In this issue: SPAMMING ALIENS QUICK DEATH TEST WHERE'S MY BANK? 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 97 --------------------------------- 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 > Spamming aliens A group of academics from Oxford University has warned that attempts to send messages to aliens in outer space may result in the transmission of computer viruses. Alternatively any messages that are successfully received may be treated as spam and be automatically deleted. Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK) > Measuring mood A company called Beyond Verbal has raised $3.3 million to develop a technology that analyses the mood of people talking on a phone, microphone or voice controlled app. This is potentially an example of venture capital firms widening their investments to include whole-body and whole-mind investments. Ref: Wall Street Journal/Venture Wire (US) > Fish and computer chips Course fishermen (possibly women but I doubt it on this occasion) in the UK have started to use remotely-controlled drones to locate giant carp in lakes and ponds. Radio-controlled model speedboats are also being used to deliver bait to precise spots. Ref: Carp magazine (UK) > Wow that's wealthy The 25 highest paid hedge fund managers in the USA earned a combined total of $11.62 billion in 2014 (down from $21.5 billion in 2013). This sum is roughly equivalent to the GDP of Jamaica. The highest-paid individual was Ken Griffin of Citadel Hedge Fund, who took home a whopping $1.3 billion. Ref: New York Times (US) > Quick death test Middle-aged men (and this time definitely women) can apparently find out whether they are likely to die in the next six years by just standing up and sitting down. Men that can't stand and sit more than 23 times in 60-seconds are more likely to die than those that can achieve 37 stands and sits. For women the numbers are 22 and 35. Ref: The Week (UK) > Fast food Yo Sushi in London's Heathrow airport is taking speedy service to a new level by allowing customers to tweet their food order in advance for immediate collection once they've cleared airport security. I'm perplexed. What are people planning to do with the extra minutes they save by doing this? Personally I have the opposite problem in airports - working out how to use up the time between security and boarding. Ref: No idea, totally forgotten. > Where are Wally, Rover, Max, Pumpkin and Jasper? Has your dog or cat run off again? Why not try a mobile tracking app? There are lots of GPS trackers to choose from including G-Paws and Loc8Tor for pets. Personally I think it would be more fun to fit a camera to record a pet travelogue and possibly play a game of Where's Fido live? Ref: Wired (UK) > Job control versus spinal shrinkage (no really) This is a classic. I quote: "A 1-point decrease on a 5-point scale of perceived job control (the degree to which an employee feels free to set his or her pace or change the sequence of tasks) is associated with an additional 1 millimetre of daily spine shrinkage, a phenomenon linked to lower-back pain, according to a study of Swiss office workers by Ivana Igic and two colleagues from the University of Bern. A worker's level of job control may affect his or her ability to take breaks when and as long as needed. On average, normal spinal shrinkage causes people to lose about 14 millimetres, or 1%, of stature over the course of a day; they recover their height during sleep." You can't make this up. Ref: Harvard Business Review (US) > Where's my bank? Britain has only a third of the number of bank branches that are available in Germany, Spain or Italy. In some Spanish banks, you can buy a ham or a bicycle as well as chewing over the latest interest rates. Ref: Financial Times (UK) > Hire calling We're seen libraries loaning books, movies and music so what else could they lend? West Philly Tool Library loans, you guessed it, tools, ranging from drills and hammers to spanners. Ref: Top Gear magazine (UK) > 2B or not 2B (I'm proud of that!) A shop in New York City is selling pencils. Nothing else except gorgeous, fantastic, scribbly pencils. Location is 100a Forsyth Street, Manhattan. They have a website (the pencil of the month club is a hoot) but try to visit the shop instead. Ref: Gothamist.com (US) --------------------------------- : THE NUMBERS The UK exports more goods to Ireland than it does to Brazil, Russia, India and China combined. Ref: The Independent (UK) 47% of students in the US and 28% of students in the UK do not complete their university course. Ref: Economist (UK) 16% of people in the UK claim to be "very happy" (down from 19% in 2008). 63% say that they are "rather happy" and 2% "not very happy". Younger generations tend to be more optimistic, with 41% of 18-30-year-olds saying they're always positive. Ref: The Times (UK) What makes people unhappy? A staggering 23% of Brits say that clutter in their homes makes them stressed. Apparently unread books are the biggest issue. First world problem! Ref: Daily Telegraph/The Week (UK) The average dog owner in Britain walks their dog 538 miles a year. Ref: The Times (UK) Foreigners bought 41% of homes in London costing more than a million pounds in 2014. Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK) British men spend £13 billion on fashion each year (not each obviously). This is only 10% less than British women spend. Ref: Sunday Times/HPI study for Westfield (UK) There are almost as many Chinese students on postgrad courses at English universities as British students (23% versus 26%). Ref: The Guardian (UK) 25% of adults aged 50+ in the UK have children living at home. Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK) Birmingham, in the UK, has at least 9 miles more canals than Venice. Ref: birminghamblogger.co.uk 38% of the property purchases made in London were made in cash (no mortgage) in the year ending March 2015. Ref: Financial Times (UK) 40% of dogs in America are overweight. Ref: Harper's (US) --------------------------------- : BOOK OF THE MONTH A Curious Mind by Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman This is a book about the power of conversations, especially what happens when a Hollywood producer spends 30 years talking to people he doesn't know (clue: lots of conversations end up as films). --------------------------------- : QUOTE OF THE MONTH "Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end." - Woody Allen --------------------------------- : WEB SIGHT OF THE MONTH Great science app for anyone with kids. THIX Chemist, a virtual chemistry laboratory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= XG7A0zCW4X8 The Elements by Theodore Grey (on iTunes) is pretty cool too. --------------------------------- : CHARITY OF THE MONTH Young Minds, an emotional wellbeing and mental health charity focussed on younger people. What they do is important. Give them some of your money or give them some of your time. www.youngminds.org.uk --------------------------------- : 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.