<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/49151339.cms" />Did you notice the rotating, red ‘O’ in the <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword>’s logo today? It is Google’s tribute to the recent discovery of <keyword id="6360409" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="NASA">NASA</keyword> scientists—they claim to have found evidences of free-flowing water on <keyword id="47638" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mars">Mars</keyword>, the Red Planet. 
 
This clearly has increased the possibilities of existence on life of the Red Planet; something that we all have been longing to hear. So, to celebrate the good news, Google gave the world a dedicated doodle, which has the Red Planet sipping water. 
 
According to the US space agency, their NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has found the strongest evidence of liquid water flowing intermittently on the present-day Mars. 
 
“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water -- albeit briny -- is flowing today on the surface of Mars.” 
 
Not just this, NASA has also released some interesting images of the Red planet. Take a look! 
 
<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/49151259.cms" /> 
 These dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks called recurring slope lineae flowing downhill on Mars are inferred to have been formed by contemporary <keyword id="730243" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="flowing-water">flowing water</keyword>. Recently, planetary scientists detected hydrated salts on these slopes at Hale crater, corroborating their original hypothesis that the streaks are indeed formed by liquid water. The blue color seen upslope of the dark streaks are thought not to be related to their formation, but instead are from the presence of the mineral pyroxene. The image is produced by draping an orthorectified (Infrared-Red-Blue/Green(IRB)) false color image (ESP_030570_1440) on a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the same site produced by High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (<keyword id="230278" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="University-of-Arizona">University of Arizona</keyword>). 
 
Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona 
 
<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/49151283.cms" /> 
 <keyword id="3079198" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Dark-Narrow-Streaks">Dark narrow streaks</keyword> called recurring slope lineae emanating out of the walls of Garni crater on Mars. The dark streaks here are up to few hundred meters in length. They are hypothesized to be formed by flow of briny liquid water on Mars. The image is produced by draping an orthorectified (RED) image (ESP_031059_1685) on a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the same site produced by High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (University of Arizona). 
 
Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona 
 
Here is an animation that we found on NASA website. It simulates a fly-around look at one of the places on Mars where dark streaks advance down slopes during warm seasons, possibly involving liquid water. This site is within Hale Crater. The streaks are roughly the length of a football field. 
 
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="764" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MDb3UZPoTpc" width="985"></iframe>

Watch these amazing pictures of Mars showing traces of water!

2024 is the year of the incredible shrinking China.The country's growth has been treated like an inevitability for decades. Everything was getting bigger — its cultural influence, geopolitical ambition, population — and seemed poised to continue until the world was remade in China's image. The foundation for this inexorable rise was its booming economy, which allowed Beijing to throw its might around in other areas. But now China's economy is withering, and the future Beijing imagined is being cut down to size along with it.The clearest sign of this diminishment is China's worsening deflation problem. While Americans are worried about inflation, or prices rising too fast, policymakers in Beijing are fretting because prices are falling. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-deflation-debt-property-market-default-consumption-growth-morgan-stanley-2023-12">consumer price index has declined</a> for the past three months, the longest deflationary streak since 2009. In the race for global economic supremacy, deflation is an albatross around Beijing's neck. It's a sign that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-xi-jinping-economy-real-estate-debt-bust-american-companies-2023-10">Chinese economic model has well and truly run out of juice</a> and that a painful restructuring is required. But beyond the financial problems, the sinking prices are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/business/china-deflation.html">a sign of a deeper malaise</a> gripping the Chinese people."China's deflation is the deflation of hope, the deflation of optimism. It's a psychological funk," Minxin Pei, a professor of political science at Claremont McKenna College, told me.The fallout won't be contained to China's shores. Because the country's growth sent money stampeding around the globe over the past few decades, its contractions are creating a seesaw effect in global markets. The foreign investors who helped to power China's rise are running to avoid catching the funk on their balance sheets, and governments the world over are starting to question the narrative of China, the dauphin. What Beijing does — or fails to do — to fight this malaise will determine the course of humanity for decades to come.<h2>Flirting with disaster</h2>It may seem counterintuitive, especially given the Western experience of the past few years, but deflation is in many ways scarier than inflation. Inflation occurs when there's too much demand for too few products — people want to buy things, but there simply isn't enough stuff to go around. By contrast, deflation happens when there are plenty of goods and services available but not enough demand. Businesses are then forced to slash prices to entice consumers to come out and spend. Every economy sees recessions or downturns — periods of declining demand and sinking confidence that force companies to put their wares on sale — but sustained deflation is what happens when those maladies make themselves at home and decide to stay.China's deflation worries started in earnest in the summer. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-economy-recession-inflation-deflation-xi-jinping-stimulus-cpi-ppi-2023-8">Consumer prices contracted</a> 0.3% in July compared with the same month a year before — something that hadn't happened since the depths of the pandemic. While other advanced economies were taking off too fast, China was showing signs that it might be getting stuck. Prices seemed to stabilize in August — until <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/china-pork-prices-have-fallen-dragging-country-into-deflation-2023-8">pork prices started to decline dramatically</a>, pushing down the aggregate price index in October, November, and December. There was some hope for policymakers, though, since much of the deflation was driven by pork prices, which are extremely volatile in China. But recent data shows that core inflation, which excludes more volatile categories such as food and energy, is similarly anemic, rising just 0.6% year over year in December. <blockquote class="pullquote-wrapper pullquote-right"> <q class="pullquote-quotation">I think it is unrealistic to believe that deflationary pressure will disappear when there is still so much pressure on property prices and consumers are in savings mode</q> <cite class="pullquote-source">Charlene Chu, senior analyst at Autonomous Research</cite> </blockquote> Charlene Chu, a director and senior analyst at Autonomous Research, said the major question for Beijing was whether the price declines would continue into 2024 or whether the country could reignite some demand. She wasn't hopeful for the latter."I lean toward deflationary pressures continuing to build, but the data continuing to go back and forth through the year," Chu told me via email.China's primary problem, though, is debt, particularly in the real-estate sector, which makes up 25% to 35% of the country's GDP. Years of overbuilding — by about double the population, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-vacant-homes-3-billion-people-housing-crisis-ex-official-2023-9">some estimates</a> — and slowing population growth caused <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-xi-jinping-economy-real-estate-debt-bust-american-companies-2023-10">prices to collapse</a>. The real-estate trouble has ravaged the balance sheets of Chinese households — many of which have sunk a massive proportion of their savings into property — and cast a pall on the rest of the economy."Chinese people have 70% of assets in housing, so you can imagine the effect on confidence," Wei Yao, the chief economist at Société Générale, told me. "This is the factor why this deflation could be long-lasting."Seeing their investments tank has led many people to stop spending. Fifteen years ago, Wall Street assumed that the Chinese consumer would ultimately become the dictator of the global economy. Now they're in hiding. Even as the country emerged from the deep freeze of its "Zero COVID" policy, retail sales growth was disappointing compared with some analysts' projections."I think it is unrealistic to believe that deflationary pressure will disappear when there is still so much pressure on property prices and consumers are in savings mode," Chu said.<h2>Now I'm trapped</h2>In 2002, Ben Bernanke, who went on the chair the Federal Reserve, gave a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/BOARDDOCS/Speeches/2002/20021121/default.htm">seminal speech</a> about how to combat deflation. As an economic historian, he spent his academic career studying the Great Depression — the mother of all deflationary events — and based on his research, he had come to a few conclusions. I'll give you a few that are relevant to China's current situation:<ol><li>Deflationary events are rare, but even moderate deflation — "a decline in consumer prices of about 1% per year," as Bernanke put it — can zap growth out of an economy for years.</li><li>In a deflationary economy, debt becomes more onerous to pay back because money is scarcer, a situation known as "debt deflation."</li><li>The "prevention of deflation is preferable to having to cure it."<div type="image" title="Xi Jinping" height="1359" width="2000" msid="107030582" hostid="261"></div></li></ol>Japan is a more-recent example of the deflation trap. Japan is maybe, just maybe, getting out of a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-economy-japanification-financial-markets-japan-jpmorgan-deflation-property-2023-8">25-year dance</a> with the deflation demon. After decades of supercharged growth, the country's economy collapsed in the 1990s because of heavy debt and an aging population. Together, those forces pushed the country into deflation, kept wages suppressed, and dampened consumer spending. Sound familiar?What we learned from Japan's years of stagnation is that once deflation sets in, the only way out is through a painful restructuring of debt. Société Générale's Yao told me that if Beijing quickly embarked on such an anti-debt campaign, it could prevent the funk from setting in. The problem is we have yet to see evidence that the Chinese Communist Party is willing to do that.<h2>Fire? What fire?</h2>Of course, if the Chinese Communist Party asked Bernanke what to do about deflation, he'd probably tell them to take dramatic action yesterday. Spray the money gun, start dropping cash from helicopters, get people spending again. Deflation can only be slayed by boosting demand. But the CCP's unwillingness to directly help Chinese households, even in the depth of the COVID-19 crisis, makes this kind of support unlikely."China gave no fiscal support during the pandemic," Yao reminded me during our talk. "Every other large economy gave some kind of stimulus."Sure, Beijing has taken measures over the past year to loosen financial conditions <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/debt-laden-chinas-local-governments-scramble-rescue-small-banks-with-21-bln-2023-11-28/">for banks and state-owned businesses</a>. It has also <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-economy-key-interest-rate-deepest-cut-since-2020-july-2023-8">cut interest rates</a> a little bit and given a $140 billion lifeline to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-economy-crisis-debt-deflation-beijing-fines-taxes-health-insurance-2023-9">struggling local governments</a>. But wonky supply-side mechanisms take time to make their way into the lives of normal people and spur demand — if it happens at all. At best, they can keep deflation from taking hold, but they can't turn it around to growth."Any true acceleration next year will require either a major global upside surprise or more active government policy," analysts at China Beige Book, a surveyor of the Chinese economy, said in a recent note to clients.It's not as if the CCP is in the dark about the economy's struggles. China's leader, Xi Jinping, even made mention of the reality that Chinese people were suffering financially during his New Year's speech — a first for him. And while the party's apparatchiks may seem stoic as they announce that China's GDP growth is meeting expectations, their softer tone and more aggressive courting of international business belies their concern. The question is, if Beijing knows how bad things are getting, why aren't they doing more?Analysts are split on why there's been no fiscal support to households. In a <a target="_blank" href="https://rhg.com/research/the-myth-of-chinas-fiscal-space/">research note</a> published in August, Logan Wright, an analyst at Rhodium Group, argued that China's ability to deliver fiscal stimulus was greatly overestimated. Beijing's levers "are far more impaired than commonly understood," Wright told me in a recent phone interview. "The problem is that China doesn't collect much tax outside of its investment-led growth model," he added. Up to its eyeballs in debt obligations and without a robust fundraising mechanism, Beijing doesn't have the cash bazooka it once did. <blockquote class="pullquote-wrapper pullquote-breakout"> <q class="pullquote-quotation">The question is, if Beijing knows how bad things are getting, why aren't they doing more?</q> </blockquote> But there's another, perhaps bleaker, possibility. It's not that Beijing can't deliver stimulus, it's that it simply won't do it. Xi doesn't believe in direct cash payments to people. And now, since all of China is run by a one-man band, that's all that matters."I reached the conclusion that there is a bit of ideology," Yao told me. "In a sense, Xi Jinping wants to develop his own economic order. He's trying to avoid making the same mistake as the West, which is wasting money and spending things that don't generate long-term returns. In that perspective, sending checks to households doesn't generate long-term returns."Maybe it's a little of both. There have been times in the history of the Chinese Communist Party when different factions — reform vs. anti-reform — had the space to debate and change the government's course on policy. In Xi's China, that space is gone, shrunk into whatever can fit in the palm of his hand.<h2>It's not just the economy</h2>Under Xi, all kinds of spaces in China have gotten smaller. (OK, it's not his fault that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-is-china-population-falling-economy-deflation-evergrande-xi-jinping-2024-1">population is shrinking</a>.) But his government has led to the narrowing of any space beyond the reach of the CCP. That includes the arts and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-china-xi-jinping-critic-tsinghua-house-arrest-internet-cut-2020-2">intellectual life</a>, a variety of forms of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-censors-quietly-deleting-wechat-accounts-run-by-lgbt-groups-2021-7">individual expression</a>, and private business. China before Xi was a place learning to handle a plurality of voices — as long as they weren't brazenly attacking the country. China during Xi is a place where people online speak in code to express even their minor dissatisfaction, only to watch <a target="_blank" href="https://icsin.org/blogs/2023/10/10/internet-censorship-in-china-the-struggle-to-swat-flies-away-2/">CCP censors rub their words away</a>."Chinese people have to shrink their ambitions," Claremont's Pei told me. "People in the government should have their ambitions scaled dramatically."This ideological shrinking is taking many forms: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-punished-over-600000-officials-amid-xis-corruption-clampdown-2022-1">Beijing's nominally anti-corruption drive</a> is back in full swing, ensnaring <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-sacked-defense-minister-without-explanation-months-after-disappearance-2023-10">officials from all over the government</a> who strayed from the Xi line. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-ma-other-chinese-businessmen-disappeared-public-life-2021-1">Billionaire businesspeople are on notice</a> that their <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/list-execs-in-the-cross-hairs-of-the-chinese-government-2023-10">wealth will no longer protect them</a> from the CCP's harsh gaze. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-economy-foreign-investment-deficit-beijing-xi-jinping-zero-covid-2023-11">Foreign investors are running</a> for the hills. Even China's flagship One Belt One Road infrastructure loan program has been <a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/china-belt-road-initiative-a4b08290cf94e4f2dffe368a013c5129">pared down</a>. "They're not bestriding the world anymore," one former US diplomat posted in East Asia told me.This doesn't necessarily mean China poses no adversarial challenge to the US. It just means Beijing is prioritizing where it invests in that competition. Xi will not back off from investing in the military because reunification with Taiwan remains his paramount goal. The central government will continue to invest in technology and in advancing industries where it thinks it can press any first-mover advantages. Think: electric cars, batteries, and solar panels."We don't think the US faces a growth challenge from China anymore at this stage," Rhodium Group's Wright said. "The concern from the US and Europe are the spillovers from excess capacity." In other words, China will pick its fights more selectively and defend its economic advantages more fiercely. A world built larger through global financial connections will disconnect and disperse into smaller nodes.Do not expect a shrinking China to be a shrinking violet. Outside loaning money, magnanimity has never been Beijing's strong suit. The slights that smarted when it was a growing superpower will only hurt more in shrunken stature. Xi will never let go of saving face. That's the nature of a one-man reign.<hr /><a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/linette-lopez">Linette Lopez</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider.

