TRADE
According to the World Bank, the value of exports from developing countries to other developing countries (South-South trade) now exceeds exports from poor countries to rich ones (South-North trade). In 2002, developing countries bought only 40 per cent of total developing country exports, the rest went to rich nations. In 2010 the share was split evenly, now the developing country share is larger. Developing countries have been increasing their role in everything, such as world output and bank loans, and their share of world trade has doubled from 16 per cent in 1991 to 32 per cent in 2011.
WINE
Consumption of wine in Canada is growing three times faster than globally and Canada is projected to be the fifth fastest-growing wine market in the next five years. Between 2007 and 2011, Canadian wine consumption increased by 14.55 per cent, hitting 43.21-million cases in 2011; one case represents 12 bottles. Most of the wine is imported but Canada is now strong on the production side and domestic wines are getting more popular.
WATER
Cotton with a special coating that collects water from fog is a potential solution to providing water in desert regions. Dutch researchers have developed a special polymer treatment for cotton fabric that allows the cotton to absorb exceptional amounts of water from misty air, as much as 240 per cent of its own weight compared with only 18 per cent without the coating. The coated cotton then releases the collected water as it gets warmer. The water is pure and the cycle can be repeated many times.
COFFEE
Changing climate threatens to reduce the flow of coffee which presently fills 1.6-billion cups each day according to the New Scientist. It may not be long before an espresso costs more than a glass of wine. There are some 26-million farmers who depend on coffee to feed their families. The apparently insatiable demand has made coffee the second most traded commodity after oil, with exports worth US$15-billion each year. All that is under threat because the coffee industry is built on a plant that is peculiarly vulnerable to our changing climate.
ADVERTISING
The unique "Find Yourself Here" tourism campaign for Newfoundland has racked up 173 awards so far but is now facing many competitors. Since the campaign began, non-resident visits to the province have risen by 22 per cent and visitor spending is up by 37 per cent. Tourism in the province is set to become a billion-dollar business.
CARS
Honda officials report that the only Chinese-made car on sale in Canada has been a success so far after importing the Fit subcompact from a Honda plant in China for a year. Fit sales grew to 4,736 in 2012 from 2,835 in 2011 helped by the greater availability of the car from China, though Honda could sell more of the cars in Canada if it could get them.
LANGUAGE
Data from the 2011 census reveals that Polish is now the second language in England. The survey of 54.1-million residents of England and Wales shows 546,000 speak Polish making it England's second main language. There are still slightly more Welsh speakers in Wales at 562,000. The next biggest main languages are the south Asian languages of Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali and Gujarati followed by Arabic, French, Chinese and Portuguese.
RICE
A gene that raises rice yields by enhancing root growth and nutrient absorption in low quality soils has been identified in a species of rice in India and successfully introduced into other rice varieties. Scientists and rice breeders have known for years that Kasalath rice is unusually efficient at nutrient absorption but have only just identified the gene responsible. Using conventional breeding methods they introduced the gene into a few rice types in Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan and found that it raised yield by up to 20 per cent.
ACCESS
According to the United Nations, the world now has nearly as many cellphone subscriptions as inhabitants. At the end of 2011, there were about six billion subscriptions, roughly one for 86 of every 100 people. China alone accounted for 1-billion subscriptions and India should hit the 1-billion mark this year. 2.3-billion people, or about one in three of the world's 7-billion inhabitants, were Internet users by the end of 2011, but there is a strong disparity between rich and developing countries.
CARDS
A credit card with an LCD display and built-in keyboard has been launched in Singapore by Mastercard. The card has touch-sensitive buttons and the ability to create a "one-time password" doing away with the need for a separate device sometimes needed to log in to online banking. Eventually the card will be rolled out globally and could display information such as loyalty or reward points or recent transaction history.
WATER
Mexico and the U.S. have agreed new rules on sharing water from the Colorado River, which serves some 30-million people in the two nations. Under the deal, the US will send less water to Mexico during a drought, while Mexico will be able to store water north of the border during wet years. The Colorado River flows 2,230km from the Rockies into the Gulf of California. The US and Mexico signed a treaty in 1944 governing the allocation of resources from the Colorado River, which supplies seven US and two Mexican states. Mexico will also get US$10-million to repair irrigation channels damaged during a 2010 earthquake.
PATENTS
Last year, 14,205 patent applications for computer-related products and technologies were filed. In 2011 that figure was 11,974 showing an increase of 19 per cent in 2012. Graphene has been a particularly popular patent subject in 2012. It is an ultra-thin carbon layer that can be used to make flexible screens and the potential for graphene in the next generation of devices is huge.
