In this issue: IN HAIR WE TRUST ANXIETY NATION REALITY DISTORTION FIELD And much, much more... --------------------------------- BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL *Feeding hungry minds since 2004 --------------------------------- Issue 98 (the trend issue) --------------------------------- Brainmail is a free monthly (usually) newsletter dedicated to intellectual miscellany and ephemera. A file of hand picked curiosities, cerebral snacks and fortuitous facts. To subscribe or unsubscribe (or to search the whole ten year brainmail archive) visit: http://brainmail.nowandnext.com/ Like it? - then surely share it on Twitter and Facebook. --------------------------------- : INSIGHTS & IDEAS > Hold that thought Scientists claim that the human brain's capacity to remember information is up to 10 times larger than previously thought. The memory capacity is now said to be enough to hold the information contained within 4.7 billion books. Ref: The Times (UK) > In hair we trust A poll by IPSOS/MORI that has been charting data on trust in the UK since 1983 says that people now trust their hairdresser more than they trust members of the clergy, charity bosses, NHS managers and bankers. Politicians, it goes without saying, are more or less at the bottom of the pile (21% don't trust them), although it's worse for government ministers (22%), estate agents (25%), journalists (25%) and business leaders (35%). The most trusted occupations are hairdressers (69%), scientists (79%), judges (80%), teachers (86%), and doctors (89%). Whether or not people trust pollsters wasn't mentioned. Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK). > Stressed all the time (SATT?) Another survey, this time one carried out on behalf of the Guardian newspaper, has found that 93% of people working in the public (government) sector are stressed either all of the time or a lot of the time. A similar survey by the trade union NASUWT found that 83% of teachers had reported workplace stress. Ref: The Guardian (UK) > Anxiety nation NHS statistics show that during 2014 there were 53 million antidepressants prescribed in the UK. The use of heavy duty drugs such as diazepam and sertraline rose by a staggering 29% over the same period. Why? Ref: The Spectator (UK) > Reality distortion field The Happiness Institute in Denmark says that Facebook and similar sites distort reality by forcing people to make unrealistic comparisons with other users. Giving up such sites can reduce feelings of anger and loneliness, even after as little as a week. The study also found that the negative impact of Facebook on overall life satisfaction was roughly half that of the negative effects of severe income disparity. Ref: The Times (UK) > Trends for 2016 I was going to give you a list of 100 trends from JWT, but the only ones worth mentioning are Cuban tourism and inhalable cocktails. The list of 5 from TrendWatching is better: Status Tests, Contextual Omnipresence, Insider Trading, Beneficial Intelligence and Perspective Shifts. Meanwhile, Mintel's 5 trends are: On the Waterfront, Space-Time Continuum, My Mind's Eye, Pond Filter and Archbeacons. By the way, why do so many companies conceal their trends behind such ridiculous names? Ref: Web search > Tech trends for 2016 Here's another list, this time from Gartner. 1) The Device Mesh, 2) Ambient User Experience, 3) 3D printing materials, 4) Information of everything and 5) Advanced machine learning. Now these I understand. Ref: Forbes (US) > Retail trends for 2016 How about another list of 5? (Why always 5?) According to Retail Info Systems News, the big 2016 trends are: 1) Mobile-first investments, 2) digital strategy, 3) analytics and data-driven decisioning, 4) fun-tech (wearables, beacons, sensor movement tech, availability screens, and augmented reality), and 5) the Internet of Things. Ref: Web search > 10 predictions for 2016 Nesta, a UK non-profit focused on innovation and social change, has produced its annual list of predictions for the year ahead. The list is: computer games that heal you; locking the cyber backdoor; challenge-driven universities; retailers collaborating with the arts; patients becoming citizen scientists; food hacking; universal basic income; small food; audio tech beyond music, and disintermediation of the sharing economy. Ref: nesta.org.uk > The last list...I promise Frog Design, like just about everyone else, has produced a list of trends for 2016. They are: Blockchain beyond Bitcoin, data-driven design, microbiome makes health personal, AI saves financial services, VR medical therapy, FDA-approved