editor's blog

If only the pharaohs of Egypt had provided some encouragement to their slaves, the pyramids would have been built a bit faster. A recent study by Towers Perrin found that a company’s financial productivity is dependant on its employee’s feelings of being appreciated and happy at work. It turns out slave driving is no longer a successful method of managing employees.

Kid’s toys just aren’t what they used to be. The age of innocence is over. Now instead of a wholesome game of jacks, curious kids can have the Australian born Aqua Dotz (AKA Bindeez) a crafty arts and crafts toy with small colored beads that if ingested, induce hallucinations, unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and even death! But with beads that look so scrumptious and sweet, who could blame the kids for having a little taste?

The beads were originally designed to be dampened by water and then fused together to make groovy colorful designs and shapes. While quite an ingenious idea, the designers slipped up a little bit; these Aqua Dotz are coated in a chemical that when swallowed releases some good ol’ fashioned Georgia Homeboy (gamma hydroxy butyrate), a popular version of the infamous date rape. Global toy pandemonium erupted when two kids in Australia were hospitalized after eating these tasty trips-disguised-as-art. The kids recovered fully but Aqua Dotz may need a trip to rehab before making a comeback.

Spin Master gives their scouts honor saying drugging the children was not their intention.Toys ‘R Us spokesman Mary Zanette, assures the paranoid parentals out there that the toy has been removed from shelves only for precautionary measures while further investigation proceeds. Unfortunately, if Toys ‘R Us does go through with a full recall, you’ll have to go to the streets to get your fix of Aqua Dotz.

Monkeying around may not seem like the most mentally demanding pass time, but those crazy chimps may be more enlightened than originally thought.

A recent Japanese memory study poised young opposable thumb-bearing, diaper-wearing chimps against university students in a mega memory test. Asking the respondents to recall a sequence of numbers, the study aimed to find out if young monkeys have better memories than older monkeys. Just for the fun of it, humans were thrown into the mix.

No bananas were harmed during the study, but humans have suffered a blow to the ego after discovering that not only did the five year old monkeys beat their monkey parents in memory testing, they also beat university students.

The office cubicle has become a second home to many a worker. Its protective powers against the evil office monsters (bosses) that lurk outside the walls have helped workers to concentrate and feel secure while tackling the day's tasks. Revamping workplaces may mean that cubicles are on their way to office space Shangri-la. Recent developments in office organization have challenged the cubicle's supremacy by stepping outside of the box and bringing coworkers together.

The workplace has long been a source of companionship and friendly interaction, but when does a bear hug by the water cooler become mistaken for hanky-panky, or even harassment?

Welcoming a coworker with open arms is not uncommon in today’s more relaxed workplace, and the hug-bug has infected workers across the globe. As management decides to loosen-up dress codes and welcome young-gun employees into their bosoms, a hug-friendly organizational culture is developing in many workplaces, with an increased sense of intimacy among colleagues.

There are more women in the workforce than ever but at the top of the heap, only 13 of the Fortune 500 companies are lead by women CEOs... or less than 3%.

Our brain finds it hard to do more than two things at once, especially if it uses the same part of the brain. This is the case when dealing with pain and trying to concentrate at the same time.

Want to have a better chance of a safe workplace? Then work for a business with 10 or fewer employees. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, tiny businesses have the lowest injury rates. While your chance of being injured at work in the next year - about 1 in 20 - is slightly lower than it was a few years ago, it still adds up to 4.2 million U.S. workers who were injured on the job in 2005.