I can appreciate strategic communication efforts that aim to empower communities to take action and see the bigger picture. It takes elaborate visions based off of significant data to pull these kinds of strategies together. Matt Nisbet from American University is certainly seems to be doing his best. Read on… Research shows that
climate change is harmful to our health, raising rates of cancer and of
respiratory and neurological diseases. So why aren’t climate scientists taking advantage
of healthcare reform to spotlight these very real and worrisome connections?
What better platform from which to advocate for their own favorite cause: comprehensive
climate legislation that sets a strict limit on greenhouse gases. |
| Taking action on climate change should really be thought of in
terms of preventive health measures that make our communities better places to
live, make our lives healthier, and also reduce costs in the long run. |
| if scientists were to partner with other opinion leaders in their
communities, such as business leaders or clergy, and sponsor community forums
about the health risks of climate change and possible policy solutions |
| The idea that climate change is one of
society’s leading moral and ethical dilemmas is under-communicated. Read more at www.grist.org |
I recommend reading the whole article, but then I would because I wrote it. | The idea is that somehow through the ‘wisdom of crowds’ this system of recommendations delivers the best knowledge, fastest, to the people who want or need to know |
| in the new era of social media, massive information flows are no longer organised in terms of ‘about-ness’, but in terms of ‘who-ness’. It’s not what you know, but who you know. This trend started on social networking sites, with the concepts of friends and feeds. |
| One of the cultural dynamics that reduces the value of information streams based on follow the leader is that many people follow others as a kind of thank-you for following them. Many others follow people principally to boost their own follower numbers. So, who is following who is a very inefficient way of finding anything out in advance about content or its quality |
| Then, there’s the difficulty that people quite naturally seem reluctant to recommend unpleasant news to their followers, |
They are working so hard in the dark, since they don’t know what intelligence is, how it is done, or how it is mashed up with purpose, consciousness and experience. They are working with an essentially Platonic understanding of reality i.e. there is a non socially constructed truth and meaning out there – which is more than 2000 years out of date.
There were real technology breakthroughs in the 1970s, when computers made all text searchable using Boolean AND, OR, NOT ‘operators’, automatic sorting became possible and relational databases were invented. Since then, it has served the interests of computer companies to pretend to put what they call ‘intelligence’ into their machines, rather than enable people to use the real technology breakthroughs of the 1970s more intelligently.
I am afraid that this is yet another profit-driven tragedy wasting billions which could have been invested in enhancing the intelligent use of the technology on what is essentially a chimera based on a misunderstanding about the nature of human intelligence. More than 30 years have been wasted.
Luckily, some of us who had the privilege of working with real masters of database development, are still around who believe that the real opportunities around these technologies lie in the development of the collaborative intelligence of users.
The application of this human intelligence is why I obtain so much more useful information from Amplify, than from Google. It is why Amplify is so important as an early form of collaborative intelligence.
Well, the truth is we don’t yet know, but as nanotechnology becomes more available, so will nano-waste. If such waste harms the body, it might be worth researching before more nano-products begin to flood the market. | Interest in ‘green’ innovation means not just thinking big but also very, very, very small. |
A survey by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies found that nanoparticles — particles less than 100 nanometers in size — are now used in more than 1,000 consumer products ranging from cars to food. Silver nanoparticles are widely used as coating materials in cookware and tableware and as ingredients in laundry liquids and clothes because of their antibacterial properties. You can even buy socks infused with silver nanoparticles designed to reduce bacteria and odor. |
“But what happens if we buy those socks and we wash them?” Sadik asked. “The nanoparticles end up in our water system.” |
| Some are known toxins; others have properties similar to asbestos. And it’s difficult, if not downright impossible, to monitor them |
| “We want to be able to develop nanomaterials while avoiding the unintended consequences of such developments,” Sadik added. |
Imagine your community in sync with its own sustainable creative commerce.
Imagine feeling reconnected to your labor and your surrounding neighbors.
Many residents of Philadelphia have imagined, and now, they’re implementing.
Could your city be next? If so let me know, and please RT generously.
