National Drink Beer Day

Today is National Drink Beer Day, an annual “holiday” dedicated to beer lovers and beer connoisseurs across America.  If you were thinking about grabbing a few cold ones with friends, this is the perfect excuse.

A Wikipedia entry on "Beer in the United States" claims that he U.S. produced 196 million barrels of beer in 2009, and consumes roughly 20 gallons of beer per capita annually.  Beer  is the most popular alcoholic beverage in America and accounts for roughly 85% of the volume of alcoholic beverages sold.

Ain't the beer cold! ... Enjoy the holiday!

Google Maps Now Underwater

The street view feature on Google Maps now lets you explore under the water. Specifically, you can currently digitally investigate six ocean coral reefs using the popular Google tool.

Still Too Fat to Fight

A USA Today article this week summarizes some of the results contained in a report released by Mission: Readiness, a group of more than 300 retired generals and admirals.  In 2010, the group released a report titled "Too Fat to Fight."  This follow-up, called "Still Too Fat to Fight," contains some sobering facts about child obesity in America.

Apparently, three-quarters of those ages 17 to 24, cannot serve in the military.  A quarter of them are simply too overweight or obese.  Others don't have a high school diploma, have criminal records, or suffer from other health problems.  Additionally, many accepted recruits must be diverted to special training to address inadequate physical fitness before they can even begin basic training.  The group considers childhood obesity not only as a health crisis but also a national security issue.

The retired-military group is urging the government to move quickly in updating nutritional standards for all food served in schools (including those sold in a la carte lines, vending machines and stores).

The ROI of a College Degree

A Fox Business article, last Friday, evaluates the long-term worth of earning a college degree.

While college graduates typically out-earn those with just high-school diplomas, the difference is highly dependent upon the specific career field.  For workers such as such as electricians, janitors and postal service mail carriers, there's actually no difference.  In a few job categories, such as carpentry, college graduates may actually have lower lifetime earnings.

Regardless of the choice of career and major, though, a four-year degree still hones leadership, critical thinking, problem-solving skills and the ability to see a long-term task through from beginning to end.  Sometimes, a degree can represent a level of credibility or help get your foot in the door.  Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell provide examples of those who built impressive empires without degrees.  Of Fortune 500 CEOs, however, 93% have bachelor's degrees and 50% have graduate degrees.  

The following career choices provide some examples where a college degree provides a seven figure advantage in median lifetime earnings:
     Chief executive officers and legislators: $1.9 million
     Securities, commodities, financial services sales agents:  $1.5 million

     Financial manager:  $1.3 million

     Miscellaneous manager:  $1.3 million

     Models, demonstrators, and product promoters:  $1.3 million

     Marketing and sales managers:  $1.3 million

     Salespeople in wholesale and manufacturing:  $1.3 million

     First-line managers and supervisors (non-retail):  $1.2 million

     General and operations managers:  $1.1 million

     Construction management:  $1.1 million

Memory Mysteries

A CNN Health article last week reported the findings of a study published recently in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Anyone who's tried hard to remember something knows that repetition helps.  The more times you retrieve a memory, the longer you will remember it.

The problem is that every time we retrieve a memory, we might forget, add, or slightly change small parts of it.  Apparently, the next time we recall the information we remember what we remembered incorrectly.  This is similar to the game of "telephone" we played as kids, where a message is passed from person to person via whisper.  When the last person indicates what he or she heard, it is usually much different than what was first communicated (the cumulative effect of small changes made as the message is relayed from person to person).

One theory is that our brain has an access problem. Each time we remember something, our brain creates a new item similar to the first and stores it up front. When we go to grab that memory again, we grab the one that's easiest to access (the most recent version).

The other theory is that our brain has a storage problem.  Every time we access a memory, we might lose part of it and/or alter it slightly.

Text Neck

According to this CNN article, your smartphone may be a serious pain in the neck.  The average human head weighs 10 pounds in a neutral position (when your ears are over your shoulders). When you use a mobile device, however, it is probably likely that your head is tilted forward and your shoulders are curved. For every inch you tilt your head forward, though, the pressure on your spine doubles. So if you're looking at a smartphone in your lap, your neck is holding up what likely feels like 20 or 30 pounds and is putting a lot of extra pressure on your spine, possibly leading to muscle strain, disc herniations and pinched nerves. Over time, it can even flatten or reverse the natural curve of your neck.

