In this issue: SILENCE BOOTHS SPRAY-ON BUGS HUMANS VERSION 2 GRID COMPUTING CARBON OMISSIONS And much, much more... ------------------------------------------------------------ ____ ____ ___ _____ ____ ______ ______ * / __ )/ __ \/ | / _/ | / / |/ / | / _/ / / __ / /_/ / /| | / // |/ / /|_/ / /| | / // / / /_/ / _, _/ ___ |_/ // /| / / / / ___ |_/ // /___ /_____/_/ |_/_/ |_/___/_/ |_/_/ /_/_/ |_/___/_____/ *Keeping brains healthy since 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------ Brainmail email issue 25 - March 2007 ------------------------------------------------------------ Brainmail is a free snack-sized newsletter dedicated to new thinking, innovations and trends. To subscribe or unsubscribe go to http://brainmail.nowandnext.com Tell the whole world about brainmail forward this to a couple of friends. ------------------------------------------------------------ > Water-cooled concrete Two Japanese companies have invented a water-retentive concrete that can be used to cool down buildings. A 30cm square x 2.5cm thick panel of the concrete can absorb up to 500ml of rainwater, which cools as it evaporates. The panels are also treated with a ceramic material to reflect sunlight. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > Silence booths The future is likely to be a noisy place, so an invention by Salem Industries might be just the ticket. Cell Zone is sound resistant phone booth that allows the constantly connected to chat away without interruption from other phone users, music or traffic. Expect to see the booths silently appearing in busy bars, cafes and airports. Ref: Trendwatching.com (Neth) > Tourist trimmer Ever wanted to remove annoying and unsightly tourists from your holiday pictures of the Grand Canyon or the Taj Mahal? Now you can. Snapmania.com has a free service that detects tourists in pictures and does its best to remove them. Ref: dsphotographic.com (Canada) > Rise of the machines Kartoo is a search engine like Google but rather than listing results as a list of text, Kartoo lists them in the form of maps. In other words it's a meta-search engine that uses visual display interfaces. If that floats your boat, also have a look at Carbonite. Ref: Atlantic Monthly (US) > Spray-on bugs The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the go-ahead for a spray that contains six viruses to be used as a food additive on cold meats. The idea is to protect people against far more dangerous viruses such as Listeria. Ref: New Scientist (UK) > Podcasting numbers The number of Americans that will download at least one podcast is forecast to increase from 10 million in 2006 to approximately 60 million by 2010. Ref: Red Herring (US) > Business process outsourcing Still out-sourcing your call centre to India? That's so last year. Apple Computer recently closed a call centre in Bangalore and other companies are following suit as Indian companies move towards higher margin non-voice work. So what's Next? Some call centres will return to low cost areas in the US and Europe, while others will migrate to new low cost regions such as the Philippines or parts of Africa. Ref: Business Week (US) > Word detective: Freemium Freemium is the name given to a business model where a product or service is given away for free in the hope that users can eventually be persuaded to pay for something. Ref: Business 2.0 (US) > Where do bacteria go to make love? Researchers at Tennessee Technological University say that industrial cooling towers could be hot spots for the creation of new species of bacteria, particularly those associated with respiratory diseases. Apparently these warm wet towers are the perfect place for amoebas and bacteria to interact and the height of the towers could also help new pathogens to circulate more quickly through the air. Ref: New Scientist (UK) > Work trends The Bureau of Economic Research (US) says that whilst work hours declined for much of the last century the trend has reversed itself. Moreover, the trend for longer working hours is most common amongst highly skilled workers. In 1980, 22% of college-educated men worked fifty-hour plus weeks. By 2001 the number had increased to 30%. Ref: Atlantic Monthly (US) > Not intolerant, just nuts A report commissioned by Norwich Union Healthcare in the UK found that 63% of doctors have seen an increase in the number of patients reporting food intolerances. However, 75% of the reported intolerances were psychological rather than physical. Meanwhile, scientists are engineering safe copies of popular foodstuffs so that people with food intolerances and allergies can eat 'normally'. The products are expected to be available in supermarkets by 2016. Ref: Financial Times/Daily Telegraph (UK). > Humans version 2 According to Dr Oliver Curry, an evolutionary theorist at the London School of Economics, there will be two quite distinct types of human in the distant future. The first will be tall, thin and smart whereas the second will be short, overweight and stupid. Over time, the second group will die out because of a decline in fertility and an over reliance on technology. Ref: The Times (UK) > Photo-acoustic detection The discovery that tumour cells vibrate, thus making a tiny a noise, will lead to a new test for skin cancer in the next few years. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency is using its satellites to support a service called HappySun. This is a subscription service that alerts sunbathers to local UV conditions using local cloud and ozone data. Ref: The Times (UK) > Grid computing 10,000 linked Sony PlayStation 3s will be used this year to conduct biological research. The combined computing speed of the machines will be five times faster than the most powerful supercomputer ever built. Ref: Harper's (US) > Word detective: Chatbots Chatbots are computer programs that answer questions and engage in conversation just like real people. A good example is Alice who can be found at www.alicebot.org Ref: The Times (UK) > Carbon Omissions The latest attempt to jump on the green bandwagon comes from a wine company in Australia that is producing carbon-emission free wine. They'll even ship a case to you in England or America, which rather defeats the purpose doesn't it? Ref: ExposeTV (UK) > The future of food: cloned beef This issue of brainmail seems to be turning into the food issue. According to the Chief Embryologist at ViaGen, a livestock lab in Texas, cloned beef could be on the menu in a matter of years if the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approves the idea. ViaGen has already cloned several cows from strips of beef, a technique that allows the company to test for quality before pushing ahead with 'production'. Somehow the idea leaves a rather unpleasant taste. Ref: Popular Science (US) > And I say to myself, this is not my beautiful house The correlation between living in a poor area and dying early is well documented. However, a study by scientists at Stanford University has found high death rates for poor people living close to very rich neighbourhoods. There are two explanations for this. Either they are getting sick because they are forced to pay more for housing and food, thus leaving little for healthcare, or else they are getting sick due to the stress of constantly being reminded about what they haven't got. Ref: New Scientist (UK) > Future applications for robots Japanese consumers are growing tired of humanoid robots. Once the novelty wears off they can't figure out what to do with them. Home robots are thus shifting towards becoming useful objects. An example is the 'Miuro' music robot, which is an "automatically moving music player". Mind you, do you really want a music player that constantly follows you around the house and if you do why not buy an iPod? Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > Scandinavian summits If you live in Europe two forthcoming events may be of interest. The first is a conference run by the Copenhagen Institute for Future studies in Denmark on 25th April. Details at www.dontstop02.com The second is Innotown in Alesund in Norway between 21-23 May. Details at www.innotown.com ------------------------------------------------------------ : STATSHOTS 30% of Americans don't know the year in which 9/11 took place. Ref: Harper's (US) According to CommScore Media Matrix, teen use of email fell by 8% in 2005 as impatient teens moved to faster methods of communication like texting. Ref: CNN Money (US) 51% of women in America live without a spouse. In 1950 the figure was 35%. Ref: New York Times (US) The combined market capitalisation of the world's largest 150 companies was US$4 trillion in 1994. By 2005 this figure had risen to US$11 trillion Ref: McKinsey Quarterly (US) Since the 1960's there has been a 400% increase in underwater noise off the Southern California Coast. The culprit is an increase in the number and speed of ships. Ref: New Scientist (UK) Kidnappings have increased by 300% over the past two decades. 90% of those abducted are eventually released. Ref: Business 2.0 (US) If MySpace was a country it would be the 11th most populous country in the world. Ref: YouTube (US) 7 million American households are now contained within secure purpose-built compounds. This represents 6% of all US households, an increase of 0.5% since 2001. Ref: Time (US) 51% of US households now use organic products and the value of the organic market is expected to grow from US$13 billion to US$20 billion by 2010. Ref: Convenience Store Decisions (US) According to a survey, 81% of Muslims in Britain consider themselves Muslim first and British second. Ref: The Guardian (UK) The child murder rate in New Zealand is twice that of Britain. Ref: The Times (UK) 90% of people living in California now live in an area where air pollution exceeds the legal state limit. Ref: Harper's (US) 60% of Australians rarely or almost never speak to their neighbours. Ref: Sydney Morning Herald (Aus) ------------------------------------------------------------ : QUOTE OF THE MONTH "We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology" Carl Sagan. ------------------------------------------------------------ : STILL HUNGRY? If this snack-sized newsletter still leaves you feeling hungry feed your brain with something a little more substantial at www.nowandnext.com (and yes, that's free too). ------------------------------------------------------------ : LOVE IT? THEN SHARE IT Do you know someone whose brain is not being fully exercised? Someone that is snacking on media that isn't terribly satisfying. Floss their brain and brighten up their day with a copy of brainmail in their inbox - forward this to your friends. ------------------------------------------------------------ : SUBSCRIBE TO BRAINMAIL Brainmail is a free monthly newsletter about new ideas, innovations and trends. To subscribe or unsubscribe visit the website at http://brainmail.nowandnext.com ------------------------------------------------------------