video games, automation of human-centred design, VR breaking down borders, film reviews written by heartbeat, AI in special education, sensors combining and disappearing, haptic feedback getting real, alternative credit scoring, open enterprises, and friendship as a service. I really like this list, and especially the fact that you can vote online for whether each trend is likely or a longshot. Ref: http://frogdesign.com/ techtrends2016/ --------------------------------- : THE NUMBERS Consumption of soft drinks for breakfast in the US has almost doubled since 2010. Ref: NPD Group/Seattle Times (US) By 2011, internet-related consumption had exceeded that of the value of agriculture and energy combined. Ref: McKinsey & Company (US) Approximately 1,000,000 dogs have been named as beneficiaries in US wills. Ref: Harper's (US) According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership in the United States is now at a recent low - just 11.3 per cent. This is the lowest recorded level since 1916, when it was 11.2 per cent. Ref: New York Times (US) Only 1 in 10 Australians use public transport to get to work and more people walk to work than catch a bus. Ref: McCrindle Research (Aus) If Australia were a city, at 23.5 million, it would still only be the world's 7th largest (after Tokyo, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Jakarta, Seoul and Delhi). Ref: McCrindle Research (Aus) Basket abandonment (not completing an online purchase) has increased by 15 per cent in the UK since 2010. Travel suffers from the highest rate of abandonment, while Christmas shopping items suffer the least. Ref: Salescycle/E-Consultancy (US) Sneezing, searching for a tissue and nose blowing are responsible for 2,500 car accidents each week in the UK in winter. Ref: Prospect (UK) 87 per cent of Ford Explorer owners have never taken their vehicle off-road. Ref: Harper's (US) New Zealanders are the third heaviest tea drinkers in the world after Ireland and the UK (that's heaviest in the "drink a lot of tea" sense, not the totally obese sense). Ref: Nationmaster --------------------------------- : WORD DETECTIVE Zero tasking: What used to be called doing nothing. Zilch. Zip. --------------------------------- : CHARITY OF THE MONTH 2.4 billion people do not have anywhere clean to go to the toilet. How can you help? By 'twinning' your office loo with theirs. For GBP 60, you can twin your loo with another halfway around the world. The money goes towards improving loos or building new ones. http://www.toilettwinning.org/ --------------------------------- : QUOTE OF THE MONTH "The best - maybe the only? - real, direct measure of 'innovation' is change in human behaviour." - Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Flickr and Slack --------------------------------- : BOOK OF THE MONTH Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig Life affirming. Worth a read if it's raining outside. --------------------------------- : COUNTDOWN TO ISSUE NUMBER 100 I'm planning a series of drinks parties to celebrate the 100th issue of brainmail. Likely locations are London, Sydney and New York. Register your interest at: http://toptrends.nowandnext.com/ 2016/01/29/brainmail-100/ --------------------------------- : AND FINALLY... OMG, Brainmail is on Facebook. Well sort of. Actually Jasper, the Labrador that's the muse behind brainmail, now has his own Facebook page and says you'd be barking mad not to like it. Find it here: https://www.facebook.com/ brainmailnewsletter --------------------------------- : STILL HUNGRY? Not a lot of people know this, but brainmail is put together using some of the leftover bits from the What's Next trends report. So if this snack-sized newsletter is leaving you a bit hungry, go to nowandnext.com for something more substantial (and that's free too). --------------------------------- : BRAINMAIL LIVE If you are looking for an interesting speaker for your next conference, workshop, or event ask your speaker agency about Richard Watson or contact him direct via nowandnext.com. Richard, who is based in London, is the creator of brainmail (along with Matt Doyle and Phil Beresford, both of whom had the good sense to stay in Australia). --------------------------------- : SMALL PRINT The material appearing in brainmail is sourced from a variety of usually reliable publications worldwide. However, we cannot guarantee the truthfulness of stories and a degree of commonsense should be applied before quoting or using any material in a commercial context. If something appears to be too good to be true it probably is.