Overcast, chance of ads?
"If you have ever stood in the rain wondering where the nearest umbrella shop is, then the latest Google patent may interest you," says BBC News. "The search giant has secured intellectual rights to a system that would serve ads based on environmental conditions. Google said forward-looking patents were useful for its portfolio, but it had no current plans to act on it. … The patent, first reported by PC World magazine, potentially paves the way for a mobile phone fitted with sensors that would allow it to record data such as temperature, humidity, light, and sound or air composition, which would trigger relevant [advertisements]"
Targeting the voters
This U.S. election season "will provide a historic test for the emerging industry of social media analytics," New Scientist reports. "Savvy political operatives want to build analyses of social media activity into the sophisticated data models they now use to aim campaign messages at the right individuals. Start-up companies are touting custom tools that both measure a candidate's ability to reach and influence voters and help them optimize that skill. Academics, meanwhile, are trying to detect automated online 'attack posts' masquerading as spontaneous political discussion. … The killer app for social media analytics, however, would be helping campaigns to deliver messages calculated to push the buttons of particular voters, and identify supporters who need extra attention to make sure they actually turn out on polling day. This is called microtargeting and lies at the heart of modern political campaigning."
Colour me creative
"Want to be more creative? You might want to take a stroll through the park, eat a spinach salad or catch a few minutes of The Muppets – keeping your eye on Kermit the Frog," says Miller-McCune.com. "According to newly published research, innovative thinking seems to be stimulated by the colour green. A research team led by University of Munich psychologist Stephanie Lichtenfeld reports the colour of lime and leaves 'has implications beyond aesthetics.' Specifically, a glimpse of green appears to activate 'the type of pure, open (mental) processing required to do well on creativity tasks.' The researchers found this effect with different groups of people, different tests of creativity and differently designed experiments."
Copper and robber
"Police in North Carolina said a bold thief broke into a minimum-security prison and stole the copper from an air-conditioning unit," United Press International reports. "The Salisbury, N.C., police incident report said the thief is believed to have scaled the fence at the Piedmont Correctional Institution at some point prior to 8:15 a.m. Monday and 'dismantled an A/C unit and stole the copper out of it,' the Salisbury Post reported Wednesday."
Award for best inmate goes to …
"Prison officials in Wuhan, central China, have started their own awards show for inmates to help them feel better about themselves," reports Orange News U.K. "[Convicts]at the high-security jail in Hubei province are given prizes for obeying the rules, having the tidiest cell, good education class marks and helping other prisoners. Jail staff hand out the awards – a red flower, a small gift and a certificate – in an Olympic Games-style ceremony. 'It's good for morale because it gives inmates something to aim for and shows all of them that hard work gets results. These are important lessons for people who will one day leave the prison and go back into the real world,' said a prison spokesman."
High-end nannies
"Chasing after a screaming toddler may seem like a less-than-ideal way to spend your day, but imagine being paid a six-figure salary to cater to a two-year-old's every whim," says The Huffington Post. "Many of New York's most sought-after nannies can fetch a salary of $180,000 [U.S.]per year, plus a bonus and an allowance, to pay for rent in an expensive apartment, according to The New York Times. That's because there are so few experienced nannies willing to forgo other plans to be available at all times to take care of New York's wealthiest children that they can command a high price."
Thought du jour
"What makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles."
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), German philosopher