Blogs

The recently published “Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds” report from the National Security Council makes for interesting reading, full of interesting tidbits of information—global GDP is $70 trillion—along with skyline projections out to 2030. Acknowledging the fact that the U.S.’ post-War II global governance paradigm is under strain from a mixture of globalization, domestic political inertia in developed economies resulting in a deficit of global leadership, and emerging powers that seek greater input on the global stage, the report is well worth the time to read. The fundamental question raised is what exactly does this mean for the United States in 2030, when it is possible, though not a forlorn conclusion, that China’s economy will be number one.

Today is my birthday. That puts me in a group that includes Elvis Presley and Stephen Hawking. It's nice to share this date with such talented and brilliant people. Elvis was fourteen years my elder. Stephen is 7 years older than me. What I have in common with both is music and science. I consider these two to be somewhat related.

Stakeholders are the people (and sometimes the institutions) who can have an impact on your life and your future. Stakeholders are also those who will be impacted by your life and your actions, now and in the future.

Start with your family and close friends. If you have children who are under ten years old, during the next ten years they will become teenagers. That will have an impact on your life!

Have you ever wondered why so many "assumption-based" forecasts have been proved to be untrue? Have you considered that there could be more "evidence-based" ways of forecasting? Have you ever felt that "assumption-based" forecasting was just too much of a struggle and in many cases failed to trigger timely actions?

While I do not deny the existence of reasonably working prototypes, I do not expect driverless cars to transform the transportation landscape in the way their boosters claim. Indeed, I am a bit surprised that anyone would consider such transformative claims the least bit more plausible than the patently ridiculous claims once made with comparable fanfare on behalf of Segways.

The acronym CD comes up a lot in science and technology. For those who remember them CDs or compact discs represented the primary media for music recordings from the 1980s until the rise of MP3 technology. Cd also stands for circular dicrhoism, a spectroscopic measure of light absorption in proteins.

This somewhat autobiographical missive was sparked by recent research that confirms something long suspected -- our civilization dodged a bullet a while back. A bullet made of lead. We dodged it thanks to science, open argument, and the power of dramatically-conveyed evidence...

... plus a fascinating coincidence in which I played a minor-but-interesting role.

It's 2013. We've made it. For those of us watching from the United States, the last few days of 2012 (to say nothing of the first couple of this year) were touch and go. But here we are.

Political risk has entered our vocabulary. Whether staring over the fiscal cliff, battling the eurozone crisis, trying to profit from a rising China, or taking cover from the Middle East; around the world, politics has come to dominate market outcomes. Geoeconomics now sits alongside geopolitics in matters of war, peace, and prosperity. Economic statecraft is a key component of global foreign policy. State capitalism is a principal challenge to the free market.

If electric vehicles (EVs) are to become ubiquitous we have a number of hurdles to overcome. These include:

1. Improvements to batteries not only to make them hold a charge longer but to also recharge faster.
2. The building of an electric infrastructure with recharge capability not just at one point but at many.

NASA through the latter part of the 20th century developed two programs, one manned, the other robotic.