NO ONE EATS genetically modified animals. That is to say, human beings have modified almost every domesticated foodstuff, plant, and animal through traditional breeding techniques. But start using genetic engineering technology, moving genes around or inserting one from one living thing into another, and people freak right the hell out. That’s what happened two weeks ago—France went into a panic because a lamb that was the offspring of a sheep modified to express a green fluorescent protein made it to market. In Europe, genetically modified organisms are outright banned; in the US, lots of staple crops like corn have plenty of modified genes. But animals? That’s a line supermarkets haven’t crossed.
Category: Tools and Information
How to Grab and Keep Your Audience in the Attention Economy | BusinessTips.com
From closing the deal to firing up your team, make your message stick with SHARPs
Want to know your real competition when you’re speaking, whether to an individual or group? You’re up against the human mind. Weighing in at just three pounds, this competitor is the repository of countless conscious and unconscious thoughts.
We are all bombarded with data at every turn. Our smartphones (and the constant content they provide) call to us like sirens, ready to distract us under the guise of multi-tasking.
This is the attention economy. And it’s the new reality.
The average attention span for an adult is a measly 8 seconds (we’re only 2 seconds better than our kids). This doesn’t mean that you can only hold someone’s attention for 8 seconds; it means that you can lose it in 8 seconds.1
With this reality, we face an even greater challenge every time we communicate an idea, a request or an action item. How do we connect? How do we get through all that other clutter caused by the attention economy? How can we be more compelling than the smartphone?
Dubai to print world’s first 3D-printed office building (it’ll just take a few weeks) | Inhaitat
The United Arab Emirates likes to be first when it comes to amazing feats of construction and technology, and architecture in Dubai is constantly pushing the envelope. The world’s tallest building already towers over Dubai’s skyline, and now the city is planning to build the world’s first fully 3D-printed office building. It’s a cool, space-age structure that will save a bundle on construction costs and material waste.
The office building will take just a matter of weeks to construct. The overall structure won’t be that big in terms of scale, covering just 2,000 square feet (186 square meters), but it’ll be huge for the 3D-printing history. The building will be the world’s first fully-functional 3D-printed office building, and will serve as operations headquarters for the recently opened Museum of the Future, which is located nearby the building site and also features 3D-printed components. The office building will be printed one layer at a time by a 20-foot-tall 3D printer, and then assembled onsite. What’s more, all of the furniture, fixtures, detailing, and structural components will also be 3D-printed, making this endeavor the most ambitious 3D-printing project in architectural history.
Employee Engagement? What If Employees Don’t Want To Be Engaged? | Forbes
Engagement statistics really haven’t changed much over the past 10 years. Why? Surely, we’ve focused enough attention, money, staff, time and energy on the concept of engagement to make a huge difference. And yet the numbers remain relatively flat and generally negative.
But what if people just don’t want to be engaged?
By and large, leaders know that they can’t make their people suddenly become passionate about the company’s mission and strategy, the customer experience, the bottom line, or any other owner-level consideration. Thoughtful leaders understand that employees must first want to make a larger contribution, so these leaders institute recognition and reward programs designed to foster a desire to engage…and still, in many cases, no appreciable or sustainable engagement materializes. Why?
It might be time to build a process of engagement that includes more than just an organizational motivation approach. In the book Influencer, authors Patterson, Grenny, Switzler, Maxfield and McMillan reveal two other, equally important sources of motivation that can be brought to bear on any change goal, including this stubborn challenge of employee engagement—namely, social motivation (peer influence) and individual motivation (intrinsic desire). When combined with organizational rewards, these two sources of influence can create a formidable recipe for sustained increases in engagement. Let’s explore both.
These 3 Tricks Can Actually Help You Get Smarter | Page19
What if all you had to do to become smarter was play a quirky little game, like Angry Birds? Or pick up an instrument? It may be no more complicated than that! Here are three scientifically proven ways you can up your intelligence.
What would you do with a few extra IQ points? What new plans would you be able to put into action? What creative solutions could you come up with? We’d all love to be just a bit brainier, wouldn’t we? And that’s precisely what Dan Hurley’s new book, Smarter, is all about. In his exploration of fluid intelligence, he’s come upon three tried-and-true ways that anyone can start improving his brain.
Tips for Moving Your Startup From Home to an Office | Getentrepreneurial.com
When you started your company you had dreams of growth, but couldn’t actually picture them coming true. Then, they did. You experienced growth, and you brought on a few team members. You experienced more growth and saw profits start to grow. Soon, you were excited; you realized that this was it: Your startup was becoming a legitimate company.
Along with that growth and opportunity came another potentially exciting – yet stressful – endeavor: the need for office space. Suddenly your home office wasn’t cutting it; you needed a physical location with a sign out front to announce that you’ve made it. If you’re at that point, congratulations; you’ve accomplished something great. Follow the tips below to move your startup from your home to an office.
Use Stay Interviews to Keep Your Best People on Board | Payroll Link
What Exactly is a Stay Interview?
It’s the opposite of an exit interview, in which you try to determine the factors that led to a worker’s decision to leave your employ. Ideally this type of preemptive measure will cut down on the number of talented employees lost.
A stay interview, conducted periodically, is distinct from a performance review. Its basic goal is to determine why the employee continues to work for you, so that you can, within reason, keep those factors alive.
Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents? | Live Science
In 1776, whether you were declaring America independent from the crown or swearing your loyalty to King George III, your pronunciation would have been much the same. At that time, American and British accents hadn’t yet diverged. What’s surprising, though, is that Hollywood costume dramas get it all wrong: The Patriots and the Redcoats spoke with accents that were much closer to the contemporary American accent than to the Queen’s English.
It is the standard British accent that has drastically changed in the past two centuries, while the typical American accent has changed only subtly.
Traditional English, whether spoken in the British Isles or the American colonies, was largely “rhotic.” Rhotic speakers pronounce the “R” sound in such words as “hard” and “winter,” while non-rhotic speakers do not. Today, however, non-rhotic speech is common throughout most of Britain. For example, most modern Brits would tell you it’s been a “hahd wintuh.”
8 Advantages of Being a Small Business Owner Now | Small Biz Trends
The past few years have seen an opportunistic and favorable business environment and it looks like thankfully it is poised to continue.
Here are the advantages of being a small business owner … now.
Technology Tools
In no other time has technology made it easier for us to do business, communicate and grow on such an efficient and far reaching scale. The Web, email marketing, social media, plug-ins and apps allow us to organize and focus communication. and to help people in ways that save us time and energy and improve efficiency.
The cloud offers front end management of tasks, while many small service companies still juggle paper spreadsheets and calendars to stay organized.
What These 4 Data Breaches Can Tell Us About Security | All Business
Nobody is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, and anyone can fail — especially in the business world.
IBM’s “2015 Cost of Data Breach Study” shows that the average total cost of a data breach is $3.8 million, representing a 23 percent increase since 2013. The cost for each lost or stolen record increased 6 percent, from a consolidated average of $145 to $154.
Several companies also have been sued for their negligence in preventing these attacks. Data breaches are huge failures, but taking a look at these four big ones can teach us a thing or two about how to better secure our data.
Dispatches From The Front 