The federal government is the country’s largest holder of real estate.
According to a report from the Government Accountability Office, the federal government knows very little about some of the properties it owns.
Continue reading… “Federal government knows very little about properties it owns”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJUblvGfW6w&hd=1[/youtube]
“The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public,” George Jessel famously quipped. Dr. Susan Weinschenk unpacks the secrets of eliciting response from people — the core purpose of design, it’s been argued — through a combination of behavioral science, psychology, and practical examples to alleviate the misery and mystery of public speaking in 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People.
Continue reading… “5 secrets every presenter should know about people”
Futurist Thomas Frey: In 1997 Reed Hasting returned his copy of “Apollo 13” to the video store and was hit with a late fee so big that he was embarrassed to tell his wife about it. Out of this moment of humiliation the idea for Netflix was born, a business that would eventually take down the entire video rental industry, and its excessive fee-charging practices in the process.
Continue reading… “The Disruptive Underground Vs. the Banking Industry”
Growing startups in the digital babysitting space allow parents to book, review, and often pay babysitters online.
There are few areas of life that haven’t been changed by the mobile and Internet revolutions for the young, urban smartphone owner. We can book restaurant reservations through OpenTable, take a cab without swiping a credit card on Uber, or crash at someone’s house in a foreign city through AirBnB. Life has moved online, and commerce is moving with it.
Continue reading… “Babysitting goes digital with credit card payments and online bookings”
Redbox says that families are hitting the rental machines the most.
Redbox, owned by parent company Coinstar, the DVD and game rental kiosk chain has been so disruptive in the entertainment industry that it helped Netflix hammer the final nail in Blockbuster’s coffin. They has doubled their annual revenue year after year, cutting so deeply into Hollywood’s piggybank that several movie studios attempted legal action, eventually settling to impose a 28-day delay before new releases hit Redbox machines.
Continue reading… “Redbox video game rental stats (Infograph)”
New research shows that the moderate noise level in busy cafés also perks up your creative cognition.
How quiet or noisy should your workplace be in order to optimize creativity?
Five experiments were conducted by researchers led by Ravi Mehta to help understand how ambient sounds affect creative cognition. In one key trial, they tested people’s creativity at different levels of background noise by asking participants to brainstorm ideas for a new type of mattress or enumerate uncommon uses for a common object.
Continue reading… “Crowded coffee shops can fire up your creativity: Study”
Kevin Durant’s closely guarded attempts happen all over the court.
SportVU technology was originally developed to track missiles. Now, the systems hang from the catwalks of 10 NBA arenas, tiny webcams that silently track each player as they shoot, pass, and run across the court, recording each and every move 25 times a second. SportVU can tell you not just Kevin Durant’s shooting average, but his shooting average after dribbling one vs. two times, or his shooting average with a defender three feet away vs. five feet away. SportVU can actually consider both factors at once, plus take into account who passed him the ball, how many minutes he’d been on the court, and how many miles he’d run that game already.
Continue reading… “SportVU: Missile tracking technology that will remake the NBA”
There is no correlation between an uptick in recent teen drug use and the increased availability of pot.
Teen pot use has not been boosted by the surge in outlets for legal medical marijuana, according to a new study by economists at University of Colorado Denver and other colleges.
Continue reading… “Legal medical marijuana shops do not boost drug use in teens: Colorado study”
Jack Cheng: One of the better spots to enjoy a bowl of ramen noodles here in New York is Minca, in the East Village. Minca is the kind of place just out of the way enough that as you’re about to get there, you start wondering if you’ve already passed it. A bowl of noodles at Minca isn’t quite as neatly put together as those of other ramen establishments in the city, but it is without a doubt among the tastiest. There’s a home-cooked quality to a bowl of noodles at Minca. And there’s a homey vibe to the restaurant. Minca is a good place to meet a friend and sit and talk and eat and drink, and eat and talk and sit and drink some more.
Continue reading… “The Slow Web Movement”
Washington State University Professor Grant Norton
Most batteries today are lithium ion batteries, and employ carbon as the anode. Other materials perform much better than carbon, and could substantially increase battery capacity. Tin anodes could potentially triple energy density, and silicon anodes might be able to hold 9 times as much charge as carbon. Such advances could lead to tablet computers and laptops that run for days before battery depletion, and to miniature, battery powered UAVs able to remain aloft for up to an hour.
Sugar substitutes used in diet beverages actually change how our brains’ reward areas work.
There are some major loopholes in the New York soda ban measure that critics have pointed out. For example, convenience stores would still be free to sell large, sugary drinks. Also exempt from the bill are sweetened alcoholic beverages. Researchers that Mayor Bloomberg cited think the whole thing might backfire. But the biggest omission in the New York soda ban has to do with an entirely other class of fizzy, sweetened drink: diet sodas.
Continue reading… “Your brain on diet soda: How artificial sweeteners trick your brain”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Every time I drive to the office there are 11 separate stoplights along my route. Based on some cosmic luck-of-the-draw, two thirds of the stoplights will either be red or green, and the time it takes me will vary from 12 to 22 minutes.
Continue reading… “The Curse of Infrastructure”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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