Chinese workers go about their chores at a textile factory.
The real estate and infrastructure bubbles are a great concern in China. But these challenges are short term that China may be able to spend its way out of. The real threat to China’s economy is bigger and longer term: its manufacturing bubble.
Continue reading… “The end of China’s manufacturing dominance”
Many workers who have lost their jobs have defaulted on 401(k) loans.
The number of displaced workers has risen dramatically since the start of the Great Recession, and this year a third of them had to raid retirement savings to make ends meet.
Continue reading… “35% of laid-off workers have raided their retirement savings”
Over 50% of the U.S. is under drought conditions.
More than half of the United States is under drought conditions right now, putting 2012 in the same category with some of the worst droughts in the nation’s history. This makes 2012 the sixth worst drought on record with a 54.6 percent figure (not counting Alaska and Hawaii) in terms of area covered, behind only the brutal droughts of the mid-1950s and the “Dust Bowl” era of the 1930s. Other more recent droughts — such as 2000, 2002, and 1998 — saw a greater percentage of the country suffering from the “severe” or “extreme” drought categories. However, even by that standard, June 2012 still ranks among the top 10 worst droughts of all-time.
Continue reading… “2012 drought reaches proportions not seen since the ‘Dust Bowl’ era”
Futurist Thomas Frey: In 2004, when Chris Anderson released “The Long Tail,” the world was suddenly awakened to the potential for niche markets that appeal to an increasingly diverse consumer marketplace.
Continue reading… “Workerless Businesses: An Explosive New Trend”
Pinterest is now beating out Twitter, StumbleUpon, Bing, and Google in referral traffic (not Google organic, of course) according to new data just released by the online sharing service Shareaholic. The study is based on Shareoholic’s network of over 200,000 publishers, which reaches more than 270 million people monthly.
Continue reading… “Pinterest traffic beats Google referral, Bing, Twitter and StumbleUpon”
Cell companies have seen double-digit percentage increases in law-enforcement requests for subscriber information for each the past five years.
Cell phone carriers say they received 1.3 million requests last year from law enforcement agencies for subscriber text messages, caller locations, and other information, reflecting a steady increase during the past five years.
Continue reading… “Wireless carriers see double-digit increase in surveillance requests”
U.S. pushes for more laboratory scientists.
Michelle Amaral planned a traditional academic science career to become a brain scientist to help cure diseases. She planned on her PhD, university professorship and, eventually, her own lab. But three years after earning a doctorate in neuroscience, she gave up trying to find a permanent job in her field.
Continue reading… “Big push for more scientists in the U.S. but there are too few jobs”
Do you constantly checking your phone for new emails, even before and after work? Even from bed? You’re not alone.
Continue reading… “We are checking our phones all the time”
Death may be permanent, but headstones are always changing.
Gravestones are the very mark of solidity; their stone says longevity, durability, time immemorial. But there is at least one headstone company in Seattle that brings headstones into the 21st century by pasting a QR code sticker onto them.
Continue reading… “A QR code for your headstone”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TveAzAs6NAY&hd=1[/youtube]
Earlier this year comedian Louis CK raised some eyebrows when he sold downloads of a live show through his website and pulled in more than $1 million in about a week, despite the fact that fans could easily download the content for free. Now, he has done it again: instead of a traditional tour, he decided to sell tickets through his website, and sold $4.5-million worth in under 48 hours. Content creators of all kinds — authors, musicians and others — would do well to learn from his example, and that of others like Amanda Palmer, who recently financed a new album and tour through Kickstarter. The main lesson? Building a community is more important than ever.
Continue reading… “The future of content: Louis CK and Amanda Palmer”
Is your e-book reading you?
On the Kobo e-reader the average reader will take just seven hours to read the last book in Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” trilogy, that’s about 57 pages an hour. Nearly 18,000 Kindle readers have highlighted the same line from the second book in the series: “Because sometimes things happen to people and they’re not equipped to deal with them.” And on Barnes & Noble’s Nook, the first thing that most readers do upon finishing the first “Hunger Games” book is to download the next one.
Continue reading… “What your e-reader knows about you”
A serial entrepreneur is an entrepreneur who starts a number of new businesses.
When it comes to learning about startups, that landscape is largely made up of the books you would find in the average library, They are books about “how to deal with your company finances”, “10 steps to marketing success” and other dispiriting works, along with more inspiring but largely useless biographies of successful businessmen.
Continue reading… “The serial entrepreneur myth”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.