China's rapidly dwindling future will shape the world for decades to come

<ul class="summary-list"><li>President <keyword id="99719" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="joe-biden" source="Orion">Joe Biden</keyword> is struggling to implement his agenda amid a string of recent setbacks.</li><li>The latest was on Thursday, Biden's bid to defend voting rights and implement vaccine mandates suffered blows.</li></ul>President Joe Biden appears to be on a losing streak as he approaches the first anniversary of his inauguration.In recent months his key domestic bills have stalled in Congress, COVID-19 cases have surged again, and <keyword id="11894140" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="inflation" source="Orion">inflation</keyword> has soared — and his <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10396013/Bidens-approval-crashes-33-Americans-disapprove-dire-poll.html">approval ratings are falling</a>.<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10396013/Bidens-approval-crashes-33-Americans-disapprove-dire-poll.html"></a>The latest blow to his agenda came on Thursday, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sinema-throws-cold-water-on-lowering-senate-filibuster-threshold-2022-1?r=US&amp;IR=T">when Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona said she would not back a reform to the Senate's filibuster rule</a> — possibly ending Biden's chances of passing a bill to defend voting rights.Biden has spent significant political capital in seeking to push through voting-rights legislation, which he has characterised as a response to a bid by GOP-controlled state legislatures to subvert free elections. On Tuesday, he delivered an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-voting-rights-speech-video-atlanta-senate-filibuster-2022-1">impassioned speech</a> in support of voting rights, and on Thursday, he personally lobbied senators to back filibuster reform on Capitol Hill.Yet it was not enough to sway neither Sinema nor Joe Manchin, two centrist Democrats in his party."I hope we can get this done. The honest to God answer is: I don't know whether we can get this done," Biden said after Sinema's announcement, in a starkly honest assessment of the prospects of the bill. The situation mirrors the fate of Biden's other core domestic bill — the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-manchin-biden-administration-build-back-better-retaliated-strong-2021-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">$2 trillion Build Back Better social care and climate change bill, which has stalled amid</a> opposition from Manchin.Also on Thursday, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-biden-vaccine-testing-mandate-covid-19-2022-1">ruled against the Biden administration's push to mandate vaccines</a> for employees of large companies.The decision was met with jubilation by Republicans, with former President Donald Trump saying in a statement: "Biden promised to shut down the virus, not the economy but he has failed miserably on both ... We are proud of the Supreme Court for not backing down. No mandates!"With the Omicron variant surging, hospitals struggling to cope with a new influx of patients, and US vaccination rates lagging behind those of other nations, the pandemic that Biden had pledged to get a grip on is far from over. Biden has already drawn criticism over his handling of the pandemic not just from Republicans who have rallied around opposition to his public-health mandates, but also from a group of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/06/us/politics/former-biden-advisers-pandemic-strategy.html">experts who had advised Biden to reform</a> his faltering COVID-19 strategy.And there is more bad news on the economy, with US inflation reaching a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t07.htm">near-40-year high</a>, and supply-chain problems stalling deliveries and leading to empty shelves in grocery stores.<h2>'Our prospects for 2022 dim if not dark'</h2>Colin Strother, a Democratic operative who has worked on House campaigns in Texas, offered a withering assessment of the situation <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/14/dems-2022-build-back-better-527096">in comments to Politico</a>. The Democratic Party in Washington DC, had "underwhelmed, underachieved and undersold" its successes so far, he said. "It has left our opponents emboldened, or supporters dejected and our prospects for 2022 dim if not dark. So we have a lot of work to do to dig out of this … We better have some golden fuckin' shovels."Meanwhile, the Biden administration has been keen to broadcast its success amid the recent string of failures. At a Thursday press conference, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stressed the administration's successes in passing November's infrastructure bill — one of the biggest such bills ever passed — a strong jobs market, and slashing childhood poverty by 40%. Biden is also still seeking to haggle out a compromise <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-talks-joe-manchin-believes-build-back-better-will-pass-2021-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">Build Back Better bill with Manchin, though the senator has remained intransigent in his opposition.</a> But with Democrats <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/13/politics/joe-biden-democrats-inflation-midterm-elections/index.html">increasingly</a> <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/02/1069739350/week-in-politics-congressional-democrats-fear-losing-majority-in-midterms">concerned</a> about their party's prospects in the 2022 midterms, when they believe they could lose their control of Congress to the Republicans, Biden's window for turning things around is narrowing.

