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Daily Archives: January 22, 2012

Tablet and E-Book Reader Ownership Nearly Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period

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Tablet and E-book reader Ownership Nearly Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period, Lee Rainie Director, Pew Internet Project

  • “The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period. The number of Americans owning at least one of these digital reading devices jumped from 18% in December to 29% in January. These findings are striking because they come after a period from mid-2011 into the autumn in which there was not much change in the ownership of tablets and e-book readers. However, as the holiday gift-giving season approached the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted. In the tablet world, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Tablet were introduced at considerably cheaper prices than other tablets. In the e-book reader world, some versions of the Kindle and Nook and other readers fell well below $100.”

    • Stress-testing macro stress testing: does it live up to expectations?

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    Stress-testing macro stress testing: does it live up to expectations? by Claudio Borio, Mathias Drehmann and Kostas Tsatsaronis, BIS Working Papers No 369, January 2012 “We critically review the state of the art in macro stress testing, assessing its strengths and weaknesses. We argue that, given current technology, macro stress tests are ill-suited as early… Continue Reading

    2011 Global Go To Think Tank Index

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    2011 Global Go To Think Tank Index, January 2012 “Given that today’s world is faster paced and more dynamic than ever before, and the increasingly complex and overwhelming amount of information that is therefore available, the rise of organizations whose primary goals include the generation of research and the provision of information should, perhaps, come… Continue Reading

    Human Rights Watch World Report 2012

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    “This 22nd annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide in 2011. It reflects extensive investigative work that Human Rights Watch staff has undertaken during the year, often in close partnership with domestic human rights activists. The introductory essay examines the Arab Spring, which has created an extraordinary… Continue Reading

    Evaluating the Prospects for Increased Exports of Liquefied Natural Gas from the United States

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    Evaluating the Prospects for Increased Exports of Liquefied Natural Gas from the United States – Charles Ebinger, Kevin Massy, Govinda Avasarala – Brookings Energy Security Initiative, January 2012 “Owing to breakthroughs in drilling and production technology over the past five years, the United States finds itself facing a long period of abundant, low-cost natural gas… Continue Reading

    Google – Find hotels by travel time

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    Official Google Blog: “…simply go to Hotel Finder, search for a city or a point of interest and select “Hotels by travel time”. Keep in mind that Hotel Finder and ‘Hotels by travel time’ are experimental and filtering by transit time is only available in cities where we have partnered with local transit agencies to… Continue Reading

    EIA – Arctic oil and natural gas resources

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    Arctic oil and natural gas resources – Resource basins in the Arctic Circle region “The Arctic holds an estimated 13% (90 billion barrels) of the world’s undiscovered conventional oil resources and 30% of its undiscovered conventional natural gas resources, according to an assessment conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Consideration of these resources as… Continue Reading

    SIFIs: is there a need for a specific regulation on systematically important financial institutions?

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    Remarks of Stefan Ingves, Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and Governor of Sveriges Riksbank, prepared for roundtable discussion at the European Ideas Network Seminar on Long-term growth: organizing the stability and attractiveness of European Financial Markets, Berlin (Deutsche Bank), 19-20 January 2012. “Good morning and thank you for inviting me to share… Continue Reading