VIDEO
GAMES AND IMPACTS ON PERFORMANCE
The types of video games
you play may affect your performance at school, work, or other activities,
according to Wheaton College psychology professor Rolf Nelson.
Playing an
adrenaline-pumping action game for an hour before doing your homework or
tackling a task at work could help you finish the assignment quickly--but
with lots of mistakes. Playing a strategy game, on the other hand, will
yield more-accurate work, but at the cost of speed, observes Nelson.
In his study, published
with co-author Ian Strachan in the journal PERCEPTION, Nelson tested
subjects playing either a fast-action video game (Unreal Tournament) or a
puzzle-solving video game (Portal).
“While there has been a
great deal of [research] focused on performance differences between
non-video-game players and avid video-game players, we were interested in
looking at the effects of playing different types of video games," Nelson
says. “Results convincingly demonstrate a priming effect for two different
types of video games.”
SOURCE:
Wheaton College
CASES
OF DIABETES WILL DOUBLE
Two decades ago, dire
warnings were sounded about cases of diabetes doubling in the United States
to 11.6 million by 2030. Now, that number is projected to be nearly
quadruple the earlier forecast,
increasing from 23.7 million in 2009 to 44.1 million in 2034, according to
medical researchers at the University of Chicago.
The costs of treating
individuals with diabetes will likewise skyrocket, as improvements in health
care have enabled patients to live longer and thus become more vulnerable to
problems later in life, such as blindness, kidney disease, and amputations.
The steady rise in
diabetes cases parallels the steady rise in obesity in the United States
over the last few decades, the researchers note.
"If we don't change our diet and exercise habits or find new, more effective
and less expensive ways to prevent and treat diabetes, we will find
ourselves in a lot of trouble as a population," warns lead author Elbert
Huang, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.
SOURCE:
University of Chicago Medical Center
|
LAST CHANCE TO SAVE $200
FOR WORLDFUTURE 2010!
Mark your calendar now
to join a thousand futurists from around the world at the World Future
Society’s 2010 conference in Boston, to be held July 8-10 at the Westin
Boston Waterfront Hotel.
You'll meet and learn
from an estimated 150 speakers, such as Yale University ethicist Wendell
Wallach, who will deliver the opening plenary presentation, as well as
Harvard University theologian Harvey Cox, inventors Ray Kurzweil and Stephen
Thaler, health futurist Kevin Fickenscher, and media experts Michael Rogers,
Lee Rainie, and Michael R. Nelson.
CONFERENCE VOLUME PAPER GUIDELINES (Deadline February 22, 2010):
LEARN MORE:
RESERVE YOUR
HOTEL ROOM AT SPECIAL CONFERENCE RATE:
SAVE $200!
REGISTER FOR WorldFuture 2010 BY DECEMBER 31:
|
MOBILIZING THE MILLENNIALS
A foundation to promote
youth philanthropy, an interactive game to promote financial literacy, and
electronic budget journals for daily "wealth watching" are among the
award-winning ideas generated at the recent Youth Summit sponsored by the
Peter G. Peterson Foundation and Mobilize.org.
The summit brought
together young people from around the United States to discuss issues
affecting members of the millennial generation, such as high rates of
unemployment and student debt. Their discussions in work groups led to the
development of solutions, which were then voted upon by the group, with the
winning proposals receiving funding from Mobilize.org.
First place winner was
Daniel Kaufman of Sacramento, California, whose One Percent Foundation calls
on young people "to make a collective impact by making recurring donations
of 1% of their annual income through a single funding entity."
SOURCES:
Mobilize.org;
Peter G. Peterson Foundation
|
FUTURIST’S READING LIST
Here are a few new books
for your futurist-reading holiday gift list:
ENOUGH IS PLENTY by Anne B. Ryan (O Books): Human and planetary
well-being as the focus for decision making.
THE FUTURIST by Rebecca Keegan (Crown): Filmmaker as futurist: profile
of AVATAR director James Cameron.
HOW GOOD PEOPLE MAKE TOUGH CHOICES (Rev. Ed.) by Rushworth M. Kidder
(Harper Paperbacks): Right versus wrong is easy; right versus right is much
tougher for values-based decision makers.
THE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT by Leslie Hamilton and Philip
Webster (Oxford University Press USA): Textbook on globalization and its
implications for organizations.
Pre-order
these 2010 titles:
FROM BOOM TO BUST AND BEYOND (paperback ed.) by Jerry Tuma (Excel, March
2, 2010): Investment adviser gleans insight from current trends and shows
how to thrive in the years ahead.
GEO-ENGINEERING CLIMATE CHANGE: Environmental Necessity or Pandora's
Box? by J. Michael T. Thompson and Brian Launder (Cambridge University
Press, January 31): Critical appraisal of mega-engineering projects to save
the planet.
TOWARD HUMAN EMERGENCE by Philip R. Harris (HRD Press, March 15): How
will humans manage their activities in space-based civilizations?
WHAT IS NANOTECHNOLOGY AND WHY DOES IT MATTER by Fritz Allhoff et al.
