Is Fat in Your Future?

Statistically, if you're an American, you're almost certain to become overweight at some point in your life.

A study conducted by Boston University has found that 9 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women will eventually become overweight -- even those who, as adults, are currently at a healthy weight. The study underscores a concern shared among many health professionals and futurists that obesity could become a future health crisis.



A "snapshot" of the general population, the researchers found, shows that 6 in 10 Americans are overweight, and one-third are obese.

Even though Americans are aware of the health risk factors associated with obesity (heart disease, some cancers, diabetes, arthritis, etc.), and many work very hard to lose weight, doing so is not easy. According to the study, we live in an “environment in which it’s hard not to become overweight or obese. Unless people actively work against that, that’s what’s most likely to happen to them.”

The Centers for Disease Control has clinical definitions of overweight and obesity here, along with tools to help you calculate your weight.

Source: AP (MSNBC)

Readers Loyal to their Local Online Newspapers

A new survey by Nielsen/NetRatings suggests that netizens who read online news are supporting the online versions of their local newspapers.

In all of the major metropolitan markets except for one (Philadelphia), readers cited their city's online newspaper as their top choice for news (Philly readers favored USAToday.com over their native Philly.com). However, only one online paper (WashingtonPost.com) was favored by more than 30% of its local market.



In the midst of sagging newspaper circulation and readership, the survey has some good news for newspapers... or for their online efforts at least. Revenues for online newspapers are forecast to rise steadily through 2008.



It would be interesting to see if online newspaper loyalty remains true in smaller markets, and where other local news sources online (such as TV news websites) fall into the mix. Also, is readership seasonal? Local news websites, for instance, are indispensable for checking on school snow closings in the winter.

Source: eMarketer

Digital Time Capsule

FutureMe offers a simple concept for sending e-mails to yourself or to others in the future. Just fill out the form with an e-mail address and message, and choose the date for the message to be sent. You can choose to have the message sent on any date ranging from today to Dec. 31, 2035, and select whether you want the message to appear on FutureMe's public message board.

FutureMe could be used for purpose as mundane as daily reminders, a digital time capsule of sorts, or, as Greg Burton of GeniusNow suggests, a performance management or brainstorming tool.

Dissolving Plastic

A persistent problem with plastic is its persistence. Conventional plastic can stay intact in a landfill for centuries... something that environmentalists and plastics manufacturers alike have tried to address.

One solution has been to make certain disposable plastics, such as grocery and garbage bags, out of corn starch to make them biodegradable. Australian plastics manufacturer Plantic has taken this idea a step further. With a compound containing 90% corn starch, Plantic's plastics dissolve literally within seconds after contact with water.



While the Plantic plastic obviously isn't suitable for pool toys and beverage containers, it does have applications in products that have a short shelf life, after which they become trash. Best of all, because its main ingredients are plant-based, the Plantic plastic uses very few petrochemicals and is largely immune to disruptions in oil supplies.

Source: we make money not art

Music Fans Vote with their Mouse-Clicks

The other day we noted how the latest Rolling Stones album is being distributed on SanDisk memory cards... and questioned whether this is a format music fans really want.

What fans do seem to want, though, are digital music downloads. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) says that digital music sales tripled worldwide in the first half of 2005 over the same period in 2004. Digital music now accounts for 6% of all music sales, while sales of physical music formats (like CDs) have fallen by 6.3%. IFPI credits the increase in broadband Internet access and the proliferation of portable MP3 players for the growing popularity of downloadable music.

However, overall music revenues are down by 1.9%, reflecting lower prices being charged for music, and suggesting that illegal music swapping is far from dead.

Online digital music is branching out to customers who might never have considered it before. MusicGiants is a new service that offers "high definition" music downloads... that is, tracks that aren't compressed. The service, which charges a $50 membership fee and $1.29 per track, is designed for audiophiles who want to play music on high-end sound systems, and who have until now shunned MP3s for what they say is inferior sound quality. Broadband and cheaper storage -- combined with the growing acceptance of the Internet as a music delivery mechanism -- make such services possible.

Finally, if Warner Music chairman Edgar Bronfman has his way, online music stores would employ variable pricing, charging more for downloads of popular songs than for those less popular. This is a radical proposal given the recording industry's traditional fixed-price model, in which all music, popular or not, is priced roughly the same. Internet technology, however, makes variable pricing practical. For those whose musical tastes steer clear of the Top 40, this is great news. But what would be the threshold that music would have to hit before fans stopped buying? Would dynamic pricing actually limit the popularity of some songs and artists? ("Hmmm... I think I'll wait to buy this band's songs until they're not so hot anymore...") Should prices be capped? After all, as Steve Jobs has noted, “If the price [of online music] goes up, [consumers] will go back to piracy and everybody loses.”

UPDATE: Digital music isn't the only dilemma facing the recording industry. Online video (via sites such as Google Video, now in beta) and satellite radio present new licensing challenges.

Sources: Techdirt, Technology Liberation Front

Wikibooks and the Disruptive Power of Wikis

A while ago we reported on how more schools are moving their texts online. Now, Wikibooks is taking that concept to the next level, providing educational text from elementary to college levels in wiki format. In true wiki form, anyone can edit the textbooks in Wikibooks.

Just as blogs are disrupting news media, could wikis have the same effect on the publishing industry? Not only can wikis be set up very easily and, in may cases, for free, but they create an entirely new paradigm by allowing for public editing of content. On the surface, wikis fly in the face of the fundamental principles of the written word: permanence, an historical record, a singular source of authority, and not the very least, copyright. Wikis are still in their infancy, but if they are embraced the way blogs have been, they could radically change the way we think about written material of all types.

October Podcast

Hello All:

Here is my October 1 Podcast.

Enjoy and hope to see you at Closing the Gap!

Brian