In the 50 years since 1970, the world’s population has doubled while the number of chickens we eat has increased nearly 7-fold, from 11 billion to 74 billion. So, why do we eat so much chicken? According to the National Chicken Council, it started with a mistake in 1923. Like many rural Americans, Cecile Steele…
You should always get the bigger pizza. No, this isn’t some bigger-is-better American standard where size matters more than quality or consistency. It’s not because everyone loves pizza so you might as well get more of it (it’s the glutamate we find so irresistible). And I’m definitely not using the number of slices rule that…
Would you eat an Antarctic toothfish? Probably not. It’s an ugly-looking human-sized fish with an unappetizing sounding name. But chances are you have eaten it. That’s because the seafood industry has mastered the art of rebranding. In the 1970s, American seafood entrepreneur Lee Lantz realized a fish with buttery white flesh and a mild, non-fishy…
The Find The Umbrella parable is likely apocryphal but it’s a useful way to explain why absolute rules in companies can backfire from their intentions. While there are many versions of the story, here’s the one I’ve told: A salesperson flies to meet a client only to find an unexpected severe thunderstorm is drenching the…
If you tell a brazen untruth, is it called a bald-faced lie or a bold-faced lie? 100 years ago, the answer might have been neither, as the phrase barefaced lie was in fashion. Barefaced literally means beardless but implied bold or even brazen, perhaps because it was unacceptable for a man not to have a…
Weather modification, also known as geoengineering, is intentionally altering or controlling the weather. The most common form of weather modification is cloud seeding, spraying small particles, such as silver iodide, onto clouds in the attempt to increase rain or snow. Weather modification can also have the goal of preventing damaging weather, such as hail or…
With about 20% of the U.S. population suffering from sleep disorders, it’s no surprise there’s a wide range of sleep aids – from prescription to over-the-counter to homeopathic. But did you know that eating a small number of pistachios before you go to bed at night might help you sleep? First, some background. Our brains…
Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite estimated to infect ~10% of the U.S. population and perhaps as many as half in other countries. Few infected people exhibit symptoms, as a healthy person’s immune system usually keeps the parasite from causing illness. However, toxoplasma infection has been linked to a wide variety of outgoing and risk-seeking…
I’m not gaslighting you. We’re at an inflection point of people quiet quitting irregardless if everything is amazing and moving forward. Does that make sense? Absolutely! Since 1976, Lake Superior State University (LSSU) has compiled an annual list of words to be banned. For years, it was described as words to be “banished from the…
If you want to pursue innovation, consider next practices instead of best practices. Best practices look into the past to document processes that can be repeated for specific business problems. Next practices are future-oriented blueprints which allow organizations to better anticipate and respond to strategic issues which have inherent unknowns and risks. Best practices allow…