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2011, the worldwide gaming market will be worth $48.9 billion at a compound annual growth rate of 9.1%

ith gains slowing every year because of the maturation of the current generation of consoles,

exceed the 6.4% advance that PwC foresees for the overall entertainment economy during the period.

Its data include consumer spending on games, but exclude spending on hardware and accessories.

For the U.S. gaming business, PwC projects 6.7% compound annual gains for the five-year period, to $12.5 billion. Asia-Pacific should remain the region with the highest overall spending on gaming during the period and reach $18.8 billion in 2011, PwC forecasts.

Despite its leading size, its 10% average annual gains will only be exceeded by the combined region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), which is pegged for a 10.2% compound annual gain and is set to remain at No. 2 in terms of worldwide gaming.

In the U.S., online and wireless games should see the biggest gains through 2011

online will expand from an estimated $1.1 billion market last year to $2.7 billion in 2011

Consumer spending on console and hand-held games will go from $6.5 billion in 2006 to $7.9 billion in 2011

However, the U.S. PC games market will continue its decline, with PwC eyeing a contraction from an estimated $969 million in 2006 to $840 million in 2011.

growing from an estimated $80 million last year to $950 million in 2011

this estimate could prove conservative as "advertisers like to reach the younger males" that many games tend to attract.

He also said that the overall gaming audience continues to expand and become somewhat more female and older than in the past thanks to casual games and the arrival as games as an "important part of culture."

What is rarely reported is that worldwide, sharks kill an average of 10 people every year. It's usually when people venture into a shark's habitat and not the other way around. By contrast, humans kill around 100 million sharks every year - a number that has ballooned in recent years because of the enormous demand for shark fins to make shark fin soup.

Shark fin soup is a delicacy reserved for the wealthy on special occasions and it has been part of Chinese culture for centuries. For years, only rich Chinese mostly in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore consumed it, so the impact on the overall shark population was negligible

Over the last decade, the exploding middle class in China has changed the fate of the shark.

U.S. computer and video game software sales generated $10.5 billion in 2009.

Sixty-seven percent of American households play computer or video games. 

The average game player is 34 years old and has been playing games for 12 years.

The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 40 years old.

Forty percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (20 percent).

In 2010, 26 percent of Americans over the age of 50 play video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.

Forty-two percent of heads of households play games on a wireless device, such as a cell phone or PDA, up from 20 percent in 2002.

Eighty-two percent of all games sold in 2009 were rated "E" for Everyone, "T" for Teen, or "E10+" for Everyone 10+.

Parents who have children under 18 with a gaming console in the home are present when games are purchased or rented 93 percent of the time.

Sixty-four percent of parents believe games are a positive part of their children’s lives.

If you feel this way, you’re not alone, but it might surprise you to know that although there are more than 350 distinct species of sharks, only a few even bother with humans. The giant Whale Shark doesn’t even have teeth.

As of late 2009, the world’s population of sharks had already diminished by 50 to 75%.

A North Atlantic population survey reports as much as an 89% decrease.

show that for the 181 species of sharks for which they have adequate data, over 64% of those populations are noted as “threatened” or “vulnerable”. Of those, over 21% are categorized as “endangered” or worse. At least one species is already listed as “extinct in the wild.”

Sharks are pulled onto fishing boats where their fins are cut off and their bodies are thrown back into the ocean as waste. A large percentage of these animals are still alive and suffocate. Even though less than 5% of the shark is fin, the rest is usually thrown away because of the economics of it. Shark meat must be properly refrigerated and takes up a lot of space on a boat. Fins, however, can be cut off, bundled, and hung to dry in large nets. It is the fin that produces the largest profit by far and can be sold for hundreds of dollars per pound.

Low self-esteem and eating disorders are the side effects from the media’s portrayal of artificial beauty

as of 2004, 8 million people—7 million of them women—had an eating disorder (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, etc.).

According to the American Psychiatric Assn.’s Diagnostic & Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, people who suffer from anorexia typically have an underlying personality disorder and seek more control over their environment.

indicate that discipline and control, rather than thinness, were their true goals

66% of Americans do not even come close to conforming to that supposed ideal. Meanwhile, less than 3% of the U.S. population suffers from an eating disorder

We know Barbie is anatomically impossible.

magazine covers featuring celebrities have been airbrushed,

blaming the media for eating disorders is a lot like laying the blame for underage smoking on TV characters

"over three-quarters of the female characters in TV situation comedies are underweight, and only one in 20 are above average in size.

Heavier actresses tend to receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies

80% of these negative comments are followed by canned audience laughter."

But, people like bay scallops, too! The scallop fishery, which had been thriving for over 100 years, was virtually gone, with scallop catch dropping to only 13% of its high point2. And, scallops were also no longer there to perform their function of filtering and cleaning the ocean water.

Life within the oceans, covering 2/3rds of our planet, has enjoyed a relationship with sharks for about 450 million years.

They may be all gone within only 10 or 20 years.