Frederick Kaufman’s piece for Foreign Policy examines how the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI) is responsible for the increase in food prices.
[T]he boom in new speculative opportunities in global grain, edible oil, and livestock markets has created a vicious cycle. The more the price of food commodities increases, the more money pours into the sector, and the higher prices rise. Indeed, from 2003 to 2008, the volume of index fund speculation increased by 1,900 percent. “What we are experiencing is a demand shock coming from a new category of participant in the commodities futures markets,” hedge fund Michael Masters testified before Congress in the midst of the 2008 food crisis…
You know the drill … You open iTunes and there’s a popup that asks you to download a new version. You download the newest version and there’s another popup asking you to agree to Apple’s Terms of Service. But it’s over 55-pages long! You scroll to the bottom and hastily click “Agree,” because what’s the worst that can happen right? Right?
Slashcasters, a new breed of pitchmen for the digital age of retail
Futurist Thomas Frey: I was recently asked to do the keynote talk at a retailer conference in Orlando, Florida speaking on the topic of what the future of retail may hold. At one point in the conversation, the caller made the comment that one of the biggest problems in retail is that consumers are evolving faster than retailers can adapt.
Parents begin to worry as prom night approaches. They are worried about what might happen during after hour parties. Some parents might be tempted to try to teach their high schoolers to drink responsibly – by allowing them to consume alcohol under supervision.
It may never make it into everyday jet-fighter use but NASA is checking out biofuel made from chicken and beef fat.
The chicken fat fuel, known as Hydrotreated Renewable Jet Fuel, was burned in the engine of a DC-8 at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center as part of its Alternative Aviation Fuels Experiment that is looking at developing all manner of biofuel alternatives to traditional Jet Propellant 8, or JP-8. The DC-8 is used as a test vehicle because its engine operations are well-documented and well-understood, NASA says…
The brown recluse are one of the most feared spiders in North America. And now the brown recluse – or Loxosceles reclusa – spider population is growing, and predicted to expand into the northern states as a result of climate change.
Regulators are asking food makers and restaurant companies to make a choice: make your products healthier or stop advertising them to youngsters.
The Federal Trade Commission has proposed sweeping new guidelines that could push the food industry to overhaul how it advertises cereal, soda pop, snacks, restaurant meals and other foods to children.
Futurist Thomas Frey: When it comes to the topic of time travel, color me skeptical.
Do we even know what time is? Yes, we see the seconds clicking away on clocks, sunrise followed by sunset, tides coming in and going out, seasons changing from one to another, and little trees growing into big trees.
People identify emotions partly by mimicking each other’s facial expressions.
Botox injections help erase wrinkles and other signs of aging. But the cosmetic procedure may impair the ability of a person to read other people’s emotions, according to a new study.
PepsiCo Inc will be launching the “social vending” machine that lets users buy each other drinks remotely. This is further proof that its decades-old rivalry with Coca-Cola Co is going ever-more high tech.