Some Musings on Economics, Social Media, and Creativity

Mine eyes have been wondering far and wide over the past few days. I am amazed at the absolute flood of information that comes down the pipe every day...heck, every minute. In my own efforts of targeting specific interest groups, and being in many myself, I really 'get' the value of good writing and blogging as a filter to get to the type of information that interests me. As magazines and newspapers die, it will be important for all of us to learn how to tap into the flow of information in the pipe to learn what we must to survive.
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Doomsayers Beware, a Bright Future Beckons
As they specialized and exchanged, humans learned how to domesticate crops and animals and sell food to passing merchants. Traders congregated in the first cities and built ships that spread goods and ideas around the world.

The Phoenician merchants who sailed the Mediterranean were denounced by Hebrew prophets like Isaiah and Greek intellectuals like Homer. But trading networks enabled the ancient Greeks to develop their alphabet, mathematics and science, and later fostered innovation in the trading hubs of the Roman Empire, India, China, Arabia, Renaissance Italy and other European capitals.

Rulers like to take credit for the advances during their reigns, and scientists like to see their theories as the source of technological progress. But Dr. Ridley argues that they’ve both got it backward: traders’ wealth builds empires, and entrepreneurial tinkerers are more likely to inspire scientists than vice versa. From Stone Age seashells to the steam engine to the personal computer, innovation has mostly been a bottom-up process.
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I am a water drinker from way back having given up soda, faux beer various types of synthowater. Here is a list of the Ten Worst...no, Harmful drinks in America.
20. Worst Water
Snapple Agave Melon Antioxidant Water (1 bottle, 20 fl oz)

150 calories
0 g fat
33 g sugars

Sugar Equivalent: 2 Good Humor Chocolate Éclair Bars

While “Worst Water” may sound like an oxymoron, the devious minds in the bottled beverage industry have even found a way to besmirch the sterling reputation of the world’s most essential compound. Sure, you may get a few extra vitamins, but ultimately, you’re paying a premium price for gussied-up sugar water. Next time you buy a bottle of water, check the recipe: You want two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen, and very little else.
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And if that isn't enough, check out this story on bottled water (don't get me started on this farce!) All of a sudden public water fountains have vanished and bottled water is everywhere: in every convenience store, beverage cooler, and vending machine. In student backpacks, airplane beverage carts, and all of my hotel rooms. At every conference and meeting I go to. On restaurant menus and school lunch counters. In early 2007, as I waited for a meeting in Silicon Valley, I watched a steady stream of young employees pass by on their way to or from buildings on the Google campus. Nearly all were carrying two items: a laptop and a throw-away plastic bottle of water. When I entered the lobby and checked in at reception, I was told to help myself to something to drink from an open cooler containing fruit juices and rows of commercial bottled water. As I walked to my meeting, I passed cases of bottled water being unloaded near the cafeteria.

Water fountains used to be everywhere, but they have slowly disappeared as public water is increasingly pushed out in favor of private control and profit.
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Mortgages Going Bust Heck, who would of 'thunk' that?
Prime mortgages going bust at an alarming rate
WASHINGTON — Aftershocks from the nation's financial crisis continue rumbling through the housing sector as fixed-rate mortgages held by the safest borrowers accounted for nearly 37 percent of new foreclosures during the first three months of this year, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.

Additionally, more than one in 10 homeowners were behind on their mortgage payments in the first quarter — a record, the association said. That's up from 9.47 percent in the last three months of 2009

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/19/94464/prime-mortgages-going-bust-at.html#ixzz0oTefPyN4
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And finally, here is a wildly useless invention (but cool no doubt) from our friends at Honda, just another way to encourage obesity.