- The top 25 stories curated by editors and fellow readers!
Editor's Pick
Why Did We Wait so Long for Wind Power? Part I
 This is perhaps somewhat surprising in retrospect - unlike, say, nuclear energy or solar photovoltaics, the basic technology for wind-generated electricity (a windmill and an electric generator) has been in place since the 1800s. So why did it take over 100 years to start deploying it on a large-scale? Let’s take a look.
The first mention of using wind to generate electricity is credited to William Thomson (better known as Lord Kelvin). In an 1881 address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Thomson noted that a windmill connected to a dynamo and a battery could be used to provide electric power, and speculated that, while wind had largely been superseded by steam generated by burning coal, “When the coal is all burned…it is most probable that windmills or wind-motors in some form will again be in the ascendant”.
Continued here
|
Editor's Note: Prior to 1980 there was close to zero electricity generated from wind worldwide. This is perhaps somewhat surprising in retrospect - unlike, say, nuclear energy or solar photovoltaics, the basic technology for wind-generated electricity (a windmill and an electric generator) has been in place since the 1800s. So why did it take over 100 years to start deploying it on a large-scale? Let's take a look.
WorkWhat to Know: The Suspected Arson Arrest Near Kenneth Fire On X (formerly Twitter), the Los Angeles Police Departments official Public Information Officer account announced: At 4:32 p.m., a radio call was generated on the 21700 block of Ybarra Road for a possible arson suspect. A male was heard stating a suspect was attempting to light a fire. The suspect is in custody and was transported to Topanga Station. Work
WorkWhy Routines, Not Resolutions, Are The Secret To Long-Term Success Every January, people around the world set ambitious New Year's resolutions: This will be the year they run that marathon, write their screenplay, or quit their jobs to launch their own business. And every year, most of those resolutions fail. Why? Because goals aren't reached in one big push. Work
WorkWorkMeet the ambitious wolf cubs of Wall Street - The Economist (No paywall) THE MASTERS of the universe will have hoped for some peace and quiet over Christmas. The holiday period was the last time for Wall Street financiers to catch a breath before Donald Trump is handed the keys to the White House on January 20th. Even if he does not make Canada the 51st state or annex Greenland, his second term promises lots of excitement. Currency traders are watching the Canadian dollar, Danish krone and other moniesthough this has less to do with Mr Trumps territorial ambitions and more with the tariffs he has vowed to slap on allies and foes alike. Stockpickers are waiting to see which firms find favour with the mercurial president and which fall foul.
WorkWorkBritains Badger Wars - The New Yorker (No paywall) A hundred years after the opening of St. Pancras station, now the flashy London home of the Eurostar, a narrow strip of land opposite the train tracks near Regents Canal had fallen into disrepair. Once a polluted coal drop, by the nineteen-seventies, the two acres of open space had become an abandoned wasteland. Then nature took over. Or, humans helped nature take over. Trash was cleared. Trees were planted. Butterflies, dragonflies, and birds returned, and, in 1985, the area reopened as Camley Street Natural Park. In the summer, on a commuting detour, you might see a moorhen, or a reed warbler, or a kingfisher. Not long ago, I visited the park to speak with the campaigner Peter Hambly. Visibility was scarce. It was raining, and we huddled over mugs of tea under a canvas tent in the outdoor caf. Its just a wet patch of wildflowers now, Hambly said, looking out. We were there to talk about badgers.
WorkWork
WorkWorkWhy food companies want consumers to buy more of everything - WSJ (No paywall) Price increases have been good for profits, but packaged food and snack company executives see sustained volume growth as the way forward, so they are flooding store aisles with new takes on familiar products, such as frozen bar-b-que loaded chicken patties. Executives are also shelling out on marketing and scooping up brand names to entice inflation-wary consumers.
WorkWorkConnect Your Learning Programs to Your Companys Strategy - Harvard Business Review (No paywall) Technology, geopolitics, and consumer habits are driving an unprecedented rate of change at a time when the organizations are already in flux with the rise of generative AI, remote work, and an aging workforce. Against this backdrop, employee learning and development is more critical than ever yet a recent report from LinkedIn and a series of interviews with 25 CLOs suggest that learning professionals dont always feel aligned with their organizations strategic priorities.
