In this issue: WI-FLY LANGUAGE POLICE REALITY TV YOU STARTED IT HOW BLUESPAMMING WORKS And much much more... ------------------------------------------------------------ ____ ____ ___ _____ ____ ______ ______ * / __ )/ __ \/ | / _/ | / / |/ / | / _/ / / __ / /_/ / /| | / // |/ / /|_/ / /| | / // / / /_/ / _, _/ ___ |_/ // /| / / / / ___ |_/ // /___ /_____/_/ |_/_/ |_/___/_/ |_/_/ /_/_/ |_/___/_____/ *Keeping brains healthy since 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------ Brainmail email issue 14 - April 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. ------------------------------------------------------------ > Small is the new big 50% of all new pharmaceuticals products launched in the US are now created by companies less than ten years old Ref: The Economist (UK) > Gut feel A new way of measuring whether or not someone is lying may have been inadvertently discovered by a sixteen-year-old girl in the US. Traditional lie detector technology measures heartbeat and sweating but the new method monitors gastric rhythms in the stomach. Ref: The Times (UK) > Wi-Fly A flock of pigeons have set up their own blog. The pigeons, in San Jose (California), are equipped with GPS and air pollution sensors that automatically report on air pollution levels by sending text massages to a blog. Ref: New Scientist (UK) > As one door opens... A Japanese inventor has created a door that follows the silhouette of your body and only opens just enough to let you through. Why? To stop warm or cold air coming in or going out thus saving energy. See for yourself at www.snipurl.com/jp3h (Japanese only). Ref: Time (US) > Keep the change Bank of America has come up with an innovative way to get you to save. Each time you use a Bank of America debit card the bank rounds your purchase up the nearest dollar and puts the difference into a savings account. Ref: Business Week (US) > Japanese robots Sharp has created a prototype robot that can remove dishes from a dishwasher and stack them in a nearby cupboard. Meanwhile a Japanese recruitment company called PeopleStaff is offering employers the chance to hire a robotic receptionist. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > The price of fame Gawker.com has created a map that allows celebrity spotters and stalkers to send sightings and GPS positioning of celebrities to the website so that other people can follow them around. Ref: Sydney Morning Herald (Aus) > Language police A teenager in England has been fined GB £80 for using a four-letter word in front of his friends in a public park. Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK) > Moptech If you've got a robotic vacuum cleaner perhaps you need one of these. Scooba is a robotic mop that sweeps rubbish, sprays cleaning solution onto your floor and then mops both up. More at irobot.com Ref: Time (US) > Down is going up According to the World Health Organisation depression will be the most significant medical condition worldwide by the year 2020. Ref: Sydney Morning Herald (Aus) > Fly weight Budget UK airline Ryanair is giving passengers a discount if they only fly with hand luggage. So why doesn't someone start selling airline tickets by weight? Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK) > Horse sense Menicon, a Japanese company, has created a soft contact lens for horses. As well as reducing dust and stone damage the lenses can be used to deliver eye medication. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > Where Wi-Fi is hot The cities with the most Wi-Fi hot spots in the world are (in order) Seoul, Tokyo, London, Paris and San Francisco. Ref: New Scientist (UK) > Cheesy idea Research by the British Cheese Board says that eating cheese just before bedtime does not in-fact induce bad dreams, as many people believe. However, the study did find a correlation between eating Cheddar cheese and dreaming about celebrities. Ref: Scientific American Mind (US) > VoIP on ING Postbank (a subsidiary of ING) has put a Skype VoIP link on its banking website so that its younger customers can talk to bank staff. Whether they'll understand each other is another matter. Ref: finextra.com > Boptastic idea Podbop.org is a site that shows you where your favourite bands are playing. Just type in your zip (post) code and you'll receive a local map showing who's playing where. The site even includes mp3 downloads so you can listen before you leave home. Ref: Trendcentral (US) > Podtastic idea itrainer.com.au is a personal trainer on your ipod. Workout programs can be downloaded as audio mp3 files and you can even get fitness reminders sent via SMS or email. Ref: nowandnext.com > New York's finest What's hot on the streets of the Big Apple? One of the most interesting new retail concepts is a store where you can't buy anything. The Samsung Experience is a store that's beyond a flagship - it's 10,000 Sq ft of the latest products none of which are actually for sale. The idea of course is to create buzz. You can then buy the products somewhere else. Ref: The Times (UK) > Burning calories SnackShotz is part toy, part food source for dogs. The 'gun' fires various flavours of ammunition, which your dog then runs