Biden's agenda is struggling after a string of failures brought by Senate gridlock and a faltering COVID-19 strategy

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e307a0124306a6dcc018ed2-1212/screen shot 2020-01-28 at 11036 pm.png" alt="the mandalorian and the witcher" />Disney Plus/Netflix"The Mandalorian" (left) and "The Witcher" (right)<ul class="summary-list"><li>Data company Parrot Analytics provided Business Insider a report that looked at nine original TV shows that have recently been among the company's most in-demand streaming originals, and broke down what they have in common.</li><li>The majority of them are sci-fi or fantasy shows with adventure elements and based on pre-existing material.</li><li>Most of them were also either in their first season or revivals of a show that had been canceled at another network, such as "The Witcher" and "The Expanse."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Netflix said last week that the first season of its hit fantasy series, "The Witcher," was on track to become <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/witcher-on-track-to-have-netflix-biggest-first-season-2020-1">its biggest streaming premiere ever</a>, with 76 million households watching in its first four weeks of release. That 76 million number sounds huge, but many media pundits have pointed out that Netflix's viewership metrics are not vetted by a third party and are hard to compare across services.But there are other ways to back up just how popular "The Witcher" is and compare it to other blockbuster streaming shows.One way is by looking at demand data from <a href="https://www.parrotanalytics.com/">Parrot Analytics,</a> which has provided Business Insider with a weekly list of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-netflix-streaming-shows-this-week-narcos-mandalorian-2020-1">most "in-demand" streaming originals in the US</a> for over a year. The company measures demand expressions, its globally standardized TV measurement unit that reflects a show's desire, engagement, and viewership, weighted by importance. "The Witcher" <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-streaming-battle-between-witcher-and-mandalorian-explained-2020-1">has been competing with</a> Disney Plus' "Star Wars" series, "The Mandalorian," for the top spot in recent weeks. The latter <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-mandalorian-beats-stranger-things-as-top-streaming-show-us-2019-11">broke the 21-week streak of Netflix's "Stranger Things"</a> when it debuted in November.<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5de12e7afd9db237e624ce59-1592/screen shot 2019-11-29 at 90859 am.png" alt="the witcher" />Netflix"The Witcher"Those are just a few examples of the shows that are regulars in the audience-demand rankings. Others include Netflix's "Lucifer" revival and DC Universe's superhero series, "Titans."Is there anything that these streaming TV mega-hits have in common?In a new analysis for Business Insider, Parrot Analytics dove into what it calls the "overlapping content elements" of nine original streaming shows that have recently been appearing on its weekly US lists, to determine what draws audiences to them.The shows include:<ul><li>"The Mandalorian" (Disney Plus)</li><li>"The Witcher" (Netflix)</li><li>"You" (Netflix)</li><li>"Stranger Things" (Netflix)</li><li>"Titans" (DC Universe)</li><li>"The Expanse" (Amazon Prime Video)</li><li>"The Crown" (Netflix)</li><li>"Lucifer" (Netflix)</li><li>"Harley Quinn" (DC Universe)</li></ul>As more services jump into the streaming war, including WarnerMedia's HBO Max and NBCUniversal's Peacock this spring, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/streaming-comparison-netflix-disney-plus-hulu-prime-video-2020-1">battle for content between media companies will intensify</a>. And the question of what type of shows can break through the noise in the crowded streaming TV landscape will be top of mind for media execs.Here are the main takeaways from Parrot Analytics.<h2>Audiences flock to adventure shows with sci-fi/fantasy elements</h2>Seven of the nine titles Parrot Analytics looked at fall into the sci-fi or fantasy genre ("The Crown" and "You" being the exceptions). And seven of the titles feature themes of adventure and discovery ("The Crown" and "Lucifer" being the exceptions). These elements are often driven by source material, which also bring existing fan bases. "The Witcher" and "The Expanse," for instance, are based on books. "The Mandalorian" is inspired by the "Star Wars" franchise. "Titans" and "Harley Quinn" are based on comic books. <img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5dfd22a2855cc2210a338204-2304/screen shot 2019-12-20 at 23421 pm.png" alt="the mandalorian" />Disney Plus"The Mandalorian""When you think about the demand expression number, what's going into that is not just the consumption, but also the social aspect of it and the research aspect of it," Courtney Williams, Parrot Analytics' head of partnerships, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-streaming-battle-between-witcher-and-mandalorian-explained-2020-1">told Business Insider.</a>Other examples that weren't included in this report, but regularly appeared in Parrot Analytics' demand rankings when they premiered and fall into the above genres, include Prime Video's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-boys-showrunner-eric-kripke-interview-trump-me-too-amazon-2019-7">mature superhero series "The Boys,"</a> based on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-the-boys-comic-book-that-inspired-amazons-series-2019-8">the comic of the same name</a>; Netflix's hit horror anthology series, "The Haunting of Hill House"; and Netflix's "Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance."<h2>New shows and revived shows alike are in high demand</h2>A third of the shows included in the report are season one debuts: "Harley Quinn," "The Mandalorian," and "The Witcher." This is also common among other shows that have been popular in the demand rankings in the past, such as the aforementioned "Boys," "Haunting of Hill House," and "Dark Crystal."A TV show doesn't necessarily need to have been streaming for multiple seasons to be in high demand. Netflix appears to be shaping its TV strategy on this. Deadline reported last year that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-favors-tv-shows-with-10-episode-seasons-report-2019-3">Netflix doesn't see the value in long-running shows</a>, instead favoring short-lived series because viewers can easily jump in and binge-watch them.On the flip side, of the remaining six shows included in the report, half are canceled shows revived at a new network: "The Expanse" (previously on Syfy), "You" (previously on Lifetime), and "Lucifer" (previously on Fox).A streamer giving a show a new life can expand its audience - especially outside the US - as well as bringing in old fans. For instance, "The Expanse" cast <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-expanse-cast-season-4-saved-by-amazon-prime-video-2019-12">has championed Amazon</a> for introducing the show to a global audience.<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5e0667f7855cc2463b5592f3-1210/screen shot 2019-12-27 at 32156 pm.png" alt="titans" />DC Universe"Titans"<h2>The platforms for these shows differ, from niche to general interest</h2>The series included in this report run on services that range from the niche (DC Universe) to the general interest (Netflix), which shows that there isn't one type of audience that can make a streaming TV show a hit.Here's an audience breakdown from Parrot Analytics:<ul><li>"The Mandalorian" and "Harley Quinn" have hyper-focused audiences, with viewers only watching up to one other show on average.</li><li>The audiences for "The Expanse" and "Titans" have a "narrow-taste preference," meaning they watch between two and five other shows on average. </li><li>The audiences for the remaining five shows, which are all Netflix originals, have a "diverse-taste preference," meaning they watch at least 20 other titles on average.</li></ul><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-market-share-of-global-streaming-subscribers-dropping-ampere-2020-1">Netflix is still growing wildly, but its market share has fallen to an estimated 19% as new competitors emerge</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/streaming-comparison-netflix-disney-plus-hulu-prime-video-2020-1">We compared what the 6 major streaming TV services offer, from Netflix to Disney Plus to Hulu</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-streaming-battle-between-witcher-and-mandalorian-explained-2020-1">The battle between Netflix's 'The Witcher' and Disney Plus' 'The Mandalorian' previews what's to come in the streaming war</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/witcher-passed-mandalorian-as-biggest-tv-show-in-the-world-2019-12">Netflix's 'The Witcher' dethroned 'The Mandalorian' as the biggest TV series in the world</a></li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/generation-z?IR=T&amp;itm_source=businessinsider&amp;itm_medium=ctgr_bii&amp;itm_term=ctgr_hub&amp;itm_content=netflix&amp;itm_campaign=generation-z-2"><img src="https://static.businessinsider.com/image/5dcb04467eece574841c1922" alt="Generation Z from Business Insider Intelligence" style="width: 100% !important" /></a> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hydrogen-fuel-cell-cars-teslas-biggest-threat-2019-12">Why hydrogen cars will be Tesla's biggest threat</a></h3> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/WDmK4m5e-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;"></iframe>

