Plus: Giving Up Smell to Keep Technology and Astronauts’ Amazing Views of Earth in Orbit.

Give Up Smell or Lose Your iPod?
If you had to chose, which would you rather lose: your sense of smell or access to Facebook?

A McCann Worldgroup survey of 7,000 people aged 16-30 examined the motivations of young people around the world and sought to uncover what makes them different from every generation that has come before. As BizReport.com explains, the study identified three key factors motivating today’s youngsters — the need for connections and community, social or personal justice and authenticity.”

The survey found that 53 percent of respondents aged 16-22 would rather forfeit the ability to smell than give up their technology, according to an announcement of the findings.

“To them, losing the ability to explore and communicate via technology would be like a blind man losing his stick,” BizReport puts it simply.

In related news, a 17-year-old student in China recently sold one of his kidneys to buy an iPad 2.

An Astronaut’s View of Earth in Orbit
Narrated by NASA scientist Dr. Justin Wilkinson, What an Astronaut’s Camera Sees is an impressive video tour of the Earth’s surface as captured by astronauts with their digital cameras.

“It starts with the coast of Namibia in southwestern Africa, where big red sand dunes are, according to all space cowboys and cowgirls, ‘one of the most beautiful sites that you can get when you’re flying,’” Gizmodo explains. The video tour continues with views of Sicily and Italy, the east coast of the Kamchatka peninsula and its volcanoes, China’s snowy Qindoa Peninsula, Iran’s Zagros Mountains, the north coast of Australia and the Gulf of Carpentaria, Utah’s Great Salt Lake, Florida, Cuba and more.

The tour ends with a view of a thunderhead over the Amazon Basin.

The video is part of the Cosmic Journeys series by SpaceRip.

Surprising Behavior From Job Seekers’ Parents
Sometimes moms and dads can become overly involved in their child’s life. Usually they mean well, and often the result is just the son or daughter’s embarrassment. Other times, apparently, it can derail the poor kid’s prospects of a job.

In a new OfficeTeam survey, more than 1,300 senior managers were asked to recount the most unusual or surprising behavior they had heard of or witnessed from the parent of a job seeker. Among their responses:

• “A mother submitted her daughter’s résumé on her behalf.”
• “One parent wanted to sit in during the interview.”
• “A parent called during the interview to try to push me to hire her daughter.”
• “A parent called a politician to push me to hire his son.”
• “A parent came by my desk and told me that he expected his daughter to get preference for a position since he was a manager at the company.”
• “A parent called to ask about a job applicant’s work schedule and salary.”
• “A mother called to ask how her child did in the job interview.”
• “A parent called to find out why we did not hire her son and why we felt he was not qualified.”

Congratulations, recent 2011 graduates! Keep your parents away from direct contact with potential employers!

Cheers.