Three firms own 89% of your sugar water

Read the Information Is Beautiful post here.

Bring this to America!

Developing in China:

What do you do if your roads are congested and polluted? Try designing a vehicle that takes up no road space. And make it partly solar powered. A company in the southern Chinese town of Shenzhen has done just that. To address the country’s problems with traffic and air quality, Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment has developed a decidedly odd-looking, extra-wide and extra-tall vehicle that can carry up to 1,200 passengers.

Though it is called the “straddling bus,” Huashi’s invention resembles a train in many respects — but it requires neither elevated tracks nor extensive tunneling...

Read the rest of the NYT article here.

The Power Trip

This article is part behavioral economics, part psychology. If you like the Dan Ariely work on cheating and stories about CEO-level responsibility, you will probably enjoy this:

Contrary to the Machiavellian cliché, nice people are more likely to rise to power. Then something strange happens: Authority atrophies the very talents that got them there.

Read the WSJ article here. (Thanks, Nikhil!)

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises

Gloria found a great list by PolitiFact:

PolitiFact has compiled about 500 promises that Barack Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress on our Obameter. We rate their status as No Action, In the Works or Stalled. Once we find action is completed, we rate them Promise Kept, Compromise or Promise Broken.

Read the entire article here.

Walmart Strongarms Suppliers ... For Sustainability!

Yay, Walmart! Read the FastCompany article here.

Why Does College Cost So Much?

It's a somewhat in depth argument (you'll miss it if you skim it), but compelling. Check out the Forbes article here.

Make transmission lines a lot less ugly

A proposal for towers in Iceland:


Read the full article here. (Thanks, Claire)