Analysis, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

The Fall of Book Publishing: The Rise of New E-Book Business Models

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Experimenting Our Way to Success – Reinventing Publishing Models

Futurist Thomas Frey:  Amazon revolutionized book reading in 2007 when it introduced its Kindle book reader. Within the past three years, the explosive sale of book readers has caused a massive surge in the sale of e-books, already outpacing the sale of hardcover books, with a prediction by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos that they will outsell paperbacks within the next year.

 

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Analysis, Big Problems, Business, Corporate Manipulation, Health & Fitness, Latest Trend

Health Insurers Make Huge Profits While Many Americans Postpone Care

health-insurance

Health insurers propose double-digit increases in their rates, citing a need for protection against any sudden uptick in demand once people have more money to spend on their health.

Major health insurers in the U.S. are heading into a third year of record profits.  Their earnings have been enriched in recent months by a lingering recessionary mind-set among Americans.  Many who are postponing or forgoing medical care.

Analysis, Business, Economy, Globalism, Great Videos, Latest Trend

‘Made in America’ Making a Comeback: Study

manufacturing

2015 global manufacturers will view the U.S. as equal to if not better-than China.

In March, U.S. exports hit a record $173 billion, up 15% from a year-ago and 37% from 2009. According to a new study from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the good times for “Made in America” are just getting started. (video)

 

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Breakthrough Thinking, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Discoveries

Antihydrogen Could Lead to Anti-gravity

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Are Anti-gravity Devices Just Around the Corner?

The Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (ALPHA) at the CERN particle physics laboratory announced that they have been able to hold 309 atoms of antihydrogen in a magnetic trap for 1000 seconds, approximately 10,000 times longer than before.

When they experimented with the anti-atoms last year they verified that they were in fact antihydrogen atoms by releasing them from the trap and observing them being annihilated by hydrogen atoms. During that experiment they were only able to contain the atoms for 170 milliseconds.

They have repeated this experiment, but have made a few changes. By cooling the antiprotons that create the antihydrogen they were able to lower their energy, this allowed for more atoms to be contained with a longer life span. The longer life will allow scientists to do more experiments, like checking if antihydrogen has the same energy level as hydrogen…

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Art, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Pre-Fractal Art

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Fractal art from before computers were doing it.

Benoit Mandelbrot was a Polish-born mathematician. He received a doctorate from the University of Paris and emigrated to the U.S. in 1958. He is best known for his work with fractals, geometric patterns that are repeated at ever smaller scales to produce irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical geometry.

But before anybody knew Mandelbrot, artists were seeing fractals in nature and transfered the patterns in painting, design and sculpture…

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Analysis, Globalism, Science & Technology News

1 of 8 Human Beings That Have Ever Lived Are Alive Today

billions-of-people

There are about 7 billion human beings on the planet.

Earth is in the middle of a population crisis.  While countless species have seen their numbers plummet in recent decades, with more than a few going extinct entirely, humans have seen theirs grow and grow — and the two trends are hardly unrelated. But incredibly, when considering the indelible impact we’ve had on the planet and the creatures we share it with in our brief time here, everyone alive today accounts for a whopping 12 percent of all the humans that have lived, ever.

Analysis, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Drinking Up to Five Cups of Coffee a Day Lowers Breast Cancer Risk

drinking coffee

Women can drink up to five cups of coffee daily to stave off the disease

Drinking up to five cups of coffee daily can protect women from developing oestrogen-receptor negative breast cancer.  This type of breast cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of the disease, says a new study.

 

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Discoveries

Future High-Speed Trains Could Ride on Cushions of Air

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaN7Kxk1_e8&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

A Japanese research group looking into ways to build the next generation of high-speed trains has set their sights on ground-effect vehicles, or vehicles that move just fast enough to fly at very low altitudes and use the fast-moving air under them as a cushion to keep them airborne. In this case, when we say “ground-effect,” we don’t mean neon lighting on the underside of the chassis.

We already know a lot about high-speed rail, and in European and Asian countries, high-speed trains are the best and even preferred way to travel long distances. Still, the speed of today’s breed of high-speed trains is limited by the fact that they ride on rails that they’re physically connected to. Trains that use a rail or track only as a guide, and hover or fly over it could potentially travel much faster and farther on less fuel…

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