One of the biggest factors a doctor considers when choosing a specialty is the cost – the more a program costs, the less likely a med student is to pursue it, even if they want to. The cost of school influences other decisions as well. Choosing what kind of practice to have, where to live, whether or not to buy a home and whether or not to have children are all decisions that can change based on how much student debt a doctor has accumulated.

In this infographic, The Student Doctor Network presents the data from their annual national healthcare student survey and how, despite landing in a great career, healthcare professionals are living with the burden of their educations.

In 1952, it was just not common to hear the word “pregnancy” on television—the word was too risqué to say when introducing Little Ricky to the incredible popular program, “I Love Lucy.” How often do you see belly buttons on TV today? Back in 1965, Jeannie, Ginger, and Mary Ann were not allowed to expose their belly buttons on air. “All in the Family” was the first program to feature the sound of a toilet flush. In 1975, Cher did what Jeannie, Ginger, and Mary couldn’t—her belly button was shown nationwide in the pilot episode of “Cher.”

To learn more about the evolution of TV programming, including information about the first display of female nudity and the first lesbian kiss on national television, check out the infographic below presented by DirectTVDeal.com.

Source: The Liberalization of TV

With LaaS, service providers offer pools of abstract IT infrastructure resources (servers, storage, and network components) to customers on a pay-per usage model. The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, cooling, operation, and maintenance. PaaS is a model where service providers provision fully-functioning computing and solution stacks on which applications are deployed. The providers provides the networks, servers, storage for the environment, as well as manages varying levels of scalability and maintenance.

Salesforce was the first SaaS built from scratch to achieve rapid growth. The products and services offered by Salesforce include customer relationship management, the sales cloud, the service cloud, force.com platform, chatter, APX Exchange, configuration, and web services. Among the key drivers of SaaS growth include broadband and mobile. Analysts are seeing SaaS as the primary type of cloud investment, with 82 percent citing usage today and 84 percent looking to SaaS as the deployment model for new applications.

To learn more about SaaS, check out the infographic below presented by ProfitBricks.

Of 1,078 churches surveyed, 14 percent were exceeding their annual budget for tithes and offerings. Of those churches, some of the top factors that influenced giving are: they accept automatic recurring donations, they offer online giving, and they use a giving kiosk, among others. In times of crisis, online giving can offer a fast and convenient way to give quickly. It also allows multiple gifts to be made in one transaction, and the ability to review your giving history.

There are many reasons your church should offer online giving. For instance, online giving allows recurring payments, which can turn irregular givers into regular givers.  Ninety-four percent of people ages 18-29 use the Internet; so online giving will also get the younger generation involved in your financial base. People who no longer carry checks and cash will become frustrated if online giving is not offered, and are therefore less likely to give.

One of the churches that put online giving on the map, Faith Promise Church in Knoxville, TN, receives 33 percent of its total tithes and offerings online. If you are interested in a similar trend in your Church, check out the infographic below to learn more.

Online Giving: Is it right for your church? [Infographic]
Compliments of ChurchCentral.com

Some 86 percent of all workers over the age of 16 drive a car, truck, or van to work, and 76 percent of these workers drive alone—which certainly doesn’t help the environment. Most commuters in the U.S. have a total carbon footprint of 6,214 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year for gasoline users. Ethanol, on the other hand, would produce a carbon footprint of 931 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year for the average commuter.

How can you reduce your carbon footprint? Stop being an S.O.V. (Single Occupant Vehicle)! Not many Americans take steps to reduce their commute carbon footprint—10 percent of American workers carpool; five percent of American workers use public transportation to get to work; less than one percent of American workers bicycle to work; and three percent of Americans walk to work. If you must drive, hybrids are your best (for now) to help reduce your carbon footprint.

To learn more, check out the infographic below presented by CheapCarInsurance.net.

Almost five million men and 5.5 million women are classified as working poor. What does the poster child for America’s working poor look like? It would include young black and hispanic women. About 23 percent of blacks and 33 percent of hispanics are uninsured. One-third of young adults (19-29) are uninsured—the highest rate of any group. Some 63 percent of uninsured adults have a high school diploma or less, and 29.3 percent of people with a high school diploma or less are classified as working poor. Children are greatly impacted—families with children are four times more likely to live in poverty than those without children.

The minimum wage really stifles the poor. The federal minimum wage in the U.S. is $7.25 (unchanged since 2008), but the Obama administration has proposed an increase to $9.00. To meet the federal poverty guideline standards of $23,550 for a family of four, a worker would need a full time job earning $11.32 an hour.

