Sleeponomics

A century ago, Thomas Edison commented, "Sleep is a criminal waste of time and a heritage from our cave days."  Considering in average 1/3 rd of the day one spends in sleep, you would sleep away around 25 years by the time you reach 75. So it does look like that sleep is serious waste of time especially in the present globalized world where business runs 24 hours a day. Many of the techies and IT managers are likely to agree to Mr. Edison at least some time, if not all the time. Especially when the deadline is in the near-horizon, many would wish all the sleep away.
There are also those who boasts of managing life with only a few hours of sleep. I recently met a person, in his forties, recuperating in the neurological ward of Fortis hospital after suffering a mid stroke. He said there are some people whose strength is working for long hours, 14-18 hours to be precise and he considers himself in that category. Question is if  sleep is really wasteful for your well-being or it is necessary for your well-being. If you are intrigued by the question you may as well read till the end.

One article in Nature tells us that "20% of American adults reported being so sleepy during the day that it interferes with their daily activities at least a few days per week, and a frightening 17% reported falling asleep while driving within the last year. The risk of sleep-related accidents is compounded by the fact that people are unable to judge the likelihood that they will fall asleep, and by the related misconception that falling asleep is a slow process. In fact, sleep-deprived people commonly enter so-called 'microsleep' states, where they fall asleep for brief episodes lasting several seconds, during which time they are perceptually 'blind', often unaware that they have fallen asleep.
Accidents aside, one likely consequence of sleep deprivation is memory impairment. It was shown several years ago that a particular type of memory consolidation—improvement after practicing a visual discrimination task—does not occur until many hours after practice has ended. Using cleverly designed sleep deprivation experiments, researchers extend this result by demonstrating an absolute requirement for sleep within 30 hours of training. Importantly, it was the occurrence of sleep and not the simple passage of time that was critical."

There are other researches that tell us that 'within the brain, a whole raft of genes have been shown to be turned on only during sleep, and those genes are associated with restoration and metabolic pathways'. Russel Foster, a neurologists and sleep researcher, explains in a recent TED talk that  it is not just the laying down of memory and recalling it, our ability to come up with novel solutions to complex problems is hugely enhanced by a night of sleep. "In fact, it has been estimated to give us a threefold advantage. Sleeping at night enhances our creativity. And what seems to be going on is that, in the brain, those neural connections that are important, those synaptic connections that are important, are linked and strengthened, while those that are less important tend to fade away and be less important."

In a just published article in Nature, researchers found that "fear extinction may be selectively enhanced during sleep, even without re-exposure to the feared stimulus itself." So sleep is crucial to help you beat your everyday paranoia and other neuroses.
 Orfeu Marcello Buxton, another neurologist told in NYTimes that in his research he found that sleep restriction or disruption increases obesity and diabetes risk, by decreasing insulin secretion, increasing blood glucose levels slowing metabolism (the study is here).

So it is kind of clear that lack of adequate sleep is bad economics for you, not only in long term but also in short term. So much so that there is more than $20 billion business[CNN Money report, 2006] came up to capitalize on the derivative of lack of sleep of high-earning people. In other words you increase your liability manifold compared to what you gain by curtailing your sleep.

But how much sleep is adequate for you?
Dr. Russel Foster tells you that you must listen to your body. If you are feeling irritated, tired or dull in the morning for no reasons, you probably are sleep-deprived and more you continue in that state, more you reduce your mental productivity as well as your overall well-being.

US loves GM crops!

If you are living in US, you are most likely consuming GM [Genetically Modified] product, either with your full knowledge or not. As per the US Department of Agriculture, about 90% of all Corns, Soybeans produced in US are GM crops.[ latest report from USDA].
Should you be concerned? Well, there is a good number of those who believe you should be. Here is one article that warns that viral genes in GM crops are likely to promote diseases. There are many other reports that warn you about serious pitfalls of consuming GM crops. Fact is we still do not have enough data to know for sure how genetically modified strains interact with our genes. With less convincing studies that prove otherwise, you are more likely taking a path that is going to impact all your future generations, genetically. At present GM production address two different problems that farmers face: 1. insect resistance and 2. large scale crop epidemic resistance more famously known as Herbicide-tolerance. But there is a large-population who are extremely wary of the long-term effects of these genetic modifications. After all, human have many genes in common with the plants that are being genetically modified and we do not know how the modified genes will impact continuous genetic variations happening in human cells.
    Perhaps you want to know how other countries are dealing with GM crops. Unlike in US, Monsanto, the largest GM crops producer has taken decision to not pursue with producing GM crops in Europe [reports Telegraph, UK]. Fact is European Regulatory Authorities have been slow in providing approval to GM products. Perhaps they have taken cognizance to rising public opinion against GM crops in Europe. Public resistance to GM crops are also quite visible in India [GM brinjal was banned in India]. But somehow US appears to be unaffected by all these commotions. Surely the decision makers think GM crops are good for US. Some would argue that US traditionally favours new technological advancement and GM after all is new technology. But skeptics are not so sure if it is love for technology or love for dollars! Lot of dollars are already spent in US. Huge corporate investments are made in US. Many argue that corporate lobbyists are actively promoting GM everywhere to ensure that investment is protected.
This article provides an account of the money being spent in lobbying in US for GM crops.There are many other reports that claim that GM crops are aggressively being promoted in African and other countries. For instance, this Reuters report claims that U.S. tax dollars promote Monsanto's GMO crops overseas. Ghana apparently accuses US for pushing GM crops to their land, as per the recent report from The Guardian.
There is little doubt that however vocal the opposition/activism against GM be, GM is going to stay here and that is all the more reason for you to be aware of the state of the affair so that you can choose what is right for you.
This article below provides detailed account of GM crops in the context of India for those who like to explore more.

