by Cree McCree
WHAT’S HAPPENING
After a June 2009 Supreme Court decision that favored employers, Senate leaders are working to add more teeth to existing age-discrimination law.
The Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination bill, supported by AARP, would broaden the scope of what plaintiffs must prove by making age one of several motivating factors in termination, rather than [...]
by Charlotte Beal
WHAT’S HAPPENING
New York Observer contributor Joe Pompeo coined a new word to describe the 20- and 30somethings who are obsessed with food talk: foodiots (Observer.com 9.22.09).
You know the type: constantly posting status updates about eating and drinking, blogging about cooking (the more pedestrian concoctions, the better), sending digital pics of last night’s restaurant [...]
by Stefania Revelli
WHAT’S HAPPENING
The concept of kiss and tell gets a safety makeover with 2LoveMyLips, an innovative lip gloss available in the U.K. (CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com 10.7.09).
The lip gloss comes with a date rape drug testing kit, which can detect drugs GHP and Ketamine. Doubting dames just dip the test strip into their drink; a blue stick [...]
by Lisa Pierce
Take a second and think about some of the products you’ve used today. Probably coffee or soda. And toothpaste and shampoo. Maybe cereal or soup, and hand sanitizer.
Just like you, other consumers interact with products like these every day — and they do it first through packaging. More and more, shoppers are opting [...]
by Abelardo de la Peña Jr.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Three young Venezuelan students are rocking the Maracaibo fashion scene with their Oh! Nena line of hand-crafted headwear, with their sights set on North American success.
Taking their name from the title of a romantic ballad by Argentinean rocker Fito Páz, the pieces from their latest collection called “Wink” are [...]
by Tory Davis
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Artist Laura Parker’s newest installation, “Taste of Place,” is part art, part culinary experience and is shifting how people relate to the food they eat.
Visitors experience a dirt “tasting,” where Parker provides wine glasses full of carefully chosen terroir, adds water, swirls and then passes them for a sniff. Attendees discuss the [...]
by Sarah Barker
WHAT’S HAPPENING
For those who fear deplaning with bugs they originally didn’t board with, global defense and aerospace company BAE Systems and Quest International have joined to develop a filtration system that removes viruses, bacteria and pollutants from cabin air (TimesOnline.co.uk 9.15.09).
AirManager, which can be retrofit to existing airline air conditioning systems, zaps particles [...]
by Anna Otieno
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Pushing buttons on mobile devices can be so tedious. Sony Ericsson frees consumers from button-pressing boredom via its line of H907 Motion Activated Headphones.
The headphones use SenseMe Control technology, which activates the controls using a conductive surface (ears!).
Pop-in both earbuds to listen to music and remove one bud to pause. The same [...]
by Charlotte Beal
Three years ago, the family dinner began to come back in style. Research about the developmental/mental/societal benefits emerged, consumers said they were doing it more, food makers and marketers talked it up, and one company even came out with conversation-starter flashcards to keep the party rolling.
Now, as we approach 2010, some tired families [...]
by Rocio Zamora Arzola
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Latinos tell good stories, too. Public radio’s StoryCorps is collecting oral histories from everyday Latinos through its StoryCorps Historias initiative.
Staff in two Airstream trailers are traveling to cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, San Antonio and Albuquerque, staying from two to four weeks and recording at least 700 [...]
by Sarah Barker
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Thanks to technology, immortality is surprisingly affordable and available. Swiss DNA Bank, located in an underground vault in Gstaad, offers swab-n-send DNA collection materials and access to a secure website to record audio, video and written life experiences, which will be stored indefinitely (Springwise.com 9.16.09).
Your essence is kept in bank-level security in [...]
by Hans Eisenbeis
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Having a little cash on hand — literally — can make a person feel better. A September 2009 study by academic researchers in China and the U.S. found that handling money has a significant physical and emotional effect (CreditCards.com 10.1.09).
The study had a group of people count bills and then submerge their [...]
Derek Stubbs, Gregg Archibald, Reed Robinson and Hans Eisenbeis review Finovate 09, a September 2009 conference featuring major and noteworthy developments in the financial services industry.
Download this week’s economic podcast here:
Financial Innovation: Bottoms Up Week 30
32 min., 5 sec.
by Cree McCree
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Gay young people are coming out of the closet at an ever-younger age. Instead of waiting for high school, many teens are coming out at age 13 or 14, and some tweens as young as 11 say they know they’re gay.
Hard stats are tough to come by. But anecdotal evidence abounds, and [...]
by Nancy Robinson
This week, Iconoculture launched our third and final Cultural Zeitgeist report for 2009 — We World: Growing Up Global. It’s a look at Generation We, the newest kids on the block, across health, economic, multicultural, technological and ecological verticals. And one thing is clear: These ankle biters are champing at the bit to [...]
