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Battlefield Twitter, in Nigeria Twitter has been a darling of the Nigerian political class for years, particularly with the young Nigerian activists known as "children of anger." But political tensions have long threatened the freewheeling openness of Nigerian Twitter. Tensions came to a head on 2nd June, when Twitter management deleted what is perceived to have been a genocidal statement from President Muhammadu Buhari's account; the deleted tweet was a veiled threat against pro-Biafra secessionist groups, "to treat them in the language they understand." The government retaliated against this deletion by banning the platform throughout the country; on 5th June, Nigeria woke up to Twitter silence, where we remain.
The government's ban was condemned by the international community as a violation of fundamental human rights. It's a blow, too, to Nigeria's sagging economy, as international investors look to more stable countries with better chances for economic growth. Recently, Twitter itself moved its offices to Nigeria's biggest rival economy, Ghana.
The irony is that the Nigerian president likely owes his own election to Twitter. |
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The Grim Secret of Nordic Happiness  It's not hygge, the welfare state, or drinking. It's reasonable expectations.
Is hygge still a thing? The Danish concept of comfortable conviviality and all things cozy is supposed to capture the essence of Danish culture and has been marketed as the secret for happy living. A few years back, there was a surge of hygge-related books, articles, and household products. Journalists from around the world were touring Denmark to document various aspects of this unique lifestyle. The enthusiasm around Denmark was stimulated by the nation's reputation of being the happiest country in the world. However, last time I checked, the designer store across the street here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, had moved its selection of Hygge branded candles to the clearance corner.
If there has been a downturn in the hygge industry in recent years, it may be because Finland, my home country, has surpassed Denmark in the World Happiness Report four years running. Denmark occupies the third place, after Iceland, in the most recent edition, released in March, and its distance to Finland is growing. As reported by multiple media outlets, the Finnish spiritual equivalent to hygge is something far less convivial and much more difficult to pronounce: kalsarikännit, which translates as "pantsdrunk," refers to the practice of binge drinking home alone in your underpants. If this is a secret to happy life, let's keep it that way: a secret. |
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"I'm Here Because I'm As Good As You" The HBR Interview with Ursula Burns
In 2009 Ursula Burns was named CEO of Xerox, becoming the first Black woman to head a Fortune 500 company. It was the culmination of an amazing life journey, from a Manhattan tenement to the C-suite of one of America's most iconic companies. She led Xerox for seven years, stepping down in 2016 after a bruising battle with the activist investor Carl Icahn, which led to the company's breakup. Burns subsequently served as CEO of the global telecommunications firm Veon and still sits on several major corporate boards. She is an outspoken champion of inclusive capitalism and racial equity, themes that animate her just-published memoir, Where You Are Is Not Who You Are. |
The top trends in tech  Which technologies have the most momentum in an accelerating world? McKinsey identified the trends that matter most.
In the next decade, according to entrepreneur and futurist Peter Diamandis, we'll experience more progress than in the past 100 years combined, as technology reshapes health and materials sciences, energy, transportation, and a wide range of industries and domains. The implications for corporations are broad. Consider the compressive effects on value chains as manufacturers combine 3-D or 4-D printing with next-generation materials to produce for themselves what suppliers had previously provided and eliminate the need for spare parts. Watch retailers combine sensors, computer vision, AI, augmented reality, and immersive and spatial computing to wow customers with video-game like experience designs. Imagine virtualized R&D functions in science-based industries like pharma and chemicals or a fully automated finance function in your company. |
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The Electric-Car Lesson That China Is Serving Up for America Beijing's push to build an entire industry from scratch helps inform how the White House should proceed.
Would you drive an electric sedan with a single-charge range of more than 400 miles and automated driving functions, one that costs less than a Tesla Model 3 and, at least according to the manufacturer, can pull off a 2,000-mile road trip along chaotic highways during which the person behind the wheel needed to steer only about once every 60 miles? Those are the advertised specs of the P7, the sleek new model launched last year by China's hot start-up XPeng.
The Chinese government would certainly be pleased if you did: Another important feature of XPeng cars is ample state support. In the past year, the company has signed deals with investment funds linked to the city of Guangzhou, Xpeng's hometown, and the surrounding province, Guangdong, worth $700 million. XPeng has also gotten preferential terms on land, low-interest loans and tax breaks, and state subsidies that have helped it reduce the P7's showroom price.
"The government is actually a lot more open to allow some of the innovative ideas of businesses to ... push forward with their research and test their technologies," Brian Gu, XPeng's vice chairman, told me.
That's exactly what worries Washington. |
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The new science of sleep: Everything we know about how it affects your health and brain There is no major health system within your body or operation within your brain, that isn't wonderfully enhanced by sleep when you get it, or demonstrably impaired when you don't get enough.
Unfortunately, sleep is also not like the bank. Let's say I deprive you of sleep for a night (eight hours) at my Center for Human Sleep Science. Then I give you all of the recovery sleep you want on a second or even third night. While you will sleep more on those nights, you will never claim back all that slumber that you lost. Indeed, you may claim back less than 50 per cent of that missing eight hours.
As a result, you will always carry that debt. In other words, you cannot accumulate a sleep debt during the week, and then hope to pay it off in full at the weekend. Try as you may, you can never get back all that you lost. Week after week, this sleep debt escalates, like compounding interest on an unpaid loan.
We should therefore think of sleep as the very best life- and health-insurance policy you could ever wish for. Thankfully, in terms of medical recommendations, it is largely painless, free, and available to pick up on repeat prescription each night, if you choose. |
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