Teamwork - it's a practice many businesses strive for but when it comes to execution few can beat the animal kingdom. From ants to elephants, creatures which may not be the smartest on their own get a boost from acting together.
This power in numbers theory is something that author Peter Miller has explored in his new book The Smart Swarm and he joined Katty Kay in the studio to discuss his findings.
Image: pgoh13.free.fr/geneva
During two days of protests at UCLA, where the UC regents met to vote on the fee increase, about 2,000 students from the 10-campus system confronted riot police, shouted slogans and blocked building exits. Like a scene out of the angry 1960s, students surged against barricades and briefly seized a building near the main campus quad; police used taser guns on several protesters, and arrested nearly 20. All the while, police helicopters hovered overhead, TV vans with high antennas stood ready and students played drums and strummed guitars.
At a sit-down strike that blocked vehicles from leaving, UCLA student leader Michael Hawley spoke through his bullhorn, "We want one regent to come out to speak to us about why the world's richest country will be denying some students higher education next quarter." Police responded by telling demonstrators they had three minutes to leave before being arrested. Then, forming a flying wedge, police led a small group of regents to another building.
Addressing 100 students blocking a parking garage driveway defended by eight visored police with billy clubs, UCLA Sophomore Chiemela Okwandu told the crowd, "This is our university. We can sleep here if we want." Speaking to TIME, Okwandu said the $2,500 tuition increase will be a major problem for many students. "Some of my friends won't be here next quarter. Before it was a question of how smart you were. Now, it's do you have enough money to pay for school." Veronica Hernandez, who grew up in East LA and attends UC Riverside, said, "It took a long time for minorities to increase their numbers at the University of California. Now those numbers are going to go down." University officials say many students would be shielded from the effects of the tuition hike by additional financial aid.
UC President Mark G. Yudof said the tuition increase is unfortunate: "When you have no money, you have no money." And the budget woes in Sacramento continue. California's budget analyst announced this week that the state is facing another huge deficit next year — $21 billion of red ink. (See pictures of college mascots.)
Amid signs reading "RIP Affordable Education" and "California #1 in Prison Spending, #48 in Education," Emily Bischof, a fourth year geography and environmental studies major at UCLA said the cuts are significant. "Upper division classes that once had 30 students now have 80 or 100 students and there are no teaching assistants. Professors are giving true-false, multiple choice Scantron exams." Nicole Garner, a fourth year at UC Riverside, blames the state's famous tax revolt for the university's financial troubles. "Proposition 13 has to go," Garner said.
In addition to the mass protest at UCLA, students at UC Davis, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz occupied buildings to signal their displeasure with the fee increase. At UC Davis, more than 50 people were arrested Thursday on misdemeanor trespassing charges for refusing to leave Mrak Hall. At UC Berkeley, students took control of the second floor of Wheeler Hall on Friday before campus police arrested three students and at UC Santa Cruz protesters occupied a building and issued a list of demands to the campus administration.
From 2002 to 2006, the share of educational costs represented by student tuition rose from just over one-third to nearly one-half at public four year institutions across the country. "Students are paying more and getting less in the classroom," says Jane Wellman, author of "Trends in College Spending," a report by the Delta Project, a Washington, DC nonprofit that tracks postsecondary education costs. The amount of money spent on instruction has declined at all institutions — public and private —since 2002.
The main reason that costs — and tuition — are rising at public universities is a drop in state support. According to Wellman, in 2006, state taxpayers spent $7,078 per student at public research universities. That's nearly $1,300 less than in 2002. Any spending increase has been largely for administration, maintenance and student services, not instruction. At many public universities, the deep recession has made the situation worse.
In Lansing, Michigan, this week approximately 30 Michigan State University students and faculty picketed the state capitol to protest budget cuts and tuition hikes at Michigan's public universities. In a state hammered by the recession, in-state and out-of-state students at the University of Michigan saw tuition rise 11.6% between the 2007-08 and 2009-10 academic years to $11,659 and $34,937, respectively. In Arizona, two tuition hikes within five months added $1,000 to the bills of incoming freshman. For the new students at Arizona State University, tuition and fees spiked 20% to $6,840 a year.
In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a group of students on Wednesday protested a plan by the UNC Board of Trustees' audit and finance committee to raise tuition 5.2% for undergraduates. Trustees said increase would generate nearly $4 million for the campus and would allow the university to continue to compete for top faculty.
