In this issue:

DEATH MASKS
SUPER SNOOPERS
POWER TO THE FISHES

And much, much more...

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BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL
BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL
BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL
BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL
BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL
BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL

*Feeding hungry minds since 2004 

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Issue 107
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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.

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: INSIGHTS & IDEAS

> Intellectual fight clubs
In his 2002 graphic novel, Cold
Equator, the French writer Enki
Bilal proposed a new sport
involving alternating rounds of
chess and boxing. 19 years later
and chess boxing has become a
real sport, especially in Berlin.
The idea is three minutes of
chess, played on a board,
followed by a three-minute bout
of boxing. 11 rounds in total
(six chess, five boxing) and the
winner either earns a checkmate
or a knockout. 60 per cent of
winning moves are made on the
chessboard. There are plans to
make chess boxing an Olympic
sport and also for men to compete
against robots.
Ref: David Courbet, Bangkok Post,
29.3.18

> Death masks
A funeral home in Shanghai is
using a 3D printer to replicate
parts of peoples' faces that have
been disfigured during fatal
accidents.
Ref: Charles Cowling, Daily
Telegraph (UK) 9.4.16

> Airmail delivery
NHS Highland is exploring if
drone technologies could be used
to deliver medicines and medical
equipment to patients and doctors
in remote regions of Scotland,
especially when locations are cut
off in winter. One wonders
whether they are also looking at
3D printing to print such
supplies remotely too.
Ref: Gabriella Bennett, The Times
(UK), 1.2.18

> Pushing the wrong buttons
A robotic shop assistant in
Edinburgh has been fired for
annoying customers. Fabio the
robot was programmed to say hello
and give high-fives, but comments
such as "hello gorgeous" didn't
go down well with shoppers. The
biggest problem was that the
robot got confused by background
noises and couldn't understand
what people were saying to him
(her? It?). Humans 1: Robots O. 
Ref: Katie Gibbons, The Times
(UK), 23.1.18

> One hand chips
A Japanese company has created a
packet of crisps that you can
essentially put down your throat,
thus solving the eternal problem
of how to consume a packet of
greasy potato chips whilst
texting or swiping social media.
Has the human race really come to
this? 
Ref: Matthew Cantor, The Guardian
(UK), 7.2.19

> Super snoopers
In the UK, 5.5 million homes
(around 20% of all homes) now
possess a voice activated
assistant. However, slightly over
half have no intention of
following suit due to privacy
concerns. Unsurprisingly, older
people are the most unwilling,
with around three quarters of
Generation Z being happy with the
idea.
Ref: Simon Duke, The Times (UK),
7.2.19

> Those that tech forgot
Primary school children in
Cardiff have been giving seniors
in a local care home lessons in
how to use mobile technology. (Is
it possible, I wonder, that in a
few years' time, seniors will be
giving children lessons in how to
live without smartphones and the
internet?)
Ref: BBC News (UK) 14.3.18

> Multi-tasking
In 2017, Honolulu introduced a
'distracted walking law' which
fined pedestrians that crossed a
street while on a mobile device.
Meanwhile, over in China,
pedestrians are now fined for
walking whilst texting.
Ref: Jonathan Derbyshire,
Financial Times (UK), 2.3.19

> Power to the fishes
A Norwegian company plans to
power its cruise ships with
biogas made from the remains of
dead fish (or from the remains of
fish processing, to be a tad more
accurate). 
Ref: Fiona Harvey, The Guardian
(UK), 19.11.18

> Can't let go
Hoarding has been classified as a
medical condition for the first
time. The World Health
Organisation (WHO) now classifies
it as a disorder. So how long
before digital hoarding becomes a
disorder?
Ref: Charles Hymas, The Daily
Telegraph (UK), 14.08.18

> Too tired, can't relate
According to researchers at the
University of California,
Berkeley, a lack of sleep is
fuelling an epidemic of
loneliness because tired people
are less sociable. Only 38 per
cent of people in Britain sleep
well according to the Mental
Health Foundation. 
Ref: Sarah Knapton, Daily
Telegraph (UK), 14.08.19

> Digital pacifiers
According to the President of the
National Association of Head
Teachers (NAHT) in the UK,
children are becoming less
inquisitive due to the use of
iPads. Data by OFCOM suggests
that 20 per cent of 3-5-year-olds
now own their own iPad. 
Ref: Charles Hymas, Daily
Telegraph (UK), 8.09.18

> Income inequality
The top 1 per cent of Brazilians
take 13 per cent of all household
income. Even better (I mean
worse): Under 3 per cent of
Brazil's population owns 66 per
cent of all Brazil's arable land.
Finally, 80 per cent of bribes in
Brazil originate from government
officials.
Ref: New Statesman (UK)
28.06.13-4.07.13 (yes, a bit old)