Will the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, make a difference? Beginning on January 1, 2014, Medicare will be extended to those with family incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, unless states choose not to participate. To learn more, check out the infographic below.

From: Bankrate Insurance’s InsuranceQuotes.com

Small business owners may believe their business is safe from data breaches, but this is misguided thinking. The fact that the most common password is “Password1” may be a sign of overconfidence. Consider that 63 percent of 2010 cyber attacks were at companies with 100 employees or fewer, and 95 percent of credit card data breaches are on small business customers, according to Vista’s estimates. According to the Payment Card Industry, Security Standards Council many businesses neglect basic security measures to protect against credit card hacks. Hackers can break into dozens of small businesses or one large business in the same amount of time.

To improve security, businesses should educate employees, identify users, register assets, protect data, unify activity logs, and visualize events. Were you aware that small businesses are so vulnerable to data breaches? Please share in the comments, and check out the infographic below presented by MerchantWarehouse.

Brought to you by Merchant Warehouse

The radar speed gun invented by Bryce K. Brown of Decatur Electronics in March 1954, and was first used in Chicago, Illinois in April 1954. Here’s man’s effort to combat machines—radar detectors have been helping heavy footed drivers avoid speeding tickets since the 1970s. Illegal detectors take an active role in eluding police. They have their own radio transmitter that emits a jamming signal. The signal replicates the original signal from the police radar gun and mixes it with additional radio noise, creating a confusing echo signal.

Radar detector is completely illegal in Virginia and Washington, DC. Use of a radio jammer could lead to felony charges, fines, and jail time. Police officers use Spectre ELITE to detect hundreds of radar detector models. What are the best detectors then for speeders? To learn the answer, check out the infographic below.

Presented by TopCriminalJusticeDegrees.org.

Propaganda is the spreading of ideas, information or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person. Modern propaganda began in the 17th century with a special division of the Catholic Church to connote the systematic spread of religious ideas and fight Protestantism.

In World War I, all major belligerent governments began using propaganda to mobilize populations for war, weaken enemy moral, and win over audiences in neutral countries.

In World War II, Adolf Hitler infamously used propaganda to pit his followers against all Jews and many different populations of peoples, leading to the extermination of over 6 million people. However, Hitler wasn’t the only one using publications to drive the war effort. Theodor Seuss Geisel and Walt Disney both created wartime propaganda support the war effort and degrade the Nazis and Japanese. Seuss wrote children’s books to convey social messages and fight against racism and anti-semitism while Disney employed classic characters to show the superiority of the American way of life.

In this infographic, WordFocus looks at propaganda of the past and of today, examining its use in the Middle East and North Korea.

Among the best jobs for a college grad in 2013 include software developer, accountant/auditor, market research analyst, computer systems analyst, HR specialist, and network/computer systems administrator. The five highest paying majors for a college grad in 2013 include computer engineering, chemical engineering, computer science, aerospace, and mechanical engineering. Of course, it’s all about location, location, location! The best cities for new college graduates in 2013 include Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, and Houston. Not surprisingly, grads find New York to be the most attractive landing spot. College grads are looking for jobs that offer personal growth opportunities, security, and friendly co-workers. Annual salary increases, tuition reimbursement, 100 percent employer-paid medical insurance, and dental insurance certainly don’t hurt!

To learn more about the Class of 2013, check out the infographic below presented by SpareFoot.

StartApp took a look at top app developers on the Google Play Store to find out what sets their apps apart from the rest. Two important discoveries were made: incorporating social features within apps add significant value and playing live with real people ensures a diverse experience. One of the popular apps today is Blood Brothers, a dark fantasy game about a hero turned vampire. The game has more than seven million users and is the top mobile game in 27 countries. The game has a popular “social trading” feature. Another incredibly popular mobile game is Words With Friends, a word game that is played against other users. The game boasted 7.5 billion minutes of playtime in December 2012. Players use the game to feel more connected with friends and family.

Other popular mobile games include Minecraft, Dragonplay Poker, and Candy Crush Saga. To learn more about what sets these apps apart from the crowd, check out the infographic below!

Then, there are our giant houses.  This infographic shows us the various ways in which our “McMansions” are killing us.  Larger homes use more energy; they allow us to distance ourselves from our families; they are a huge strain on our finances, which only causes us to run even harder in the rat race.  Compared to the 1950s, today’s American adult works harder, worries more about diet, yet consumes more calories, and gets less sleep. Many people are starting to believe that smaller homes simplify our lives in more ways that we might imagine.  Perhaps it’s time to change our cultural tagline.