FARMING
Sales of fruits and vegetables by Canadian farmers reached C$1.7-billion in 2012, up 9.2 per cent from 2011. Fruit sales increased 13 per cent to $872-million while vegetable sales rose 5.4 per cent to $874-million. The largest contributors to vegetable sales were carrots with $92-million in sales, tomatoes ($82-million), sweet corn ($72-million) and cabbage ($63-million). Among fruits, sales of cranberries rose 43 per cent and sales of blueberries were up 22 per cent. Unseasonable spring weather caused a drop in apple sales of 32 per cent. Farmers in Quebec, Ontario and B.C. account for more than 88 per cent of Canadian fruit and vegetable sales.
CONNECTIVITY
Cuba has been connected to the global Internet for the first time with a high-speed cable. The US$70-million cable arrived from Venezuela last year but tests on the line have only just begun. Cubans currently rely on expensive and slow satellite links to go online. Government and research institutions are expected to be the first beneficiaries of the new connection.
MELTING
Glaciers in the tropical Andes have shrunk by 30-50 per cent since the 1970s. The glaciers, which provide fresh water for tens of millions in South America, are retreating at their fastest rate in 300 years. The Santa River valley in Peru could be the most affected, its hundreds of thousands of inhabitants rely heavily on glacier water for agriculture, domestic consumption and hydropower. Also, La Paz in Bolivia gets 15 per cent of its water from glaciers, increasing to 27 per cent in the dry season.
CARTELS
After talks in Colombo between Sri Lanka, India, Kenya, Indonesia, Malawi and Rwanda, which account for more than 50 per cent of global tea production, the nations announced the formation of the International Tea Producers' Forum. Efforts will initially focus on sharing knowledge and boosting demand for tea to raise prices, but more sophisticated and controversial methods such as supply controls could be raised in the future. A tea cartel was proposed in 1994 but there was no unity among producing nations at the time.
SPACE
A U.S company is looking to asteroids for precious metals. It hopes to land spacecrafts on asteroids and have them scrape up material for return to Earth for sale. The company has unveiled plans to hunt for small asteroids that pass close to Earth which might one day be mined for their precious resources. It is intended that a series of low cost prospecting satellites will be launched in 2015 on missions of two to six months, with larger spaceships embarking on round-trips to collect materials a year later.
GERMANY
Britain has now become Germany's biggest trading partner. The Anglo-German trade in goods and services in the first nine months of 2012 was US$207-billion with both exports and imports going at double digit rates with British exports to Germany rising 20 per cent. The surge was led by medical equipment, drugs, car components and petroleum goods. It is one of the fastest growing trade relationships in the developed world.
GOLD
India has raised its gold import tax to tackle its trade deficit. The import tax is rising from 4 per cent to six per cent a year, after doubling from 2 to 4 per cent. The government wants to curb imports of gold. India is the biggest importer of gold in the world. Many Indians buy gold jewellery and coins to protect the value of their money in the face of inflation.
TVs
More than 13,000 households across the UK are still using black-and-white television sets according to the TV Licensing authority. London has the biggest number of monochrome licences at 2,715, followed by Birmingham and Manchester. The number of licences issued has dwindled from 212,000 in 2000. A total of 13,202 monochrome licences were in force at the beginning of 2013. Black-and white licenses cost US$77.50 a year and colour $230.
MOVIES
Attendance at movies in the U.S. has risen for the first time in three years, bucking a trend of declining audiences. Takings were a record US$10.8-billion, this growth can largely be attributed to inflation and rising ticket prices. Ticket sales hit their modern peak in 2002 when 1.6-billion tickets were sold. International box office takings for 2013 are predicted to be $23-billion.
MEALS
Newcastle University researchers say that recipes by prominent TV chefs are less healthy than supermarket ready meals. The meals in TV chefs' cookbooks contained more calories, fat, saturated fat and sugar, but less salt. The study, published in the British Medical Journal compared 100 main meals from four TV chefs, who had books at the top of the bestsellers charts to 100 supermarket ready meals. These were then compared to nutritional guidelines set by the World Health Organization. However, it was widely agreed that cooking from scratch was healthier than buying prepared meals.
NOTES
Botanists have pointed out that the maple leaves featured on Canada's new C$20, $50 and $100 notes are Norway maple leaves, not Canadian ones.
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