after. Food plus exercise rolled into one really. Ref: Iconoculture/iconowatch (US) > Reality TV A crematorium in Hull (UK) has installed web cams so that mourners can pay their virtual respects in real time. Apparently the crematorium got the idea after seeing people videoing funerals (blame Phil for this one). Ref: BBC (UK) > You started it A study says that women are more aggressive to their partners, shout more and are more likely to start arguments than men. Apparently this is because women tend to be more emotionally expressive. Ref: Journal of Marriage and Family (UK) > Word detective: Google Hacking Google Hackers are people that trawl Google to find information that is supposed to be secret but isn't. For example, it's possible to find petrol station web cams that have been accidentally linked to the Internet and office photocopiers that actually give you the option to print. Ref: The Times (UK) > Brain drain stats Almost 25% of doctors practising in the US, UK, Australia and Canada where born elsewhere. In the UK the figure is 75% and in Australia it's 40%. Ref: New England Journal of Medicine (US) > Innotown If you're in Europe between 29-31 May this year cancel everything and get yourself along to an event called Innotown in the northern Norwegian town of Alesund. More at www.innotown.no Ref: www.nowandnext.com > Reasons to be cheerful A study of 225 happiness studies by Dr Sonja Lyubomirsky (University of California) says that happy people are healthier, more successful at work and enjoy better relationships and not the other way around. Ref: Sydney Morning Herald (Aus) > Single currencies Here's an idea that won't go away - the Australian dollarisation of the Pacific region. The theory is that if the Pacific Islands adopted a single currency, trade with Australia would be easier and there would be costs savings to be made by eliminating central banks. A nice idea - unless you live in New Zealand. Ref: Australian Financial Review (Aus) > Good eye idea A non-profit company called Aurolan has sold 600,000 intraocular contact lenses (that treat cataracts) to countries like India at US $4 a shot. In the US similar lenses cost $100 a unit. What's more the company boasts a 52% profit margin and a 7.5% market share. Ref: Red Herring (US) > Good question Rather than owning or carrying around two or three phones, why can't you buy a phone that can take two or even three SIM cards? Ref: an anonymous thinker > Why can't you buy books on airplanes? According to Business Week magazine "many people these days only have time for books during airline trips". So why aren't there more good bookshops in airports and why can't you buy books on airplanes? Ref: Business Week (US) > How Bluespamming works Bluespamming (sometimes called Bluejacking) is the sending of spam to Bluetooth enabled devices. How does it work? All cell phones in the US now contain a tracking device and locational information is being sold to the highest bidder. Ref: Various ------------------------------------------------------------ : STATSHOTS In 1984 12% of the world's top 150 companies (by market capitalisation) were financial services and healthcare companies. By 2005 this figure had risen to 39%. Ref:McKinsey Quarterly (US) If Wal-Mart were a country it would be the 20th largest in the world. Ref: Wal-Mart (US) Polish women who immigrate to the US increase their risk if breast cancer by 300%. This is believed to be the result of diet. Ref: The Times (UK) Blog visits now represent 4% of all Internet traffic - up from 1% in 2005. Ref: Sense Bulletin (UK) 25% of the US workforce read blogs at work losing 9% of a typical work week. Ref: Adage/The Atlantic Monthly (US) There has been a 700% increase in the number of women having breast implants in the US between 1992 and 2004. Half of these were women aged 19-34 years old. Ref: Sydney Morning Herald (Aus) 7,700,000 million music cassettes were sold in Australia in 1994. Last year the number was 194,000. Ref: Sunday Life (Aus) Deaths partially caused by the super bug MRSA have increased by 22% between 2003 and 2004 according to the UK Department of Health. Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK) ------------------------------------------------------------ : NEW BRAINMAIL WEBSITE Brainmail now has it's very own very low-tech website where you can view all previous issues > http://brainmail.nowandnext.com ------------------------------------------------------------ : QUOTE OF THE MONTH "As a good rule, profound knowledge comes from the outside, and by invitation. A system cannot understand itself" W. Edwards Denning ------------------------------------------------------------ : PREVIEW OF NEXT ISSUE What is Boomerang Migration? Read the next issue to find out. ------------------------------------------------------------ : SUBSCRIBE TO BRAINMAIL Subscribe: subscribe-brainmail@nowandnext.com Remove: unsubscribe-brainmail@nowandnext.com ------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright © 2006 What's Next. All rights reserved. Neither this newsletter nor any part of it may be reproduced or used for commercial purposes without the prior written permission of the publisher.