If you invested your money in stock markets a century ago, it would have been a relatively poor investment. The United States of America was the "winner" of the 20th century, both militarily and economically, so of course the American stock market was a very good investment. But without the benefit of hindsight, you would have had no reason to know that. A century ago the "hot" stock markets were Argentina and Russia, while the "safe" market was Germany. Well, $100 invested in 1913 Russia or Germany would be worth $0 today, and Argentina would not be much better. So which stock market is going to be the "winner" of the 21st century?

They can already do that with your wallet, and the credit cards inside it. With a phone, theft is LESS of a problem. If they don't wipe your phone, then it can be tracked. If they do wipe your phone, they it is no longer linked to your credit card account.

I heard it on the radio. I cannot find any citation with Google, so most likely it is not true. Perhaps the radio announcer meant it as a joke. I have found that people often say something in jest or as a prank, and it all seems completely plausible to me. I often don't realize it was a joke until I notice everyone else laughing. So I admit I was wrong about this. But I hope you realize that when someone makes a snarky remark about cell phone ID cards, or flying cars, human progress is not advanced by the people that laugh, but by the guy in the back, looking up at the sky, and saying "Well, why not?"

Pay-by-phone does not require a smart phone. I have used pay-by-phone in Japan and China with a $20 phone. Your phone just needs an NFC chip, which costs about 5 cents.

Because the author is a moron. Cash and cards are NOT more convenient, they are less convenient. When I go out, I always take my phone so people can contact me. So if I can use my phone to buy stuff, then I don't need to carry cash or cards. Where I live (California) I don't even need a wallet to drive, because it is legal to show a cop a photo of my drivers license on my phone. As soon as I can start my car and open my front door with the NFC chip in my phone, then I will only need ONE THING in my pocket when I leave my house. What could possibly be more convenient?

The lack of phone-money in America has nothing whatsoever to do with customers being "stubborn". It is because of the fragmentation of the American cellular system, and the lack of cooperation among the vendors. Once they finally agree on a standard, phone-money will be adopted by consumers in America just as quickly as anywhere else.

A common therapy for ADHD is to prescribe stimulants, which cause people with ADHD to calm down and stay focused. So there is some precedent for contrarian remedies.

Why not? I agree that the civilian space programs are all done in the wake of weapon system development, but it doesn't have to be that way. World-wide military spending is about $2 trillion per year. Common sense would suggest that cutting that spending would make more resources available for science and other purposes, not less.

The quality has improved in recent years. For some colored diamonds, lab grown diamonds are already superior.

Large diamonds have applications in optics. Diamonds have a high index of refraction, very low absorption of infrared light, and are easy to keep cool because of their very high thermal conductivity. This makes diamonds very useful for high powered IR optics, including CO2 lasers.

Not true. A "cultured" diamond will sell for considerably less than a mined diamond of the same quality. The DeBeers diamond cartel has gone to considerable effort and expense to promote the perception that laboratory grown diamonds are somehow inferior to "real" diamonds produced by African children digging up hundreds of tons of dirt.

Where I live, in San Jose, California, they install solar-PV panels over parking lots. They look nice, generate power, and provide shade for the parked cars.

Do you have a citation for this? It was my understanding that solar-thermal has not been getting much cheaper, and, unlike solar PV, there is little room for technological improvements (it is basically just a bunch of mirrors). For this reason, most solar-thermal projects around the world have been cancelled and replaced with cheaper PV. Of course, the US government has protective tariffs in place to artificially raise the price of solar-PV. This solar-thermal plant would likely be even more of a loser on a level playing field.

I second this. The journalists at The Economist are mostly British, although most subscribers are American. It is very entertaining to read news about America from an outsider's perspective, especially about typical American issues, like our dysfunctional health care system, guns, abortion, etc.

As for American news magazines, like Time or Newsweek, I wouldn't even use them to line my parakeet's cage, for fear that I would end up with a retarded parakeet.

The students are paid the same as other assembly line workers. The English article says they are not paid, but that is wrong. The original article, in Chinese, explicitly says that they are paid (yes, I can read Chinese). I am also somewhat familiar with these internships. I lived in Shanghai for several years, and my company had an electronics assembly plant in Pudong. We had some interns there, and I wanted to use some of the engineering undergrads to do actual engineering rather than assembly line work. But I found out that was against the rules. They had to do "proletariat" work on the assembly line, not desk work. They were paid the same as other assembly workers, and were treated the same in every way.

You seem to suffer from two misunderstandings:
1. Unpaid internships involving productive (rather than just educational) work are illegal in the United States.
2. The Chinese internships are not unpaid either. They receive the same wages as other assembly line workers.

Withholding college credit hardly counts as "forced labor". In America, if you don't work, they withhold your paycheck. That is even more coercive.