Therefore, regardless of our popularity, our love (or lack of love) for learning, our cultural background or our wealth, we have all wanted to skip school or “call in sick.” As adults, school has been replaced by work.  Some of us have our dream jobs, but not everyone is so lucky.  No matter what we do or how much we love it, we’d still like an extra day off now and then.  So, with the help of this infographic by associates-degree-in-nursing.org (and maybe a viewing of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), we now have access to some sure fire ways to get out of school or work! It may be best to keep this from your boss.

Unique, albeit rare, the following disorders really do exist; just ask science.

Fictional zombies may be singularly frightening, but how much more so is the person who believes that he actually is dead? Cotard’s Syndrome, described in 1882, leads the sufferer to think that they are dead and all their organs and blood have been removed. This disorder is signified by a disconnect between two areas of the brain, one that recognizes faces and the other that associates emotion with facial expression. As a side effect, individuals who suffer from Cotard’s Syndrome may not recognize their own face in a mirror.

A mental disorder straight out of North American legends is the Windigo Psychosis. To the Algonquian peoples, the Wendigo was an evil spirit that took ahold of living men and gave them an insatiable taste for human flesh. Thought to originate in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, this disorder was highly integrated into the Algonquian culture.

Check out the infographic below for more bizarre, but very very real mental disorders.

Source: 5 Strangest Mental Disorders

One example is electric resistance heating, which costs $1,000-$5,600 for a 2,000 sq. ft. home. Based on a $200 monthly heating bill, it would take 6-49 months for electric resistance heating to pay for itself. It would take 40-49 months for a steam and hot water radiator to pay for itself—also based on a $200 monthly heating bill. Heat pumps are incredibly efficient as well. Rather than generate heat, heat pumps move heat from the outside to the inside. It can be zoned as used to supplement a pre-existing heating system. A heat pump costs $2,000-$7,000 to install, but these systems can help you save 30-40 percent on energy costs. It would take 15-59 months for a heat pump to pay for itself.

In addition to installing a new heating system, you could use a programmable thermostat, insulate air ducts, and check your ducts for leaks to save money. The average house in Washington State was built in 1977; so many houses have poor attic insulation and other efficiency problems. Don’t let your home have these problems! To learn more excellent ways to conserve energy around your home and save money, check out the infographic below by AAA Heating and Air Conditioning.

The addicted brain becomes hooked—addictive drugs provide a shortcut to the brain’s reward system by flooding the nucleus accumbens with dopamine, overloading it. Once overloaded, however, the brain responds by eliminating dopamine reactors—the drug then has less of an impact on the brain’s reward center. This is called tolerance—users need more to reach the same high. Addictive drugs release 2-10 times the amount of dopamine that natural rewards do, and they do it more quickly and reliably. When compulsion takes over, the results can be ugly. Even after years of abstinence, an addict risks relapse due to the lasting memory formed in their addicted brain. This is a byproduct of conditioned learning.

To learn more about all this and what else happens when compulsion takes over, check out the infographic below.

Image source: www.bestrehabcounselingdegrees.com

So where are we going wrong? Could it be because we don’t pay doctors based on their quality of care? Could it be our out-of-date medical record filing system? As of now, we’re running at 28 percent capacity, while the Netherlands is steady at 98 percent EMR penetration.

As the second highest country in the world for chronic diseases, behind Australia, we have a significantly hard time keeping a full picture of health between doctors about a patient. When it comes to malpractice, those with chronic illnesses have a much higher rate of experiencing it in some form or another.

Wrong side, wrong site, and wrong patient procedures happen on average 40 times weekly, and adverse events like that during medical care contributes to the 180,000 medical death per year. There are just 11,493 deaths by firearm each year, to put it in comparison.

Check out the infographic below to learn more about how are healthcare system is flawed.

Image compliments of MBA in Healthcare Management Degrees

In August 2005, Rihanna released her first single, “Pon de Replay,” which hit No. 2 on the Billboard singles chart. Her first music album, Music of the Sun, was released later that month. In 2008, Barbados—Rihanna’s birthplace—officially named February 21 as “Rihanna Day.” Her songs have been downloaded over 75,000,000 times, combined. In March 2011, she became the youngest black female to be featured on the cover of Vogue. In October of that year, Esquire Magazine named Rihanna the “Sexiest Woman Alive.” What has Rihanna been up to lately? She launched her own fashion line at London Fashion Week in January 2013.

To learn more about Rihanna’s incredible journey to stardom, check out the infographic below by KoyoteSoft.