What streaming TV's biggest hits have in common, from Netflix's 'The Witcher' to DC Universe's 'Titans'

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="John Brady" title_caption="Io compared to North America." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2c503eab8ea267b856a0e-960/size-of-io.jpg"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2c503eab8ea267b856a0e-950-1107/size-of-io.jpg" alt="Size of Io" border="0" /></a><a href="http://astronomycentral.co.uk/astronomy-the-size-of-stuff/">John Brady</a>Io compared to North America.</div></div></div>When compared to giant, gaseous planets like Jupiter and Saturn, our Earth is tiny. But that doesn't mean we have to feel small all of the time, especially compared to the many moons throughout our solar system.The picture above is of the fourth largest moon in the solar system, Io, placed on top of North America for scale. Io is the closest moon to Jupiter and is one of the most inhospitable places imaginable. Earth's moon, by comparison, is the fifth-largest moon and is nearly the same size as Io. Here's a chart of Earth and the largest moons in our solar system indicating how our planet an moon compare in size.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Originally by NASA by Bricktop and edited by Deuar, KFP, TotoBaggins" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e31becad04406ece4466-960/moons_of_solar_system_v7.jpg"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e31becad04406ece4466-1200-858/moons_of_solar_system_v7.jpg" alt="moons of solar system" border="0" /></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_satellites#mediaviewer/File:Moons_of_solar_system_v7.jpg">Originally by NASA by Bricktop and edited by Deuar, KFP, TotoBaggins</a></div></div></div>The moon Io might look like a golden sphere, or as John Brady for <a href="http://astronomycentral.co.uk/astronomy-the-size-of-stuff/">Astronomy Central</a> describes it as resembling a cheese pizza, but this moon actually gets its yellow-hue from the chemical element, sulfur.Io is the most geologically active object in our solar system and also the driest. Dotting its surface are more than 400 active volcanoes, some of which erupt plumes of sulfur and sulfur dioxide - a toxic gas that has a pungent, rotten odor - so high that they would engulf the International Space Station. But when compared to its parent planet, Jupiter, this sprightly moon looks minuscule and harmless.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="NASA/JPL/University of Arizona" title_caption="Io orbiting Jupiter." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e43f69beddad470e8372-960/pia02879.jpg"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e43f69beddad470e8372-999-959/pia02879.jpg" alt="Io and Jupiter" border="0" /></a><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02879">NASA/JPL/University of Arizona</a>Io orbiting Jupiter.</div></div></div>The image of Io that <a href="https://twitter.com/Betelgeuse10">John Brady</a> used to make the comparison picture up top, is a true-color image taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in 1999. The original is shown below. All of the dark pockmarks across the surface are erupting volcanoes. One of Io's famous volcanoes, located just left of center, is Prometheus, which the International Astronomical Union named after the Greek fire god the same year it was discovered in 1979.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="NASA / JPL / University of Arizona" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e6656da8111c448b456b-960/io_highest_resolution_true_color.jpg"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e6656da8111c448b456b-1200-1200/io_highest_resolution_true_color.jpg" alt="Io" border="0" /></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_%28moon%29#mediaviewer/File:Io_highest_resolution_true_color.jpg">NASA / JPL / University of Arizona</a></div></div></div>Over the years, this volcano's lava has flowed and cooled 62 miles away from the eruption site. If you look closely, you can see a lighter-yellow circle surrounding the volcano and a red streak to the right.The light yellow circle is comprised of sulfur dioxide deposits from the volcano while the red is from red sulfur. At room temperatures, sulfur is yellow, but when you heat it to above 392 degrees Fahrenheit, it turns a deep red and adopts a molten consistency. Here's an up-close image of Prometheus taken by Galileo.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Jason Perry" title_caption="The pit of the volcano, called Prometheus Patera, is the kidney-shaped dark region at upper right; the magma source vent is situated in the narrow " neck="" directly="" below="" it.="" From="" the="" latter="" western="" flow="" field="" stretches="" to="" left="" with="" most="" of="" SO2="" plumes="" being="" erupted="" from="" margins="" at="" end.="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e2be6bb3f79674f64603-960/27ispromth02.jpg"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e2be6bb3f79674f64603-1200-667/27ispromth02.jpg" alt="Prometheus" border="0" /></a><a href="http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~perry/io_images/i27.htm">NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Jason Perry</a>The pit of the volcano, called Prometheus Patera, is the kidney-shaped dark region at upper right; the magma source vent is situated in the narrow "neck" directly below it. From the latter, the western flow field stretches to the left, with most of the SO2 plumes being erupted from the flow margins at the left end.</div></div></div>

This crazy Image reveals what one of Jupiter's moons looks like compared to Earth

<a title_source="John Brady" title_caption="Io compared to North America." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2c503eab8ea267b856a0e-960/size-of-io.jpg"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2c503eab8ea267b856a0e-950-1107/size-of-io.jpg" border="0" alt="Size of Io" /></a><a href="http://astronomycentral.co.uk/astronomy-the-size-of-stuff/">John Brady</a>Io compared to North America.When compared to giant, gaseous planets like Jupiter and Saturn, our Earth is tiny. But that doesn't mean we have to feel small all of the time, especially compared to the many moons throughout our solar system.
The picture above is of the fourth largest moon in the solar system, Io, placed on top of North America for scale. Io is the closest moon to Jupiter and is one of the most inhospitable places imaginable. Earth's moon, by comparison, is the fifth-largest moon and is nearly the same size as Io. Here's a chart of Earth and the largest moons in our solar system indicating how our planet an moon compare in size.
<a title_source="Originally by NASA by Bricktop and edited by Deuar, KFP, TotoBaggins" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e31becad04406ece4466-960/moons_of_solar_system_v7.jpg"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e31becad04406ece4466-1200-858/moons_of_solar_system_v7.jpg" border="0" alt="moons of solar system" /></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_satellites#mediaviewer/File:Moons_of_solar_system_v7.jpg">Originally by NASA by Bricktop and edited by Deuar, KFP, TotoBaggins</a>The moon Io might look like a golden sphere, or as John Brady for <a href="http://astronomycentral.co.uk/astronomy-the-size-of-stuff/">Astronomy Central</a> describes it as a cheese pizza, but this moon actually gets its yellow-hue from the chemical element, sulfur.
Io is the most geologically active object in our solar system and also the driest. Dotting its surface are more than 400 active volcanoes, some of which erupt plumes of sulfur and sulfur dioxide - a toxic gas that has a pungent, rotten odor - so high that they would engulf the International Space Station. But when compared to its parent planet, Jupiter, this spritely moon looks miniscule and harmless.
<a title_source="NASA/JPL/University of Arizona" title_caption="Io orbiting Jupiter." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e43f69beddad470e8372-960/pia02879.jpg"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e43f69beddad470e8372-999-959/pia02879.jpg" border="0" alt="Io and Jupiter" /></a><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02879">NASA/JPL/University of Arizona</a>Io orbiting Jupiter.The image of Io that <a href="https://twitter.com/Betelgeuse10">John Brady</a> used to make the comparison picture up top, is a true-color image taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in 1999. The original is shown below. All of the dark pockmarks across the surface are erupting volcanoes. One of Io's famous volcanoes, located just left of center, is Prometheus, which the International Astronomical Union named after the Greek fire god the same year it was discovered in 1979.
<a title_source="NASA / JPL / University of Arizona" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e6656da8111c448b456b-960/io_highest_resolution_true_color.jpg"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e6656da8111c448b456b-1200-1200/io_highest_resolution_true_color.jpg" border="0" alt="Io" /></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_%28moon%29#mediaviewer/File:Io_highest_resolution_true_color.jpg">NASA / JPL / University of Arizona</a>Over the years, this volcano's lava has flowed and cooled 62 miles away from the eruption site. If you look closely, you can see a lighter-yellow circle surrounding the volcano and a red streak to the right.
The light yellow circle is comprised of sulfur dioxide deposits from the volcano while the red is from red sulfur. At room temperatures, sulfur is yellow, but when you heat it to above 392 degrees Fahrenheit, it turns a deep red and adopts a molten consistency. Here's an up-close image of Prometheus taken by Galileo.
<a title_source="NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Jason Perry" title_caption="The pit of the volcano, called Prometheus Patera, is the kidney-shaped dark region at upper right; the magma source vent is situated in the narrow " neck="" directly="" below="" it.="" From="" the="" latter="" western="" flow="" field="" stretches="" to="" left="" with="" most="" of="" SO2="" plumes="" being="" erupted="" from="" margins="" at="" end.="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e2be6bb3f79674f64603-960/27ispromth02.jpg"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a2e2be6bb3f79674f64603-1200-667/27ispromth02.jpg" border="0" alt="Prometheus" /></a><a href="http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~perry/io_images/i27.htm">NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Jason Perry</a>The pit of the volcano, called Prometheus Patera, is the kidney-shaped dark region at upper right; the magma source vent is situated in the narrow "neck" directly below it. From the latter, the western flow field stretches to the left, with most of the SO2 plumes being erupted from the flow margins at the left end.