Regents at the 174,000-student University of Wisconsin system have adopted tuition hikes of 5.5% for the past three years. UW System President Kevin P. Reilly says the "modest and predictable" increases have allowed the university to avoid curbing enrollment or cutting programs even as class sizes increase. UW-Madison's tuition still ranks as one of the lowest in the Big 10.
But in California, Jeff Bleich, the outgoing chair of the 23-campus 450,000-student California State University system, warns, "California is on the verge of destroying the system [of higher education] that once made this state great." Disinvesting in higher education is an economic mistake says the UC Berkeley law school graduate, "For every dollar the state invests in a CSU student, it receives $4.41 in return."
Speaking for public university presidents across the nation, UW's Reilly says, "It is simply not possible to maintain the integrity of our academic programs, the quality of our university experience, without raising tuition — particularly in the face of ongoing declines in state support."
 Television sets in California will be required to be more energy efficient |
Energy-hungry television sets will soon be banned across California in a landmark move by state legislators to reduce energy consumption.
The state will be the first in the US to impose a mandatory energy curb on TVs, an often-overlooked power drain.
Supporters say the move will help save California residents more than $8bn over 10 years in energy costs.
But some 25% of TVs currently on sale would not meet the minimum standards, an industry group in Virginia said.
The California Energy Commission will require that all new television sets up to 58 inches (147cm) be more energy efficient by 2011, consuming 33% less energy than current sets.
The standards will get even tougher in 2013, when regulators will require sets to be 50% more efficient.
"We have every confidence this industry will be able to meet the rule and then some," energy commissioner Julia Levin said.
"It will save consumers money, it will help protect public health and it will spark innovation."
Television usage currently accounts for 10% of home energy bills in California.
'Limit choice'
Environmental groups applauded the tougher standards, saying the new rules would help avoid the need for a new 500-megawatt power plant to be built and save nearly $1bn each year.
However, some consumer advocates and industry leaders opposed the move, saying it would limit consumer choice and increase the price of television sets.
"It could drive up costs," said Dave Arland, who represents the plasma television industry.
"The ones that are super energy efficient are the ones that are more pricey."
California has long pioneered environmental change, setting tough standards on everything from refrigerators to washing machines.
As a result, electricity use in the state has stayed level for nearly three decades, whereas it has risen elsewhere in the US.
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Commentary
Stories like this make me hopeful about California's future. I just wish we were able to have 50% of our energy from renewables by 2020. Maybe this is one small step in the right direction.
 Street and traffic lights in Rio were affected by the outage |
Brazil's two largest cities - Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo - suffered widespread blackouts due to a problem at the Itaipu dam on Paraguay border.
All of Paraguay was also left in darkness, but only for 15 minutes, while several other Brazilian cities were affected for more than four hours.
The power system lost 17,000 megawatts after the massive dam went offline, possibly because of a storm.
Extra police were put on the streets to prevent a surge in crime.
The director of the dam said that it lost its entire hydroelectric output, but power was gradually being restored.
In Brazil's major cities, the underground railway systems in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo shut down, after the power cuts hit soon after 2200 (0000GMT), leaving many passengers stranded.
Thousands of rail passengers had to walk down underground tracks to reach stations.
No traffic lights or street lights were working in Rio, the hardest hit city, and Sao Paulo, forcing traffic to stop or slow to a crawl.
Crime concerns
Extra police had been ordered onto Rio's streets to prevent any opportunistic crime, reports said.
The BBC's correspondent in Sao Paulo, Gary Duffy, said the power outage happened at a time when millions would have been watching the country's popular soap opera on TV.
There was absolute chaos on the streets of Sao Paulo, as baffled motorists stopped to ask what had happened.
Radio programmes broadcast appeals for people to drive safely.
Neighbourhood blackouts are common in the city of 19 million, but the scale of this outage was remarkable, our correspondent added.
The power failure also affected the southeastern states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo, the southwestern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, parts of the central state of Goias, and the federal district of Brasilia, although the capital itself was unaffected.
In all, nine of Brazil's 27 states were affected.
The Itaipu dam provides Brazil with 20% of its electricity.
Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao said a large storm in the area of the dam might have caused the power failure.
"The exact cause still isn't known, but we suspect that atmospheric problems, an intense storm, may have contributed to or caused the transmission lines to Itaipu to shut down," he said.