WorkWhy does Trump hate this tiny fish so much? If you believe in the work we do at Vox, please support us by becoming a member. Our mission has never been more urgent. But our work isnt easy. It requires resources, dedication, and independence. And thats where you come in. Work
WorkWhat Zuckerberg Risks by Following Musk's Lead On Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social media behemoth will end its third party fact-checking program in the U.S. and instead adopt a crowd-sourced "community notes" program. The inspiration for such a decision? Elon Musk's X. WorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkMale and female brains truly are wired completely differently Have you ever found yourself in a heated discussion with someone of the opposite sex and thought - "it's like we're wired differently"? Well, a recent study from the University of Cambridge suggests that male and female brains are indeed wired differently from the time of birth. WorkWorkWorkHerea??s where the jobs are for December 2024 a?? in one chart "We're seeing improvement in total vehicle sales, Americans are making big ticket purchases again, [and] businesses are buying vehicles too," Pollak said. "These trends have been picking up over the last few months; they were taking a while to filter into the labor market, but this report suggests ... perhaps a recovery is starting to take hold." WorkWorkWorkThe Morning After: Introducing the best of CES 2025 winners Samsung’s The Frame TV lineup was a success. It doesn’t just look like a black box when you’re not using it, but rather blends in with your home decor by showing art on the screen, with a single-cable build that tidies the usual mess of the back of TVs. It inspired many imitators, but Samsung is finally back with a pro iteration. Most importantly, The Frame Pro now has a Neo QLED display — the same Mini LED tech that powers the company’s high-end QN900 series TVs. WorkBiden extends temporary protections for more than 800,000 immigrants For José Palma, a 48-year-old Salvadoran who has lived in the US since 1998, the extension means he can still work legally in Houston. He is the only person in his family with temporary status; his four children were born in the US and are citizens, and his wife is a permanent resident. If TPS had not been extended, he could have been deported. WorkThese startups are making smarter canes for people with visual impairments | TechCrunch Brian Heater is the Hardware Editor at TechCrunch. He worked for a number of leading tech publications, including Engadget, PCMag, Laptop, and Tech Times, where he served as the Managing Editor. His writing has appeared in Spin, Wired, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, The Onion, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, The Daily Beast and various other publications. He hosts the weekly Boing Boing interview podcast RiYL, has appeared as a regular NPR contributor and shares his Queens apartment with a rabbit named Juniper. WorkWorkWorkWorkWorkWorkSpurred by AI's possibilities, Eli Lilly and Andreessen Horowitz partner on $500M venture fund Vineeta Agarwala, a partner at Andreessen’s biotech arm, a16z Bio + Health, said the deal aims to combine “bleeding edge technology” in drug development from entrepreneurs with the “extraordinary depth in R&D experience” from Lilly’s executives. “That’s kind of what collaboration as deep as this provides, for the very first time.” (The a16z abbreviation derives from the 16 letters between “a” and “z” in the firm’s older moniker.) WorkWorkNew stimulus checks start arriving for 1 million Americans An estimated 1 million Americans will be getting a financial boost from the IRS for previously unpaid stimulus, officially known as Economic Impact Payments (EIP). While these were originally intended to help Americans during the COVID pandemic, delayed payments of up to $1,400 could provide a much welcome financial boost after Christmas. WorkWorkWhat We Know About the Wildfires Raging in Southern California The next largest fire is to the east: the Eaton fire, raging north of Pasadena in the San Gabriel Mountains. It had burned more than 14,000 acres, destroyed thousands of homes and placed tens of thousands of people under evacuation orders. An official said on Thursday that the fire’s growth had been slowed, but as of Friday morning it was just 3 percent contained. WorkJames Arthur Ray, Self-Help Guide Whose Retreat Became Deadly, Dies at 67 Things began to move quickly for Mr. Ray. He appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s show, where she lavished praise on him. Within months he was standing in front of sold-out crowds of hundreds, then thousands. In 2008 he published “Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want,” written with Linda Sivertsen, which reached The New York Times’s best-seller list. WorkWork4 Takeaways From the Arguments Before the Supreme Court in the TikTok Case Another conservative, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, focused on the risk that the Chinese government could use information TikTok is gathering on tens of millions of American teenagers and twentysomethings to eventually “develop spies, turn people, blackmail people” when they grow older and go to work for national security agencies or the military. WorkWorkShein checks urged after refusal to answer 'basic' questions Byrne also wrote to the boss of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Nikhil Rathi, to ask what checks the watchdog itself has in place to ensure UK-listed companies disclose "legal risks". It is understood the FCA sets the listing rules for the London Stock Exchange. WorkThis Surprising Soda Just Knocked Pepsi Out of the #2 Spot in America The rivalry between Pepsi and Coca-Cola (aka the Cola Wars) has been going on for decades, with Coke holding the top spot and Pepsi holding steady at number 2. But in an unexpected turn of events for Big Soda, Pepsi just got knocked off the number 2 spot by an unlikely contender--Dr Pepper. WorkFewer US interest rate cuts expected after job gains surprise While the latest US jobs figures might be good news for the US economy and its dollar, Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, warned they would be "punishing news for global bond markets, particularly UK gilts", referring to the name of government bonds, or debt. WorkCalifornia Fires Lead to Prices Hikes on Some L.A. Rentals But since Tuesday, some landlords and their agents have raised prices by more than what California law allows. These price increases come as hundreds, if not thousands, of displaced Los Angeles residents search for interim housing while they figure out their next steps, worsening an already tight rental housing market in the region. TradeBriefs Publications are read by over 100,000 Industry Executives About Us | Advertise | Privacy PolicyUnsubscribe (one-click) You are receiving this mail because of your subscription with TradeBriefs.
Our mailing address is 3110 Thomas Ave, Dallas, TX 75204, USA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
