IT IS perhaps a measure of America’s resilience as an economic power that its demise is so often foretold. In 1956 the Russians politely informed Westerners that “history is on our side. We will bury you.” In the 1980s history seemed to side instead with Japan. Now it appears to be taking China’s part.
Buoyed by these two forces, China will account for over 23% of world GDP by 2030, measured at PPP, Mr Subramanian calculates. America will account for less than 12%. China will be equally dominant in trade, accounting for twice America’s share of imports and exports. That projection relies on the “gravity” model of trade, which assumes that commerce between countries depends on their economic weight and the distance between them. China’s trade will outpace America’s both because its own economy will expand faster and also because its neighbours will grow faster than those in America’s backyard.
That sick, heavy, queasy feeling you get when you leave the movie theater may not have come from, say, realizing you paid good money to watch ‘Conan the Barbarian’ in 3D. It may come from having mindlessly shoveled handful after handful of stale popcorn into your mouth.
A new study conducted by scholars at the University of Southern California and published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests that moviegoers can’t help themselves. If you make a habit of eating popcorn at the movies, you’ll keep eating and eating it throughout the picture, regardless of whether or not the popcorn is fresh or even tasty.
In the study, researchers gave movie patrons a bucket of popcorn just before a screening. Some contained fresh popcorn, some contained week-old popcorn. The study found that people who habitually ate popcorn consumed the same amount of popcorn whether fresh or stale, while those who didn’t were much less likely to eat the stale kernels. It didn’t matter whether or not the moviegoers were hungry before the film.
The company estimates the entire project will cost Y1.67 trillion – some £13.4 billion – of which Y560 billion (£4.5 billion) will be required to transport 70 tons of construction materials and pizza-making equipment to the moon aboard 15 rockets.
Google has topped a list of the most reputable companies in the U.S., according to a Harris Interactive poll.
Harris Interactive asked more than 30,000 respondents to identify the 60 most visible companies in the U.S. and rate them based on 20 different attributes, including financial performance, emotional appearance, social responsibility and leadership.
Technology companies dominated the top of the list. At number one is Google, which Harris Interactive rates at an 84.05/100 on the reputation scale (80.0 and higher is consider “excellent”). Other notable tech companies making the top of the list were Apple (#5), Intel (#6), Amazon (#8), Sony (#14) and Microsoft (#16), all of whom received a rating higher than 80.
