As of last year, more people have been forced by violence and conflict to flee their homes than live in the U.K. or France.
That’s upwards of 60 million people — a global nation of refugees. If all of these asylum-seekers, internally displaced people and refugees were a country, they’d be the 21st most populous nation in the world, according to UNHCR estimates. More than half of refugees are under the age of 18.
Continue reading… “Special report: A widening world without a home”
Instead of breaking systems with ransomware, adversaries will leverage new tools to conduct harmful assaults on targeted subjects and organizations.
A staff member stands near a computer as it participates in the CHAIN Cup at the China National Convention Center in Beijing. A computer running artificial intelligence software defeated two teams of human doctors in accurately recognizing maladies in magnetic resonance images on Saturday, in a contest that was billed as the world’s first competition in neuroimaging between AI and human experts. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)ASSOCIATED PRESS
While the hip, ubiquitous business buzzwords are cryptocurrency and blockchain, the truly formidable factor of what is being called the fourth industrial revolution is Artificial Intelligence. Whether praised as a panacea for greater business efficiency or the feared as the demise of humanity, Artificial Intelligence is upon us and will impact business and society at large in ways that we can only begin to imagine. Fasten your seatbelts. Here’s what a few influencers in the arena say is on tap for 2019.
As plastic increasingly chokes the world’s landfills, and China announced last year it didn’t want to buy recycled plastic anymore, the what to do with it all has become a pressing question.
Why not recycle it and use it to build roads?
Bound together with plastic polymers, the asphalt will be cheaper and last longer than conventional pavement, according to independent experts.
One European firm already is combining plastic pellets with hot-mix asphalt to resurface roadways. A U.S. company says that once it finds financial backing, its product “could be deployed within six months” with a process that combines asphalt milled from the road’s surface with plastic urethane.
Continue reading… “Plastics recycled for use on roads”
Bad news for workers in the American South and Great Plains: A robot could likely come for your job.
A newly released study by fintech company Smart Asset found that those regions are the ones most likely to experience serious job losses due to automation. And, even more disheartening, they’re the ones that appear least prepared to take the hit.
Continue reading… “Here are the states where a robot is most likely to steal your job”
The Psychopharmacology of everyday life.
Everyone is on drugs. I don’t mean the old-fashioned, illegal kind, but the kind made by pharmaceutical companies that come in the form of pills. As a psychoanalyst, I’ve listened to people through the screen of their daily doses; and I’ve listened to them without it. Their natural rhythms certainly change, sometimes very dramatically—I guess that’s the point, isn’t it? I have a great many questions about what happens when a mind—a mind that uniquely structures emotion, interest, excitement, defense, association, memory, and rest—is undercut by medication. In this Faustian bargain, what are we gaining? And what are we sacrificing?
There is new resistance to the easy solution of medicating away psychological problems, because of revelations about addiction and abuse, a better understanding of placebo effects, or, for example, the startling realization that antidepressants, far from saving some teenagers from committing suicide, can sometimes push them to do it, which means that these pills should not be a first line of defense. Perhaps the time is right to return to the conundrum of mind and medicine.
The story of psychopharmacology stretches from the advent of barbiturates at the turn of the century to the discovery in the early 1950s of the first antipsychotic, based on a powerful sedative used for surgical purposes that was described as a “non-permanent pharmacological lobotomy.” This drug, Chlorpromazine, led to the development of most of the drugs used today for psychiatric management. The proliferation of psychiatric medications, ones with supposedly less overt dangers, began in the late 1980s—at the same time, a watershed lawsuit was filed in the UK against the makers of benzodiazepines, a class of drugs used for treating anxiety and other disorders, for knowingly downplaying knowledge of their potential for causing harm. Today, psychopharmacology is a multibillion-dollar industry and an estimated one in six adults in America is on some form of psychiatric medication (a statistic that doesn’t even include the use of sleeping pills, or pain pills, or the off-label use of other medications for psychological purposes).
Continue reading… “Everyone is on drugs”
A daring effort is under way to create the first children whose DNA has been tailored using gene editing.
When Chinese researchers first edited the genes of a human embryo in a lab dish in 2015, it sparked global outcry and pleas from scientists not to make a baby using the technology, at least for the present.
