Top 10 most popular YouTube videos of 2012

Gangnam Style

The list of the ten most popular videos posted on YouTube in 2012 has been released.

Each time YouTube releases this list, we get a little insight into our culture. The list also helps us better understand YouTube’s place in the world, as a place for sharing videos from professional creators and people off the street. (Videos)

 

 

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Pew study on the global religious landscape

Eight in 1o people identify with a religious group.

More than eight-in-ten people identify with a religious group worldwide. A comprehensive demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life estimates that there are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, representing 84% of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion.

 

 

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Eight Shocking Quotes from 2012 that will Redefine Our Future

Futurist Thomas Frey:  When is the last time you heard a statement that caused you to stop dead in your tracks?

It doesn’t happen very often, but for each of us, there are a few unusual sound bites that will permeate our senses and sway our thinking.

 

 

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The average cost of Christmas in America

Christmas in America seems to be getting more extravagant.

With just a few days until Christmas day, many shoppers are feverishly trying to find the perfect meaningful gifts for everyone on their list. commercialization of the American Christmas plays a very big part in how much the average American pays for all of his or her holiday expenses. Between gifts, holiday parties and decorations, Christmas in America seems to be getting more and more extravagant. Here is a look at the average cost of an American Christmas and a glance at why the cost of the holidays is steadily rising.

 

 

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Google gets 2.5 million copyright removal requests every week

Google has been acting as a copyright cop.

Google reports that in the past six months it’s takedown too for search results has grown tenfold.  Around 250,000 requests a week went through the system when it started publicly posting takedown notices in May — which lets people or companies ask Google to remove links that infringe on their copyright. Now, that number has jumped to over 2.5 million a week. That’s a huge change, but not an unprecedented one, as requests have been increasing rapidly for the past several years. Back in May, Google reported that the 250,000 requests it received in a week were more than it got for the entirety of 2009.

 

 

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Sharp drop in law school applications

12.6% drop in law school applications.

87,900 people applied to ABA law schools in 2010. This number of people who applied was down 12.6% from the all-time high of 100,600 six years earlier.  That trend ought to have served as an early warning signal to law schools. After all, in 2008 and 2009 the economy was in the deepest recession since the 1930s, which should have have driven applications to professional school in general and law school in particular to new highs.

 

 

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Top 5 most disruptive technologies of 2012

Google glass

The top five most disruptive technologies in 2012 include energy storage technology no one thought would ever work, gesture-based interfaces that will make touch screens look as quaint as floppy disks, and computers and connectivity so cheap they’re adding billions more people to the internet. For a technology to make it onto this list, it didn’t have to be invented in 2012; in many cases, it’s enough that there was a significant development this year in its journey toward rewriting our relationship with machines and each other.

 

 

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The world is running out of helium

Helium is a very low-density gas.

Jimi Hendrix once said, “I have this one little saying, when things get too heavy just call me helium, the lightest known gas to man.” He was almost right. We know of helium, conventionally, as the lighter-than-air gas that we fill balloons, blimps and zeppelins with in order to quickly and easily “defy gravity” here on Earth. (Video)

 

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Baby boomers are the driving force behind ‘big data’ demand

Baby boomers represent the largest generation driving rapid growth in data demand.

No matter what generation we are we usually see young adults, who are tethered to their mobile device for texting, gaming and surfing the web, as the drivers of our new data-driven world. But surprisingly, baby boomers — aged 46 to 64 — represent possibly the largest generation driving rapid growth in data demand.

 

 

 

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Top 6 social-digital trends of 2013

It’s that time of year where we predict how in the year ahead technology continues to influence how we work and live.  Previously the trends have been under the “social media” lens because that has been the major disruptive force, creating both opportunities and threats. This year, the trends will be under term “social-digital” to broaden the focus.

 

 

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The ‘flipped academic’ in higher education – inform first and publish later

Turning the education model inside out.

The concept of the ‘flipped classroom’ in schools is when pupils complete course material ahead of lessons to free up time with their teachers and apply the knowledge they have just learned. Now a related philosophy is developing in higher education. Can we also flip academics – or even academia itself?

 

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