"Friendshoring" happens when a government pushes businesses to restructure supply chains, shifting production away from geopolitical rivals to friendly powers.

#TheEconomist

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2023/08/30/what-is-friendshoring

"The book that sold the most copies in America in the past 10 years [...] was “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” by Dr Seuss. Number 3 was that other literary classic, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. Children’s books not only sell well, but they also keep selling, year after year, building fans across generations." 📚️

#TheEconomist #books

https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/08/25/how-to-write-a-bestseller

"To produce, print and publicise a book costs about $15,000-19,000. It takes around 5,000 copies to break even. Most books never come close: only 0.4% of titles in Britain last year sold more than that."

#TheEconomist #books

https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/08/25/how-to-write-a-bestseller

"A recent study [...] found that receivers of an email routinely overestimate how quickly its sender expects a reply."

#TheEconomist #email

https://www.economist.com/business/2023/08/31/the-best-bosses-know-how-to-subtract-work

"The estimated marginal effect of most political advertising in America is near zero (a phenomenon political scientists call the “minimal-effects hypothesis”). To put it another way, if clever technology were enough to swing an election one way or another, then the $14bn-odd spent on the election campaign of 2020 would have decided races in favour of the candidates with more money on their side."

#TheEconomist

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/08/31/ai-will-change-american-elections-but-not-in-the-obvious-way

"Realising that they are only valued for their productive and reproductive capacities, [young people in China] have now decided to withdraw from both. The remark by a young man that “we are the last generation” captures the tragically defiant spirit of denying the party the only resource young people can control: their minds and bodies."

#TheEconomist #China

https://www.economist.com/letters/2023/08/31/letters-to-the-editor

Why is Argentina’s economy such a mess? #Argentina #SouthAmerica #TheEconomist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18RTtDVghfw

Economist obit for Bindeshwar Pathak, the creator of India's Sulabh Shauchalaya ("accessible toilet"). 🚻

"The key was his cheap pour-flush toilet, essentially a sieve-like clay-lined pit, flushable with only a litre of water. [...] By 2020, 110m had been installed across the country. In 1974 he built India’s first public lavatory. A pee cost 1 rupee, a poo 2."

#TheEconomist #BindeshwarPathak #SulabhShauchalaya

https://www.economist.com/obituary/2023/08/24/bindeshwar-pathak-realised-that-indias-future-depended-on-toilets

"The modern mugshot—a diptych of one front-facing photo and one in profile, accompanied by identifying information—is a French invention. In the 1880s Alphonse Bertillon, a policeman and anthropologist, created the system to catch serial offenders. A suspect was photographed and measured with a variety of instruments. [...] It was called the portrait parlé, or speaking image, because of the many things it communicated to police."

#TheEconomist #mugshot

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2023/08/24/donald-trump-and-the-history-of-the-mugshot

"Communist China has produced few international box-office hits or stories that endure elsewhere. [...] China’s state media regularly boast about the success of new Chinese films and TV series abroad, yet in truth most are flops. [...] With improvements in Chinese film-making technique, special effects and scriptwriting, many films now become blockbusters at home, but few gain traction beyond China’s borders."

#TheEconomist #China

https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/08/18/the-monkey-king-is-one-of-chinas-most-successful-cultural-exports

"A battery’s capacity can be measured by its specific energy, which is the amount of energy that can be stored by weight. Li-ion batteries with liquid electrolytes presently available on the market tend to top out around 300Wh/kg. Completely solid-state batteries might be able to reach 600Wh/kg or beyond."

#TheEconomist #SpecificEnergy

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/08/23/superbatteries-will-transform-the-performance-of-evs

How a Lithium-ion cell works. 🔋

"Ions are created at the cathode, when the cell is charged, causing electrons to be stripped from lithium atoms. The electrolyte provides a medium through which the ions migrate to the anode. The electrons created at the cathode, travel towards the anode along the external charging circuit. Ions and electrons reunite at the anode where they are stored. When the battery discharges, the process reverses."

#TheEconomist #battery

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/08/23/superbatteries-will-transform-the-performance-of-evs

Why would people continue to breed and own these dogs?! 🙄

"Bullies are close descendants of pit-bull terriers, 1 of 4 breeds banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991. Bully XLs, the largest type, have killed 8 people since 2021, including 2 this year. [...] Bullies carried out 45% of all dog attacks this year. In 1 week in July, Bullies killed 5 other dogs."

#TheEconomist #AmericanBully

https://www.economist.com/britain/2023/08/21/britain-has-a-growing-problem-with-dangerous-dogs

"Some of the most famous exhibits acquired their fame less from artistic merit than because they were nicked. The Mona Lisa, until it was stolen in 1911, was little known except to art enthusiasts; it took 26 hours for the Louvre to notice it had gone. [...] The Parthenon sculptures became “this great icon of Western art because they were removed”."

#TheEconomist #museums

https://www.economist.com/britain/2023/08/21/stealing-from-museums-is-easier-than-you-might-think

The general effects of El Nino are that "the Amazon Basin, Australia, the Indian subcontinent, the Sahel, South-East Asia and southern Africa often suffer drier conditions; Central and East Asia, the Horn of Africa, the southern cone of South America and the southern United States tend to get wetter."

#TheEconomist #ElNino

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/08/24/el-nino-and-global-warming-are-mixing-in-alarming-and-unpredictable-ways

"El Niños form and eventually dissipate owing to interactions between the trade winds that blow to the south of the equator and the ocean beneath them. The resulting accumulations of hotter- or colder-than-average water and high or low pressure in the atmosphere affect temperatures, winds and rainfall."

#TheEconomist #ElNino

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/08/24/el-nino-and-global-warming-are-mixing-in-alarming-and-unpredictable-ways

"El Niños are named after the baby Jesus because they tend to peak around Christmas—it has already contributed to the closure of the world’s largest fishery, as anchovies have fled the coastal waters of Peru. It has also rocked the global rice market, as India has pre-emptively banned most exports of its crop."

#TheEconomist #ElNino

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/08/24/el-nino-has-started-preparations-must-too

"The more China catches up with America, the harder the gap will be to close further, because centralised economies are better at emulation than at innovation."

#TheEconomist #China

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/08/24/why-chinas-economy-wont-be-fixed

#India's #resilientgrowth
Source : #TheEconomist

#TheEconomist #Chaguan #中国纵横https://telegra.ph/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%9A%84%E4%BF%A1%E4%BB%BB%E5%8D%B1%E6%9C%BA-08-26