Elon Musk’s neurotech startup Neuralink implanted its device in a human for the first time on Sunday 28th January 2024, and the patient is ‘recovering well,‘ the entrepreneur said in a post on X, on Monday 29th January 2024. The company is developing a brain implant that aims to help patients with severeRead More →
Norway’s giant sovereign wealth fund reported record profit of 2.22 trillion kroner ($213 billion) in 2023, supported by returns on its investments in technology stocks. Despite high inflation and geopolitical unrest, the equity market in 2023 was strong, compared to a very weak year in 2022. It follows a recordRead More →
Quiet luxury is a fashion trend that emphasizes understated elegance, timeless style, and high-quality materials. It is the opposite of flashy logos, loud colors, and fast fashion. Quiet luxury is about investing in pieces that are durable, versatile, and refined. Some examples of quiet luxury brands are Hermes, Prada-owned MiuRead More →
Space smells – fact or fiction? It’s true, space has a smell. Space is a vacuum, so no one can smell it directly. But astronauts can smell the things that have been in space, such as their suits or tools. They report that space smells like hot metal, diesel fumes, barbecue, or burning hydrocarbons. TheseRead More →
Jane Austen 1775 – 1817 Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels. Hew novels implicitly interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Read More →
Chinese tech giant Baidu will partner Samsung to integrate its Ernie chatbot capabilities into Galaxy S24 smartphones. The collaboration with Baidu will facilitate Samsung’s latest Galaxy S24 smartphone series with advanced features such as advanced typesetting, real-time call translation and intelligent summarization. Samsung recently revealed its latest Galaxy S24 lineupRead More →
In 2023 Apple became the biggest smartphone vendor by shipments in China for the first time. Last year, Honor, a spin-off from Chinese company Huawei, held the second spot with almost a 17% market share, followed by Vivo, Huawei and then Oppo. One of the biggest changes in 2023 wasRead More →
Inflation is falling and getting closer to the 2% targetRead More →
The U.S. economy grew at a much faster pace than expected in the final three months of 2023. The U.S. easily avoided a recession that many had forecast as inevitable, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Thursday 25th January 2024. Gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of all the goods andRead More →
Progress on U.S. inflation Core prices for personal consumption expenditures (PCE), a preferred measure by the Federal Reserve as a longer-term inflation calculation, rose 2% for the period, while the rate was 1.7%. On an annual basis, the PCE price index rose 2.7%, down from 5.9% a year ago, whileRead More →
Turkey’s central bank on Thursday 25th January 2024 hiked its key interest rate to 45%. It comes amid an ongoing struggle against double-digit inflation for Turkey’s policymakers, with the rate hike the latest step in that ongoing fight. 30 Turkish Lira to 1 U.S. dollar Inflation in Turkey increased nearly 65%Read More →
The election is coming soon, and to a town near you…Read More →
Spinning the benefits of a tax cut scenario as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt hints at further tax cuts The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has given strong hints that he wants to cut taxes in the spring Budget. Mr Hunt reportedly said that countries with lower taxes have more ‘dynamic, faster growing economies.‘Read More →
It’s true! Little Lego figures outnumber humans. It is estimated that there are 8.1 billion humans on planet Earth and 10 billion little Lego mini characters. So, humans are out numbered by Lego minifigures!Read More →
Microsoft’s market cap surpassed $3 trillion in intraday trading Wednesday after the stock climbed more than 1% and hit around $404 per share. The stock lost some ground throughout the day to close at: $402 per share. The achievement comes nearly two weeks after Microsoft eclipsed Apple as the world’s most valuable public companyRead More →
What a difference a day makes Bitcoin climbed to touch $49,000 after the SEC recently gave the go ahead for the Bitcoin ETF. The last time I checked it was at $39,000 (23rd January 2024). Oh, dear me – the dramatic pain of volatility. Bitcoin volatility has increased after theRead More →
A time travel party organised by Stephen Hawking in 2009. This was an experiment that Hawking conducted to test the possibility of backward time travel. He invited people from the future to attend a reception at his university, but he did not send out the invitations until after the party. HeRead More →
That’s reassuring then, and they are creating it Leaders at some of the world’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies are expecting a form of AI on a par with, or even exceeding human intelligence to arrive sometime in the near future. But what it will eventually look like and howRead More →
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) reached a new high on 22nd January 2024, closing at 38,001.81 points One year chart for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) The index reached 38109.20 points in intraday trading. Recently the S&P500 and the Nasdaq set new highs. The Dow The Dow Jones is aRead More →
Jerome K. Jerome 1859 – 1927 Jerome K Jerome was an English writer and humourist, best known for the comic travelogue ‘Three Men in a Boat.’Read More →
The Nasdaq 100 climbed to a new high of: 17314 on 19th January 2024 The NASDAQ 100 Index is a widely used benchmark for the performance of the technology sector in the U.S. market. It consists of 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Some ofRead More →
The S&P 500 index reached a new all-time high of 4,839.81 on Friday, January 19, 2024. This was the first time the index closed above its previous high set January 3rd 2022. The rally was driven by strong earnings from the magnificent 7 tech giants such as Nvidia and Microsoft. The expectation ofRead More →
1000,000,000 (1 billion) or 109 10 to the power of 9 (1 billion) In the short scale system, which is commonly used in the UK, United States and most English-speaking countries, 1 billion is written as 1,000,000,000 or 109. This means that 1 billion is equal to 1 thousand million. In the long scale system, which isRead More →
Retail sales volumes fell by 3.2% in December in the sharpest drop since the UK was in a Covid lockdown says the ONS. Official figures revealed a sharp decline in demand for goods, but surprisingly food sales also declined in the run-up to Christmas. The Office for National Statistics (ONS)Read More →
It’s true – or at least it was for a 1930’s BBC broadcaster Apparently, the story goes that the most boring news day was 18th April 1930. Imagine turning on your radio ready to hear the news bulletin only to hear a BBC radio presenter announce, ‘There is no news!’Read More →