In this issue: COFFEE SHOTS IKEA SLEEPOVERS ONLINE FRIENDS TIME IS MONEY FAMILY SIZE And much, much more... ------------------------------------------------------------ ____ ____ ___ _____ ____ ______ ______ * / __ )/ __ \/ | / _/ | / / |/ / | / _/ / / __ / /_/ / /| | / // |/ / /|_/ / /| | / // / / /_/ / _, _/ ___ |_/ // /| / / / / ___ |_/ // /___ /_____/_/ |_/_/ |_/___/_/ |_/_/ /_/_/ |_/___/_____/ *Feeding hungry minds since 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------ Brainmail email issue 30 - August 2007 ------------------------------------------------------------ Brainmail is a free snack-sized newsletter dedicated to current and future trends. To subscribe or unsubscribe go to http://brainmail.nowandnext.com Tell the whole world about brainmail forward this to a couple of friends. ------------------------------------------------------------ > Women in business The number of women in senior management positions in major UK businesses has fallen by over 40% over the last five years. In 2002, women occupied 38% of senior posts in FTSE 350 companies but by 2007 this had declined to 22%. Ref: PriceWaterhouseCoopers (UK) > Employment surgery South Koreans in their late teens and early twenties are using cosmetic surgery to improve their chances of employment with blue chip companies. Chieop seonghyeong ('employment surgery') usually involves surgery to the mouth, ears or eyelids and is a reaction to the intensely competitive nature of job-hunting in South Korea. Ref: The Independent (UK) > Coffee shots Subaru is working with a Japanese laboratory to develop a dashboard device that 'shoots' molecules of aromas such as coffee, lemon and mint into the faces of sleepy drivers to wake them up. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > Laptop love triangles The diminishing size of laptops and the increasing speed of wireless connections are creating a problem for couples. Across the world people have started to use computers in bed much to the annoyance of partners that are trying to sleep. But is the problem really computers? A generation ago people did much the same thing with TV and before that it was books. Ref: New York Times (US) > The future of search The keynote at 'Searchnomics 2007' highlighted eight areas that Google is focussing on in the immediate future. The areas are; automated translation, Google book search, image and video search, free phone based search, universal search (integrated content), maps & local search, client software (e.g. Google gadgets) and iGoogle (personalised homepage 'skins'). Ref: ReadWriteWeb (US) > Ikea sleepovers Ikea has created a pop-up hostel inside one of its stores. Each night, invited guests can bed down in a family room or a wedding suite until the store reopens at 10am the following morning. Other brands experimenting with sleepovers include the LA Dodgers, The British Museum, SeaWorld and Disney. Ref: Contagious (UK) > Medical forecasting It's not here quite yet, but the development of gene profiling techniques will soon mean that doctors will be able to predict resistance to certain drugs and thus personalise treatments. For example, earlier this year researchers at Harvard and Yale announced studies using gene chips to flag Herceptin-resistant tumours. Ref: Red Herring (US) > Sleep is the new sex According to the National Association of Home Builders in the US, 60% of custom homes will have dual master bedrooms by the year 2015. The reason is that more married couples are finding it harder to sleep together due to medical problems or because one partner gets up early to go to work. Ref: Iconoculture (US) > Online friends According to the University of Southern California the online world is becoming as important as real life to some Internet users. According to the research, 43% of Internet users that are members of online communities "feel as strongly" about their virtual community as they do about their real world communities. Ref: Center of the Digital Future (US) > Re-cycled retail trend Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo is asking shoppers to drop off old or unused Uniqlo clothing in any of its 730 stores across Japan. The company sends wearable clothing to refugee camps whilst damaged or worn out items are sent for recycling. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > Business booms and busts An academic survey of companies appearing on the cover of US business magazines over a twenty-year period says that the magazines usually backed the wrong horse. Comparing share prices of companies 500 days before and 500 days after coverage indicates that "positive stories generally indicate the end of superior performance and negative news generally indicates the end of poor performance". Ref: The Economist (UK) > Time is money According to the Japan Research Institute, Japan will require an additional 880,000 female workers by 2015 unless productivity increases. One solution to increasing individual productivity is homemaker services (household outsourcing). Another is various retail services aimed at saving women time. A recent example is instant eyebrow salons that save women an extra five minutes per day. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) > Trendwatching A study of successful leaders by a Harvard Business School professor says that the key to business success is spotting epochal trends early and then identifying the opportunities and constraints that follow. This trend spotting ability has been termed 'contextual intelligence' and includes factors such as technology, demographics, regulation and social attitudes. Ref: Boston Globe (US) > Back to the future for pharmaceuticals Trawling old medical books with search software appears to be the latest way to discover new drugs. Scientists at the Mayo Clinic have discovered a 'new' antibacterial therapy for diarrhoea based on the nut of the atun tree. The nut, which has now been patented (!), was first written about in a book of herbal treatments written in 1650. Ref: The Times (UK) > An end to sibling rivalry A Pennsylvania University study of 200 families reports that when men say that the love has gone from their marriage there tends to be a corresponding decline in sibling rivalry. In other words, if your kids are fighting your marriage is healthy, but if they're not your marriage could be on the rocks. Ref: Child Development (US). > Light bulb luminaries Rear-end smashes account for around 30% of all car crashes in the US, so two researchers at the University of Toronto have come up with a bright idea. At the moment brake lights give the driver behind no indication as to how sharply the driver in front is braking. But by using a cluster of brake lights the size of the brake light can be linked to the level of braking force that is being applied. Ref: New Scientist (UK) > Counter-intuitive thinking A climate model developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US) has found that cutting down more trees could actually cool the planet down by increasing reflectivity. The actual incidence of cooling depends on geographical location and leaf type. Ref: The Economist (UK) > Family size A report by the Optimum Population Trust says that having a large family is an eco-crime and should be treated in the same way as taking long-haul flights or not re-using plastic bags. Ref: The Australian (Aus) > WORD DETECTIVE: KIPPERS Kids In Parents Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings. Ref: New Statesman (UK) ------------------------------------------------------------ : STATSHOTS There are more Ethiopian doctors in Chicago than in the whole of Ethiopia. Ref: Prospect (UK) 25% of Iraqis have personally witnessed or experienced the death of a family member since the 'war on terror' began. Ref: The Brookings Institution (US) PayPal now has 143 million accounts - double the number it had two years ago. Ref: The Economist (UK) iTunes has now sold 2 billion music tracks. Ref: The Business (UK) In the UK CDs still account for 85% of all music sales. Ref: The Business (UK) Two years ago Tesco controlled 13% of retail sales in the UK and 31% of all grocery shopping. In the same year, Wal-Mart controlled 14% of grocery shopping and 10% of all retail in the US. Ref: Prospect (UK) If every SUV (4X4) owner in Britain swapped their off-roader for a hybrid car, overall CO2 emissions would be reduced by 0.3% Ref: Evo (UK) The TAC-700 non-lethal submachine gun can deliver 700 rounds of pepper spray pellets every 60 seconds. Ref: Popular Science (US) The economic value of bees to US agriculture is $15 billion annually. Ref: The Economist (UK) 25% of households in the UK contain at least one copy of Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon'. Ref: Prospect (UK) A survey of sixth-form students in the UK found that 75% would choose the right to drive a car over the right to vote if they had to choose between the two. Ref: New Statesman (UK) The average US home has more TVs (2.73) than people (2.55) Ref: Nielsen Media Research (US) All South Korean police stations now have cyber crime units to deal with online violence and bullying Ref: BBC (UK) US kids comprise 4% of the world's children but consume 40% of the world's toys. Ref: The Real Toy Story by Erick Clark ------------------------------------------------------------ : BOOK OF THE MONTH Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change by Bob Seidensticker ------------------------------------------------------------ : QUOTE OF THE MONTH "What is now proven was once only imagined" - William Blake. ------------------------------------------------------------ : STILL HUNGRY? 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