More Random Ramblings around the NGC shop this week….

Regularly hitting a soccer ball with your head – even just a few times a day – has been linked to traumatic brain injuries, researchers report on WebMD.

• Dang Tryptophan – still feeling sleeping!
• How are we in a recession when $54 Billion was spent during the first full weekend of the holiday shopping season?
• Being busy is good!
• The calculator is an under-appreciated innovation. So are rounded shower curtain rods.
• Journalistic integrity still exists today, believe or not.
• STEMConnector will launch a new website tomorrow at 2 p.m. EDT. Worth checking out.
• Have you heard Toby Keith’s new song: Red Solo Cup?
• Is the upcoming Facebook IPO a good value or too much hype?
• Congress has restored domestic horse slaughtering – really?
• Are you a Tebow luva or h8tr?
• $90 for a Christmas tree – are you kidding me?

Have a great week!

• You’re a product of the 90s if you know how to save files to a floppy disk – just saying!
• Coach K at Duke will surpass his coach – Bobby Knight – in overall wins (the most in NCAA men’s basketball)
• To the makers of Dove soap – men don’t care if their skin is moisturized.
• USA better freakin’ beat Slovenia today.
• Captain Crunch cereal is really good – try it.
• Quick updates to any website are never quick.
• How much wood can a woodchuck actually chuck?
• Who’s excited to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation?
• Those who have Christmas lights already on gets a boo times two!
• Kelly Slater is 11-time World Surfing Champion – best athlete in the world
• Healthcare reform is heading to Supreme Court.
• NGC Mens Soccer Team is in the playoffs for fall season.

• Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler always looks hungover on camera.
• Video game commercials are cool.
• Colin Coherd on ESPN is the best radio broadcaster today – not so much on TV.
• Penn State should fire everyone in their football program.
• Is “Best Use By” dates on perishable products just a suggestion?
• Vegas is safer than the stock market.
• Why do folks think a good website can be done in a day?
• Working 20 hours a day takes a special person or an idiot.
• Good grammar is hot!

Have something to share? Let us know.

The growing multi-sector initiative currently composed of more than 80 partners nationwide is committed to working to recruit, develop, and retain 100,000 excellent science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers over the coming 10 years. The Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Opportunity Equation are leading this initiative.

The 100Kin10 movement invites organizations and businesses to participate by applying their particular assets to creatively and strategically address the challenges of increasing the supply of and retaining excellent STEM educators.

The Kenan Fellows Program joined last week and addresses North Carolina’s economic development needs by enhancing teacher retention and advancing K-12 STEM education.

As part of the 100Kin10K effort, the Kenan Fellows Program will continue to form partnerships for North Carolina teachers with STEM leaders from industry and academia throughout the country.

Dr. Valerie Schild, director of the Kenan Fellows Program said the Kenan Fellows Program provides outstanding teachers an opportunity to work directly with university, education, and corporate leaders. Added Schild, “through this unique experience, these highly-effective teachers impact their students, peers, and communities in a significant way.”

Michele Cahill with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and co-chair of the Opportunity Equation, said 100Kin10 partners aren’t just voicing their concern, they are making real, measurable commitments to solving a complex, national problem.

“We hope their commitments will help mobilize others to join in the effort to increase the supply of excellent math and science teachers and retain them and all those currently in the classroom so that all students have access to rich, engaging, challenging science and math learning,” added Cahill.

A dozen corporate and foundation partners have created an initial funding base of nearly $20 million in pledges that can be allocated to any of the 100Kin10 partner organizations at the discretion of the funder.

YouTube and Lenovo, in cooperation with Space Adventures and several space agencies including NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), have revealed YouTube Space Lab to challenge 14-18 year-old students to design a science experiment that can be performed in space.

The two winning experiments will be conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and streamed live on YouTube next year.

Space Lab will serve as a home base for creating, sharing, and discovering some of the best space and science-related videos on the planet. The competition invites 14-18 year olds around the world to come up with an idea for a science experiment that can be conducted in space and upload a video explaining it to YouTube.