Crazy Image Shows What One Of Jupiter's Moons Looks Like Compared To Earth

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/591632d914429326228b4e68-1186/oasis-libya-desert-wikipedia-sfivat.jpg" alt="oasis libya desert wikipedia sfivat palm trees water survival" /><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oasis_in_Libya.jpg">Sfivat/Wikipedia (public domain)</a>The Ubari oasis in the deserts of Libya.<ul><li>Mars used to have oceans, but began drying out about 4.2 billion years ago.</li><li>However, oasis-like pools of water may have sheltered microscopic alien life.</li><li>New maps show shallow pools were common on Mars for hundreds of millions of years.</li></ul>Today Mars is a freeze-dried rock with so little air, you couldn't even gasp if you tried.The scene was much different about 4.5 billion years ago: Water covered about 20% of the planet's surface, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mars-ocean-mega-tsunami-surface-2016-5">400-foot-tall megatsunamis</a> raced across ancient oceans.Alien life might have emerged and thrived on this warm, wet, and dynamic world - that is, until solar storms began to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-mars-lost-water-atmosphere-solar-wind-2015-11">blow away the air and water</a> some 300 million years later.<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/563bb5b5bd86ef775d8bc93e-2400/15-217-master.png" alt="mars solar wind" /><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/15-217-master.png">NASA</a>However, new <a href="https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/sim3359">maps of the planet</a> created by US Geological Survey (USGS) scientists reveal that habitable oases once littered the bottom of Valles Marineris - a canyon system the size of the continental United States - hundreds of millions of years after Mars' oceans evaporated.If groundwater consistently fed these lakes, pools, and puddles, as rock formations hint, it's possible that microbial life took shelter there."There was a huge potential for a habitable environment here, and there's a lot of promise for [microscopic] fossils, perhaps, or some biological signals," <a href="https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/people/chris-okubo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chris Okubo</a>, an astrogeologist at USGS and an author of the new maps, told Business Insider.<h2>The oases of ancient Mars</h2><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/591b2ea11442933b048b5c3d-1146/desert-oasis-canyon-chris-bickham-flickr-ccby2-10836362493d6ba808fa6k.jpg" alt="desert oasis canyon chris bickham flickr ccby2 10836362493_d6ba808fa6_k" /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/107489497@N06/10836362493/">Chris Bickham/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)</a>A desert canyon on Earth that's filled with shallow pools of water.On Earth, the typical oasis is fed by underground sources of water, such as a leaky aquifer.Okubo and other scientists think the process was similar on Mars."[G]roundwater was abundant and occasionally seeped onto the ground surface, forming pools," Okubo said in <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/news/new-usgs-maps-mars-reveal-ancient-oases" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a USGS press release</a>. "These pools would have been habitable for life, just as they are on Earth."<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/591b1024e559f1b35a8b526b-1552/mars-planet-globe-valles-marineris-nasa-labeled.jpg" alt="mars planet globe Valles Marineris nasa labeled" /><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_83.html">NASA</a>Valles Marineris: The "Grand Canyon" of Mars that is the size of the continental United States.Okubo told Business Insider that he first saw signs of these ancient oases in a small part of Valles Marineris.The feature is often called the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_83.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"Grand Canyon" of Mars</a> - but is about four times longer, 20 times wider, and nearly five times deeper than Earth's famous canyon. Okubo had seen thin layers of sediment in the basin that had piled up, one atop another, over about 500 million years.Such layers form when groundwater gurgles to the surface, forming a shallow pool - and a potentially habitable oasis, says Okubo. Over time, grit blows into the water, which responds by pushing more upward to form another pool. More grit then blows in. This cycle repeats itself over eons to form a flat terrain of finely layered sediments.Fast-forward a few billion years, and wind erosion has carved into and exposed these layers for scientists like Okubo to detect from space.Evidence of such shallow pools on Mars isn't new. However, their newly discovered extent should raise some eyebrows, says Okubo.The <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3359/sim3359_pamphlet.pdf">new work</a> by Okubo and his USGS colleagues zoomed out for a wider view of the canyons, yet used incredibly detailed images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera to look for signs of ancient shallow pools. That analysis revealed telltale sediment layers over much of the gigantic canyon's basin.<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/591b142e1442933b048b5af8-2000/mars-martian-surface-terrain-oasis-geology-usgs.jpg" alt="mars martian surface terrain oasis geology usgs" /><a href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/image-east-candor-sulci-area">NASA, via USGS</a>The Candor Sulci area of Valles Marineris.What's more, the maps hint that shallow pools lasted from about 3.5 billion to 3 billion years ago; in an older yet similar blink of a geological eye, life on Earth <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/oldest-fossils-life-hydrothermal-vents-2017-3">may have appeared</a>."We're only seeing the top of the pile," Okubo said. "We don't know what's going on further back in time because we can't see it - it's buried."If these shallow pools existed for at least 700 million years earlier - or when the oceans of Mars began to evaporate - they may have bridged a crucial gap for microbial life on the planet.<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/591b2b8b1442933b048b5c13-1936/mars-rovers-curiosity-mers-pathfinder-nasa.jpg" alt="mars rovers curiosity mers pathfinder nasa" /><a href="http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/press/opportunity/20120117a.html">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a>NASA workers stand next to a scale model of Curiosity rover, which the Mars2020 rover will be modeled after.To find out for certain, Okubo says we'll need to send robots or people to dig into the soil or take readings with ground-penetrating radar."This work argues soundly for a future landing site, whether it's a sample return or a rover," he said. "Anything would be great."NASA now has a legal mandate to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-law-budget-president-trump-2017-3">get people to Mars by 2033</a>, though the first crew of four astronauts may just orbit the world. However, the space agency's Mars 2020 rover is expected to launch in July 2020, meaning it should arrive more than a decade earlier and gather samples for a future return mission.Researchers are now studying possible landing sites for the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-spacecraft-nasa-history-2017-3">nuclear-powered</a> robot. NASA has narrowed the list to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/scientists-shortlist-three-landing-sites-for-mars-2020">three candidates</a>, though none of them within Valles Marineris.<h2>Does Mars still have water?</h2> Scientists today think Mars still has a water table, though one that must be hidden deep below <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-mars-hirise-photos-2016-11">its surface</a>."Although [satellites] in orbit around Mars haven't found any subterranean aquifers, there's a sneaking suspicion we're only seeing the upper kilometer or so, because radar's a challenge," Michael Meyer, a lead scientist at NASA's Astrobiology Institute, told Charles Q. Choi in <a href="https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/water-on-mars-the-story-so-far/">an Oct. 2016 story</a> for the space agency.Over the past decade scientists believed they'd found a smoking gun for water on Mars: dark streaks in sand on the slopes of dry gullies, called "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-is-the-water-on-mars-2015-10">recurring slope lineae</a>" (RSL), which show up around the same time each season.<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/591b2f0114429320008b5cd8-1200/mars.jpg" alt="mars" />Emmanuel OcbazghiRecurring slope lineae on Marian gully.However, closer looks at more than 100 of these RSL sites revealed <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gullies-on-mars-not-formed-by-liquid-water-2016-8">no presence of groundwater</a> or its byproducts. (The water <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-big-mars-mystery-announcement-will-be-about-water-2015-9">might come from</a> salts absorbing a little water in the air, then melting any ice that's slowly built up when the climate temporarily warms up.)That's not to say Mars is bone-dry today, and that astronauts won't be able to recover water through drilling or other means, like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-mars-expatriation-spacex-2016-11">burning methane captured from Martian air</a> with hydrogen fuel.The planet's apparent desolation also doesn't make scientists like Okubo give up hope: Detecting fossils that are even billions of years old would verify the existence of extraterrestrial life."I wouldn't be surprised. I suspect there to be life elsewhere in the universe," Okubo said. "This would be an exciting finding, but it wouldn't change my perspective. I don't think life as we know it on Earth is a singular event."<h3>More from Dave Mosher:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-mole-missile-nukes-science-debunked-2017-5" rel="nofollow">A physicist says blowing up nuclear weapons in the ocean to trigger tsunamis 'would be completely stupid'</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/shark-attack-death-statistics-2017-5" rel="nofollow">Here's how often Americans really die from shark attacks</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rover-prototype-seadek-2017-5" rel="nofollow">NASA has been quietly working on a Mars rover concept that looks like a Batmobile</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tunnel-radioactive-waste-caved-hanford-nuclear-state-washington-2017-5" rel="nofollow">A tunnel full of radioactive waste has caved in at one of the most contaminated nuclear sites in the US</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hanford-nuclear-site-tunnel-collapse-2017-5" rel="nofollow">A tunnel full of radioactive waste has caved in at one of the most contaminated nuclear sites in the US</a></li></ul><iframe src="https://gfycat.com/ifr/UnhealthyBreakableKawala" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="100%" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;"></iframe> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-warning-space-aliens-seti-2016-12">Stephen Hawking warned us about contacting aliens, but this astronomer says it's 'too late'</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

