How do I build something

'I selected one - a banking center - but it never got built - nothing ever happened. Also, at the bottom it says "No resources" - does that have anything to do with it?'

You have either your spending rate or your production category sliders set too low.

In the case of military ships, you can buy even when you don't have resources, but that doesn't hold true for social improvements. You have to have at least one social production to buy a social improvement.

'Also, the scrolling on the description of new discoveries is rather slow and I have to click everytime to move it down. It would be nice if it scrolled as long as I held the mouse down, rather than having to constantly click.'

The plan, right now, is to impliment wheelmouse support to deal with the slow scrolling.

One thing I will note, though, is that if you're researching something that's off the bottom of the visible tech list, the first click down will scroll until that tech (or its former location, if you just finished researching it) is visible.