It was the invention of a powerful gene-editing tool, CRISPR, which is cheap and easy to deploy, that made the birth of humans genetically modified in an in vitro fertilization (IVF) center a theoretical possibility.
Now, it appears it may already be happening.
Continue reading… “Inside the Controversy: Chinese scientists creating CRISPR babies”
A toxic combination of slow wage growth and skyrocketing rents has put housing out of reach for a greater number of people.
Daniel Olguin, 28, works on his computer in the front of his van, while his wife, Mary, 26, checks on their almost-2-year-old child in the back. The couple, who have a band called Carpoolparty, have traveled around the U.S. since 2017, playing gigs with their electronic pop music whenever they can. Daniel, who was recently diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, says his parents kicked the couple out on Christmas Day a few years ago, but they have since reconciled. The two musicians have been in Los Angeles for about five months, and use the quiet and safety of the Safe Parking L.A. lot in the Koreatown section of the city to work on their music and sleep. According to a 2018 count done by Los Angeles County, there are more than 15,700 people living in 9,100 vehicles every night. These vehicle dwellers represent over 25 percent of the homeless population in L.A. County.
Continue reading… “The homeless crisis is getting worse in America’s richest cities”
A woman wearing a mask walks along a street in smog-hit Beijing. Photograph: Andy Wong/AP
Air pollution cuts the average lifespan of people around the globe by almost two years, analysis shows, making it the single greatest threat to human health.
The research looked at the particulate pollution produced by the burning of fossil fuels by vehicles and industry. It found that in many parts of the worst-affected nations – India and China – lifespans were being shortened by six years.
The work combined research on the reduced lifespans caused by long-term exposure to particulates with very detailed pollution maps. The impact of toxic air is greater than that of cigarette smoking or HIV/Aids.
Continue reading… “Air pollution cuts two years off global average lifespan, says study”
When it comes to poverty alleviation in the developing world, cash transfer schemes have been at the center of a difficult debate. For years, donor agencies and governments were urged to integrate the poor into their economies by providing them with a basic amount of cash. Yet those programs have been dogged by controversies, with critics arguing they encourage dependency, negatively impact labor, and pit community members against each other.
Using evidence collected in eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa over a decade, a new paper dispels some of these common misperceptions about unconditional cash transfers in Africa. The research was conducted through the Transfer Project, a multi-partner initiative that includes the UN agencies for children and food, national governments besides national and international researchers. Unconditional cash transfers, or UCT, are different from universal basic income in that they are time-bound and are given to poor households who make spending decisions consistent with their needs.
Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the Internet, sits in front of a 1994 computer displaying his creation.
Twenty-nine years ago, as the architect behind the web’s first browser and server, Tim Berners-Lee built the internet. ”I imagined the web as an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities, and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries,” he wrote in a 2017 open letter. But, he says, he’s become “increasingly worried” about new online trends, like lack of privacy, the spread of misinformation, and lack of transparency in online political advertising. Over the last decade, Berners-Lee’s focus has become saving the internet from itself, and now he’s recruiting companies, governments, and citizens to join his cause.
Berners-Lee’s non-profit the World Wide Web Foundation studies internet accessibility and usage, and details the barriers to a free and open internet, like harassment, privacy infringement, and cost. For instance, a recent study found that over 2 billion people live in places where internet is prohibitively expensive to access. And today, Berners-Lee announced a “Contract for the Web,” which lays out principles for using the internet ethically and transparently for all participants.
Continue reading… “The father of the internet wants to save the web from itself”
Sorry, Mississippi.
A new study ranks all 50 states plus the District of Columbia by how fat their residents are. And there are some real surprises.
Across the United States, a staggering 70 percent of people are either overweight or obese. It’s part of what drives the $66 billion weight loss industry, which is always a good target for entrepreneurs.
But it also adds $200 billion a year to our nation’s health costs.
According to a new study published in the American Journal of Medicine, 42% of new cancer patients lose their entire life savings in two years because of treatment.
The same study found that 62% of cancer patients are in debt because of their treatment.
Continue reading… “Study: Almost half of new cancer patients lose their entire life savings”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.