Futurist Thomas Frey: Recently my wife Deb came up with a rather comical phrase to describe her occasional memory lapse, referring to it as her “photogeriactric memory.”
Continue reading… “Where do great ideas come from? More importantly, where do they go?”
The impact of most of these “chemicals of emerging concern” on the health of people and aquatic life remains unclear.
A new report by the International Joint Commission, a consortium of officials from the United States and Canada who study the Great Lakes has found that only about half of the prescription drugs and other newly emerging contaminants in sewage are removed by treatment plants.
Continue reading… “Only half of prescription drugs are removed by wastewater treatment plants”
There will be a job market for wearable computer developers and engineers.
Developers are still learning how to use Google Glass. The Glass Development Kit is expected to be unveiled shortly and will build on the Android toolkits that a small but growing developer community is learning their way around the platform. But there are unique challenges for wearable computer software creation. How do you create apps for a wearable computer that lacks a mouse, a keyboard, and a touchscreen? How do you create programs for a hybrid of glasses and a computer that depends on a voice interface and a single button? It creates challenges.
Continue reading… “Developing apps for wearable computing poses new challenges for developers”
Taco Bell has been killing it on Twitter, creating a hip, fun presence to turn customers into evangelists.
More and more brands are marketing themselves via short-form social media like Vine, Twitter, Instagram, Instagram video and the newer platform Snapchat. They are not marketing by broadcasting their silly old messages but by treating their prospects and customers with respect, engaging with them directly through brief snippets of conversation, personality and humor. But it’s not just for fun: Consumers who engage with brands via social media demonstrate a deeper emotional commitment to those brands and spend 20 to 40 percent more than other customers, according to a report from Bain & Company.
Continue reading… “2014 marketing trend: Small messages make a big impact”
Robotic surgery
What if you need a hysterectomy, and the surgeon wants to do the surgery with a robot? Instead of working directly with his hands, he will sit at a console manipulating a set of robotic arms outfitted with tiny surgical instruments.
Continue reading… “Pros and cons of robot-assisted surgery”
Monster.com and market research company GfK conducted a survey of 8,000 workers across the United States, Canada, India, and Europe which we suppose makes it somewhat official: America is number one! Number one in the percentage of employees who hate their jobs, that is.
Continue reading… “Americans hate their jobs more than everyone else in the world hates their jobs”
84 percent of travelers aren’t properly protecting themselves from public WiFi threats.
The holiday season is the time of year we travel. It’s when people buckle up on planes and trains across the world, relishing the relatively recent wide-spread availability of public WiFi. (Infographic)
Continue reading… “Holiday travelers beware – 89% of public Wi-Fi connections are not safe”
Smartphones with larger screens use more data.
Your WiFi and data consumption will probably be higher if your smartphone has a large screen compared to a device with a smaller screen. In fact, monthly WiFi and cellular data consumption on smartphones with screens 4.5 inches and larger is 44 percent greater than it is on smartphones with screens under 4.5 inches, at about 7.2GB and 5.0GB respectively.
Continue reading… “Smartphones with larger screens use 44% more data”
Train carrying coal to a power plant.
The Great Energy Shift is happening in spurts and is starting in places like Arizona and Mississippi instead of coming from legislation in Washington. Last week two two utilities faced decisions on whether to fight the future or embrace it.
Continue reading… “The death of coal in America”
Americans began taking their foot off the gas pedal well before the recession.
Energy an urban-planning nerds have been pondering a very interesting question these days – has the U.S. passed peak car? Ever since the recession, Americans have been driving less, getting fewer licenses, and using less gas. But is that just the work of the recession, or something more permanent?
Continue reading… “The decline of driving in the U.S.”
Cities are crucial to our continued ability to innovate and compete.
We tend to think about individual gifts of insight when we think about innovation—researchers in crisp, white lab coats, slick tech entrepreneurs with fancy gadgets and VC’s doing inspired deals. But, innovation is really a messy business. It is full of blind alleys and half-baked ideas, random collisions and abrupt changes in direction. Ideas mix and recombine, fail, reemerge and, in the end, a precious few become wildly successful.
Continue reading… “Cities are our most important innovation platform”
Harold Washington library in Chicago.
The need for libraries, and librarians has been placed under scrutiny due to the advent of the internet. Everything in print is now available online. So do we really need physical libraries and librarians anymore? Of course we do…now, more than ever before.
Continue reading… “Libraries and librarians are more relevant than ever in the digital age”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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