In Paraguay, which relies on the Itaipu dam for 90% of its electricity, the entire country went black for 15 minutes.
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Commentary
This is something we all should have seen coming. I learned about the dam a long time ago and saw a documentary about it's construction.
It never occurred to me, "Gee, what would happen if the dam went through technical difficulties and stopped working". Well Ladies and Gents, we have our answer with this article. Again I think this problem went over a lot of peoples heads even though it was staring us right in the face :P
Top-level meetings between China's leaders and their African counterparts have been occurring at the frequency of at least one every month. What is Beijing up to? When China declared 2006 to be the "Year of Africa," hosted 48 African nations at the annual 2006 China-Africa summit and rolled out the red carpet for 17 African heads of state, we assumed it was all about gaining access to oil and minerals to fuel China's awesome economic growth. But there is much more going on than a meet, greet and grab from the African continent. China has big economic plans and ambitions in Africa that go beyond oil and minerals. While much of the world still views Africa as a basket-case continent, Beijing is thinking ahead and busy establishing a foothold in Africa's potentially large consumer markets. (See pictures of how the Chinese are changing life in Africa.)
Our common impression of Africa owes more to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness than we would like to let on: Africa is inscrutable, wild, primitive and decades away from genuine modernization. Like the European businessmen in Conrad's 1902 novel, we assume Africa's only assets come from the land or beneath it. In the Heart of Darkness it was ivory. Now it is oil and minerals.
But China has caught on to something that eludes most governments and companies in the West. Chinese state-owned and private enterprises believe African consumers could be the great untapped gold mine. Beijing's engagement with African leaders and governments is increasingly about ensuring that Chinese firms are best placed to sell their products when Africans start buying. (Read "Africa: Open for Business.")
While India is seen as a potential mass-consumer market in the future, statistics for Africa (if treated as one entity) are remarkably similar. For example, the African economy has been experiencing similar growth rates to India's of 6% to 7% over the past decade, and will likely see 3% to 4% growth in 2009 — impressive in the current global environment. GDP per capita in Africa is similar to that of India and, like India, the population in Africa is growing and will be similar in size to China's population in several decades.
Vijay Mahajan, author of Africa Rising, says there are 50 million to 150 million economic élites in Africa with similar spending power to middle classes in the West. More importantly, there are 350 million to 500 million people in the African aspirational classes — from households with stable jobs — that resemble counterparts in China and India being courted by Western firms. These African aspirants drink Coca-Cola, want mobile phones and yearn to own a car or motorcycle. The West focuses on the bottom half of Africans living in appalling poverty; Beijing is looking at the other half who might soon buy Chinese-made T-shirts, shoes and bicycles. China's Ministry of Commerce, through banks and export agencies, is offering cheap loans and tax and export credits to Chinese state-owned companies seeking to build a base in Africa. Incentives are given to Chinese manufacturing and retail businesses in addition to exploration and construction companies. In return for so-called "no-strings-attached" aid and cheap loans to African countries, Beijing expects privileged access to oil and resources, political support in institutions like the U.N., and African governments — be they good, bad or despotic — to give Chinese companies the first opportunities to reach local consumer markets.
There are weaknesses to Beijing's great plan. For example, cheap Chinese goods flooding the continent sacrifice African jobs, sparking a backlash against the Chinese presence. Corruption is serious, institutions are weak and political risk in various African countries remains high, meaning the possibility of social and economic breakdown is real. No one will bet their house on continued growth in many African countries. But the West should take note: China has a plan to seize the advantage should the African consumer take flight.
Lee is the foreign policy research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney and a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington
 Lord Myners fears HFT risks the investor - company relationship |
Companies could become the "playthings" of speculators because of super-fast automatic share trading, Treasury minister Lord Myners has warned.
The peer, a former fund manager, told the BBC this was one of the main dangers of such a system.
High-frequency trading (HFT) is automated dealing where shares change hands, frequently in microseconds.
Lord Myners said the process risked destroying the relationship between an investor and a company.
HFT is based on computer programmes which, in effect, remove the human element from share transactions by searching for trends in the market and trading automatically in a fraction of a second.
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It is estimated that HFT has risen sharply in the USA and now accounts for up to 70% of all share trades and is rising rapidly in the UK and Europe.
But Lord Myners told the BBC's File on 4 he already had doubts about this development.
"I have been increasingly troubled that we seem to find ourselves in a situation in which shares are to be bought and sold rather than being part of an ownership relationship between investor and a company," he said.
"The danger is that nobody really seems to think of themselves as owners."
Speculator fears
Lord Myners said that investment bankers said HFT was good for investors as it "drives down the cost of capital".
However, the financial services secretary added: "I think the fact that people can own shares for nano-seconds seems completely divorced from the concept of a joint stock company and distributed share ownership.
"The danger is that companies become the playthings of speculators."
The peer fears that this process denies capital to businesses which should be the main aim of share trading.
"It has gone too far, it has now lost its supporting function for the provision of capital to business and has become a game to be played."
 Google profits beat analysts' expectations |
Google has reported its highest quarterly profit, suggesting that the internet advertising market is bouncing back from the recession.
Google reported net profit of $1.64bn (£1bn) for the third quarter, a 27% increase on the same period a year ago.
Revenue for the three-month period came in at $4.38bn, which was well ahead of analysts' expectations of $1.29bn.
"The worst of the recession is clearly behind us," said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.
"Because of what we have seen, we now have the confidence to be optimistic about our future."
Google's shares rose $16.44, or 3.1%, to $546.35 in extended trading.
The internet search engine has weathered the recession better than other advertising-dependent companies, and it was widely expected to be one of the first beneficiaries of an economic recovery.
"Google has no competition. Yahoo is withering on the vine and [Microsoft's] Bing is too tiny now," said Coin Gillis, senior analyst at Brigantine Advisors.
"They did great on every single metric. We think this is sustainable."
 The new bone was created from bone marrow stem cells |
Scientists have created part of the jaw joint in the lab using human adult stem cells.
They say it is the first time a complex, anatomically-sized bone has been accurately created in this way.
It is hoped the technique could be used not only to treat disorders of the specific joint, but more widely to correct problems with other bones too.
The Columbia University study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The bone which has been created in the lab is known as the temporomandibular joint (TMJ).
|  The availability of personalized bone grafts engineered from the patient's own stem cells would revolutionise the way we currently treat these defects  Dr Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic Columbia University |
Problems with the joint can be the result of birth defects, arthritis or injury.
Although they are widespread, treatment can be difficult.
The joint has a complex structure which makes it difficult to repair by using grafts from bones elsewhere in the body.
The latest study used human stem cells taken from bone marrow.
These were seeded into a tissue scaffold, formed into the precise shape of the human jaw bone by using digital images from a patient.
The cells were then cultured using a specially-designed bioreactor which was able to infuse the growing tissue with exactly the level of nutrients found during natural bone development.
Big potential
Lead researcher Dr Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic said: "The availability of personalised bone grafts engineered from the patient's own stem cells would revolutionise the way we currently treat these defects."
Dr Vunjak-Novakovic said the new technique could also be applied to other bones in the head and neck, including skull bones and cheek bones, which are similarly difficult to graft.
The option to engineer anatomically pieces of human bone in this way could potentially transform the ability to carry out reconstruction work, for instance following serious injury or cancer treatment.
She said: "We thought the jawbone would be the most rigorous test of our technique; if you can make this, you can make any shape."
She stressed that the joint created in the lab was bone only, and did not include other tissue, such as cartilage. However, the Columbia team is working on a new method for engineering hybrid grafts including bone and cartilage.
Another major challenge for scientists will be to find a way to engineer bone with a blood supply that can be easily connected to the blood supply of the host.
Professor Anthony Hollander, a tissue engineering expert from the University of Bristol who helped produce an artificial windpipe last year, said there was still a lot of work to be done before the new bone could be used on patients.
But he said: "One of the major problems facing scientists in this field is how to engineer a piece of bone with the right dimensions - that is critical for some of these bone defects.
"This is a lovely piece of tissue engineering which has produced bone with a high degree of accuracy in terms of shape."
After being burned, we humans tend to avoid what singed us and seek something soothing. High-quality bonds — in particular, the "risk free" ones issued by the U.S. government — were the most soothing investments of all during the financial crisis. While stocks were losing more than half their value, 10-year Treasuries returned more than 10% during that May-to-March period. And so — big surprise — investors have poured $240 billion into bond mutual funds so far this year, according to the Investment Company Institute. Stock funds — despite a big rebound in stock prices since March — have taken in less than $15 billion. (See 10 things to buy during the recession.)
