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Future Pages: The bookmark collection... frequently updated links to other websites on trends, innovation and the future.
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Signs of the Future: The news archive... past postings of items from world media on emerging trends.
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SCIENCE
Top Stories:
Mind Reading with Functional MRI - [Technology Review] Scientists can accurately predict which of a thousand pictures a person is looking at by analyzing brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The approach should shed light on how the brain processes visual information, and it might one day be used to reconstruct dreams.
Move Over Galileo, It's Science 2.0 - [Medical News Today] In a provocative article in Science Magazine, the University of Maryland's Ben Shneiderman, one of the world's leading researchers and innovators in human-computer interaction, says it's time for the laboratory research that has defined science for the last 400 years to make room for a revolutionary new method of scientific discovery. He calls it Science 2.0., and it combines the hypothesis based inquiry of laboratory science with the methods of social science research to understand and improve the use of new human networks made possible by today's digital connectivity.
TECHNOLOGY
Top Stories:
Soon, a Self-Cleaning Windscreen that will Wipe Out the Wiper - [New Kerala] Using nanotechnology, Italian car designers have invented a self-cleaning windscreen, which could do away with the need for wipers forever. The windscreen uses a special oxide to repel water and miniature nozzles which blast out water and air to get rid of dust and dirt.
Device Enables Computer Users to 'Feel' Contours and Texture of Images - [San Jose Mercury News] A controller developed at Carnegie Mellon University allows computer users to manipulate three-dimensional images and explore virtual environments not only through sight and sound, but by using their sense of touch.
BUSINESS
Top Stories:
Putting Innovation in the Hands of a Crowd - [New York Times] If executives are going to rely on the wisdom of the masses for business help, it’s probably time the masses get a little compensation for it. That’s the theory behind Kluster, the newest in a lineup of companies using the Web to channel the collective wisdom of strangers into meaningful business strategies.
Luminous Packaging Helps NXT Product Sell Itself - [International Herald Tribune] To call attention to themselves, the products, which are aimed at men 18 to 24 years old, will glow on the shelves, inviting customers to pick them up. Every 15 seconds, a light-emitting diode in the bottom of the container flares on, stays lighted for a few seconds, then fades out.
SOCIETY
Top Stories:
Terrorists Sought in Cyber Kingdoms - [Inquirer] Apparently overwhelmed by terrorists in the real world, the US government and its intelligence services have resorted to thwarting violent extremists who they believe may have infiltrated virtual worlds in cyberspace, such as World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Call of Duty 4 and Second Life.
Facebook is Extending its Network to Blood Donations - [New York Times] Facebook, the vast and expanding social networking Web site, is about to confront users with a serious new question: What’s your blood type? A program to be officially introduced by a New York-area nonprofit organization called Takes All Types aims to better coordinate where and when people donate blood in response to shortages and crises while encouraging broader donation over all.
GLOBAL POLITICS
Top Stories:
Crop Boom May Prompt Food Aid Rethink In US Congress - [Planet Ark]
A lawmaker who has championed using US food aid donations to fund development projects is rethinking his support of proposed legislation as soaring commodity prices eat into aid available for crises.
India Losing Status as Offshore King? - [Silicon.com] India is losing its stranglehold as the offshoring destination of choice as China, Morocco and Hungary gain ground.
ENVIRONMENT
Top Stories:
Climate Change's Most Deadly Threat: Drought - [Christian Science Monitor] Brian Fagan, author of the bestselling The Little Ice Age, makes an original contribution in The Great Warming by summoning attention to what he calls "the silent elephant in the room": drought. As polar icecaps melt and glaciers disappear, thus causing seas to rise, low-lying coastal areas may indeed be inundated, creating millions of environmental refugees. But it is the inland agricultural breadbasket regions that feed the world that stand to suffer the greatest upheaval if reliable precipitation patterns vanish.
Finding Energy All Around Us - [TIME] Getting energy cheaply has never been more necessary than it is now, with oil recently breaking its all-time inflation-adjusted high price. The era of inexpensive power is over, perhaps for good, which means it's time to extend beyond energy efficiency to energy-scavenging, harnessing the sort of wasted watts we wouldn't have bothered with in the past.
THE FUTURE
Climate Change Poses 'Security Risk' - [Financial Times] Climate change poses "serious security risks" and fighting it should be part of "preventive security policy," according to the European Union’s top diplomats. The warning is contained in a paper prepared for an EU summit this month by Javier Solana, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, external relations commissioner.
World Food Program Warning on Soaring Food Prices - [Intenational Herald Tribune] Strong increases in food prices, which have been reaching record levels, are expected to continue until at least 2010, fueling a "new hunger" across the globe and anarchy on the streets of poorer nations, a top United Nations official said.
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