In this issue: THE CRYING GAME CONSPIRACY THEORIES AUTISM TRENDS 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 96 --------------------------------- 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 > The crying game Rui-katsu is a Japanese phrase meaning 'tear seeking'. It is perhaps best explained as communal crying. Such events are becoming increasingly popular in Japan as they clear the mind and alleviate anxiety. A study on adult crying found that, of 37 nationalities, the Japanese are the least likely to cry, which is perhaps precisely why crying sessions are so popular in Japan. Ref: The Atlantic (US) > Strategic ops According to some estimates, South Koreans have more plastic surgery operations per head than any other country in the world, slicing the USA into a saggy sixth place, although the US still has the largest total number of surgeries. Ref: New Yorker (US) > Conspiracy theories Why do such a large number of people across all segments of society believe in outlandish conspiracies? The answer is perhaps far more interesting than whether or not such conspiracies are correct. The human brain evolved largely to deal with the question of whether or not unseen threats are lurking in the shadows, thus such beliefs could be linked to basic survival mechanisms. Ref: New Scientist (UK) > Autism trends Before 1980, 1 child in 2,000 in the US was thought to be autistic. By 2007, the Center for Disease Control reported that 1 in 152 American children had an autism-spectrum disorder. Two years later, in 2009, the CDC updated the ratio to 1 in 100. Ref: New York magazine (US) > Fuelling growth In 2003 Apple ranked number 300 on the Fortune 500 list of major companies, with revenues of $5.7 billion. In 2013 Apple was at number 6, with revenues of $156 billion. But can you guess which US company grew faster? Facebook perhaps? Nope. World Fuel Services, a company that among other things sells fuel to cargo ships. Over the same period the company saw revenues rise by 39% annually. > Ref: Fortune (US) > Future now Fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will be delighted to hear that you can now buy a Babel fish translation machine for a mere £65 - well, sort of. A company called SpeechTrans is selling a smartwatch that can translate anything you say into 44 languages. Theoretically. Ref: The Sunday Times (UK) > Going nowhere at work? Do you sometimes feel that you are on a treadmill going nowhere, especially at work? Well why not cut the pretence and get yourself a human-sized hamster-wheel desk. The idea is a collaboration between Autodesk artist-in-residence Robb Godshaw and Will Doenlen at the website Instructables. http://www.instructables.com/id/ Hamster-Wheel-Standing-Desk/ > Everything bad could be good for you... A study of 5,000 children aged 10 to 15 by Oxford University claims that parents may be worrying unnecessarily about children playing computer games. Children that spent up to one hour each day playing computer games were found to be happier and more sociable than those who never played such games. Playing games for between two and three hours per day was not found to be associated with negative consequences and may be better that passive TV watching. Everything in moderation as they day... Ref: Paediatrics (UK) > ...but mobiles might still kill you. Researchers at the University of Bordeaux claim they have found linkages between heavy mobile phone use and two types of brain cancer. Talking on a phone for over fifteen hours a month for five years was associated with a 200-300% increase in glioma and meningioma, they claimed. Ref: The Guardian (UK) --------------------------------- : THE NUMBERS Approximately 40% of Americans are expecting Jesus to return by 2050. (OMG!) Ref: Economist (UK) To be in the top one per cent of global earners requires an annual income of just 35,000 GBP. Ref: The Times (UK) 38% of all murdered women are killed by their partner. Ref: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2013) 1 in 7 people in Britain have no retirement savings whatsoever. Ref: BA Business Life (UK) 39% of the German population is forecast to be aged 60 plus by the year 2050. Ref: UN Projections/Financial Times (UK) This is a good one. In England from the 13th to the 18th centuries, 70% of all men were called Robert, John, Thomas, William or Richard. Ref: Late Sixteenth Century Names by Christian de Holacombe Twice as many people visit the theatre in London as attend Premier League football matches. (Yes, but surely most theatregoers are tourists, so the comparison isn't fair.) Re: Daily Telegraph (UK) A study conducted by Washington University (US) claims that 2.1 billion people worldwide are either overweight or obese. Ref: Wall Street Journal (US) The number of museums globally has risen from 23,000 twenty years ago to around 55,000 now. Ref: Economist (UK) More than ten per cent of the world's heads of state have studied at British schools or universities. Ref: The Times (UK) Apartment prices in Hong Kong, the world's most expensive housing market, have increased by 150 per cent since the low of 2008. Ref: International New York Times (US) Mainland Chinese are estimated to have purchased 42 per cent of all new apartments in Hong Kong during 2011. This is despite the fact that it is technically illegal to take more than $50,000 out of mainland China per year. Ref: International New York Times (US) The UK exports more goods to Ireland than it does to Brazil, Russia, India and China combined. Ref: The Sunday Times (UK) The shelf life of most publicly-quoted companies is around 14 years. Ref: Charles Handy, The Second Curve (2015) --------------------------------- : WORD DETECTIVE Brainmail: Apparently we're a noun, meaning "to extort an effect upon one's memory, belief, or ideas". In other words a mixture of blackmail and brainwashing. Surely some mistake. Ref: Urban Dictionary --------------------------------- : SOMETHING FROM THE BRAINMAIL ARCHIVE There are more members of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds than the three main political parties combined. Tweet that. Ref: The Economist (UK) --------------------------------- : BOOK OF THE MONTH The Hidden Pleasures of Life: A New Way of Remembering the Past and Imagining the Future by Theodore Zeldin --------------------------------- : WEB SIGHT OF THE MONTH The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots: http://www.stopkillerrobots.org/ --------------------------------- : QUOTE OF THE MONTH "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." - George Bernard Shaw --------------------------------- : 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.