GM crops-Part 1: The truth about genetically modified foods
GM crops-Part2: The myth about food security
GM crops-Part3: The economics of genetically modified food

Finally, Nokia and Elop story reached logical end

Two and half years ago, when Stephen Elop was brought in to lead Nokia, many asked the question openly if Elop was the trojan horse for Microsoft. Though Elop publicly denied that charge at that time, Nokia's journey for last two and half years with him at the helm, has however reached the conclusion that many feared with announcement that Microsoft is buying Nokia mobile business at $7.2 billion and Stephen Elop returning to Microsoft. With Steve Ballmer's announcement of retirement, people are making simple arithmetic with Stephen Elop. We, humans, are good in drawing sweeping conclusion based on only 2-3 data points and this is also no exception to that rule. Truth, as often is found to lie somewhere in between.
The legacy of Elop in Nokia is hardly anything to be jealous about. Since he came on board, Nokia's valuation came down by 85%, the market space where Nokia was world leader, saw Nokia receding ground to Samsung and other OEMs. The smartphone space which was the key element driving Nokia to cannibalize Symbiosis and embrace Windows OS, decidedly went with Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Now did anyone know for sure that these were going to happen when Elop came on board?
Social psychologists use the term Fundamental Attribution Error to our natural bias to attribute personal disposition instead of situational artifacts as a cause of certain eventuality. We feel higher satisfaction if we can find someone to hold responsible for an event that we do not like. So we feel doubly eager to attribute Nokia's ill-fate to Elop. Psychologists also tell us that that bias changes when one is involved and is answerable for the course of event. In the scenario where the person is involved, it is often observed that he/she attributes the cause of events to the situational changes instead of his/her own decisions. That means, Stephen Elop will attribute the cause of the present state of Nokia to the changing situations!
Rational minds would ask, "Was the decision taken only by Elop? Would Nokia board agree to allow Elop to take the decision if they knew they had better alternatives [other than going windows way] two and half years back?"
 Given that the board members had access to all the information that Elop had, it is reasonable to assume that each member individually vetted all the different options in their personal capacity before agreeing to Elop's solution. What Elop most likely have done at that time is that he influenced these members in evaluating the potentials and risks that each option provided. He might have been successful in creating fear for future failure in sticking to existing course. He might have projected the value of Windows and Microsoft alliance much higher than it actually was. But ownership of the course steering lies with all the executive members of Nokia board.
Once the decision was taken, it was clear which path Nokia is heading. Mounting accumulated losses, market pressure, competition from Apple, Samsung and other Android-based smartphone OEMs took Nokia further away from its root and towards further grip of Microsoft.
But did Elop think that bringing Nokia mobile to Microsoft could make him a strong candidate for Ballmer's successor? Even if he did, how much could he bet that course of events will take the shape the way it happened when he took the plunge 2.5 years back? Nobody realistically could be sure. At most, he could do is play his cards the way he played and hope things will eventually take him to the coveted post that he might have been eying for.
Now how does this change for Microsoft? Would this bring the hardware success that eluded Microsoft and Ballmer all along? Well, fact is Nokia Lumia series with windows 8 has become a success. It is capturing market quite fast, providing a credible alternative to Android based smartphones, even at lower cost point. Merger in fact positions Lumia at stronger ground with control on both smartphone hardware and OS. It will give Lumia leverage to bring price of smartphone further down and present a credible competition to Android-based low cost phones in all emerging markets where the real smartphone battle has to be fought and won.
It will also help Microsoft to boost its advertising business where the battle with Google is being fought, by making advertisement more personalized for the users by integrating smartphone's on-device data with skydrive [Microsoft Cloud] and Outlook [Microsoft email]. But for this to work, Microsoft's existing strong culture of internal competition [and therefore wastage of creative bandwidth in political rivalry] must change and find a way to work like collaborative set of engineering/business functions. Lumia hardware engineering must be allowed to function independently of Windows software division for them to build on each other's strength. But if this strategy succeeds, Microsoft will have evolved itself for the new generation of users and move to a new position of strength.
So, good luck to Mr. Elop and RIP Nokia mobile [that's a bit hurtful for someone who always used Nokia handsets]!
The next news to watch is who is going to buy Blackberry/RIM!