If aliens lived on Mars, they might have lived in oasis-like pools

<img class="float_right" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/52a8c342eab8eaa051a6b872-1200-924/aleppo-classroom-children-bored-yawn.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="aleppo classroom children bored yawn" width="480" />Over the last few weeks, market analysts have been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/baml-the-sp-will-go-to-2000-in-2014-2013-12">offering</a> their 2014 <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/david-woo-us-economy-is-in-strong-position-2013-12">forecasts</a>, giving clients a glimpse into <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldmans-2014-market-themes-2013-11">what strategies</a> will play well in the year ahead.
But in his latest note, <a href="http://www.ustrust.com/ust/pages/index.aspx">U.S. Trust's</a> Joseph Quinlan takes a step back to look at the top 10 lessons of <keyword id="133644" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="2013">2013</keyword>, "since much of what transpired in the past twelve months will spill over into the new year."
It's certainly an easier task than making year-end 2014 calls, but Quinlan does a nice job summing up the past year.
Check it out:
<div class="page" title="Page 1">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<div class="page" title="Page 1">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
Lesson 1: Don't Fight the Fed and Other Central Banks
We hate to start with a cliche´, but if investors have learned anything this past year, it is this: Don't stand in the way of central banks determined and willing to flood the capital markets with liquidity via ultra-low interest rates and unconventional monetary policies. Don't stand on the sidelines either, with easy money from the Fed and others (notably the Bank of Japan) inflating various asset classes as yield-hungry investors moved into riskier asset classes.
For some perspective, the Fed's balance sheet has increased by $1,017 billion since the beginning of the year; since September 2012, or the beginning of QE3, the Fed's balance sheet has increased from 18.7% of GDP to 25.0% of GDP.
Lesson 2: The "Death of Equities" Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
Investors have heard and read a great deal about the "death of equities" over the past few years. Indeed, during the dark days following the market meltdown of early 2009, many market seers spoke of equities in the past tense-toast, too risky, and never coming back. This underlying sentiment has made this market rally among the most unloved in memory. But we learned something in 2013: The death of equities has been greatly exaggerated. To this point and following five years of consecutive outflows, stock funds took in some $134 billion in the first ten months of this year, according to the Investment Company Institute. Strong inflows, in turn, have helped boost the major U.S. indices to all-time highs this year (nominal) and propelled indices higher around the world.
Lesson 3: <keyword id="35147" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="bonds">Bonds</keyword> Are Not Forever
The flip side of rising demand for equities has been declining demand for bonds-this, after investors pumped some $1 trillion into bond funds between 2009 and 2012. Bonds have been on a losing streak since May, following comments from <keyword id="6355253" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Federal-Reserve">Federal Reserve</keyword> chairman Ben Bernanke that the Fed was contemplating easing up on the Fed's $85 billion monthly bond-buying program. Through mid-November, the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index has dropped 1.4%; the index is poised to post its first annual loss since 1999.
Against this backdrop, market participants will likely look back on 2013 as the year that a three-decade bull market in government bonds finally ended. Though the absolute low in yields of 1.39% was actually reached in July of 2012, what really marked the coming shift in interest-rate policy was the savage backup in rates between May and September that followed the Federal Reserve's "tapering talk." Fed tapering combined with accelerating growth in the U.S. economy in 2014 portends higher bond yields. While we expect the backup in yields to be gradual next year, the bull market in bonds is certainly over. The beautiful affair between investors and bonds has ended. Diamonds are forever, but not bonds.
Lesson 4: The U.S. Economy Remains the Most Resilient In the World
For most of the post-crisis period, the chatter has been about the United States in decline, with America's best days, according to the consensus, behind it. For debt-laden America, the jig was up.
Not quite. One of the lessons of 2013 is that the U.S. economy remains among the most dynamic and resilient in the world, with a rebound in housing, a rip-roaring automobile industry, surging exports, and the adoption of numerous game-changing technologies (think 3D printing, robotics, cloud computing)--all emblematic of an economy that never rests, is always reinventing itself, and produces more output than any other economy in the world. The U.S. economy is now in the fifth year of an economic expansion, with growth in 2013 not only tops among most developed nations, but also ahead of many key developing nations (think Brazil).
Lesson 5: The U.S. Energy Revolution Is For Real
Lending a helping hand to America's comeback has been the revolution in the energy patch. Talk of the U.S. becoming energy independent only grew louder in 2013, thanks to figures like the following: In October, U.S. oil production exceeded imports for the first time in eighteen years. Presently, weekly U.S. crude oil production is 17.5% higher than year-ago levels and 56.1% higher than the levels of 2007. Natural gas production is up 27.8% from the levels of 2007 and 1.2% higher than a year ago.
All of the above has manifested itself in declining oil imports and rising exports of petroleum products. The energy bonanza has also buttressed household incomes via lower energy costs, and underpinned the global competitiveness of U.S. industry. Topping it all off, based on the latest projections from the International Energy Agency, U.S. production of natural gas will soon eclipse Russia's, while U.S. oil production is expected to top Saudi Arabia's by 2016.
Lesson 6: There's Life Left In the Old World (Europe and Japan)
Left for dead and relegated to the dustbin of history, Europe and Japan, counter to the consensus, are alive and (somewhat) well. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has shaken up the world's third-largest economy, aided and abetted by the massive money-printing operation of the Bank of Japan. Fiscal reform, a weak yen, and structural reforms (still pending) have jump-started an economy and stock market many investors had all but forgotten and ignored. The economy is expected to expand 2.0% this year, while the Nikkei has soared 48.3% year-to-date, making Japan home to one of the best-performing stock markets of the year.
In Europe, much work remains to be done to fortify and stabilize the euro zone. But the past twelve months have seen credit spreads narrow and unemployment rates peak; nascent signs of economic growth in Europe's periphery have also emerged. The euro zone came out of recession in the second quarter of 2013, a pleasant surprise to investors and euro perma-bears expecting the worst: the breakup of the euro zone. Both Japan and Europe confront a challenging road ahead. But investors learned that there is still life in these aging economies in 2013.
Lesson 7: The Laws of Economic Gravity Apply To China
Yet another lesson of this year: What goes up in the Middle Kingdom, also comes down. Investors could be forgiven for thinking otherwise since the Chinese economy has expanded 10% per annum over the past three decades, a stellar economic run that has lifted millions out of poverty and boosted growth around the globe, notably among the world's primary commodity producers.
But those investors expecting more of the same in China this year were disappointed; 2013 was the year investors finally came to realize that China is not an unstoppable, world-beating economic juggernaut destined for global domination. To the contrary, China now finds itself at an economic crossroads.
The nation's fork in the road is about the Middle Kingdom making the transition from export- and investment- led growth toward consumption- and service-driven growth. It's also about avoiding the "middle-income trap," or finding new sources of growth since the drivers and circumstances that propelled the nation to rising growth rates and rapid industrialization in the past-low-cost labor and easy technology adaption/imitation-have dissipated as China has moved from lower-income to middle-income status. Investors have learned that not even China is immune to the laws of economic gravity. 
Lesson 8: The Emerging Markets Are Not Quite Ready For Prime Time
A funny thing happened over 2013-growth slowed in the emerging markets while accelerating in the three developed regions-the U.S., Europe and Japan. Global economic activity, as investors had come to expect it, was turned upside down. And heading into 2014, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan are expected to contribute more to global GDP next year than the fabled BRICs-Brazil, Russia, India and China.
What gives?
Many developing economies were caught flat-footed in 2013, and left ill-prepared for the downturn in global trade (think Asian export-led nations); the secular decline in commodity prices (a la Africa, Latin America and the Middle East); and the prospects of costlier capital, courtesy of Fed tapering. The last of these sent shock waves through the emerging market universe in 2013, with investors, not surprisingly, retreating from emerging market equities, debt, currencies and other assets.
All of the above exposed a dark side of the emerging market growth story-that the emerging markets are hardly masters of their own domain, and still dependent on external variables (trade and capital) for growth as opposed to being drivers of global growth through more domestic- and consumption-led growth. For any investor hugely overweight emerging market equities, Lesson 8 was a painful one this year.
Lesson 9: The Commodity Supercycle Is Over
Not very long ago, farming was more profitable than banking, thanks to soaring demand from the emerging markets. Rapid urbanization, rising per capita incomes, the embrace of more western-like lifestyles among the middle classes of the developing nations-all of these dynamics in the first decade of this century placed unprecedented demand on the world's physical infrastructure and triggered the so-called commodity supercycle. And super it was-with the prices of virtually all commodities-iron ore, soybeans, wheat, zinc, silver, etc.- soaring. Not surprisingly, investors took notice and plowed billions into various commodity instruments.
According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the total value of commodity index-related instruments purchased by institutional investors rose from an estimated $15 billion in 2003 to at least $200 billion by mid-2008.
But all cycles-even supercycles-come to an end, and following a post-crisis rebound in 2009 and 2010, prices across the commodity complex have since softened. Indeed, back-to-back declines in 2011 and 2012 were followed by a third year of lower commodity prices in 2013. Commodity prices have tumbled three years in a row; three strikes means you're out, which is another way of saying that the commodity supercycle is over.
Lesson 10: Real Estate Never Goes Out Of Favor for Long
Real estate was at the epicenter of the financial crisis of 2008/09, leading many prominent bears to proclaim that real estate as an asset class was dead in the water; that it would take years-if not a decade-for real estate returns to recover in the face of massive oversupply, tight credit conditions and dwindling demand.
Not quite.
A key lesson of this year: Real estate never goes out of fashion for long. U.S. home sales have soared this year, with the spike in housing demand and home prices not only rampant in the U.S., but around the world. Global real estate transactions are now back to late-2007 levels. Think exploding demand in London, Tokyo, Istanbul, Singapore and many other parts of the world, with global real estate emerging as one of the most attractive assets in 2013.
In the end, real estate never goes out of favor for long-not with a growing world population, an increasing number of urban residents, massive and idle pools of capital in the emerging markets and rising national incomes across the world. 
The Way Forward
There were many moving parts in 2013, and next year will be no different.
We know Fed policies will be a significant variable influencing the capital markets again in 2014; the markets, we believe, will adjust to tapering in an orderly way, while tightening is a story for 2015. The run in equities will continue; bonds will remain unloved. The U.S. economy will surprise on the upside, helping to pull along the rest of the world. China will reset and become a more attractive investment option with more quality growth. Per China, think less demand for physical commodities yet more demand for consumer goods and value-added services. Deficit-prone emerging markets will be buffeted by the effects of Fed tapering. Commodities will struggle, although agricultural commodities could surprise on the upside given underlying global demand. It should be another red-hot year for real estate, but fears about real estate "bubbles" may become more prominent as the year progresses. 
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Here Are 10 Things We Learned About The Economy And Markets In 2013

