EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Science Of Beauty Key Takeaway: Beauty is more important to us than we often realize, as it can have a compelling effect on our experience and behavior. Beauty emerges from properties of the object itself, such as proportion, symmetry, and curvature, as well as the relationship between the object and the viewer, including the degree of familiarity. Aesthetics […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK The Art Of Photography: What Makes A Photo Good? Key Takeaway: A quality photograph can be influenced by six dimensions: production and presentation, technical aspects, who or what is shown, composition, psycho-physiological, and narrative. Production and presentation factors include factors in front and behind the lens, such as comfort, awareness of being observed, viewing size and context, and technical aspects like exposure, focus, and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY Smartphones & The Source Of Our Anxiety Key Takeaway: Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation, calls for action to limit teenagers’ smartphone access and address the mental health crisis caused by the widespread use of smartphones. Haidt cites the “great rewiring” period from 2010 to 2015 as a time when adolescents’ neural systems were primed for anxiety and depression by daily smartphone […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK The Rise Of Robo-Retail Key Takeaway: Canada’s first robotic cafe, RC Coffee, opened in Toronto in October 2020, reviving the concept of a restaurant where food and drinks are served by technology. The trend of digitally enabled retail automation has grown in popularity in Canada over the past decade, driven by safety concerns and labor shortages. As of the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK POLITICS The Future Of China’s Semiconductor Industry Key Takeaway: China’s national champions for semiconductor design and manufacturing, HiSilicon and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), are making waves in Washington. Huawei’s launch of the Huawei Mate 60 smartphone in August 2023 showed that Chinese self-sufficiency in HiSilicon’s semiconductor design and SMIC’s manufacturing capabilities were catching up at an alarming pace. The US has […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK Twitter’s Future After Threads Key Takeaway: Mark Zuckerberg’s new social media platform, Threads, has been released in smartphone app stores, with at least 30 million users signing up on its first day. The platform could potentially be a reliable alternative to Twitter, as Twitter has faced issues with user data, safety, and reliability since its acquisition by Elon Musk […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK What We Can Learn From Kanye West And Adidas Key Takeaways: Brand collaborations are strategic partnerships between two or more brands. When done well, the collaboration helps both partners grow their brands and amplify a shared message. But just like any marriage, it doesn’t always go well; recent examples include Yeezy’s breakups with Gap and Adidas. Adidas has ended its partnership with Yeezy after […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY Megacities In The Digital Age Key Takeaways: Digitization and crowdsourcing will actually undermine the very foundations of the megacity economy, which is typically built on some combination of manufacturing, commerce, retail and professional services. Shopping malls, for example, which once thrived in megacities, are now suffering from the advent of e-commerce. Today, megacities have become synonymous with economic growth. In both developing and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK Why 2022 Will Be The Automotive Industry’s Make Or Break Year If nothing else, the global chip shortage has exposed the automotive industry’s Groundhog Day: a sector reliant on very old semiconductors that are unprofitable for chipmakers to produce, meaning they have to build special factories with technologies that they no longer use in their cutting-edge processes. So while the consumer electronics industry will soon be over the chip crisis, the automotive […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY How The Pandemic Changed Digital Journalism In the last decade, smartphones and mobile technology have altered newsrooms, transforming news gathering, live broadcasting and content distribution. Trained on an iPhone 4s at the University of Sheffield in 2011, I was one of the first mobile journalists in the UK. Over the course of my career broadcasting live, from war zones in Iraq to tornados […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why Forgetting Is Essential: The Hidden Power Of Memory Loss Key Takeaway: Memory research has long explored the reasons behind forgetting, with the “forgetting curve” illustrating that people lose details of new information quickly after learning it. Memory formation involves strengthening synapses, making the memory more resilient. Memory is also adaptive, constantly evolving to handle new information. This adaptability is vital for navigating minor changes […] Written by Empirics Asia November 5, 2024November 5, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Big Bang: Inside The Explosive Origin Of Everything Key Takeaway: The Big Bang theory describes the universe’s birth as a massive explosion nearly 14 billion years ago, sparking everything we know today. Scientists discovered this event in 1929 with Edwin Hubble’s discovery of distant galaxies moving away from each other. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) in 1964 provided direct evidence for the Big […] Written by Empirics Asia November 1, 2024November 1, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Tiny Titans In Space: A Revolution In Space Exploration Key Takeaway: CubeSats, affordable, lightweight satellites, are revolutionizing space exploration by focusing on single scientific goals like observing asteroids or tracking water on the Moon. They travel as secondary payloads, minimizing space debris and accelerating discovery. CubeSats are also unlocking mysteries of distant worlds, paving the way for humanity’s dreams of becoming a multiplanetary species. […] Written by Empirics Asia October 25, 2024October 25, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why We Crave Fear? The Science Of The Scare Key Takeaway: The fascination with fear is deeply rooted in human evolution, with emotions playing a critical role in survival. Controlled fear experiences, such as watching horror movies or navigating a haunted house, offer a safe way to engage with this powerful emotion. Exposure to intense fear reduces anxiety levels afterward, leaving people feeling more […] Written by Empirics Asia October 24, 2024October 24, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Flawed Theory Behind Why Nations Prosper Key Takeaway: Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson were awarded the 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics for their book Why Nations Fail, which argued that countries succeed when they adopt inclusive institutions like democracy, while extractive institutions stifle growth by concentrating power and wealth in elites. However, their theory has faced criticism for […] Written by Empirics Asia October 23, 2024October 23, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How To Manage Existential Anxiety In The Age Of Constant Crises Key Takeaway: In a world filled with crises, existential anxiety is a growing concern. This anxiety often manifests as mental distress, with the brain responding with stress hormones. Doomscrolling, a cycle of anxiety, can intensify feelings of helplessness and vulnerability to conspiracy theories. To manage this, stress-reduction exercises, emotional and social connections, and problem-solving can […] Written by Empirics Asia October 22, 2024October 22, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Cosmic Breakthroughs On The Horizon Key Takeaway: Advancements in telescope technology have led to more discoveries about the universe than ever before. As new, groundbreaking observatories are set to launch over the next 20 years, they are expected to push the boundaries of cosmology even further. Chile is home to two ambitious ground-based telescopes, the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and […] Written by Empirics Asia October 21, 2024October 21, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked