It’s a tale that has all the trappings of a cult 1960s sci-fi movie: Scientists bring back ancient salt crystals, dug up from deep below Death Valley for climate research. The sparkling crystals are carefully packed away until, years later, a young, unknown researcher takes a second look at the 34,000-year-old crystals and discovers, trapped inside, something strange. Something … alive…
Continue reading… “34,000-Year-Old Organisms Found Buried Alive!”
Devices that display text in a clear, legible format encourages the brain to be ‘lazy’
Readers using electronic books are less likely to absorb what they have read because the information is presented in such simple form.
Continue reading… “e-Readers Encourage the Brain to be ‘Lazy’”
Our early 21st century civilization is in trouble. We need not go beyond the world food economy to see this. Over the last few decades we have created a food production bubble—one based on environmental trends that cannot be sustained, including overpumping aquifers, overplowing land, and overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide.
Continue reading… “When Will the Food Bubble Burst?”
A top-selling digital song of 2010 was “California Gurls” by Katy Perry (4.4 million).
U.S. music sales fell 2.4% in 2010 to 1.5 billion units, as CD sales plummeted nearly 20% while digital track sales were up just 1%, according to a report from Nielsen and Billboard. Digital track sales were 1.17 billion in 2010, up from 1.16 in 2009. While CD sales fell precipitously last year, digital album sales rose 13% to 863 million. The report notes that digital music accounted for 46% of all U.S. music purchases in 2010, up from 40% in 2009 and 32% in 2008, and digital track sales broke the 1 billion sales mark for the third straight year.
Household chores can be bad for your heart.
New research shows worrying about household chores such as cleaning, getting the car serviced and paying the bills may be even worse for your heart.
Web is no longer playing catch-up among young adults
Television has long been the primary source of news for all Americans, but for the first time, young adults have changed that trend. Consumers ages 18 to 29 now say that the internet is their primary source of national and international news, according to The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
Continue reading… “Primary Source of News for Young Adults is Now the Internet”
Snow, snow everywhere…almost.
After big snow and ice events in the Southeast, Plains, and Midwest this week, 49 out of the 50 states currently have snow on the ground – yes, even Hawaii, where snow falls in Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea all winter…
Continue reading… “Snow Present in 49 of the 50 U.S. States”
Christopher Maag of Credit dot com wrote about a spoof site called the redatory Lending Association, which makes fun of those payday lenders that make big profits gouging the working poor.
Name the companies that set the standards for social media use in business. Nothing coming to mind immediately? Me neither.
Telligent, an enterprise collaboration software company, believes that some day the same answer will immediately occur to both of us.
“We think that if you give [leaders in corporate social media use] a little more time, you won’t even have to do research,” says Cecilia Edwards, Telligent’s senior director of strategy. “This stuff is going to start rolling off of your tongue…some of these leaders will start being known as the definitive world-class leaders. They’re going to start setting the norms in industry for how to do this well.”
Continue reading… “Create a World-Class Online Community for Your Business”
Austin, Texas
Austin, Tex., drew the largest numbers of young Americans from 2007 through 2009, according to an analysis by a senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, replacing Riverside, Calif., which was the most popular destination for young people in the middle of the decade.
Continue reading… “Austin, TX Most Popular Destination for Young People”
Hungry for a grasshopper taco? Well, probably not. But the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) thinks it is time for an end to the “Eewww!” response to the thought of eating insects. The FAO reports that there are more than1000 edible insect species. Insects can provide protein in the diet at a much lower environmental cost than traditional livestock, such as cows, pigs, or sheep.
Continue reading… “Is Eating Insects the Answer to Reducing our Food Footprint?”
Who is terrorizing who here?
The WikiLeaks Twitter account has just posted a press release calling for American politicians and media personalities to stop advocating the assassination of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Along with this release comes a handy website, PeopleOKWithMurderingAssange dot com, that gives startling quotations along with the name of the speaker. Each quotation is followed by a link showing the greater context of the often violent and disturbing words.
The site shows a new name and quotation every time you refresh the page; so far, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and many others, including government and military figures, radio hosts, newspaper columnists and TV news reporters, are featured on the site…
Continue reading… “WikiLeaks to U.S. Politicians & Media: “Stop Inciting Assange’s Murder””
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.