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/52e92a5769bedd87305b3f94-1200-924/introvert-shy-reading-3.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="introvert shy reading" width="480" /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/moriza/96724309/">Mo Riza/Flickr</a></div></div>"A species in which everyone was General Patton would not succeed, any more than would a race in which everyone was Vincent van Gogh. 
"I prefer to think that the planet needs athletes, philosophers, sex symbols, painters, scientists; it needs the warmhearted, the hardhearted, the coldhearted, and the weakhearted. It needs those who can devote their lives to studying how many droplets of water are secreted by the salivary glands of dogs under which circumstances, and it needs those who can capture the passing impression of cherry blossoms in a fourteen-syllable poem or devote twenty-five pages to the dissection of a small boy's feelings as he lies in bed in the dark waiting for his mother to kiss him goodnight… 
"Indeed the presence of outstanding strengths presupposes that energy needed in other areas has been channeled away from them." - Allen Shawn
In "<a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=0307352153&amp;asin-it=0307352153&amp;asin-fr=0307352153&amp;asin-de=0307352153&amp;asin-uk=0307352153&amp;asin-ca=0307352153&amp;asin-com=0307352153" target="_blank">Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking</a>," Susan Cain looks at how our lives are shaped by personality. Specifically she explores how where we land on the introvert-extrovert spectrum influences our choices, friends, conversations, careers, success, and even love. "It governs how likely we are to exercise, commit adultery, function well without sleep, learn from our mistakes, place big bets in the stock market, delay gratification, be a good leader, and ask "what if."
It's also one of the most exhaustively researched subjects. It's not just scientists who've contemplated this, they are a rather recent addition. Poets and Philosophers have been "thinking about introverts and extroverts since the dawn of recorded time."
<blockquote>
"[T]oday we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles. We're told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable. We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts - which means that we've lost sight of who we really are. Depending on which study you consult, one third to one half of Americans are introverts - in other words, one out of every two or three people you know."
</blockquote>
Surprising? That's because most introverts, like myself, pretend to be extroverts. I'm what you call a "closet introvert."
<blockquote>
"It makes sense that so many introverts hide even from themselves. We live with a value system that I call the Extrovert Ideal - the omnipresent belief that the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight. The archetypal extrovert prefers action to contemplation, risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. He favors quick decisions, even at the risk of being wrong. She works well in teams and socializes in groups. We like to think that we value individuality, but all too often we admire one type of individual- the kind who's comfortable "putting himself out there."
…
"Introversion - along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness - is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology."
</blockquote>
The extrovert ideal is alive and well.
<blockquote>
"Talkative people, for example, are rated as smarter, better-looking, more interesting, and more desirable as friends. Velocity of speech counts as well as volume: we rank fast talkers as more competent and likable than slow ones. The same dynamics apply in groups, where research shows that the voluble are considered smarter than the reticent - even though there's zero correlation between the gift of gab and good ideas."
</blockquote>
But, like anything, it's a mistake to embrace this ideal without thinking. Without introverts, we wouldn't have: the theory of gravity, the theory of relativity, Chopin's nocturnes, Proust's In Search of Lost Time, Peter Pan, Orwell's 1984, The Cat in the Hat, Charlie Brown, Schindler's List, E.T., Google, Harry Potter, or Farnam Street.
In "<a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=0679430180&amp;asin-it=0679430180&amp;asin-fr=0679430180&amp;asin-de=0679430180&amp;asin-uk=0679430180&amp;asin-ca=0679430180&amp;asin-com=0679430180" target="_blank">How Heredity and Experience Make You Who You Are</a>," the science journalist Winifred Gallagher writes: "The glory of the disposition that stops to consider stimuli rather than rushing to engage with them is its long association with intellectual and artistic achievement. Neither E=mc2 nor Paradise Lost was dashed off by a party animal."
Cain argues that it is not in spite of introversion that people like Eleanor Roosevelt, Al Gore, Warren Buffett, Gandhi and Rosa Parks achieve what they do, but, in part, because of it.
As society moves unconsciously toward an extroverted world - one of open offices, team everything, and organizations that value "people skills" above competence - introverts will have to adjust. But things like creativity and "innovation" will suffer.
If you're an introvert:
<blockquote>
"you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and could do without the pitying looks from fellow diners. Or you're told that you're "in your head too much," a phrase that's often deployed against the quiet and cerebral."
Of course, there's another word for such people: thinkers."
</blockquote>
After taking my MBTI, one of my professors defined introversion as "where you get your energy." If you're extroverted you get energy from being around people, and if you're introverted you get it from being alone. But is there more to it than that? What exactly does it mean to say someone is introverted?
In 1921, psychologist Carl Jung had published a book, "<a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=0691018138&amp;asin-it=0691018138&amp;asin-fr=0691018138&amp;asin-de=0691018138&amp;asin-uk=0691018138&amp;asin-ca=0691018138&amp;asin-com=0691018138" target="_blank">Psychological Types</a>," that popularized the terms introvert and extrovert as the foundation of personality.
Discussing Jung's work, Cain writes:
<blockquote>
"Introverts are drawn to the inner world of thought and feeling, said Jung, extroverts to the external life of people and activities. Introverts focus on the meaning they make of the events swirling around them; extroverts plunge into the events themselves. Introverts recharge their batteries by being alone; extroverts need to recharge when they don't socialize enough."
</blockquote>
The MBTI is based on Jung's work. But, you should know, there is no consensus on any of this. There are "almost as many definitions of introverts and extroverts as there are personality psychologists, who spend a great deal of time arguing over which meaning is most accurate."
<blockquote>
"Still, today's psychologists tend to agree on several important points: for example, that introverts and extroverts differ in the level of outside stimulation that they need to function well. Introverts feel "just right" with less stimulation, as when they sip wine with a close friend, solve a crossword puzzle, or read a book. Extroverts enjoy the extra bang that comes from activities like meeting new people, skiing slippery slopes, and cranking up the stereo."
…
"(Introverts) prefer to devote their social energies to close friends, colleagues, and family. They listen more than they talk, think before they speak, and often feel as if they express themselves better in writing than in conversation. They tend to dislike conflict. Many have a horror of small talk, but enjoy deep discussions."
</blockquote>
Whenever I tell someone I'm introverted the first thing they inevitably say is "you can't be an introvert. You're not shy."
<blockquote>
"Shyness is the fear of social disapproval or humiliation, while introversion is a preference for environments that are not overstimulating. Shyness is inherently painful; introversion is not. One reason that people confuse the two concepts is that they sometimes overlap (though psychologists debate to what degree)."
</blockquote>
The bus to Abilene Here is one particularly amusing anecdote from the book: "The bus to Abilene." And this applies to everything from meetings to how we make decisions.
<blockquote>
"A well-known study out of UC Berkeley by organizational behavior professor Philip Tetlock found that television pundits - that is, people who earn their livings by holding forth confidently on the basis of limited information - make worse predictions about political and economic trends than they would by random chance. And the very worst prognosticators tend to be the most famous and the most confident - the very ones who would be considered natural leaders in an HBS classroom.
The U.S. Army has a name for a similar phenomenon: "the Bus to Abilene." "Any army officer can tell you what that means," Colonel (Ret.) Stephen J. Gerras, a professor of behavioral sciences at the U.S. Army War College, told Yale Alumni Magazine in 2008. "It's about a family sitting on a porch in Texas on a hot summer day, and somebody says, 'I'm bored. Why don't we go to Abilene?' When they get to Abilene, somebody says, 'You know, I didn't really want to go.' And the next person says, 'I didn't want to go - I thought you wanted to go,' and so on. Whenever you're in an army group and somebody says, 'I think we're all getting on the bus to Abilene here,' that is a red flag. You can stop a conversation with it. It is a very powerful artifact of our culture."
The "Bus to Abilene" anecdote reveals our tendency to follow those who initiate action-any action.
</blockquote>
Innovation A lot of organizations want to encourage <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/11/your-organization-sucks-at-innovating/" target="_blank">innovation with "positive" action</a>. They hold up Google, Twitter, and Kickstarter as models of innovation. In a well-meaning attempt to encourage innovation they inevitably come up with a process that relies on presentation skills to sift ideas.
In his book "<a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=1422133303&amp;asin-it=1422133303&amp;asin-fr=1422133303&amp;asin-de=1422133303&amp;asin-uk=1422133303&amp;asin-ca=1422133303&amp;asin-com=1422133303" target="_blank">Iconoclast</a>," neuroeconomist Gregory Berns explores what happens when companies rely too heavily on presentation skills to sift ideas. "He describes a software company called Rite-Solutions," Cain writes summarizing his work, "that successfully asks employees to share ideas through an online 'idea market,' as a way of focusing on substance rather than style."
<blockquote>
(In Quiet Cain describes the company) Joe Marino, president of Rite-Solutions, and Jim Lavoie, CEO of the company, created this system as a reaction to problems they'd experienced elsewhere. "In my old company," Lavoie told Berns, "if you had a great idea, we would tell you , 'OK, we'll make an appointment for you to address the murder board' " - a group of people charged with vetting new ideas. Marino described what happened next:
(Cain quoting: <a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=1422133303&amp;asin-it=1422133303&amp;asin-fr=1422133303&amp;asin-de=1422133303&amp;asin-uk=1422133303&amp;asin-ca=1422133303&amp;asin-com=1422133303" target="_blank">Iconoclast</a>) Some technical guy comes in with a good idea. Of course questions are asked of that person that they don't know. Like, "How big's the market? What's your marketing approach? What's your business plan for this? What's the product going to cost?" It's embarrassing. Most people can't answer those kinds of questions. The people who made it through these boards were not the people with the best ideas. They were the best presenters.
</blockquote>
In his memoir, "<a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=0393330435&amp;asin-it=0393330435&amp;asin-fr=0393330435&amp;asin-de=0393330435&amp;asin-uk=0393330435&amp;asin-ca=0393330435&amp;asin-com=0393330435" target="_blank">iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It</a>," Steve Wozniak writes:
<blockquote>
"Most inventors and engineers I've met are like me - they're shy and they live in their heads. They're almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone where they can control an invention's design without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other committee. I don't believe anything really revolutionary has been invented by committee. If you're that rare engineer who's an inventor and also an artist, I'm going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone. You're going to be best able to design revolutionary products and features if you're working on your own. Not on a committee. Not on a team."
</blockquote>
Of course introverts are not necessarily more creative. The most creative or innovative people tend to <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/12/the-five-skills-of-disruptive-innovators/" target="_blank">ask questions</a>, display a healthy disrespect for authority, a natural irreverence, and a stubborn streak. This suggests they may not work well as part of a team.
In explaining why introverts have a creative advantage, Cain writes:
<blockquote>
"[T]here's a less obvious yet surprisingly powerful explanation for introverts' creative advantage - an explanation that everyone can learn from: introverts prefer to work independently, and solitude can be a catalyst to innovation. As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck once observed, introversion "concentrates the mind on the tasks in hand, and prevents the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work."
</blockquote>
In the end, creativity and innovation in organizations is about accepting and even encouraging differences. I'd caution organizations not to move too far towards the extroversion end of the spectrum (open offices, everything done in teams, promoting based on social skills above competence) without giving consideration to the effects that may have on some of your most creative people. A lot of things are better done by individuals than teams. It's ok to have offices. It's ok to have quiet. It doesn't work for everyone but it works for some of your best and possibly most misunderstood employees.
"<a href="http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&amp;it=farstrblo0a-21&amp;fr=farstrblo08-21&amp;de=farstrblo07-21&amp;uk=farstrblo-21&amp;ca=farst-20&amp;com=farnamstreet-20&amp;asin-es=0307352153&amp;asin-it=0307352153&amp;asin-fr=0307352153&amp;asin-de=0307352153&amp;asin-uk=0307352153&amp;asin-ca=0307352153&amp;asin-com=0307352153" target="_blank">Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking</a>" is an interesting look at how letting the extrovert ideal run wild is a bad idea for creativity, decision making, and cognitive diversity.<div class="feed-footer-wrapper"><div class="feed-footer">