Now there is even a Text Neck Indicator app to tell you whether or not you are holding your phone at a viewing angle putting you at risk for text neck.

Best and Worst Airline Seats

A FOX News article back in April provided the results of a Skyscanner.com airline passenger poll on seat preferences. Apparently, the best (or at least most sought after) seat is 6A.  This up-front window seat seems to represent the best compromise between comfort and safety.

As passengers board and de-plane from the front of the plane, 45% of passengers prefer the first few rows.  Middle seats over the wings also ranked high in the survey because some claim that location may limit the effects of turbulence somewhat.

By contrast, the worst rated seat (the one nobody wanted) was 31E, a middle seat near the rear of the aircraft.

Worrisome Ice Cap Melt Patterns

An arstechnica.com article, today, explains that while Arctic ice is melting much faster than scientists predicted, Antarctic sea ice is actually expanding.

Yesterday, the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that the Arctic melt season was probably over and the Arctic Sea area with at least 15% sea ice will reach a record low point of about 3.41 million square kilometers.  That is about half of the typical low point observed in the 1980-2000 era and about 750,000 square kilometers less than the previous low set in 2007.  Actually, though, every year since 2007 has seen unusually strong summer melts. The six lowest seasonal minimum ice extents have all occurred in the last six years.

In the Antarctic, however, sea ice is expanding. Warming waters in the Southern Ocean are producing increased snow.  This contributes to keeping existing ice cold and adds to the glaciers that feed floating ice sheets. It also creates a layer of fresh water that stays on the surface, insulating the ice from warmer ocean waters below. The result is an ice sheet that is growing despite the warming climate (at least until the point that warming causes more of the moisture to start falling as rain).

The article points out that the Earth's two poles have radically different behavior, at least in part due to the fact that one is an ocean that is largely surrounded by land, while the other is a continent surrounded by ocean.

2011 Seafood Haul Is Largest in 17 Years

A CNNMoney article highlights some of the results from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report released today.  It indicates that last year was very productive for America's commercial fishermen.  They landed 10.1 billion pounds of fish and shellfish valued at $5.3 billion. That's an increase of 1.9 billion pounds and more than $784 million from 2010 and represents the biggest catch for U.S. fishermen since 1994.

Globally, though, seafood trade volumes and values hit new highs in 2011 and even with the improved catch last year, the U.S. still imported about 91% of their seafood.  In 2010, the U.S. was responsible for roughly 3% of the global seafood catch.  By comparison, China provided 35%, India supplied 6% and Indonesia brought in 5%.

Scarce Spider Suspends San Antonio Highway Project

Earlier this week, a San Antonio Express-News article by Colin McDonald explains why the unearthing of a cave containing a rare Braken Bat Cave meshweaver spider (Cicurina venii) has halted construction efforts on a $15.1 million San Antonio area highway project to build an underpass for Texas 151 to go beneath Loop 1604.

The spider was believed to be extinct. In fact, the only place it has previously been sighted is at Braken Bat Cave, a few miles from the construction site, but that was 30 years ago. Now, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) found a second one, by accident.

The limestone caves below Bexar County, Texas, house species that have been separated from our above-ground environment for so long that they have evolved into very unique critters. While the discovered species is closely related to eight other spider species in Bexar County, and others that live across Central Texas, the different varieties all have different internal organs and no-one is sure why.

Compliance with the Endangered Species Act will require one of two possible approaches. If uncovering the cave has not significantly affected the feeding, breeding or sheltering behavior of the spider, officials may change plans for the new highway interchange so the cave will be left unharmed. If the cave is damaged or a change in plans is not feasible, another cave with the same species of meshweaver must be found so that it can be protected elsewhere.

The majority of people probably wonder why all of this fuss over a silly spider.  Scientists argue that, while we don't know what we could learn from it, it could be a lot.  Once it is gone, however, that is irreversible and we may never know what we have lost.

