Weekend Digest: The Spinach And Chocolate Cake Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

FOR MANY, RETIREMENT IS COMING EARLIER THAN EXPECTED
The New York Times calls it the “Gray Jobs Enigma” where Americans many times unexpectedly are retiring early and not returning to the work force. One expert says, “While nearly three-fourths of Americans say they will continue working after retiring from their main job, only 18.9 percent of Americans age 65 or older actually remain in the work force.”

Sara Rix, an analyst at the AARP Public Policy Institute, sees numerous reasons so many Americans retire considerably earlier than they had anticipated.

“A lot of people have expectations and desires to work in retirement, but the number who actually do is pretty low, Ms. Rix said. “A lot of things happen – workers suffer ill health or job loss and that propels them out of the labor force.”

Go inside The Times story for an intriguing profile of some of these early retirees and how their work lives changed dramatically.  Also click on this link to learn what keeps the 18.9 percent plugging away at their jobs past normal retirement age.

FROM SPINACH TO CHOCOLATE CAKE
Marketo asks “Is your content marketing like spinach?  If so maybe you aren’t being visual enough.

In other words, is your information healthy, but unappealing? Does it provide one of the five essential content vitamins, but still gets left untouched on marketer’s palates?

If your content is being consumed, the problem may be that your information isn’t visually appealing to your target audience.

Marketo says, “We take in visual information 60,000 times faster than text.”

So to find out what those five essential content vitamins are and how to give your content marketing a makeover, go to this link for “8 ways to make it taste like chocolate cake.”

SHORT WAVE RADIO FOR THE DIGITAL AGE
It’s called the Outernet and through its link of Low Earth Orbit satellites it can help communicate over the Internet even when Mother Nature plays havoc with it, or through other outage causes like sabotage. It also could beam information to countries and areas that simply don’t have Internet service.

But more and more, access to information seems like a basic human right, right up there with access to clean water. And that’s exactly the attitude of Syed Karim, creator of the Outernet: a free, universally accessible information service that beams Internet information – be it entire websites like Wikipedia, emergency broadcast messages, or video classes form the Khan academy – to any Wi-Fi-enabled device across the globe.

So what are the nuts and bolts of this remarkable system and when will these Outernet satellites be launched? Go to this link from Fast Company for details on Karim’s plan to truly connect the world.

HAPPINESS INSPIRES PRODUCTIVITY
Sound simple? The concept is, but…

We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards?  In this fast-moving and entertaining talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.

For that talk and to be inspired, click on this link from Ted.com.

ZUCKERBERG PHONES THE PRESIDENT
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has revealed he phoned President Obama and it wasn’t a chat to invite him for tea.

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday revealed he has spoken over the phone with President Obama about government surveillance.

In a post Thursday on Facebook, the social media chief said he called the president “to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all our future.”

“Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform,” he wrote.

For more on this story and the response from the National Security Council, go to this link from The Hill.

CRUSHING BLOW TO DEMOCRATS IN FLORIDA
POLITICO reports that a ripe opportunity for a Congressional House seat was lost this past week for Democrats. The Florida special election Tuesday was supposed to be an ideal chance for Democrats to show that 2014 isn’t a lost year.

Instead they were dealt another body blow, further weakening their prospects for this year’s midterm. Democrats couldn’t have asked for a more golden opportunity. They had the right candidate matchup: Alex Sink, a respected former statewide official who nearly won the governorship in 2010, up against a former lobbyist, Republican David Jolly.

Jolly won by more than 3,400 votes. So what happened?  Click on this link for the complete analysis.

COULD GOP VICTORY IN FLORIDA STILL BE GOOD NEWS FOR DEMOCRATS?
Karl Rove thinks so and said this to the Wall Street Journal:

“To Republicans, a word of caution over the special election in Florida’s 13th congressional district: Don’t uncork the champagne.”

David Jolly’s victory on Tuesday over Democrat Alex Sink by 48.4%-46.6% is significant. President Obama won the district twice, and its changing political demographics make it Democratic-leaning despite being held for 42 years by C.W. “Bill” Young, a popular Republican, until his death last fall. Still, special elections don’t always dictate how midterms turn out.

So what is Rove’s spin on how this cycle may turn out? Go here to find out.

PALIN POWER
The Washington Post says, “There was a time in the not-too-distant past when Sarah Palin was the endorsement to get in contested Republican primaries.”

Not any more. According to the Post:

That time has passed. But Palin is still picking favorites. She’s made a trio of Senate endorsements this week and has promised more. A Palin seal of approval is not what it once was, but it still matters because she has a loyal base of conservative supporters inclined to follow her lead.

So is she still a Tea Party favorite and what candidates could benefit from her endorsement? Go here to find out.

INGENIOUS PROJECT FROM A 17-YEAR-OLD
Fast Company reports that Eric Chen is “the Grand Slam Champion” of top national science fairs this year. So what is “his ingenious project that swept the circuit?

This week, the 17-year-old from San Diego won the Intel Science Talent Searchcompetition – after handily winning both the Google Science fair and the Seimans Science Fair last year.

What is his project?  Check out this link to learn more.

NEIL YOUNG GOES PONO
The legendary rocker has investors, but what is Pono?

Pono’s business model is similar to the iPod and iTunes store, but Young has a different slant to his effort. What is it all about?

Go to this link to download more information.

IT’S OLD SCHOOL, BUT IT’S NEW SCHOOL
So what is the new movement to keep high schoolers more alert during the day? It’s all about sleep.

Teenagers are developmentally driven to be late to bed, late to rise. Could the board realign the first bell with that biological reality?

Could they?  Click on this link from the The New York Times to find out what they did.