Category: Culture

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Food

Large Forks may curb eating

mega fork

A really, really large fork will not allow you to eat at all.

People who use big forks eat less compared with diners who use small forks – but only when eating from a plate loaded with food, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City monitored customers at an Italian restaurant during two lunches and two dinners. With one of the study’s authors and two research assistants serving as waiters, the researchers assigned either large forks or small forks to certain tables…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Current Events, Economy, Global Warming, Globalism, government, Green Friendly, Historical Perspectives, Latest News

France launches €10 Billion offshore wind project (1,200 turbines & 10,000 jobs!)

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Harvesting the wind in water.

The French government of Nicolas Sarkozy has launched a €10 billion ($14.26 billion) tender to build about 1,200 wind turbines in 5 different offshore wind farms. The goal is to diversify France’s energy generation (they are very reliant on nuclear, which accounts for about 80% of their electricity generation) with renewable sources and to have 23% of France’s energy come from renewable sources by 2020. The wind farms will be located off France’s coast on the North and West and should produce about 3.5% of the country’s electricity according to government authorities. The farms should come online between 2015-2020…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Brain, Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Current Events, Education, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Internet, Latest Trend

Are Search Engines changing the way our memory works?

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Has the Search Engine altered our way of thinking and remembering?

If you can Google it, why bother remembering? Being able to access facts with just a few keystroke definitely improved our lives, but it has actually changed the way our memories work.

A study of 46 college students found lower rates of recall on newly-learned facts when students thought those facts were saved on a computer for later recovery.

If you think a fact is conveniently available online, then, you may be less apt to learn it…

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Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Entertainment, facebook, Globalism, government, Historical Perspectives, Internet, New Discoveries

China shut down 1.3 million websites 2010

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More than one million websites closed down in China last year, a state-run think tank has said.

China claims that they offer a “high level of freedom” for online speech. Hah! I don’t know what world they live in because in our world, the real world, China has shut down 1.3 million websites and routinely block websites.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the state-run organization who reported the figure, also said that there were were 41% less websites at the end of 2010 than a year earlier. It’s like they don’t want the Internet to grow…

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Analysis, Culture, facebook, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Internet, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Will you flunk your social media background check?

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Will your social media habits impact future employment?

Your next job application could require a social media background check. Odds are, you have no clue what that means. Nobody does. It’s new and scary and probably scours the Web for pictures of you puking on the beach.

But screw speculation. We wanted to know. So Gizmodo ran background checks on six of their employees.

Here’s what they found, and why you should both freak out about and embrace it…

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Analysis, Art, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Education, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior

The Connected States of America

When you think of a map of the US, you probably break it down by state or quadrants or party affiliation. But MIT, IBM and AT&T’s research teams decided to look at who was talking to whom, and the resulting map is pretty captivating.

The researchers organized anonymous data from AT&T mobile phones into interactive maps illustrating which areas place the most calls and texts, and who they’re communicating with. The colors represent areas that areas that communicate heavily locally, while the lines are for areas of the country that are in heavy contact remotely, like San Francisco and New York…

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Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Corporate Manipulation, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Entertainment, Human Behavior, New Viewpoints

Can’t decide on a tattoo? Get a QR Code inked on your chest!

As part of whisky brand Ballantine’s “Leave an Impression” campaign, Paris-based tattoo artist Karl Marc seared a QR code onto his friend Marco’s chest.

Marc says the whisky company approached him and asked if he would be interested in executing the tattoo — a QR code that unlocked an animation when scanned — via a live stream on the brand’s Facebook Page. The brand is doing similar events with other artists, from ice sculptors to graffiti artists…

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Architecture, Art, Culture, Current Events, Historical Perspectives, Latest News

Massive Mayan Gravesite found in the State of Tabasco

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One of many relics found at the site.

Mexican archaeologists have discovered a Prehispanic grave site they believe to be Mayan in the state of Tabasco. Estimated to be around 1200 years old and containing 116 bodies, this is the largest group of skeletons found in the region. The area was thought to have been used as a cemetery, with the elite buried in a separate area from their companions, and skeletons found with dental inlays, cranial deformation and other body modifications…

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Analysis, Culture, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

2010 census trends: Uneven aging and ‘younging’ in the U.S.

 population change

 The divide between states gaining and losing their younger populations.

When the Beatles song “When I’m Sixty-Four” was released in 1967, many baby boomers adhered to the mantra, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Now the boomers are fully ensconced in advanced middle age, and the oldest of them are beginning to cross into full-fl edged senior-hood, as the first boomer turned age 65 last January. Some 80 million strong and more than one quarter of the U.S. population, baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1965) are a still a force to be reckoned with, even as they have all crossed the age-45 marker. Along with their elders, the large and growing older American population presents significant future challenges for federal government programs such as Social Security and Medicare. State and local social services and infrastructure needs will also change in communities across the nation as the population ages.

 

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