL

All work and no play may just be a result of “mindless accumulation.”

So say scholars behind research, published in the journal Psychological Science in June, that shows a deeply rooted instinct to earn more than can possibly be consumed, even when this imbalance makes us unhappy. Read more of this post

Even as a child, Jeff Bezos was a data-obsessed, workaholic genius

Even as a child, Jeff Bezos was a data-obsessed, workaholic genius

By Jonathan Wai January 3, 2014

Jonathan Wai is a researcher at the Duke University Talent Identification Program and Case Western Reserve University and writes “Finding the Next Einstein: Why Smart is Relative” for Psychology Today. Read more of this post

How to give your kids everything but a sense of entitlement

How to give your kids everything but a sense of entitlement

By Jenn Choi 4 hours ago

Jenn Choi is the mother of two children. On her site Toys Are Tools, she attempts to decipher what is really beneficial about high-quality educational toys. Kids who understand gratitude have better grades and are less likely to get depressed. This was the conclusion of a recent story in the Wall Street Journal that struck a chord with both my husband and me. Read more of this post

Today one in four people can expect to be struck with debilitating anxiety—why are we so stressed out?

Book Review: ‘My Age of Anxiety’ by Scott Stossel

Today one in four people can expect to be struck with debilitating anxiety—why are we so stressed out?

DANIEL AKST

Jan. 3, 2014 4:52 p.m. ET

Confronted with the problem of spirituality, William James argued that we should study “the acute religion of the few”—mystics, ascetics, spiritual revolutionaries—in order to shed light on “the chronic religion of the many.” Read more of this post

In the era of Facebook and “the friend zone,” are we forgetting the value of a true boon companion?

Book Review: ‘Friendship’ by A.C. Grayling

In the era of Facebook and “the friend zone,” are we forgetting the value of a true boon companion?

MICAH MATTIX

Jan. 3, 2014 4:50 p.m. ET

‘Friend’ is a much devalued word today. President Barack Obama recently referred to his “friends on the right”—with little apparent friendliness. The rest of us, thanks to Facebook, are “friends” with people we have never met. We speak of “friends with benefits” when we mean casual lovers, and of living in the “friend zone” when we mean being romantically frustrated. We refer to things and events as being “eco-friendly,” “user-friendly” or “business-friendly.” Read more of this post

Back to School: Fama, French Discuss Their Work; The top proponents of the efficient-market theory on stocks, behavioralists, and bubbles

SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 2014

Back to School: Fama, French Discuss Their Work

By BEVERLY GOODMAN | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

The top proponents of the efficient-market theory on stocks, behavioralists, and bubbles.

Eugene Fama and Kenneth French have the easy banter of two brilliant minds that have collaborated and challenged each other for three decades. Fama, 74, teaches at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He just won the Nobel Prize for his theory of market efficiency, which, in 1965, argued that all available information was immediately incorporated into stock prices. In 1985, he teamed up with Ken French, who at the time also taught at Chicago, but is now a professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business. Since then, “Fama and French” has been a catchphrase, shorthand for efficient markets and the model for investing that grew out of that theory. Read more of this post

Paul Stoneham, boss of hair straightener manufacturer ghd, has improved his company’s supply chain and volumised sales and doubled profits over the past four years

How ghd is getting ahead

ghd boss Paul Stoneham has improved his company’s supply chain and volumised sales

Over the past four years Paul Stoneham has doubled profits at ghd Photo: Paul Grover

By Anna White

8:00PM GMT 04 Jan 2014

The hair straightener manufacturer ghd is barely recognisable after a makeover from its chief executive, Paul Stoneham, who will launch 20 new products over the next five years. Read more of this post

Up Close and Personal with Datuk Michael Tio, CEO of PKT Logistics Group Sdn Bhd

Updated: Saturday January 4, 2014 MYT 8:06:57 AM

Up Close and Personal with Datuk Michael Tio, CEO of PKT Logistics Group Sdn Bhd

BY EUGENE MAHALINGAM

IT’S Tuesday. Datuk Michael Tio is in his office hard at work, ensuring that operations at PKT Logistics Group Sdn Bhd, a total logistics service provider, is running smoothly. The irony is that it’s also his birthday, and birthday greetings are already pouring in – by the minute.

In Tio’s office to one corner of the room hangs a large screen high-definition TV that’s hooked up to the Internet. Tio, a big social media advocate, replies his thousands of “fans” periodically as the greetings come pouring in, all during the course of this interview. Yes, PKT Logistics has its own Facebook page, and to date, has over 20,000 unique fans and growing. Read more of this post

Encouraging entrepreneurs keeps companies forever young

January 2, 2014 4:02 pm

Encouraging entrepreneurs keeps companies forever young

By Kate Burgess

Encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit among staff is vital to keeping companies forever youthful, according to experts in business psychology. Contrary to common perception, entrepreneurs fit well in big corporate cultures, say the professors from University College London and Goldsmiths. Read more of this post

How the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Really Did It

How the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Really Did It

The stock scam wasn’t emblematic of greed in the Financial District. These guys were just shrewd crooks working out of Long Island.

