1 India overtakes US as top Nigeria oil buyer (BBC) India
has taken over from the US as the largest importer of Nigerian oil, the West
African state's national oil company has said. The US has "drastically
reduced" its demand for Nigeria's crude oil in recent months, the Nigerian
National Oil Corporation said. US is currently buying about 250,000 barrels a
day.
India now buys considerably more - about 30% of the
country's 2.5 million barrels of production. US demand for imported oil has
fallen sharply because of increasing domestic shale gas and oil production - so
much so that the International Energy Agency and oil giant BP both forecast
that the country will be largely energy independent by 2035.
2 Death of the suburban shopping mall (David Uberti
in The Guardian) Dying shopping malls are speckled across the US, often in
middle-class suburbs wrestling with socioeconomic shifts. Some have already
succumbed. Estimates on the share that might close or be repurposed in coming
decades range from 15 to 50%.
Americans are returning downtown; online shopping is
taking a 6% bite out of brick-and-mortar sales; and to many iPhone-clutching,
city-dwelling and frequently jobless young people, the culture that spawned
satire like Mallrats seems increasingly dated, even cartoonish. Shopping culture
follows housing culture. Sprawling malls were therefore a natural product of
the postwar era, as Americans with cars and fat wallets sprawled to the
suburbs.
Currently, the US contains around 1,500 of the
expansive “malls” of suburban consumer lore. For mid-century Americans, these
gleaming marketplaces provided an almost utopian alternative to the urban
commercial district, an artificial downtown with less crime and fewer vermin. Various
estimates project dozens to hundreds of struggling US shopping centres will
close in the next 20 years.
3 Busyness need not equal productivity (Kim Thompson
in San Francisco Chronicle) Productivity is what sets your career in motion.
However, people often confuse being busy with being productive. In the
marketplace, no matter how busy you are, the truth is that you will be judged
on your effectiveness.
The two-fold problem with being busy is that it can
be a state of mind as well as having an increased workload. Knowing the difference
between being busy and being productive can transform your career growth. What
are the habits of highly productive people?
They know how to prioritize their day. Start out
your day each morning with a focus on you by eating a healthy breakfast, exercise
or meditate on what you want to accomplish today. They know when to multitask.
Multitasking can be helpful if you use it wisely; however, in the race toward
being efficient, it can be overused. Giving yourself a few minutes to clear
your head before entering a meeting and eliminating distractions helps you stay
focused.
They know where they are spending their time.
Productive people are aware of time and know when they are most effective. They
take a lunch break. When you stay busy long enough without a mental break, there
is a tendency to lose focus and lack the energy needed to be efficient. They
ask good questions to help clarify goals. Knowing the exact time frame,
expectations and objections helps you plan more efficiently, minimizing guess
work.
They constantly practice being productive. Being
productive requires good habits, which take time and practice. They focus on
quality versus quantity. In “More Time for You,” authors Rosemary Tator and
Alesia Latson view the source of productivity as a quality issue. “Productivity
isn’t the quantity of things that you complete; it’s completing the things that
deliver the most quality for you, such as setting aside time for family with no
distractions.”
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