Added 18 December, 2013
It seems almost unbelievable, but in the United States and some other countries it is common practice for pharmaceutical companies to pay doctors to promote their drugs to patients. Additionally, those same companies have established sales quotas for the detailers of their prescription drugs, pushing dealers to push them on patients. This seeming...
Added 18 December, 2013
Home appliances are all getting smarter, and more connected as mobile phone-controlled door locks, lighting, and heating are finding their way into people's houses. And it will go even further, in the form of thermostats that can sense when someone is home, smoke alarms that can be turned off with the wave of a hand, and customizable LED lighting...
Added 16 December, 2013
A trend is a sustained movement in any measurable direction. As we see time and again, once a trend gets going it is usually hard to stop it. In other words, trends usually get more so. Binge watching TV is a good example of this. A buzz term just a year ago, viewers have embrace the idea of watching multiple episodes of a show in a single sitting...
Added 14 December, 2013
Linguist John McWhorter has been thinking a lot about texting and its effect on language. He is probably right to say that it is changing the way we speak, and think. Humans and technology are evolving together. Each is effecting the other. In a nutshell, McWhorter says that texting is more like speaking than writing, and it's changing the way we...
Added 13 December, 2013
Recently named Time magazine's Person of the Year, Pope Francis is single-handedly re-branding the Catholic church after a very rough period since the 2005 death of Pope John Paul II. The first pope to not live in the lavish papal apartments since 1914, Francis is eschewing luxury in favor of a more ascetic lifestyle that is resonating with...
Added 13 December, 2013
There is lots of talk in the trends world about wearable computing, what it will become and how pervasive it will be. The battle for our wrists is on the forefront of this trend, with a growing number of smartwatches that are looking to take the phones out of our pockets and place them on our arms. Although there have been some strong attempts so...
Added 11 December, 2013
While some people in the world of fuel are getting excited by the advent of automobiles that run on hydrogen, a town in Korea is going far beyond that dream by creating the first community in the world in which all the electricity comes from that common gas. The town of Ulsan is home to Korea's largest hydrogen producer which is currently building...
Added 10 December, 2013
In recent months we've seen many fast-food giants promote healthier menus, including a new type of french fry from Burger King that has less fat than normal fries. It's certainly a trend when the biggest companies get on board, and that is the case with food. The major players know that customers are clamoring for choices that are healthier and...
Added 6 December, 2013
We are living in a surveillance society with camera's seemingly everywhere tracking our every movement. Our mobile devices are tracked, our license plates are electronically read, and facial recognition software is being used to watch us on streets and online. We can run, but cannot hide. That is the ethos behind the latest gadget in the police...
Added 5 December, 2013
As we spend more of our time online and integrate the looks and icons of the digital world into our collective consciousness, these things tend to change the way we look at the world in general. If you've ever seen a Google map then you are familiar with the red target pins that it uses to pinpoint the place you are looking for. Not surprisingly,...