Paul Glover, author of “Hometown Money”, is helping spread the vision. Look at our wasted talent: thousands of eager youths and experienced neighbors. With money enough, we could be busy insulating homes, manufacturing useful goods, growing food, healing, cleaning, playing. And look at our idle wealth: vacant factories and land, empty stores and offices. |
| When a large city depends on one kind of money, it’s like depending on one kind of vehicle - cars only or one bridge. Community currencies aren’t Monopoly money - they’re anti-monopoly money. |
| Printing our own cash is all-American. During the Great Depression, 400 U.S. cities and towns issued scrip. More recently, in Ithaca, N.Y., thousands of residents and 500 businesses have traded millions of dollars of colorful local paper money featuring children, waterfalls and animals. |
| These currencies are real money - backed by real people, real goods and real services. By contrast, dollars are funny money - no longer backed by gold, silver or commodities but by less than nothingRead more at www.philly.com |
| A shorter working week is set to become the new norm, according to a report out this week from nef (the new economics foundation), the UK’s leading independent think tank. |
| the study, 21
hours, forecasts a
major shift in the length of the formal working week as a consequence of dealing
with key economic, social and environmental problems. And this can be seen as a
positive opportunity, say the researchers, rather than a threat.
|
According to nef, there are several forces pushing us
towards a shorter working week: lasting damage to the economy caused by the
banking crisis, an increasingly divided society with too much over-work
alongside too much unemployment, and an urgent need for deep cuts in
environmentally damaging over-consumption. These combine with a growing interest
in people spending more time producing and delivering a share of their own goods
and services – from co-produced care and neighbourhood-based activities, to
food, clothing and other necessities. Read more at neweconomics.org |
What Wildcat says about ‘infocologies’ applies to natural ecologies too. Perhaps, the application of these values in info-worlds will be a way towards applying them in the enveloping natural world upon which the existence of infocologies depends. | The infosphere is a bio-electronic ecosystem growing and branching simultaneously into all sorts of directions, some of which are clearly delineated others being obscure and fuzzy. |
| Hyperconnected intersubjectivity |
| the science of the future |
| the promise and potential amplification of our complex hyperconnected infocologies |
| co-dependent and hyperconnected intersubjective relationship |
| naturally ambiguous, defy hierarchy, inherently agile and adaptable |
| organic natures of infocologies permit manifold kinds of beings to co- exist and co-thrive simultaneously |
| intertwining flows, folding upon themselves |
| evolution of infocologies has no distinct direction; |
| distributed selves are reflectors of chosen micro narratives as part of an ever increasing intertwined flow. |
| not to be designed but followed |
| flows of interest and relevancy rotate on an axis self description |
| carries no loyalty of alignment |
Unlike solutions to problems which are closed systems, outcomes of predicaments are open and unknown. Adaptability trumps expert knowledge. | our economy is propped up by an exponentially increasing flow of energy and resources, like a beautiful and rising wave, and we can readily predict that it will pass a point of maximum height and structure and then devolve chaotically into a much lower and less organized state, unless more and more energy is pumped into it. |
| This is why there’s no “solution” out there |
It is critical that we understand that we are not facing a problem, but a predicament. Problems have solutions, while predicaments only have outcomes. You can solve the former but only manage the latter. |
Since we have a gigantic predicament on our hands, and we cannot predict how things will evolve or devolve when our economic model is starved for energy, the only rational response is to try to build resilience into our most basic and critical operating systems. |
| triage is called for, and, lacking better information, I would propose that we’d do best by concentrating our efforts on our most basic life support systemsRead more at energybulletin.net |
Collaborative classification and tagging enabling work groups to tap into self-made “clip-streams” will I hope be a seventh reason before too long. | if four students are working on a research paper, all of them can sign into Amplify and follow one another. During the process of researching, each of them can keep posting resources to Amplify. The resources could be full length articles, quotations from e-books, interesting findings from reports and so on. The resources can be qualified with personal comments/thoughts/ideas. Amplify will help the students to collate information, discuss and share ideas/thoughts as they work on their paper. |
Amplify could also be used by organizations for employee training and learning. May be Amplify could be integrated into the corporate intranet or learning portal. Last but not the least, I must say I love the user interface design of Amplify and on a usability scale of 5, I would rate it as 4.5. Read more at blog.thewritersgateway.com |
This site was put together mainly by Bernard Lietaer in the mid-1990s. It is still the clearest and the best. However it also indicates that the topic has not ‘advanced’ much since then. On the other hand, it could suggest that what needs to be known is known. People just have to do it. | in the corresponding national currency unit. |
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Valid connections between climate science and healthcare reform
