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Spreading Cheer with a #flowerflash in New York City To keep up… via #Instagram Blog

Spreading Cheer with a #flowerflash in New York City To keep up with all of Lewis’ flower flashes, follow @lewismillerdesign on Instagram. After finishing big events, florist Lewis Miller (@lewismillerdesign) often found himself wondering: How else could he reuse all these flowers? “I was walking down the street one day and I saw a typical New York City trash can, overflowing with garbage and spilling onto the sidewalk,” says Lewis, who’s run his floral business for 15 years. “And I thought, wouldn’t it be fun if that were all flowers?” So, the #flowerflash was born, and in the wee hours of the morning after an event, Lewis and his team load up their van and head out to trash cans, bus stops and lampposts throughout…

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Combustible cigarettes kill millions a year. Can Big Tobacco save them? via The Economist Business

BESIDE a serene lake in Switzerland sits a modern glass building called the Cube. Wide-leafed tobacco plants grow in the lobby. In one room machines that can “smoke” more than a dozen cigarettes at a time dutifully puff away, measuring the chemicals that consumers would inhale. The research centre is run by Philip Morris International (PMI), which sells Marlboro and other brands around the world. The facility’s purpose is not to assess the risks of smoking, but to determine whether this huge cigarette-maker might get out of selling cigarettes altogether.André Calantzopoulos, PMI’s chief executive, talks about moving to a “smoke-free future”, with the firm’s business comprised entirely of alternatives to cigarettes. “We are crystal clear where we are going as a company: we want to…

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An experiment with in-home deliveries is under way via The Economist Business

AFTER staying at home one afternoon for a delivery of discounted toilet disinfectant that never came, Valentin Romanov, a Stockholm IT manager, installed a special lock on his flat’s entrance. When no one is in, deliverymen unlock the door and slip packages inside. Four months on, Mr Romanov has doubled his spending online and says he cannot imagine life without in-home deliveries. These are sweet words for delivery firms and online retailers, Amazon included, that are setting up partnerships with lock manufacturers to overcome a big hurdle for e-commerce.Conventional deliveries fail so often that a parcel is driven to a home an average of 1.5 times in the Nordic region, says Kenneth Verlage, head of business development at PostNord, a logistics giant operating in Denmark,…

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Intangible assets are changing investment via The Economist Business

WHEN you work as an equity analyst at an investment bank, your task is clear. It is to comb all the statements made by corporate executives, to scour the industry trends and arrive at an accurate forecast of the company’s profits. Achieve this and your clients will be happy and your bonus cheque will have many digits.But is all this effort worthwhile? Not as much as it used to be, according to Feng Gu and Baruch Lev, writing in a recent issue of Financial Analysts Journal*. The authors imagined that investors could perfectly forecast the next quarter’s earnings for all companies. They then assumed that investors bought all the stocks that they expected to meet or beat the consensus of analysts’ forecasts; and that investors…

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Have yourself a dismal Christmas via The Economist Business

ONLY an economist would think to ask whether Christmas is efficient. In 1993 Joel Waldfogel, then a professor at Yale University, turned a lunchtime conversation with colleagues into a paper entitled “The deadweight loss of Christmas”, which argued that, no, it is not. That gift-giving might actually be bad is the kind of opinion which breeds a deep mistrust of economists—loathing is perhaps too strong—among those not schooled in the dismal science. It is also just the sort of analytical insight on which economists pride themselves: counterintuitive, irreverent and interesting. But they should perhaps be less pleased with themselves. The way they think about the most festive time of the year reveals something important about the shortcomings of the field’s approach to human behaviour.Mr Waldfogel’s…

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Weekend Hashtag Project: #WHPstripes Weekend Hashtag Project is… via #Instagram Blog

Weekend Hashtag Project: #WHPstripes Weekend Hashtag Project is a series featuring designated themes and hashtags. For a chance to be featured, follow @instagram and look for a post every week announcing the latest project. The goal of #WHPstripes was to take photos and videos that capture stripes created by colors, textures and surfaces. Each week, we feature some of our favorite submissions from the project, but be sure to check out the rest here.

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2017 on Instagram: Building and Fostering Communities of… via #Instagram Blog

2017 on Instagram: Building and Fostering Communities of Support Follow along on #IGYearInReview as we reflect on the most memorable Instagram trends of 2017. “I don’t know who I would be or what I would be doing if I wasn’t making art,” says Quil Lemons (@quillemons). The 20-year-old student and artist based in New York City creates work that sheds light on his community. “As a black creator, it’s vital that my work explores the many facets of the African-American diaspora,” says Quil. “I think my work allows black men to feel pretty — to be themselves.” On Instagram, he’s found community. “I don’t think I could exist without the support that Instagram provides,” he says. “In urban communities, access to resources for sharing and…

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The China syndrome via The Economist Business

WHAT is in store for economies and markets in 2018? Around this time of year, a large number of analysts and fund managers are giving their views. Among the most interesting and thoughtful approaches can be found at Absolute Strategy Research (ASR), an independent group founded by David Bowers and Ian Harnett.ASR adds extra depth to its analysis by contrasting its own views with those of the consensus. To do so, the group polled 229 asset allocators, managing around $6trn of assets, for their views on the outlook for economies and markets. They found a groundswell of optimism; the probability of equities being higher by the end of 2018 was 61%, and that shares will beat bonds is 70%. The allocators think there is only…

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The Week on Instagram | 314 News The Verge: Instagram Gets… via #Instagram Blog

The Week on Instagram | 314 News The Verge: Instagram Gets More #Interesting National Geographic: Exclusive: Instagram Fights Animal Abuse With New Alert System Refinery29: Instagram Is Making Its Biggest Changes To Profiles Since 2013 Get Involved Weekend Hashtag Project: #WHPstripes. View photos from the last project, #WHPclassic. Around the Community Together, These Twins Tumble and Soar Through the Air @nornea’s Forest Adventures with Her ‘Real-Life’ Unicorn 2017 Trend: The Eyelid as the Canvas of Choice

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Weekend Hashtag Project: #WHPstripes Weekend Hashtag Project is… via #Instagram Blog

Weekend Hashtag Project: #WHPstripes Weekend Hashtag Project is a series featuring designated themes and hashtags chosen by Instagram’s Community Team. For a chance to be featured on the Instagram blog, follow @instagram and look for a post every week announcing the latest project. This weekend, the goal is to take photos and videos that capture stripes created by colors, textures and surfaces, as in this featured photo by Sara Harvey (@4theloveoftoys). Here are some tips to get you started: Head outside to see what stripes nature has to offer, like the natural lines of your local flora or the way streams create bands through a landscape. From repeating red lockers in the hallway to the way office buildings cast shadows at high noon, there are…

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Taking Care of Wildlife with @fuzzyfawn To learn more about… via #Instagram Blog

Taking Care of Wildlife with @fuzzyfawn To learn more about Fuzzy and her family of fawns, follow @fuzzyfawn on Instagram. There’s one woman behind Fuzzy Fawn Wildlife (@fuzzyfawn). “My dad nicknamed me Fuzzy the day I was born because of my white hair that stood up in every direction. I’ve been Fuzzy to everyone I know since,” says the volunteer who is licensed by New York State to rescue and rehabilitate wildlife. “A fawn that is sickly has a fuzzy coat, so after all of these years being called Fuzzy, my name finally fit!” Six years ago, a deer who had been struck by a car entered Fuzzy’s yard. “Long story short, it took me four hours to find help for this deer that was…