The YouTube community and a panel of distinguished scientists, astronauts, and expert judges, including renowned professor Stephen Hawking, will pick the best ones.

Students in two age categories, 14-16 years old and 17-18 years old, either alone or in groups of up to three, may submit a YouTube video describing their experiment to YouTube.com/SpaceLab.

Students may submit a two-minute video now through Dec. 7, 2011.

Six regional finalists will gather in Washington, D.C., in March to experience a ZERO-G flight and receive other prizes. From them, two global winners, one from each age group, will be announced and later have their experiments performed 250 miles above Earth and streamed live on YouTube.

Additionally, the global winners will get to choose a unique space experience as a prize: either a trip to Tanegashima Island, Japan, to watch their experiment launch in a rocket bound for the ISS, or once they are 18 years old, a one-of-a-kind astronaut training experience in Star City, Russia, the training center for Russian cosmonauts, and other prizes.

The remaining four regional winners also will receive a trip to the U.S., a ZERO-G flight, and a Lenovo IdeaPad laptop.

Lenovo also introduced on Monday a Space Lab Special Edition ThinkPad Tablet for space enthusiasts. The astronaut-inspired package includes a 32 GB ThinkPad Tablet pre-loaded with space and education-related apps, an ISS mission badge, Space Lab sticker, sling bag, and noise-canceling headphones.

Locally, the NC STEM Community Collaborative applauded today’s announcement and offered support in the project.

“Systems change when inspired people work together,” said NC STEM Leader Karl Rectanus. “This is a great example of a public-private partnership that will empower our students to not only change the world, but change the universe.”

To learn more about the completion and how to enter, see the Official Rules.

Surfing industry icon Quiksilver went against the grain on both and has been successful so far.

Many outside the surfing world don’t realize that surfing as a business is a multi-billion industry. It’s also a trendsetter in technology, fashion, and more. For example, webcams became popular several years ago as companies like Surfline optimized the technology to showcase premier video surf reports. Now, those cams are in HD and pushing the industry envelope even further.

The Quiksilver Pro New York started Tuesday and is the first East Coast stop for the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour, a globe-spanning series that stages competitions at prime surf locations. The tour’s 34 professional surfers are now in Long Beach for the two-week Quiksilver Pro New York, one of 11 events that determines the world champion.

The largest purse on the tour thus far has been $500,000. This event alone is offering $1 million.

New York probably doesn’t have the best surf on the East Coast. Arguably you could say Cape Hatteras, N.C., Cocoa Beach, Fla., and maybe even New Jersey could fight for the Right Coast’s best wave. However, what New York does have is major media outlets and tons of money.

Quiksilver has done the right thing bringing this event to NYC. And, as a bonus, Hurricane Katia is generating some nice swell as I watched online in high-definition on Tuesday; surf was 3-to 4-foot and really fun looking.

If you want to watch the world’s best riders battle for the largest tour purse in history in the biggest media market in the world, watch the event online by following this link http://quiksilverpro.com/.

STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future offers an inside look at workers who are driving our nation’s innovation and competitiveness and helping America win the future with new ideas, new companies, and new industries.

In 2010, 7.6 million people or 5.5 percent of the labor force worked in STEM occupations.

Key findings from the new report show that over the past 10 years, growth in STEM jobs was three times greater than that of non-STEM jobs, and STEM jobs are expected to continue to grow at a faster rate than other jobs in the coming decade. Meanwhile, STEM workers are also less likely to experience joblessness.

“This report profiles the fast-growing, productive STEM workforce and illustrates how we can win the future by encouraging the pursuit of 21st century jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. “STEM jobs are essential to a competitive, innovative, and technologically-advanced U.S. economy.”

