China: has the fire gone out of the dragon for investors?

Tens of thousands of British investors will be wary of any bullish noises coming from fund groups championing China.

With Chinese New Year celebrations about to start this week, several groups are encouraging investors to keep faith with China despite some dismal returns of late.

China has been the phenomenal growth story of the 21st century and investors who caught the bug early will have reaped handsome rewards. But as the story unfolded, more investors jumped on board hoping to make a quick mint from the world's fastest-growing economy. However, growth has slowed and many investors will be cursing their move east. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/9031654/China-has-the-fire-gone-out-of-the-dragon-for-investors.html 

America overcomes the debt crisis as Britain sinks deeper into the swamp

Britain has sunk deeper into debt. Three years after bubble burst, the UK has barely begun to tackle the crushing burden left by Gordon Brown. The contrast with the United States is frankly shocking. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/9031478/America-overcomes-the-debt-crisis-as-Britain-sinks-deeper-into-the-swamp.html 

Blackberry-maker RIM says co-chief executives step down

Blackberry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) has said its co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have stepped down in a shake-up.

Mr Lazaridis, who founded RIM in 1984, will become vice chairman. Mr Balsillie will continue to sit on the board but not have any operational role.

Chief operating officer Thorsten Heins will replace them on Monday.

Investors have called for a strategy change as the company struggles to compete with Apple and Google.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16675452 

Apple will Markt für Lehrbücher revolutionieren

Apple hat am Donnerstag in New York zwei Ansätze vorgestellt, um iPads stärker in den Schulunterricht einzubinden. Mit "iBooks 2" stellte der Konzern neue Lehrbücher vor, die alle multimedialen Fähigkeiten des Tablets ausnutzen. Dazu präsentierte Apple eine Software namens "iBooks Author", die es besonders einfach machen soll, solche Lehrbücher zu produzieren. Der zweite Ansatz ist eine neue Version von "iTunes U", einer Sammlung von Lehrmaterialien von Bildungseinrichtungen aus aller Welt.

http://www.zeit.de/digital/mobil/2012-01/apple-ibooks2-ibooks-author 

Will Apple's iBooks Experiment Lower the Price of College Textbooks?

With schools investing millions toward MacBooks and iPads for every student, Apple is already a major player in the education-technology market. But Thursday's announcement of a slew of new education apps made clear that the company is positioning itself to become the iTunes of the digital textbook world. 

Apple executives announced details of a revamped iTunesU, the new iAuthor app—which will allow educators to create their own books—and iBooks2, a partnership with the nation's biggest education publishers. iBooks will produce electronic texts for K-12 schools starting at the uber-affordable price of $14.99 each.

Some states are already mandating that public schools shift to a digital textbook format, so now is the perfect time for Apple to get into the elementary and secondary education market. But it's almost guaranteed that the company doesn't plan to stop there. Expanding to the lucrative college textbook market is undoubtedly on Apple's to-do list, too.

http://www.good.is/post/will-apple-s-ibooks-experiment-lower-the-price-of-college-textbooks/

Fruit and vegetable consumption by poorer families falls 30%, figures show

Lower income families in the UK have cut their consumption of fruit and vegetables by nearly a third in the wake of the recession and rising food prices, to just over half of the five-a-day portions that the government recommends for a healthy diet.

Households in the lowest tenth of incomes were buying only 2.7 portions of fruit and vegetables a day at the end of 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, while the average household continued to buy about four portions per person, according to statistics from the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). For lower income households, that represents a 30% decline in purchases of fresh fruit and vegetables since 2006.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/22/fruit-vegetable-consumption-poorer-families 

The Technology of Orgasm: ‘Hysteria’, the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction.

Rachel Maines’ book is a history of medical mal(e)practice regarding female sexuality. The work began in the 1970s when Maines ‘a very angry feminist’ was conducting her thesis on the history of needlework. Whilst trawling through women’s magazines from the early 1900s looking for trends in needlework patterns she came across the following advert: ‘Aids that every woman appreciates’. Next to ‘Electric radiator—fine for the cold bathroom, bedroom …’ was ‘Portable vibrator—neat, compact with three applicators’. On completion of her thesis and after finding 11 ‘musculo-skeletal relaxation devices’ from the beginning of the 20th century at the Bakken Library of electricity in Life, in Minneapolis, Maines began her research into the history of the vibrator.

http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/30/4/904.full