Links and quotations for September 23, 2015: Kids won’t eat government-mandated fruit, Sweden’s six hour workday, and more

Sweden is experimenting with the six-hour workday in its senior care facilities… Even there, there are major questions whether it’s workable. That and more, including how you can give kids an apple but not make them eat, and how history illustrates donor politics as part and parcel of human progress. Printing press, anyone?

For China, a Pyrrhic Victory in PCs – Bloomberg View

Musicians hear songs when they read music, non-musicians seek visual patterns – Ars Technica – “…our brains are fundamentally changed when we choose to specialize and train in a specific area of expertise.”

Deal allowing tech companies to transfer data between US and EU is invalid – Ars Technica

Kids Are Tossing Their Government-Mandated Fruit Straight In The Trash – FastCompany

Could the US ever adopt a six-hour workday?  – FastCompany – “It’s no wonder that the idea of a six-hour workday is getting its most rigorous test drive in Sweden, which has actually been experimenting with it on and off since the late ’80s. And even there, it still faces pushback from officials who say it’s too costly.”

The Return of Political Economy – RealClearWorld

The second decade of the 21st century has been marked by the return of political economy, as realpolitik has replaced the globalization theme in the framework of geopolitics. Considering the key events in 2014 – the Ukraine crisis being the most prominent, but also the fall in the price of oil and the struggles of the eurozone – relative standing in the global economy is now one of the most important factors in the relations between major geopolitical actors.

Military alliances are reinforced by economic linkages among the allied countries. Regional integration efforts take into account market opportunities and risks as well as security challenges. Two agreements currently under negotiation – the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – have the potential to create a new level of coordination between the United States and its partners. The accords would not only impact trade, but also aim at regional regulatory harmonization. The two partnership blocs, covering the Atlantic and the Pacific, would add political ingredients to economic interdependencies, positively influencing security coordination among partner states.