Further findings show STEM workers command higher wages, earning 26 percent more than their non-STEM counterparts. STEM degree holders also enjoy higher earnings, regardless of whether they work in STEM or non-STEM occupations. Likewise, college graduates – no matter what their major – enjoy an earnings premium for having a STEM job.

“A STEM education is a pathway to prosperity – not just for you as an individual but for America as a whole,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “We need you in our classrooms, labs, and key government agencies to help solve our biggest challenges, and that’s why we are investing heavily to promote STEM education.”

In comparison to the average worker, STEM workers are highly educated. More than two-thirds of STEM workers have at least a college degree, compared to less than one-third of non-STEM workers.

STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future is based on analysis to date from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and Current Population Survey.  In this report, STEM jobs are defined to include professional and technical support occupations in the fields of computer science and mathematics, engineering, and life and physical sciences.

Recently, Change The Equation, a national non-profit dedicated to solving America’s innovation problem, released its 2011 Vital Signs on the status of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The South Carolina report clearly indicates the time for change is now. We must improve the way we educate our students and teachers to ensure they are well-prepared to compete in a global economy rooted in STEM careers.

Here are a few highlights:

• Only 30% of 8th-grade students are at or above proficient in math

• Only 23% of 8th-grade students are at or above proficient in science

• Only 11% of seniors leaving high school have taken an AP exam in math; of those 11%, only 6% scored a 3 or higher

• Only 10% of seniors leaving high school have taken an AP exam in science; of those 10% only 5% scored a 3 or higher

To view the full report, click here.

These encouraging results come from the CMO Survey, a nationwide poll of chief marketing officers (CMOs) conducted twice annually by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association since 2008.

The most recent CMO Survey queried 3,778 top marketing executives at Fortune 100, Forbes Top 200, and CMO Club companies from Jan. 11-28.

CMOs rated the U.S. economy at 63 on a scale of 0-100, up from a rating of 56 in August 2010. Nearly 69 percent of CMOs reported they were more optimistic about the U.S. economy, compared to 26 percent the previous quarter. In contrast, less optimistic CMOs fell to 6 percent, down from 35 percent the previous quarter.

“Because marketers have the most direct contact with customers and the best perspective of their future plans, these results are especially credible and bode well for economic recovery,” said Christine Moorman, Fuqua professor and director of the survey. “All measures of customer revenue are expected to see gains in the next 12 months.”

CMOs expect higher customer purchase volume, higher prices, more new customers entering the market, and better customer retention. Advertising will see gains in the next year, with spending on traditional ads expected to rise more than 2 percent – the first foray into positive territory since before February 2009.

Spending on social marketing continues its upward trend. CMOs say their firms currently spend 6 percent of their marketing budgets on social media promotions, but that figure will triple to 18 percent over the next five years.

“The growth in social media marketing will be exponential,” Moorman said. “Smaller companies – with revenues under $25 million – in particular will increasingly rely on social media outlets to market their products and services.”

Moorman noted that although firms of all sizes plan to increase spending on marketing via social media, CMOs don’t believe their social media activities are well integrated with their companies’ overall marketing strategies.

In fact, 42 percent rate this integration as below average and only 11 percent of CMOs said their company was “very effective” in integrating social media into their marketing strategies. This suggests an urgency to utilize social media even before a comprehensive plan is developed.

“This approach is natural for such a profoundly innovative tool for interacting with customers,” Moorman said. “Firms are in a period of experimentation and observation about social media. Like television advertising in the ‘50s, this period of learning will define the winners and losers of this generation of firms.”

Completing the rebound portrait, CMOs expect to hire 50 percent more marketing professionals over the next year, with the service consulting industry expected to post the largest gains with 82 percent growth. U.S. CMOs expect most company revenues to come from domestic markets over the next year, while the international market with the highest expected sales increase is China, up 4 percent over February 2010 estimates. Business-to-business companies expect the biggest increases in Chinese markets.

Founded in August 2008, the survey is administered twice each year, with questions repeated over time to discern trends. The next survey will be in August 2011.