by Rocio Zamora Arzola
WHAT’S HAPPENING
When it came to college, Latino students tended to attend one near home to stay close to family. Now, more young Latinos are opting for schools outside their communal comfort zones.
Between 1975 to 2009, Latinos enrolling in four-year colleges located more than 50 miles from home rose [...]
by Hans Eisenbeis
WHAT’S HAPPENING
In the world of endurance sports, there’s been a slow but steady escalation from marathons to ultramarathons, fun-runs to eco-challenges. Now a new race circuit has developed that seems a mashup of Iron Man athleticism and Burning Man primitivism.
Billed as the world’s toughest one-day endurance race on [...]
by Abby Shannon
WHAT’S HAPPENING
After a multi-year investigation behind the claims of U.K. doctor Andrew Wakefield, reputable medical journal The Lancet retracted his 1998 paper that linked the childhood measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism (CNN.com 2.2.10).
Wakefield was found to have acted unethically — conducting invasive and unnecessary medical [...]
by Josh Kimball
Each year, Iconoculture throws a consumer insights extravaganza-cum-raging poolside sleepover. This year’s Iconosphere is just months away — it takes place in L.A. May 17-19 — so around here, the research is flying.
One of the ways we’re trying to better understand consumer mood and motivation is through social media research. I’ll be co-presenting [...]
by Rocio Zamora Arzola
WHAT’S HAPPENING
U.S. Latinos are being hit hard by the recession. Hit harder: U.S. Latinas. For one, they’re making less in comparison to all U.S. men: In 2007, Latinas earned just 62 cents for every dollar men earned (TrinityTripod.com 2.16.10). And in Latino households, they’re responsible for more than [...]
by Hans Eisenbeis
WHAT’S HAPPENING
When U.S. consumers swipe their debit cards, they’re typically asked to choose “credit” or “debit” for the transaction. The first requires a signature, the second a PIN, but either way the money still comes out of a savings or checking account. But what if consumers really had the [...]
by Robert van Alstyne
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Lonely hearts looking for love online, but tired of registration-heavy dating sites and wary of total strangers, can tug on Thread for a Facebook-friend-vetted flame-finding alternative (Springwise.com 2.3.10).
Launched in September 2009 and currently in beta, the currently free Facebook Connect-powered service only requires users to fill [...]
by Stefania Revelli
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Think of it as community car sharing. RelayRides is a person-to-person car-sharing-service enabling users to rent their underused vehicles to others who need a ride (Springwise.com 1.28.10).
Car owners simply need to register online and arrange for a keyless system to be installed in the automobile. Owners determine [...]
by Nissa Hanna
In Minneapolis, the snow is clearing and we’re starting to see the street pavement again, signaling that spring is right around the corner, and with it — spring cleaning.
According to the Soap and Detergent Association (oh yes, there is one), 68% of consumers engage in this annual effort to rid [...]
by Abelardo de la Peña Jr.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Childhood obesity is a big problem with Latino kids: 22.1% of Mexican American boys, for example, are obese, compared to 18.5% of black boys and 17.3% of white boys (CDC.gov 10.20.09). Enter popular PBS KIDS GO animated characters Maya & Miguel, encouraging children to eat [...]
by Stefania Revelli
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Mental workouts are proving essential to a well-balanced, whole-body fitness regimen. Brain games on Lumosity.com offer users a full, free cognitive workout in less than 10 minutes per day.
Designed by a team of neuroscience and cognitive psychologists from Stanford and UCSF, users can choose from several courses, [...]
by Anna Otieno
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Taser International, the folks who make Taser guns, now have a product targeted at parents. Fear not — this one doesn’t include electric shock. It’s a smartphone monitoring system dubbed the Protector Family Safety Program.
The software program includes a series of products that allow parents to monitor [...]
by Hans Eisenbeis
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Kids love to buy virtual goods from videogames, but if they don’t have access to Mom’s plastic, they’re often out of luck. That could change dramatically, now that Kwedit has launched. It’s a sophisticated honor system that allows anyone to buy virtual goods with a promise to pay [...]
by Lisa Pierce
WHAT’S HAPPENING
At a time when pennywise consumers have learned (reluctantly?) to stomach cutbacks in consumption, PepsiCo hopes to convince them to be pound smart. The global soda marketer is upsizing bottles of their low-sugar brands in the U.K. to “encourage” healthier drinking habits and help oversized Brits downsize their girth (FoodProductionDaily.com 2.15.10). But [...]
by Rocio Zamora Arzola
WHAT’S HAPPENING
How would Consumer Reports rate this? For the first time, Consumers Union, publisher of the venerable magazine and companion newsletters, is rolling out Guia de Compras 2010 de Consumer Reports, a Spanish-language version of their annual buyer’s guide.
Priced at $11, the guide will help Spanish-speaking Latinos compare retailers and get advice [...]
