In this issue: BUILD YOUR OWN PHONE THE COST OF CONNECTION SHARK NET 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 103 --------------------------------- 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 13-year brainmail archive) visit: http://brainmail.nowandnext.com/ Like it? - then surely share it on social media. --------------------------------- : INSIGHTS & IDEAS > Brain-computer interfaces Researchers at Samsung's Emerging Technology Lab are experimenting with devices that can be controlled by your brain. Users currently need to wear a hat similar to a beanie containing electrodes, but one day it may be possible to control devices via Bluetooth-type earpieces. Such technology has been around for a while helping people with physical disabilities control computers and wheelchairs. Companies active in this space include Neurosky and Emotiv. The latter sells a headset that can read the brainwaves associated with certain feelings. Ref: MIT Technology Review (US) > Stranger danger I've not experienced this myself, but maybe you have? Sleep researchers say that the reason some people wake up feeling rough after a long flight may have nothing to do with jetlag. Instead the feeling could be due to something called 'first night effect', whereby the body adjusts to an unfamiliar environment by 'keeping lookout'. Ref: Current Biology (US) > Department of failed ideas Following the success of officially-endorsed badges on London's Tube alerting passengers to the fact that a passenger is pregnant and may need a seat, an unofficial badge asking passengers to engage in conversation failed completely. Ref: Metro (UK) > Build your own phone The High-Low Tech lab at MIT is a group of engineers trying to democratise technology by getting people, especially non-engineers, to build their own consumer electronics. One of the most successful DIY projects is a $100 phone that you solder together yourself. You can even cut your own case using a laser. Ref: New Scientist (UK) > The great escape This isn't especially insightful, but it is funny and certainly innovative. Pupils at one of Britain's most troubled schools used canteen cutlery to start digging a tunnel under a 12-foot security fence. I presume the kids (all aged around fourteen) got into trouble. Personally, I would have used the incident to teach the offenders about mining, the physics of tunnel making, and possibly some great escapes throughout history. Ref: Daily Mail (UK) > Fukoku (possibly a new Japanese swear word) A Japanese insurance company (Fukoku Mutual Life) has replaced 34 of its loyal employees with IBM's Watson Explorer AI. Ref: The Guardian (UK) > Posting offline A 24-year-old from the UK has set up a business called Inkpact to write handwritten letters using fountain pens for people that are too busy, too unwilling or too unskilled to do so themselves. The company uses a network of students and single mothers to write and post the letters. Ref: The Times (UK) > The cost of connection A study by the UK Department of Energy claims that people in the UK spent 900 million pounds charging mobile devices in 2015. There are roughly 50 million smartphones and 15 million tablets in the UK. However, this could change. New technologies mean that devices could be charged via users' body movements throughout the day. Ref: The Times (UK) > Shark net Whoever said that criminals couldn't be innovative or follow trends? Chinese loan sharks are reported to be demanding nude photographs of female lenders as loan collateral. The threat is that images will be made public if the loans are not repaid. So what's the problem with male nudes? Ref: Financial Times (UK) Super dry A 'super-hydrophobic' material has been created by studying the water-repellent properties of nasturtium leaves. Water applied to the surface of the new material 'bounces off' 40 per cent faster than with previous water-resistant materials. Ref: RHS magazine (UK) > Flying high Hard to believe this is true. Between 2005 and 2007, in Los Angeles, 90 birds died due to flying whilst drunk. The inebriated birds ate naturally-fermenting berries then flew into objects and died. In 2000, Robert Dudley at the University of California at Berkeley suggested that our monkey ancestors would have come across alcohol in fermenting fruit and this could explain our modern obsession with alcohol. (See the drunken monkey hypothesis.) Ref: BBC Earth (UK) > Faster than a speeding bullet A company called Reaction Engines has created a revolutionary cooling system that could allow the engines of passenger jets to fly at Mach 5.5. The engines, conceived for the delivery of cargo into space, would allow a passenger jet to fly from London to Sydney in just 4 hours. Bring it on. Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK) --------------------------------- : THE NUMBERS 65 per cent of Americans support the use of drones to kill terrorists abroad. Only 25 per cent approve of the use of such drones on US soil. Ref: The Atlantic (US) The UK exports more to Ireland than it does to China, Brazil, India, Russia, and China combined. Ref: The Independent (UK) The number of Jedi knights in the UK has halved since the last census. Ref: Prospect (UK) The US has 5 per cent of the world's population, but 25 per cent of the world's prison population. Ref: Washington Post (US) Britain has the highest level of female imprisonment in the EU and the number has doubled in 15 years. Ref: The Independent (UK) Between 2000 and 2010, the number of prisoners aged 55 plus in US jails grew by 181 per cent. This compares to an overall growth rate of 18 per cent. In England and Wales the rise of inmates over 60 grew by 128 per cent over the same period (vs. 34 per cent overall). In Australia the over-65 inmate population rose by 140 per cent. Ref: The Economist (UK) The use of contactless cards has overtaken cheques for the first time in the UK. Only 31 per cent of adults now regularly use cheques. In 2015, 28 per cent of people regularly used contactless debit cards, but the number is now around 39 per cent. Contactless credit card use has grown from 28 per cent to 34 per cent. Ref: The Guardian (UK) 1 in 5 people in the Middle East are living with diabetes. By 2030 this is expected to increase to 1 in 3. Half of the people currently living with diabetes in the UAE are unaware that they have the condition. Ref: Imperial Magazine (UK) Only 1 in 20 people in China hold a passport. Despite this, the number of people travelling out of the country exceeds the number travelling in by a factor of four. Ref: The Economist (UK) The number of women aged between 40 and 49 giving birth in the UK rose by 16 per cent between 2007 and 2012. In London, women aged 40 plus give birth at twice the rate of teens. Ref: Daily Telegraph /HSCIC (UK) A study of 26,000 men in France has found that average sperm counts have declined by 32 per cent between 1989 and 2005. Ref: BBC Online (UK) Read this one slowly. In 1965, men in the north of England were 16 per cent more likely to die before reaching the age of 75 than people in the south. By 2008 this figure had increased to 20 per cent. Ref: The Economist (UK) --------------------------------- : QUOTE OF THE MONTH "Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes." - William Gibson --------------------------------- : WORD DETECTIVE Notification fatigue: People struggling with the volume of reminders and alerts created by apps. Ref: The Economist (UK) --------------------------------- : BOOK(S) OF THE MONTH Immortality by Stephen Cave In an era dominated by technology billionaires' intent on solving their 'death problem', this book provides some balance and explains how death is a positive force for progress in that it spurs human ingenuity. Or... Drinking Water: A History by James Salzman Did you know, for example, that the Catholic Church was once the world's leading supplier of bottled water? --------------------------------- : WEB SIGHT OF THE MONTH I quite like allday.com but I really like omgspace.net, which takes me to: joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/ pixelspace_solarsystem.html --------------------------------- : PREDICTION OF THE MONTH 75 per cent of cars on the road could be self driving by the year 2040. Ref: Wired magazine (US) --------------------------------- : 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. That's all folks. Back soon...