RONALD L. RUBIN

Jan. 3, 2014 6:40 p.m. ET

The swindler known as the “Wolf of Wall Street” taught me how to pull off his boiler-room fraud, down to the smallest details. Movie director Martin Scorsese’s lurid version of the tale now showing in multiplexes doesn’t capture how the scams really worked. Read more of this post

Degrees of Value: Making College Pay Off; For Too Many Americans, College Today Isn’t Worth It

Degrees of Value: Making College Pay Off

For Too Many Americans, College Today Isn’t Worth It

GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS

Updated Jan. 3, 2014 8:40 p.m. ET

In the field of higher education, reality is outrunning parody. A recent feature on the satire website the Onion proclaimed, “30-Year-Old Has Earned $11 More Than He Would Have Without College Education.” Allowing for tuition, interest on student loans, and four years of foregone income while in school, the fictional student “Patrick Moorhouse” wasn’t much better off. His years of stress and study, the article japed, “have been more or less a financial wash.” Read more of this post

Remembering These 4 Words Will Make You Happier: Purpose, Perspective, People, Play

Remembering These 4 Words Will Make You Happier

ERIC BARKER, BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE
JAN. 2, 2014, 2:53 PM 20,142 2

There’s an overwhelming amount of happiness research. Forget incorporating it all into your life — merely remembering it is daunting enough. I like to keep it simple: Remember the 4 P’s.

1. Purpose
2. Perspective
3. People
4. Play Read more of this post

8 Subconscious Mistakes Our Brains Make Every Day – And How to Avoid Them

8 SUBCONSCIOUS MISTAKES OUR BRAINS MAKE EVERY DAY–AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

THE “SWIMMER’S BODY ILLUSION,” AND OTHER WAYS OUR BRAINS PLAY TRICKS ON US.

BY BELLE BETH COOPER

Editor’s Note: This is one of the most-read leadership articles of 2013. Click here to see the full list.

Get ready to have your mind blown. I was seriously shocked at some of these mistakes in thinking that I subconsciously make all the time. Obviously, none of them are huge, life-threatening mistakes, but they are really surprising and avoiding them could help us make more rational, sensible decisions. Read more of this post

What Drives Us to Do the Right Thing? A look at recent brain research on voluntary giving versus avoiding punishment

What Drives Us to Do the Right Thing?

A look at recent brain research on voluntary giving versus avoiding punishment

ROBERT M. SAPOLSKY

Jan. 2, 2014 10:43 a.m. ET

Consider your average preschool, which ends each day with parents picking up their kids. But there’s a problem: A handful of parents are habitually late. The school sends out a note, urging timeliness: “Please be considerate of our wonderful staff who, after a long day of caring for your kids, are tired and want to go home,” etc. Read more of this post

The Best Management Advice From ‘The Art Of War’

The Best Management Advice From ‘The Art Of War’

MAX NISEN

JAN. 3, 2014, 8:30 AM 2,777 2

“The Art Of War” is one of the most famous books of all time, said to be written by the legendary Chinese general Sun Tzu around the fifth century B.C. Some of the advice is pretty narrowly focused and dated (for instance, what generals should do when confronted with different types of terrain). But a lot of it is applicable to leadership and management today despite being thousands of years old. We’ve broken out a few of the best pieces of business advice from the timeless classic. Read more of this post

If You Think Innovation Is Dead, Meet the Hydra

If You Think Innovation Is Dead, Meet the Hydra

Is the process of discovery hitting a dead end? Are there ever fewer paradigm-shifting revelations to be had? These questions speak more to the poverty of our imagination than to our grasp of reality. Lately, practitioners of various disciplines have suggested that most of the truly great things have been discovered or invented. Some economists say that we’ve already reaped the “low-hanging fruit” in technological innovation — in sanitation, transport and education, for example — and that future progress won’t be as easy or productive. Some physicists argue that humanity is pushing up against the limits of what can be known. Read more of this post

Overcome the Eight Barriers to Confidence

Overcome the Eight Barriers to Confidence

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter  |   10:00 AM January 3, 2014

To get a more confident You in the new year — or a more confident company, community, family, or team — first know what gets in the way. The best resolutions will go nowhere without the confidence to stick with them. Confidence is an expectation of a positive outcome. It is not a personality trait; it is an assessment of a situation that sparks motivation. If you have confidence, you’re motivated to put in the effort, to invest the time and resources, and to persist in reaching the goal. It’s not confidence itself that produces success; it’s the investment and the effort. Without enough confidence, it’s too easy to give up prematurely or not get started at all. Hopelessness and despair prevent positive action. To muster the confidence to work toward your goals, avoid these eight traps: Read more of this post

Moving with times invigorates a company

Updated: Friday January 3, 2014 MYT 10:04:18 AM

Moving with times invigorates a company

MAKING tau sar pneah pastries in an open kitchen has helped to improve the business of Penang’s Tean Ean Local Products Sdn Bhd by leaps and bounds, and now Tean Ean wants to expand its business riding on the open-kitchen idea to Kuala Lumpur and Johor. Read more of this post

All men are created unequal: Revisiting an old argument about the impact of capitalism

All men are created unequal: Revisiting an old argument about the impact of capitalism

Jan 4th 2014 | From the print edition

INEQUALITY is one of the most controversial attributes of capitalism. Early in the industrial revolution stagnant wages and concentrated wealth led David Ricardo and Karl Marx to question capitalism’s sustainability. Twentieth-century economists lost interest in distributional issues amid the “Great Compression” that followed the second world war. But a modern surge in inequality has new economists wondering, as Marx and Ricardo did, which forces may be stopping the fruits of capitalism from being more widely distributed. Read more of this post