> Could there be an 'I' in AI?
Engineers from Columbia
University have developed a
robotic arm that became aware of
its own shape and can detect
self-damage. Could this be one
small step on the road to the
holy grail of machine
self-awareness?
Ref: Robert Kwiatkowski & Hod
Lipson, Science Robotics (US),
30.1.19

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: SOME NUMBERS

Between 2010 and 2013, China used
more cement than the US used
during the whole of the twentieth
century.
Juliet Samuel, Daily Telegraph
(UK), 26.1.19

The terms and conditions for
Amazon's Kindle are 73,198 words
long and would take around 9
hours to read - longer than many
books that are available on
Kindle.
Ref: Elle Hunt, The Guardian
(UK), 15.3.17

In 1882, only 2 per cent of homes
in New York had running water.
Ref: Oliver Burkeman, the
Guardian (UK), 27.7.19

Data centres could consume 20 per
cent of the world's power by
2025.
Ref: Data Economy (US)

Percentage of Afghan adults that
report that their standard of
living is improving: 4.
Percentage that report laughing
or smiling the previous day: 36.
Ref: Harpers (US), January 2019

Self-harm among teenage girls in
the UK rose by almost 70 per cent
between 2011 and 2014.
Ref: Rosa Silverman, The Daily
Telegraph(UK), 8.2.18

Google and Facebook have more
than a fifth of the world's
advertising spending (they have
50-60 per cent of digital
advertising spend).
Ref: The Times (UK) 19.1.19

Around 650,000,000 adults and
124,000,000 children around the
world are obese.
Ref: Jo Ellison, FT (UK) 27.09.18

The 5p 'plastic bag tax'
introduced in the UK in 2017 has,
it seems, resulted in
supermarkets issuing 76 per cent
fewer plastic bags to customers
than in the previous year. The
number of plastic bags shoppers
now use has fallen from 140 per
year to 19.
Ref: Jack Maidment, Daily
Telegraph (UK) 28.07.18

Minimum percentage of the teen
birth-rate decline between 1999
and 2007 attributable to
broadband internet access: 7
Ref: Harpers (US), February 2019

90.5 per cent was declared
"statistic of the year" for 2018,
according to the Royal
Statistical Society (RSS). 90.5%
is the proportion of plastic
waste that has never been
recycled. Highly commended in the
international category was the
number $1.3 billion. This was the
amount wiped off Snapchat's
market value within a day of a
tweet by Kylie Jenner criticising
the platform's redesign. The
judges said that while a direct
causal link could not be proven,
it could be "the world's most
expensive tweet".
Ref: The Week (UK) 18.12.18

A tweet by Elon Musk suggesting
that he might take Tesla private
earned Musk a fine of $20 million
from the US Securities and
Exchange Commission. Musk later
said the cost had been worth it.
Ref: Saman Javed, The Independent
(UK), 28.10.18

Over a billion people worldwide
have no access to drinkable
water. Furthermore, 2.2 million
die annually from water-borne
diseases while half the world's
hospital beds are filled with
patients suffering from
water-related conditions.
Ref: The Futurist/Blue Planet
Network. Jan-Feb 2013 (again old,
but worth sharing)

500,000 individuals in the UK
aged over 60 usually spend each
and every day in complete
solitude and 500,000 more do not
see or speak to anyone for at
least five days each week. 50% of
all people aged 75 plus live
alone, 70% of them women.
Ref: Age UK

Since the year 2000, around 400
people have died from terrorism
in the OECD countries every year,
mostly in Turkey and Israel. More
Europeans drown in their own
bathtubs, and ten times more die
from falling down the stairs.
Ref: Progress, by Johan Norberg
(2017)

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: WEB SIGHT OF THE MONTH

I think this is a deceased
website, but it's still
brilliant. About uprooting,
repotting and distributing
landless (unloved perhaps?)
plants across London. 

projectuproot.wordpress.com 

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: BOOK(S) OF THE MONTH

Videocracy: How YouTube is
changing the world... with double
rainbows, singing foxes and other
curious trends we can't stop
watching
by Kevin Allocca

Or...

Can Medicine be Cured: The
Corruption of a Profession
by Seamus O'Mahony

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: WORD DETECTIVE: EGO TRAVEL

Did you know that you can hire a
private jet purely to take
Insta-friendly pics? The plane
doesn't actually go anywhere.
Given this sad state of affairs
it's hardly surprising that Ego
Travel is a big travel trend. Ego
travel refers to narcissistic
people that travel to places
purely to photograph themselves
there on social media. 
Ref: Guardian (UK), 14.05.18

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: QUOTE(S) OF THE MONTH

"In times like these, it helps to
recall that there have always
been times like these." 

- Paul Harvey, quoted in The
Buffalo News (US)

"A wealth of information creates
a poverty of attention"

- Franklin Foer in World Without
Mind (Penguin books)

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: 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).

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: 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...