Makes sense, right? Stocks, risky. Bonds, safe. Or at least safer. But risk in financial markets has an irritating habit of following investors around. The big rush into bonds — especially high-quality, low-risk bonds such as Treasuries and government-guaranteed mortgage securities — may have created a situation in which most of today's bond investors are bound to lose money. Not 50% losses, as in the stock market, but losses nonetheless. Which for many newcomers to bonds will be a big shock.
"They lost money on their house, they lost money on stocks," says Tom Atteberry, co-manager of the FPA New Income mutual fund. "They put money in bonds because they think it's safe. Then interest rates are going to rise on them, and they're going to lose money on bonds too."
The first time I heard Atteberry say this, I thought my ears needed cleaning. You see, FPA New Income is a bond fund — a very successful one. The mutual-fund raters at Morningstar named Atteberry and his co-manager and boss, Robert Rodriguez, 2008's fixed-income managers of the year. Yet Atteberry sees only trouble ahead. "I've got a bull market in bonds that's unsustainable," he contends. "It might last another six months. It might last another year. Is it going to last another three to five years? I don't think so."
Before we get into the details, it's worth going over the difference between stocks and bonds. When you buy stock, you get part ownership of a company. If it does well, you share in the gains. If it flounders, you lose money. Bonds, on the other hand, represent a promise from a company or government or other borrower to pay you back, with interest. When you buy a bond, you're making a loan. Sometimes bond issuers (a.k.a. borrowers) renege on their promises. The financial crisis originated with a rash of defaults on subprime mortgages that had been packaged into bonds. But the bond risks that vex Atteberry have little to do with that default risk — Uncle Sam will make the payments. The worry is over rising interest rates. (See pictures of retailers which have gone out of business.)
Right now the interest rate on a 10-year Treasury bond is about 3.5%. That could go lower — in fact, it did go lower at the height of the panic last fall, to just above 2%. But the likeliest future path for Treasury yields, Atteberry figures — on the basis of history and the fact that rates have been kept low this year by Federal Reserve purchases, investor demand and other factors — is up. If you own a 10-year Treasury bond yielding 3.5%, interest rates rising to 4% or 5% or higher mean your bond (with its rate stuck at 3.5%) falls in value. That's the logic of bonds: when interest rates rise, bond prices fall. Since 1981, when the 10-year Treasury rate topped 15% amid fears of runaway inflation, the interest-rate trend has been downward, bringing on a long bull market in bonds. One of these days, the trend will shift.
Atteberry is hoping to navigate the minefield ahead by holding only bonds that come due soon, which are less sensitive to changes in interest rates (but also have a lower yield than longer-dated bonds). He may ask FPA New Income's board for permission to increase the fund's limit on foreign bond holdings from its current 10%. And he has positive things to say about the inflation-indexed bonds that Treasury has issued since 1997, although he doesn't think they're a particularly good deal now.
Most bondholders, though, will find it hard to avoid losses. And what will retail investors do once bonds have burned them too? Atteberry thinks many will just put their money in the bank. The trade-off there is a measly return: the highest savings-account rate in the land is currently just 1.83%, according to Bankrate.com and most banks pay far less. Less than inflation. But hey, at least the money's safe.
 There are an estimated 45 million users of Twitter |
Social networking website Twitter has confirmed that it has closed a "significant round of funding".
Co-founder Evan Williams said in a blog post that the site had secured money from five investment firms.
However, he did not confirm earlier reports that suggested the firm had managed to secure $100 million (£62m), which would value the firm at $1bn.
The site, which allows users to write and share 140-character messages, has more than 45 million users worldwide.
The site had previously raised $35m in February in a deal that valued the business then at $255m.
"It was important to us that we find investment partners who share our vision for building a company of enduring value," wrote Mr Williams.
"Twitter's journey has just begun."
Industry watchers have pointed out that the firm still has no way of making money.
However, earlier this month the site revised its terms and conditions to allow advertising on its service.
"We leave the door open for advertising. We'd like to keep our options open," wrote co-founder Biz Stone in a blog.
The new funding has come from new investors Insight Venture Partners and T Rowe Price, as well as existing backers Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital and Benchmark Capital.
