In this issue: RADAR GOLF JAPANESE INNOVATIONS TOP 10 IDEAS BOTTOM 10 IDEAS PODDATING And much much more... ------------------------------------------------------------ ____ ____ ___ _____ ____ ______ ______ * / __ )/ __ \/ | / _/ | / / |/ / | / _/ / / __ / /_/ / /| | / // |/ / /|_/ / /| | / // / / /_/ / _, _/ ___ |_/ // /| / / / / ___ |_/ // /___ /_____/_/ |_/_/ |_/___/_/ |_/_/ /_/_/ |_/___/_____/ *Keeping brains healthy since 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------ Brainmail email issue 12 - February 2006 ------------------------------------------------------------ Brainmail is a free monthly newsletter about new ideas, innovations and trends. If you'd like to receive regular copies simply click on subscribe. Subscribe: subscribe-brainmail@nowandnext.com Tell the world about brainmail - forward this to a friend. ------------------------------------------------------------ > This game is all about contacts Nike's MaxSight contact lenses apparently improve the visibility of moving objects (like tennis balls) by filtering out glare. A grey-green version even enhances the edges of far-away putting greens. Ref: Time (US) > Radar golf Can't find your balls? Then perhaps you need a set of radar golf balls from radargolf.com Each ball contains a chip which sends a radio signal to a small hand held device. Ref: Business Week (US) > Tech trends What are the tech trends du jour? According to tech guru Tim O'Reilly they include: VoIP, content mashing, the blurring of real and virtual worlds and user participation. Ref: Wired (US) > Word detective: most popular According to Wordspy.com the top ten new words and phrases created last year were as follows: ubersexual, jumping the couch, podjacking, cyber Mondays, playlist anxiety, vodcasting, acoustic shopping, podcatching and slideloading. Ref: Wordspy (US) > Gender bias in complaining An Australian study has found that women are better at complaining than men. The research looked the levels of compensation and found that women tended to receive more compensation than men when they complained. Ref: The Times (UK) > Best ideas A US study says that just four ideas copied thousands of times account for 80% of all breakthrough new businesses created between 1965 and 1995. The four ideas are: power retailing, focus/simplify/standardize, value chain bypass and mega-branding. Ref: Strategy + Business (US) > Japanese innovations How about some lingerie that responds to temperature change? When it's hot the fabric 'melts' to dissipate heat. When it gets cold the material hardens to retain heat. Meanwhile another Japanese clothing manufacturer has created trousers with 'cobbles' inside that massage you when you walk. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > Self-imposed taxation Drivers of SUVs (4x4s) that are fed up with having anti-SUV graffiti applied to their mud-free paintwork can now buy a TerraPass sticker to apply to their windscreen. The idea is that money earned from selling decals is invested in green energy projects - a kind of self-imposed energy tax or pollution offset for environmentally concerned SUV owners. Ref: Wired (US) > An erosion of trust A survey conducted by the World Economic Forum says that in most countries people trust their leaders less than they did twelve months ago. Ref: Newsweek (US) > Personal stress management Stressed? Then perhaps you need a personal stress tester. The mini machine (about the size of a cell phone) works by testing saliva - which contains high levels of an enzyme called amylase if you are under stress. Oh, but image the anxiety when you loose it or it doesn't work! Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > Word detective: dataspill Data spill is the loss of personal records such as credit card numbers or social security records. For example, last year the DSW Shoe Warehouse in the US 'lost' the credit card numbers of 1,500,000 customers. Oops! Ref: Wired (US) > Reel-y good idea? Anglers in Japan can now go night fishing equipped with a fishing line that glows in the dark. The line is coated with ultra-bright fluorescent ink that is illuminated by and LED light housed inside the fishing rod. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > Top 10 ideas According to a group of thought leaders the most important ideas in business are as follows: Disruptive technology, China Inc, Corporate Governance Reform, Corporate Values, Format Competition, The Learning Organisation, Advantaged Supply Chain Management, Complexity Theory, Glocalisation and Enterprise Resilience. Ref: Strategy + Business (US) > Bottom 10 ideas Psychology Today magazine recently ran a list of the ten most misguided ideas. They include: playing Mozart to babies, recovered memories, tough love, rebirthing therapy and correctional boot camps. Ref: Psychology Today (US) > Message in a buckle In Japan you can buy a belt that has a LED buckle - so you can flash messages to your friends. Messages run from left to right and can be adjusted for message speed and brightness. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > Retro-tech Here are two examples of how the nostalgia trend is influencing technology. First Atari have gone back to the future by launching the Flashback 2 Classic Game Console. Meanwhile Verbatim have created a "vinyl" CD that looks like a 45-rpm record. Ref: Various. > Hi-tech goes green French specialist carmaker Venturi has produced an all-electric sports car called the Fetich. The car can accelerate from 0-60 in 5 seconds and has a maximum speed of 150mph. The cost? US $660,000. Ouch! Ref: BBC (UK) > New ideas to sleep on Sales of bedding products such as pillows, mattresses and eye masks that incorporate odour-suppressing or anti-bacterial materials are booming in Japan. 'Ingredients' include charcoal and a substance found in green tea. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > Retro magazines Following on from the launch of a series of magazines about scrap booking is a delightfully old fashioned magazine called 'Make' that helps people to build things. The first issue featured a piece on how to take aerial photographs using kites. Ref: Wired (US) > Word detective: Theranostics Theranostics is the science (business) of using diagnostic tests (biomarkers in particular) to personalise drug prescriptions for patients. Ref: Sense Bulletin/Financial Times (UK) > Cut and run Onsite haircuts is a company that delivers haircuts to busy office workers out of a converted Winnebago in Silicon Valley (US). Ref: Iconoculture (US) > Clean screens A company in Japan has created a touch-screen that you don't need to touch. Simply putting your finger within 2cm of the screen is sufficient. Uses include control panels in food processing plants. Given that some ATMs in Japan heat banknotes to kill germs prior to dispensing them, perhaps these screens will be used in ATMs too. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > PodDating Pod Dater is a downloadable service that allows busy Gen Y'ers to turn their video iPods and PSPs into mobile dating machines. Ref: TrendCentral (US) > Bean there? A cinema in Melbourne (Aus) has swapped traditional movie theatre seating for ultra-comfy love sacs (bean bags). Meanwhile another cinema in Sydney has introduced business class seating with drinks service and meal delivery to your seat. Are these ideas firsts or have we seen them before? Ref: Various. ------------------------------------------------------------ : STATSHOTS In 1998 there were roughly 12 pro-terrorism websites worldwide. Last year there were roughly 4,700. Ref: Harpers (US) Apple's online store took 20 days to sell 1,000,000 movie downloads. Suicide Girls (an adult 'entertainment' site) sold 1,000,000 videos in just 7. Ref: Time (US) There are 41,932 supermarkets and 14,801 domestic airports in the US. In Australia there are 3,775 and 444 respectively. Ref: The Australian (Aus) In the mid 1950s 9% of adults were single in the US. The figure is now 44% Ref: Innovation Watch (US) The cost of natural disasters (expressed as a % of GDP) has tripled since the 1960s. Moreover this is expected to increase still further as high-density urban populations expand into high-risk areas. Ref: Geotimes (US) The number of US university students learning a foreign language has fallen from 16% to 8.5% over the past thirty years. Ref: International Herald Tribune (US) 40% of Proctor & Gamble and 60% of Honda products are forgeries according to Moises Naim - author of Illicit: how smugglers, traffickers and copycats are hijacking the global economy. Ref: Mother Jones (US) In the US 3.2 million cell phones are equipped to play MP3s. This figure is expected to increase to 76.6 million by 2010. Ref: Time/Jupiter Research (US) In the US, 25% of children aged between six-months and two years old have a TV next to their cot. Ref: Sun-Herald (Aus) ------------------------------------------------------------ : QUOTE OF THE MONTH "In China, when you are one in a million, there are 1,300 other people just like you" Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat). ------------------------------------------------------------ : PREVIEW OF NEXT ISSUE Kettle Foods Inc is applying the principle of open source software development to the creation of new potato chip flavours. ------------------------------------------------------------ : LINKS If you're hunting for sources for new ideas, innovations and trends try http://www.squidoo.com/Ideas_trends_innovation/ ------------------------------------------------------------ : A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR If you liked this, look at this http://www.nowandnext.com ------------------------------------------------------------ : SUBSCRIBE TO BRAINMAIL Subscribe: subscribe-brainmail@nowandnext.com Remove: unsubscribe-brainmail@nowandnext.com ------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright © 2006 What's Next. 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