 <h3>More from Farnam Street:</h3>

 <ul>
 <li>
 <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/01/the-power-of-introverts/" data-bi-base="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/">Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking</a>
 </li>
 <li>
 <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/01/frankl-human-search-for-meaning/" data-bi-base="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/">The Human Search for Meaning</a>
 </li>
 <li>
 <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/01/laws-of-character-and-personality/" data-bi-base="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/">Laws of Character and Personality</a>
 </li>
 <li>
 <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/01/the-baloney-detection-kit/" data-bi-base="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/">The Baloney Detection Kit</a>
 </li>
 <li>
 <a href="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/01/11-rules-for-critical-thinking/" data-bi-base="http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/">11 Rules for Critical Thinking</a>
 </li>
 </ul>
 </div></div>

You Searched For "Dark Narrow Streaks" and got 10 results

Watch these amazing pictures of Mars showing traces of water!

BI India Bureau

China's rapidly dwindling future will shape the world for decades to come

Linette Lopez

Biden's agenda is struggling after a string of failures brought by Senate gridlock and a faltering COVID-19 strategy

Tom Porter

What streaming TV's biggest hits have in common, from Netflix's 'The Witcher' to DC Universe's 'Titans'

Travis Clark

This crazy Image reveals what one of Jupiter's moons looks like compared to Earth

Jessica Orwig

Crazy Image Shows What One Of Jupiter's Moons Looks Like Compared To Earth

Jessica Orwig

If aliens lived on Mars, they might have lived in oasis-like pools

Dave Mosher

Here Are 10 Things We Learned About The Economy And Markets In 2013

Steven Perlberg

The Quiet Power Of Introverts

Farnam Street

Thailand Secretly Sells Myanmar Refugees To Human Trafficking Rings

Jason Szep and Andrew R.C. Marshall, Reuters