jose ramos's List: Action Foresight

The people from the World Futures Society bring us GFB.

"* To help individuals and organizations identify and choose new futures-relevant books on current affairs, planning, and public policy
* To enable an overview of current thinking in complex problem areas such as environment, governance, the economic crisis, job creation, poverty reduction, higher education, energy, new technology, terrorism, nuclear weapons, human rights, the Internet, water scarcity, etc.
* To provide a concise cross-disciplinary overview of all trends, issues, and informed proposals for betterment and reform
* To emphasize the need for ongoing synthesis, integration, and collective intelligence in all areas.
* To map the unexplored realm of "current affairs" books and promote their visibility in public discourse."

"Scientists in Brazil have created the first map of clusters of antibiotic resistance in Brazil, linking the phenomenon to abuse of the drug and opening doors to guide public policies for antibiotic prescription and sales."

This article by IPS on AMR is quite excellent. It gives a good overview and analysis of the emerging health challenges faced in anti-biotic use and challenges the bio-medical model. "AMR refers to resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial medicine to which it had previously been vulnerable. For several years, resistant organisms like bacteria, viruses and even some parasites have become increasingly able to withstand attacks by antimicrobial medicines, such as antibiotics, antivirals, and antimalarials, rendering standard treatments - which had hitherto been effective - totally obsolete and allowing infections to persist and spread to vast swathes of at-risk populations. "

"Approval of Bolivia's revolutionary 'Mother Earth' law is an historic step by social movements in a long struggle for real ecological transformation of their economy and society."

"During the one-day session on April 19 at the AutoDesk Gallery, experts, researchers, and guests explored the many different frontiers where 3D printing and open manufacturing are changing the way that things are made. Among the topics that were explored were:"

"A review of journals in the field(s) of Foresight and Futures Studies point to a tension in the relationship between Foresight and Futures theory and practice. Whether to treat "Foresight studies" and "Futures studies" as two different fields, or to treat them as one field and write "Foresight and Futures Studies" is probably a matter of debate among the researchers. "

"Demos Helsinki is Finland's leading think tank. We are also the only totally independent one. Our aim is to develop democracy to suit the needs and capabilities of the people of the 21st century. "

" Interview on futures studies, foresight and strategy transformation. Case studies of futures thinking, scenario planning and visioning. Analysis of what works. "

"The digital peasants are getting restless. The first signs of unrest are evident in the stirrings of the bloggers filing a suit against the Huffington Post and its parent AOL, which acquired the publication in February for $315 million. The same writers who were happy to contribute for free before the sale are now accusing the publication of turning them into "modern-day slaves on Arianna Huffington's plantation." The suit claims that about 9,000 people wrote for the Huffington Post on an unpaid basis, and it argues that their writings helped contribute about a third of the sale value of the site. These bloggers weren't paid a single penny in the sale-the money went mostly to Huffington and a few investors. "

"There's more to tomorrow than robots, flying cars, and a faster internet. 22C+ is all about Deep Futures, futures that matter. Welcome to futures fantastic, unexpected, profound, but most of all deeply meaningful... "

" Enipedia is an active exploration into the applications of wikis and the semantic web for energy and industry issues. Through this we seek to create a collaborative environment for discussion, while also providing the tools that allow for data from different sources to be connected, queried, and visualized from different perspectives. "

"It's a remarkable bit of future artifact creation, as much of the forecast ended up playing out in the subsequent 17 years much as the IDL described. As predictions go, it was usefully on-target.

At least, it could have been useful had anyone been paying attention. The IDL was closed the next year, its forecasts essentially forgotten. Knight-Ridder itself was bought out in 2006."

"The current energy landscape is rife with contradictions: Gas prices are shooting up, renewables are being implemented at a seemingly rapid pace, natural gas is being simultaneously demonized and hailed as an energy savior, and electric cars are finally starting to roll off production lines. Fortunately, your tax dollars fund a government agency devoted to making sense of energy. The U.S. Energy Information Administration explains the gritty details of our energy future in its Annual Energy Outlook 2011, which has tracked our projected energy use all the way to 2035. Don't have the time to slog through its myriad charts and tables? We do. Read on for our abbreviated look at the report's most important findings."