1 UAE dreams of being economic centre of world (Isaac John in Khaleej Times) The UAE is on track to become the new economic centre of the world, and the next seven years will be crucial for the nation in achieving that goal, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said.
“We have the best aviation and navigation networks as well as the best road networks with the best smart electronic networking. We are connecting the world, and the UAE will not be just a transfer point between East and West, but will also be the new economic centre of the world and we will be the economic, touristic and cultural capital for more than two billion people around us,” Shaikh Mohammed said while commenting on the historic $99 billion aircraft orders placed by Emirates airlines at the Dubai Airshow.
He said the UAE has invested in building a community. “Today this community does not have the word impossible in its dictionary. Some 42 years ago, airplanes were strange to most people in the UAE, but today our national aviation companies are leading the sector globally. We are investing in the future and we believe in ourselves, in our youth, to bring happiness to our people.” He pointed out that according to various reports the UAE has the best road infrastructure in the world. “And now we are the owners of the best airline routes. People say the sky is the limit of ambitions and we say that the sky and the atmospOurhere are just the beginning.”
http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/uaebusiness/2013/November/uaebusiness_November247.xml§ion=uaebusiness
2 Bitcoin value soars on 'legitimacy' (BBC) The value of
virtual currency Bitcoin surged to over $600, ahead of a US Senate committee
hearing. The committee has been told virtual currencies are a "legitimate
financial service" with the same benefits and risks as other online
payment systems. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is
exploring the "promises and risks" of Bitcoin for "government
and society at large". The currency
has trebled in value since October.
The US
Senate hearing was prompted by the closure of the Silk Road website in October.
The site, which sold drugs and other illegal goods, was shut down by the FBI. Users
of the site were required to pay for their transactions using bitcoins. Jerry
Brito, senior research fellow at George Mason University told Bloomberg: ''Two
years ago it was alarm when Silk Road first came on the scene. ''Since then,
Congress has been educating itself and understands that there are great
potential benefits, and like any new technology there are going to be some
challenges. But they see there is a balance to be struck here and they are
generally positive on the technology," he said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24986264
3 Tech making traffic obsolete (Drake Bennett in San Francisco Chronicle) A growing number of planners and transportation wonks believe the traffic wave has crested and, in the developed world at least, we have reached what they call "peak car." In many places, they note, vehicle miles traveled per person have declined steadily in recent years.
The decline in vehicle miles traveled can be traced in part to the recession and the sluggish growth that followed. People lost jobs and wage growth has been almost nonexistent, which means fewer people can afford cars and gas and family road trips. The population is aging, meanwhile, and older people drive less. With more access to social media and less access to gainful employment, young people are driving less than they used to and evincing a lack of interest in cars (causing deep worry in the automotive industry).
Civil engineer David Levinson concentrates on technological change. In his dispatch from the future, he writes: "Technology restructured personal travel the way it completely devastated many other industries (remember newspapers, the post office, buying records and paper books, your land-line phone, canals, long distance passenger trains, broadcast television, electric utilities, going to College)."
Just as the workweek shortened from seven to six to five days over the course of the 20th century, he argues, the ability to work remotely on a laptop or tablet or phone will drive a further shortening of the week. By 2015, Levinson predicts, getting every other Friday off will be standard. The amount of time people spend in the office will keep shriveling until the majority of the workweek is spent at home, with people only coming into the office for meetings. Add to this the forecast of far fewer trips to the store as people order more and more of their household goods online.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Technology-may-soon-make-traffic-a-thing-of-past-4989818.php
The publisher of the Oxford dictionaries said "selfie" saw a huge jump in usage in the past year, bursting from the confines of Instagram and Twitter to become mainstream shorthand for any self-taken photograph. Researchers behind the renowned dictionaries pick a prominent word or expression in the English language each year that best reflects the mood of the times.
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/world/story/oxford-dictionaries-selfie-word-the-year-20131119
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