Most expensive city in the world – Toyko.
Americans might complain about the high cost of living, but overseas the U.S. dollar is even weaker. Find out where it buys the least.
Continue reading… “Top 10 Most Expensive Cities in the World 2011”
Twitter Usage Increases But It is Still a Niche Activity
Can twitter go from niche to mainstream in the US?
Twitter usage had risen from 8% of US internet users in fall 2010 to 13% in May 2011, a 62.5% increase in penetration according to an annoucement by the Pew Internet & American Life Project this month. Twitter usage does seem to be growing, but is a bump like that sizeable enough to take it from niche to mainstream?
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The Future of Libraries: Interview with Thomas Frey
Libraries in the future will come in many different forms
NOTE: The following is a reprint of an interview that recently appeared in American Libraries Magazine
Without consulting a crystal ball, Thomas Frey, executive director and senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute, writes and speaks about a promising future for those libraries strongly connected to their communities and quickly adaptable to the changing world around them. Tom Sloan, executive director of the DuPage Library System in Geneva, Illinois, asked Frey to discuss the future of libraries.
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The Urgency Paradox
As people live longer, some aspects of life are beginning to slow down
Futurist Thomas Frey: Tick, tick, tick. For virtually all working people, there is a clock ticking in the background. Tick, tick, tick.
Much like the rhythm of a beating heart, the sound of time creates a rhythm for our lives, a world unfolding in iambic pentameter, pulsing to the tempo of life.
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Turmoil Ahead for Housing
Futurist Thomas Frey: Consider the following scenario. Over the next few years, several major cities in the U.S. will begin to impose a ban on all new residential and commercial construction. With populations declining in numerous metro areas, they will worry openly about becoming the next Detroit with abandoned neighborhoods signaling a rapid decline in property values.
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1 of 8 Human Beings That Have Ever Lived Are Alive Today
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.
Business Colonies: A study of structure, organization, and the evolution of work
Business Colonies: Matching talent with pending work projects
Futurist Thomas Frey: The average person that turns 30 years old in the U.S. today has worked 11 different jobs. In just 10 years, the average person who turns 30 will have worked 200-300 different projects.
Continue reading… “Business Colonies: A study of structure, organization, and the evolution of work”
The Headless Organization
“The closest thing to a law of nature in business is that form has an affinity for expense,
while substance has an affinity for income” – Dee Hock, former CEO of Visa
Futurist Thomas Frey: Disintermediation is a term that sprung to life in the mid-1990s during the formative years of the Internet. Enterprising people learned very quickly that this new communication system could disintermediate, or bypass, many different layers of the business food chain and eliminate entire categories of decision makers both inside and outside of corporations.
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Introducing the Slashcasters
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.
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The Future of the Cruise Industry
Designing cruise ships today to meet the
wants, needs, and desires of future generations
Futurist Thomas Frey: Having just returned from a holiday cruise on the Mexican Riviera, I became intrigued with the prospects for this behemoth industry, and the long-term implications of designing ships today that mesh well with the changing attitudes and fickle interests of traveling consumers many years in the future. (Photos)
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Study: Religious Beliefs Still Influence Voter Decision
Religious beliefs have a high level of influence with voters.
Even though church attendance in western democracies has declined, a new University of Missouri study shows religious beliefs still influence people at the polls.
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Higher Than Expected Hispanic Growth Reaching 50 Million, Now 1 in 6 Americans: Census
Hispanics are currently the fastest growing group.
In a surprising show of growth, Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the last decade, exceeding estimates in most states. Pulled by migration to the Sun Belt, America’s population center edged westward on a historic path to leave the Midwest.