(Wiley-Blackwell, March 1, 2010): Impartial look at the innovations and
risks of world-changing emerging technologies.
And check out these
notable backlist titles:
HISTORY AND FUTURE by David J. Staley (Lexington, 2007): A history
professor and futurist illustrates the value of historical thinking for
imagining tomorrow.
HOW TO RE-IMAGINE THE WORLD by Anthony Weston (New Society, 2007): Aptly
subtitled “A Pocked Guide for Practical Visionaries.” |
CLICK OF THE MONTH: iMINDS
http://www.iminds.com
If you’d rather use your
spare time learning something than drowning your ears in the latest tunes
from reality-show celebrities, the library of eight-minute audio lessons
offered by iMinds may be what you’re looking for.
While you’re unlikely to
earn your PhD this way, iMinds gives you the opportunity to keep learning
24/7, with on-demand selections ranging from wind power to the Seven Wonders
of the World.
A Generalists’
collection (1 hour and 40 minutes of knowledge grabs) includes tracks on
anime, the bubonic plague, and flash mobs; the Genius collection offers 10
hours of tracks covering such topics as behavioral economics, hemophilia,
D-Day, and Andy Warhol.
Shorter tracks developed
for younger learners are also offered through the site’s iMindsJNR division,
with topics that could supplement classroom work, such as the Great Rivers,
Atoms, and the Cold War.
NOTE, do not confuse
iMinds.com with iMind.com, a defunct dot-com venture savagely parodied on a
domain now for sale (the current bid is $60,000).
NEWS FOR THE FUTURIST COMMUNITY
* FORESIGHT 2010: The
Synergy of Molecular Manufacturing and Artificial General Intelligence is
the theme of the Foresight Institute's meeting to be held January 16-17 in
Palo Alto, California. The symposium will examine the convergence of several
rapidly developing technologies and their profound potential impacts on
economies and societies. Confirmed speakers include Paul Saffo, J. Storrs
Hall, Ralph Merkle, and other top technology experts.
DETAILS:
* EU 2020 STRATEGY: The
European Commission has issued a public consultation document on strategies
for greener and more socially inclusive economic growth. The consultation
paper focuses on approaches to recovering from economic crisis, creating
value through knowledge, empowering people through inclusive societies, and
creating a competitive, connected, and greener economy. Public responses are
due January 15. VIEW
the document
* SECURITY IN FUTURES -
SECURITY IN CHANGE. The Finland Futures Research Centre's conference to be
held June 3-4, 2010, in Turku, Finland, will look deeply into the inevitable
changes of security issues. The conference will bring together global
experts from the scientific community, policy makers, and representatives of
companies to develop images of alternative futures. The goal is to provide
leaders with new viewpoints and novel ideas for making the world a better
place. The abstract submissions are due on February 1, 2010.
DETAILS:
WHAT'S HOT @WFS.ORG
* OUTSTANDING FUTURISTS
AND YOUNG FUTURISTS: Whose work in futuring and foresight during 2009 should
be recognized at the World Future Society’s next annual meeting? Nominations
for the Outstanding Futurist and Young Futurist of the Year are open until
December 31. DETAILS
and NOMINATION FORM:
* GIFTS FOR FUTURISTS:
Here are three easy ways that you can Give the Future to a friend!
1. Share the future all
year long with your clients, colleagues, friends, and family with gift
memberships in the World Future Society ($59 per year for the first
membership and just $47 each for all others).
ORDER:
2. Gear up with WFS
T-shirts, hats, tote bags, and other gifts at
Café Press:
3. Shop online and
support the World Future Society by using GoodShop to access more than a
thousand participating stores that give back up to 30% of your purchase to
WFS.
GOODSHOP NOW:
* HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
FUTURIST UPDATE! That's right, the World Future Society's free e-mail
newsletter turns 10 years old with this edition. What were futurists talking
about in January 2000 (besides being grateful that our computers still
worked)? Check out Volume 1, Number 1 of FUTURIST UPDATE
http://www.wfs.org/futupja00.htm
***************************************************
FUTURIST UPDATE: News &
Previews from the World Future Society is an e-mail newsletter published
monthly as a supplement to THE FUTURIST magazine. Copyright © 2009, World
Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
Telephone 1-301-656-8274; e-mail mailto:info@wfs.org Web site
http://www.wfs.org
Editor: Cindy Wagner,
mailto:cwagner@wfs.org
Senior Editor: Patrick
Tucker, mailto:ptucker@wfs.org
Network Administrator:
Jeff Cornish, mailto:jcornish@wfs.org
Vice President,
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mailto:sechard@wfs.org
To subscribe, enter your
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To unsubscribe or change
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Submit feedback:
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The WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY
is a nonprofit, nonpartisan scientific and
educational association
with a global membership. Regular membership in the Society, including a
subscription to THE FUTURIST, is $59 per year, or $20 for full-time students
under age 25. Professional and Institutional membership programs are also
offered; contact Society headquarters for details: http://www.wfs.org
