In this issue: FISHY THEORY RISKY BUSINESS TOP ENERGY TRENDS POLLEN-PROOF CLOTHING And much, much more... ------------------------------------------------------------ ____ ____ ___ _____ ____ ______ ______ * / __ )/ __ \/ | / _/ | / / |/ / | / _/ / / __ / /_/ / /| | / // |/ / /|_/ / /| | / // / / /_/ / _ _/ ___ |_/ // /| / / / / ___ |_/ // /___ /_____/_/ |_/_/ |_/___/_/ |_/_/ /_/_/ |_/___/_____/ *Feeding hungry minds since 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------ Brainmail email issue 49 - March 2009 ------------------------------------------------------------ Brainmail is a free snack-sized newsletter dedicated to trends, innovations and other miscellany. To subscribe or unsubscribe to the world's best online cache of curiosities go to http://brainmail.nowandnext.com Tell the whole world about brainmail forward this to zillions of friends. ------------------------------------------------------------ > Eat big Fish According to Prof. George Sugihara at the Scripts Institution of Oceanography, current fisheries management practice is exactly wrong. Instead of throwing the small ones back we should be keeping the small fishes and throwing the big ones back. This is because larger, older fish stabilise the fish population and provide higher quality offspring. Small fish can also struggle to survive when times are tough. Ref: Scientific American (US) > Grow Your Own Sales of vegetable seeds in the UK have risen by 14% since late 2007 according to Suttons' Seeds. In 2005 60% of Suttons' sales came from flower seeds but vegetable seeds now account for 70% of revenue. Ref: The Financial Times (UK) > The End of Free Back in 2001, internet companies that had been giving content and services away for free started to charge for their services due to the first dotcom bust. Guess what? It's happening again. The idea that you could make money by giving things away has always been attractive (e.g. monetise website traffic via advertising) but it now seems that ads alone do not a business make. Businesses need revenue streams and it seems that ads alone are not enough. Does this mark the end of free? We'll see. Ref: The Economist (UK) > Food Provenance A joint venture between China's Shandong Institute of Standardisation and a Norwegian company called Trace Tracker has resulted in electronic 'passports' for food products. The passport is able to identify where a food is from and what tests, if any, the product has undergone. Expect to see more of this sort of thing, especially in Asia. Also expect consumers to be able to plug into this data via mobiles very soon. Ref: The Week (UK) > Risky Business Was the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) caused by the fact that people were in too good a mood? This is a possibility according to Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan. A study of 12 male and 12 female volunteers found that participants were more likely to partake in risky investment behaviour when other people were smiling at them. Moral: Never trust a smiling bank manager or accountant. Ref: New Scientist (UK). > Flat-Pack PCs UK police forces have spent over £20,000 on cardboard policemen in an attempt to reduce crime and improve the perception that local communities are safe. Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK) > Boomerang Kids A survey by the Abbey (a UK building society) says that 20% of 18-24-year-olds (1.1 million people) in the UK have moved back home to live with their parents due to the recession. Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK) > Top Energy Trends According to a report published by Global Markets Direct, the top global energy trends for 2009 include; Stagnation in Capex on oil exploration and production, short-term oil price volatility (stabilising towards the end of 2009), reduced investment in clean energy projects, declining investments in new oil and gas projects, increasing demand for natural gas, rising electricity generation capacity, continued efforts by Europe to be less dependent on Russian gas, an increased role for nuclear energy and a continuing reliance on coal as the major energy source despite shifts to nuclear and other alternatives. Ref: MarketWatch (US) > Why We Laugh Three men called Freud, Hobbes and Kant walk into a bar and the bartender says: "OK, which of you jokers can tell me why humans laugh?" OK, that's not funny, but why do humans laugh? According to one theory (Freud's actually) we laugh because forbidden impulses and desires are kept hidden and this requires the expenditure of energy. But when someone tells a good joke these impulses are liberated and energy is released via our muscles. That's not the only explanation, but it's the only one we have time for this month. Ref: Prospect (UK) > He Says Yes, She Says No Can't agree which episode of Law and Order to watch on TV? Easy. Let the public decide. Sidetalker is a website where an audience helps people to make small decisions. Simply submit a problem and an anonymous groups tells you what to do. (Has anyone asked whether they should bother asking a question?) Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK) > Subscription Services As mobile phone companies shift their attention to subscription based services, what are some of the other subscription services that are available worldwide? Three of the weirdest are SockRush, a global sock delivery service, T-post, a company that sends subscribers a t-shirt inspired by a news story every six weeks and The Tape Project, a business that supplies customers with ten classic albums on 1/4 inch tape every year. Ref: The Times (UK) > Pollen-Proof Clothing In Japan allergy sufferers can now buy a coat that is pollen resistant. Ref: Nikkei Weekly (Japan) ------------------------------------------------------------ : FAST FACTS 10% of young people in the UK do not think that their lives are worth living. Ref: The Prince's Trust (UK) Research by Penn Sate University claims that the average American now has 40-hours of free time every week compared to 35-hours in 1965. Ref: New York Times (US) Australians are 40% less likely to be parents than they were 29 years ago. Ref: Sun Herald (Aus) 25% of women aged 45-64 experience some kind of mental disorder, an increase of 20% since 1994. Ref: National Centre for Social Research/NHS (UK) A study of 7000 mothers by Imperial College London has found that maternal stress might account for up to 15% of ADHT. Ref: New Scientist (UK) Nuclear reactors will provide just 3% of the UK's electricity needs by 2020. Ref: The Guardian (UK) There are 900,000 private swimming pools in Australia. Ref: Australian Financial Review (AUS) In 2009 the US is expected to consume 14 million tons of beef. By 2030 this figure is expected to be 17 million tons. Worldwide, we will eat 72 million tons on beef in 2009 (projected) and the figure is predicted to rise to 87 million tons by 2030. Ref: Scientific American (US) 48% of people in the UK believe that the influx of Muslims is threatening national identity. Ref: Sunday Telegraph (UK) The Chinese spend 44% of their free time surfing the web. In the UK the figure is 27%, although this jumps to 47% among housewives. Ref: Daily Mail (UK) According to a survey by mumsnet, 85% of parents bribe or give incentives to their under-fives to behave properly. Ref: The Times (UK) Research claims that walking speeds in major cities have increased by 20-30% over the past ten years. Ref: The Week (UK) Eight spaceships travelling at 30,000km per second would take 10,000,000,000 years to explore just 4% of the Milky Way. Ref: The Week (UK) More Rolex Oysters have been reported stolen on Spain's Costa del Sol than have ever been made worldwide. Ref: Money Week (UK) A Greek study claims that people that take at least three naps every week are 37% less likely to die of heart disease. Ref: The Times (UK) 85% of Briton's think electricity and gas firms are ripping them off. Ref: Sunday Times (UK) Use of office paper increased by more than 200% between 1980-2000 but has since started to decline since 2001 in the US. Ref: The Economist (UK) Only 0.005% of paperclips are used to clip paper (I know what you are thinking and the answer is that I don't know). Ref: Daily Mail (UK) The number of prisoners in the UK has increased by 38% since 1997. Ref: The Guardian (UK) ------------------------------------------------------------ : WEB SIGHT OF THE MONTH www.kiva.org ------------------------------------------------------------ : BOOK OF THE MONTH The Return of History and the End of Dreams by Robert Kagan ------------------------------------------------------------ : QUOTE OF THE MONTH "You need to get them before they lose the habit of singing songs and have had the fairy dust shaken out of them." Michael Boyd, Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company on getting children to attend the theatre. ------------------------------------------------------------ : 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). ---------------------------------------------------- : LOOKING FOR AN INSIGHTFUL AND ENTERTAINING SPEAKER? If you are looking for an inspiring speaker for your next event ask your speaker agency about Richard Watson or contact him direct via http://nowandnext.com Recent speaker clients have included IBM, McDonald's, Virgin, Commonwealth Bank and Disney. ----------------------------------------------------- : SMALL PRINT The stories, statistics and 'facts' appearing in brainmail are sourced from a variety of reliable publications worldwide. However, brainmail cannot guarantee the truthfulness of stories and a degree of commonsense should be applied before quoting or using any of this material in a commercial context.