Mobile Phone Service a Top Priority

A recent cellular-news article reports that more than one in five (21%) of American mobile phone owners pay more for the phone service to support their mobile communication needs than they do for groceries.  Nearly half of Americans (46%) pay at least $100 per month and 13% pay at least $200 per month in cellular phone service charges.  Spending on Internet service is less than phone service for 71% of households.  57% spend less on cable TV service.  33% spend less on basic utilities (e.g., water, gas, and electric).

Bacon Bits

Earlier this week, Fox News published an article laying out The Truth About Bacon.  On the bad side, 68 percent of bacon's calories come from fat and almost half of the fat is saturated (artery-clogging).  Cured bacon also contains nitrates that have been linked with cancer. A single strip of bacon can contain up to 3.5 grams of fat, 150mg of sodium, and 7mg cholesterol.  On the good side, pork bacon is high in protein, vitamins and minerals, including B6, B12, niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc, as well as choline, a nutrient which helps improve cognitive performance, memory, mood and mental alertness.

Their tips for enjoying bacon in a healthier manner are:
     - Moderation (stick to small servings)

     - Blot extra grease off to lower fat intake

     - Avoid adding extra salt or other high sodium seasonings

     - Consider healthier alternatives, such as:

          * Turkey Bacon

          * Bacon Flavored Salt

          * Canadian Bacon

          * Meatless Bacon Substitutes

          * Uncured Bacon

Bacon Number Featured By Google

The actor Kevin Bacon once claimed that he had worked with everyone in Hollywood. The Kevin Bacon Game (or Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon - after the phrase: six degrees of separation) is all about testing this claim. A celebrity's "Bacon Number" represents the smallest number of "connections" linking him or her to Kevin Bacon. Google Search has now added a "Bacon Number" feature based on their Knowledge Graph, a 'map' of real-world people, entities, and the connections between them.

To use it, simply type the words "Bacon number" (without quotes), followed by the name of a celebrity, as a search entry and it will return a result indicating how closely he or she is connected to Kevin Bacon.

Check it out.

Bypassing Banks

A CNN article, today, reports that, according to survey results released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, about 8.2% of U.S. households, or nearly 10 million, lack a bank account. That's up from 7.7%, or about 9 million households, in 2009. About 33% indicate that this is because they don't have enough money to open and fund a bank account. Banks are also tending to push out unprofitable customers with the decline of free checking and fees that impact customers unable to meet minimum balance requirements and/or who may be chronic over-drafters. While some don't need or want an account and primarily use cash, one in four households have used at least one form of alternative financial service (money order, check cashing service, tax refund anticipation loan, pawn shop, money-transfer service, payday loan, etc.) and about 12% of households have used one of these products in the past 30 days.  Unfortunately, the high cost of some of these alternative financial services can take a toll over the long term.

Omega-3 Supplement Effects In Question

Perhaps not too surprisingly, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that taking fish oil pills rich in omega-3 fatty acids doesn't appear to have a significant effect on heart attacks, strokes or death.

A USA Today article quotes Richard Karas, director of the preventive cardiology center at Tufts Medical Center in Boston with his perspective that:

Time and time again research shows that a diet rich in a certain vitamin or nutrient is beneficial. But then people think if you take a pill containing that ingredient, you'll be healthier. It doesn't work that way.

and

The message Americans may not want to hear is that eating healthy foods, not taking pills, is what helps heart health.

Fantasy Football's Toll on Worker Productivity

The NFL season is again upon us and, according to a millionairecorner.com article, fantasy football may cost American employers upwards of $6.5 billion.  This is based on an estimated 22.3 million employees spending an hour adjusting their line-ups and rosters each week over the course of the duration of the 15-week fantasy season.  As the average hourly wage of American workers is $19.33, the math results in a weekly cost of $430.9 million or $6.46 billion over the course of the entire season.

Fantasy football is played by about 75 percent of all fantasy sports participants.  Market research indicates that there are 70 million free and paid leagues and that players spend up to nine hours a week on their teams.