Addiction, whether built up over a long period of time or short, whether a subconscious need or an impulse impairs and in some cases completely eliminates free will. In human beings, all behaviors are choices, and addiction blurs the line between want and need.

Fourteen million Americans abuse alcohol, two million are addicted to cocaine and there are 1.4 million regular meth users. These infamous addictions usually take precedence over the more overlooked variety, partly because of their extremely destructive nature.

One such overlooked addiction is that of work. While highly glossed over with good intentions and sprinkled with the pride of a job well done, workaholics have an addiction pattern just as any other addiction. The sinister nature of a work addiction is that it is so highly valued to a hard working society, however it leads to distress, strained relationships, and inability to do or enjoy anything other than work.

The bottomline is, all addictions are destructive, recognized and unrecognized alike. And while they may be ignored by society and individuals, that doesn’t mean there’s no hope for recovery. Check out the infographic below presented by bestaddictionscounselingdegrees.com to learn more about addiction.

Image compliments of Best Addictions Counseling Degrees

Another innovative energy source is the Soccket, a portable generator in the form of a size five soccer ball. One Soccket generator outputs six watts of energy. It’s internal mechanism takes the kinetic energy from rolling and converts and stores it as electrical energy. If everyone in Latin America kicked a soccer ball for just an hour a day, they would generate 37.4 megawatts of power—which is enough electricity to power more than 67,000 homes in Latin America for one hour.

To learn more innovative, unconventional sources of energy, check out the infographic below presented by SaveOnEnergy.com.

This infographic from ClickSoftware goes into detail about the prevalence of and continued advancements in the field of artificial intelligence, from Baxter, a robot designed to work on assembly lines, to Siri, everyone’s favorite iPhone assistant. And to those who believe that robots are taking over everyone’s job, consider this: 3-5 million jobs exist thanks to robots that wouldn’t exist otherwise – 300,000 people are already employed in industrial robotics, with 45,000 more jobs to be added by 2018. Still, even with all the advancements in artificial intelligence, we’re still nowhere near being able to simulate a human brain – with 85.9 billion neurons generating 70,000 thoughts per day, it could be 100 years before we see a realistic artificial mind.

How has artificial intelligence changed your life? Check out the rest of this infographic from ClickSoftware and be sure to leave a message in the comments!

About half of school district administrators say their education budgets for technology have decreased in the past three years. So, what’s wrong with Bring Your Own Technology policies? Some major concerns include possible device theft, digital equity, distraction potential, and Internet safety. Teachers also do tend to think that technology has made learning somewhat automatic and that the vast amount of information available on the Internet is simply overwhelming for most students.

It’s unfortunate that low income students seem to have limited access to technology in the classroom. What do you think is the appropriate role of technology in America’s classrooms? Please share in the comments! To learn more, check out the infographic below.

You can count on rural businesses to grow as well—rural areas will see expansion of opportunity as new destination travel experiences focus on local strengths. Farm-to-table movement will continue to open up new market spaces as it relates to restaurants and organic or local food products. It’s also a good bet that big data and mobile technology will transform how people keep their minds active and bodies healthy, driving changes in the way the healthcare industry cares for its patients. A new class of medical technicians and diagnostic tools will enable improved home care to treat people where they are and where they are most comfortable.

What does it all mean for you? These shifts create opportunities for those who enable career shifts. The importance of job security continues to decline. How do you personally feel about the future of industry? Please share in the comments, and check out the infographic by Zurich!

The 1980s was a truly glorious and legendary decade for video game enthusiasts. Developed by Namco and designed by Toru Iwatani, Pac-Man would become one of the most influential video games of all time. Pac-Man fever swept the nation in the 1980s, primarily because it was a game that appealed to both boys and girls as well as adults. The decade also witnessed the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the first successful 8-bit machine. The flagship game of the Nintendo platform is Super Mario Brothers—the game that went on to define “platforming.”

To learn more about the evolution of video games—from 1947 to today—check out the awesome infographic by National Geographic. What is your favorite video game listed in the infographic? Please share in the comments!

So what are some of the things holding back Americans from being eligible to donate? Several factors, including age, weight and travel history limit the ability to donate.  For some people, there’s a ban on ever being able to donate – if you’ve travelled extensively in Europe or one of the over 70 countries where there’s a risk of malaria, if you’ve ever done intravenous drugs, or if you’re a man who has ever been a sexually active with another man.

If you are eligible, however, you could save up to three lives with just one donation of a pint of blood. Fifty percent of Americans are regular donors.

This infographic explores the numbers behind blood donation as well as the truth to who can give.

From: Bankrate Insurance’s InsuranceQuotes.com