Nathan Jurgenson coins the term ‘information camouflage’ (in Predictive analytics and information camouflage): companies that mine data about us, discern a pattern they can exploit, and then conceal that knowledge by randomizing the torrent of ads and promotions they send our way so they can conceal that they are on to us, since if we knew we’d change our mental filters.

A new trend in speech patterns in young American women has been investigated, and it is clear that ‘vocal fry’ — low, staccato vibration of the vocal chords during speech — is rapidly increasing, as shown by recent research conducted at Long Island University, NY:

Marissa Fessenden via ScienceNOW

More than two-thirds of the research subjects used vocal fry during their readings, the researchers will report in a future issue of the Journal of Voice. The distinct vibrations weren’t continuous. Rather, they arose most often at the ends of sentences. The patterns were “normal” variations, says co-author and speech scientist Nassima Abdelli-Beruh of LIU, because the women rarely slipped into vocal fry during sustained vowel tests—prolonged holding of vowels such as ‘aaa’ and ‘ooo’—a classic way to assess voice quality and probe for possible disorders. Abdelli-Beruh says the creak is unlikely to damage vocal cords because speakers didn’t creak continuously or even at the end of every sentence.

It seems that these young women may be influenced by singers like Britney Spears, who fry as a singing technique.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently commented on the company’s $98B cash reserves, and said that the board is in active discussions about what to do. One of the most obvious alternatives is to buy other companies. I think Twitter is a great fit, but Tom Taulli looked at the iCloud strategy that Apple is pursuing, and he sees a strategic fit with Salseforce.com:

Tom Taulli via InvestorPlace

Then what to buy? I think a good prospect is Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM). Founded in the late 1990s, the company has become the dominant player in the cloud market. This technology essentially involves using Internet-based technologies for business applications. It tends to help companies that use cloud computing to lower costs and improve productivity.

Already Apple has shown lots of traction with its iCloud offering, reaching over 100 million users since launching in October. But this is so far mostly for consumer applications, such as music.

But with Salesforce.com, Apple can leverage its massive iPad installed base, which is at about 55 million. The device has quickly become a must-have product in the corporate world. Thus, Apple could tap a huge new revenue source by getting subscription income from corporate customers for applications like customer resource management (CRM), enterprise resource planning and so on. Apple might also be able to nab a piece of Microsoft’s lucrative Office franchise.

The cloud opportunity is enormous. According to a forecast from Forrester, the market is expected to go from $40.7 billion in 2011 to a whopping $241 billion by 2020. This is the kind of opportunity that should get the attention of a company like Apple, which has not only the cash for such dealmaking but the know-how to make it work.

Davies structures the Greek situation as a build-your-own-adventure game, where ‘you are a member of the One World Government, and you have been given the assignment of coming up with a solution for the Greek crisis.’

Play the game. I wound up at 53: the full Argentina.

As Felix Salmon said, though, ‘given political realities, there is literally no real solution to the Greece problem.’ He’s on to something. The tipping point will be encountered when the Greek people begin to pull money from the banks.