Generation C

Generation C

The Nielsen Company and NM Incite (a joint venture between Nielsen and McKinsey & Company) in their recently released U.S. Digital Consumer Report dubbed the current young adult generation “Generation C” based on their “connected” behaviors.  This group – Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 – accounts for approximately 23% of the population according to the most recent U.S. Census but they spend far more time socializing and consuming media through their devices than other “generations.”   Continue reading

The new independent workforce

Freelancer

Over the past decade and a half the U.S. economy has weathered two significant recessions, including crises in the residential real estate and financial services industries.  Despite these economic hardships the self-employed and “solopreneur” workforce grew by 4.3 million workers and is projected to continue growing at double-digit rates.   Continue reading

Geek-out Sunday part XXIV: solar tornadoes

When I first saw the video above taken from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory the “Tears In Rain” soliloquy delivered by Replicant Roy Batty in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) immediately came to mind.  These twisters are as large (or larger) as the Earth itself, gust at 300,000 miles per hour, and are a relatively cool 15,000 degrees Fahrenheit.   Continue reading

Maps of the Human Heart

Reblogged from streetsofsalem:

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Heart-shaped maps are one thing, but maps of the human heart are quite another, and I’ve got both on this Valentine’s Day.  The charting of emotional territory, as opposed to physical space, has resulted in the production of several interesting maps from the seventeenth century to the near-present.  Below are the companion Map of the Open Country of a Woman’s Heart and Map of the Fortified Country of a Man’s Heart, ostensibly and anonymously drawn “by a lady” and published by the Kellogg Brothers of …

It is a few days early for me to be posting a “geek-out Sunday” article but this great post from Donna Seger is too good to not share. These maps of the human heart are beautiful and humorous examples of 19th century geekery.

Warren Buffett: Why stocks beat gold and bonds

Reblogged from Fortune Finance: Hedge Funds, Markets, Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity, Venture Capital, Wall Street, Washington:

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In an adaptation from his upcoming shareholder letter, the Oracle of Omaha explains why equities almost always beat the alternatives over time. By Warren Buffett FORTUNE — Investing is often described as the process of laying out money now in the expectation of receiving more money in the future. At Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) we take a more demanding approach, defining investing as the transfer to others of purchasing power now with the reasoned expectation of receiving more purchasing power — after taxes …

I am a huge fan of Warren Buffett’s. It isn’t so much that he’s a brilliant investor who has delivered a tremendous amount of value to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, but rather than he’s willing and able to put some of the most complex (and controversial) topics of discussion into a context that is digestible for nearly everyone. In his upcoming shareholder letter, Buffett challenges the conventional wisdom that has long stated that cash is among the safer aspects of one’s investment portfolio and that stocks are among the riskiest. Quite the contrary says Buffett, you’re guaranteed to lose money on your cash position (although it affords you flexibility and liquidity) and over the long run a diversified stock portfolio is much more likely to produce big returns.