Some believe that the impact, however, is negligible or even positive.  John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. states that. “Employers will not see any impact on their bottom line and, for the most part, business will proceed as usual." He adds that, “Companies that not only allow workers to indulge in fantasy football, but actually encourage it by organizing company leagues are likely to see significant benefits in morale as well as productivity,”

Philly Now Boasts World's First Pizza Museum

Pizza Brain, in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, is now the world’s first pizza museum and "home to the world’s largest collection of pizza-memorabilia" (apparently according to the Guinness Book of World Records).  There is also an "artisan pizzeria" attached.  According to a post, from July, by Elizabeth Fiedler to the NPR food blog "The Salt, it is the brainchild of 27-year-old Brian Dwyer, who is apparently so into pizza that he has a tattoo on his back of a drawing of himself holding a slice and saying "Totally Saucesome."

Text Your Emergency?

In a press release earlier this week, AT&T announced that it will launch a trial of a new text-to-911 service in Tennessee.  Last August, the Federal Communications Commission announced plans for the ability to send texts, photos, and videos to emergency call center operators.  This was inspired by the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, when students tried to send emergency text messages that the emergency call centers were unable to receive.  This test is a precursor to a nationwide launch.  Verizon is also working on a similar capability.  New York City's 911/311 system was upgraded back in 2008 to accept photos and videos.

Microsoft Bing vs. Google Search

Microsoft has challenged Google to the "blind taste test" of search engines.  In an online study, Microsoft indicates that nearly 1000 people participated in a test where participants were shown the main web search results pane (with all branding removed) of both Bing and Google for ten search queries of their choice.  The results were: 57.4% chose Bing more often, 30.2% chose Google more often, and 12.4 % resulted in a draw.  The Microsoft bumper sticker, then, is: "people chose Bing web search results over Google nearly 2:1."  If you would like to try something similar, check out http://www.bingiton.com.

Dems to Bypass Balloons

CNN reports that President Obama's acceptance speech tomorrow night will be moved from the outdoor Bank of America football stadium to an indoor venue at Time Warner Arena due to weather concerns.  Democratic Party officials have apparently also announced that the concluding festivities will not include the traditional balloon drop.  They do promise, however, that it will still be festive.

Its a New NFL Season: Broadcasting Adjustments Announced

On the eve of the NFL season opener tomorrow night in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a USA TODAY article by Michael Hiestand provides a run-down of network broadcasting changes:

CBS

Neal ElAttrache, an orthopedic surgeon (operated on Tom Brady in 2008) joins the team as a medical analyst.

Reporter Jason La Canfora, replaces Charley Casserly.

FOX
Michael Strahan will remain, juggling with his role as the new Regis.

Comedian Rob Riggle replaces Frank Caliendo.

Former coach Mike Martz and ex-fullback Heath Evans replace Jim Mora and Chad Pennington as game analysts.

Erin Andrews will do pre-taped NFL features until Thanksgiving, when she will move to an NFL sideline reporter position.

Fox telestrators will include graphic features to identify highlighted players.

NBC

Former Steeler Hines Ward will become a pre-game analyst.

ESPN

Jon Gruden and Mike Tirico will cover Monday Night Football as a two-person booth.  Ron Jaworski will move to various studio shows.

Brian Dawkins (B-Dawk) will be added as a studio analyst.

Bill Parcells will appear on Sunday pre-game shows.

Matt Light, Jason Taylor, and Bill Polian join the network as analysts.  Kordell Stewart and John Ritchie will no longer provide their analysis.

Chris Berman's Sunday highlights will be moved to late Sunday SportsCenter and will be replaced on Monday night with an NFL Films produced game-day audio feature.  Berman will also call his first live regular season action with Trent Dilfer on the second half of the Monday Night double-header for the opening week of the season.

NFL Network

Adds "First on the Field" show, beginning Sunday coverage at 7 a.m. ET.

Voicemail - A Technology in Tailspin

In the not so distant past, voicemail was a cornerstone of everyday communication management.  A USA TODAY article, however, reports that on Vonage, the number of voice messages left is down 8% from a year ago and the number of messages retrieved is down 14% from a year ago.  Texting and instant chat technologies are generally preferred by many and voice mail transcription services that convert messages for email or text delivery allow users to bypass the standard voicemail system prompts that require the messages to be processed in chronological order.  I guess this is in-line with the trend away from voice communications in general (i.e., a preference for text or chat over voice calls), particularly with younger communicants.