FUTURIST UPDATE
News and Previews from the World Future Society
August 2010 (Vol. 11, No. 8)
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In This Issue:
* Entrepreneurship Stalls
* Cloaking with Glass and Ceramics
* Highest Atmospheric Carbon in 800,000 Years
* Songbirds May Carry Avian Flu
* Click of the Month: GoodGuide
* What's Hot @WFS.ORG: Back from the Future
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP STALLS
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Business start-up activity plummeted in the first half of 2010 in the
United States, reports the global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray &
Christmas. Just 3.7% of job seekers started their own business,
compared with an average of 9.6% in the last two quarters of 2009. (The
highest start-up rate of job seekers was 21.5%, recorded in the first
half of 1989.)
"Would-be entrepreneurs were either scooped up by employers or scared
off by fragile economic conditions, a tight lending market, and
uncertainty over the sustainability of the recovery," according to the
firm.
The slowdown in entrepreneurship may indicate that economic recovery is
particularly weak and the U.S. economy may slip back into recession.
"Start-up activity is at its lowest just as a recession hits," says CEO
John A. Challenger. "In the months immediately following the end of the
recession, when unemployment is at its highest and hiring is virtually
nonexistent, we see a spike in job seekers starting a business."
SOURCE: Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
http://www.challengergray.com
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CLOAKING WITH GLASS AND CERAMICS
==================================
Using a type of glass that does not conduct electricity, researchers at
Michigan Tech and Penn State report discovering a way to capture and
route rays of visible light around objects, rendering the objects
invisible.
Previous attempts to build an "invisibility cloak" have used metals and
wires. In the research by Michigan Tech engineer Elena Semouchkina and
colleagues, tiny glass metamaterials were arranged in a cylinder shape
that produced the magnetic resonance required to bend light waves
around an object. These resonators are artificial materials with
properties that do not exist in nature, born of the marriage between
materials science and electrical engineering.
The researchers are experimenting with other materials, such as ceramic
resonators, and with other frequencies, such as microwave. The goal is
to find applications that work at visible light frequencies, says
Semouchkina.
SOURCE: Michigan Technological University
http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2010/july/story29391.html
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HIGHEST ATMOSPHERIC CARBON IN 800,000 YEARS
===============================================
The choice to curb--or not to curb--carbon emissions in the near term
will affect populations across the globe for centuries to come, says a
new report from the National Research Council. The amount of carbon in
the atmosphere is currently higher than at any point in the last
800,000 years.
CO2 doesn't displace easily. The amount could triple by the end of the
century depending on the sorts of emissions reductions choices
individuals and policy makers enact today. Even if emissions stabilize,
CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere would continue to increase as the
amount in the air already exceeds what the earth can absorb.
The report details how small changes in temperature would change
rainfall patterns and water availability: Rain in the North American
southwest and the Mediterranean would decrease by as much as 10%, and
crop yields could decrease by 15% for every one degree (Celsius) of
warming according to the report.
SOURCE: National Research Council
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12877
Read the report, "Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions,
Concentrations, and Impacts Over Decades to Millennia," online at
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12877
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SONGBIRDS MAY CARRY AVIAN FLU
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The migratory patterns of birds can give scientists data on future
avian flu outbreaks. Analyzing more than 225 species of songbirds and
perching birds, researchers found that 22 varieties are carriers of
low-pathogenicity avian influenza, meaning they carry a strain of the
bug that isn't dangerous enough to kill the bird but could mutate into
something more lethal. The research supported by the National Science
Foundation was recently published in the journal BMC Infectious
Diseases.
Avian influenza or bird flu is most commonly associated with poultry
and water fowl like chicken and ducks, but perching and songbirds--also
called passerines--typically share the same habitats and may be more
effective transmitters of the disease.
By mapping such factors as a location's minimum temperature, date of
spring thaw, and particularly the amount of land that's been converted
into cropland, researchers hope to predict increases of avian flu
cases. "Agricultural activity reduces the amount of natural habitat
available to avian migrants," says Trevon Fuller, lead author of the
paper and a biologist at the Center for Tropical Research at UCLA. When
birds have less habitat, they crowd together more, which helps
communicable diseases spread faster.
SOURCE: National Science Foundation,
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117236&org=NSF&from=news
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CLICK OF THE MONTH: GOODGUIDE
http://www.goodguide.com/
================================
Is that shampoo really good for the environment? Are these organic
cereals really good for me? What does it really mean when a product
says it's "natural" or "organic" or "environmentally friendly"?
Consumers have more choices than ever for conscientious consumption,
but with few standards there may be much confusion about the true
impacts of our daily purchases.
GoodGuide offers ratings and "best and worst product reviews" of more
than 65,000 products based on such factors as whether the item is
tested on animals, is fragrance-free, reduces water consumption, or
contributes to global warming.
"About 33% of all new food products launched in 2008 claimed to be
'natural,' according to Dara O'Rourke, University of California,
Berkeley, environmental policy professor and founder of the GoodGuide
Web site," writes business futurist Erica Orange of Weiner, Edrich,
Brown, Inc., in the September-October 2010 issue of THE FUTURIST.
GoodGuide's goal is to help consumers interpret such vague terms.
To make it even easier for shoppers to compare products on the shelves,
GoodGuide also now offers an iPhone application.
