In This Issue:
* Healthy Sex Life Improves Career Prospects
* Online Textbook Lightens Backpacks
* Life Expectancy Increases in U.S.
* Click of the Month: Live Ethical Quote
* News for the Futurist Community
* What's Hot @WFS.ORG: Back from the Future
Times may be tough, but anthropologist and Chemistry.com founder Helen Fisher has found a bright side: Work on your sex life, and you may improve your career prospects.
Sexual activity increases the rush of dopamine in the brain, which also contributes to enhanced creativity and problem solving, Fisher explains.
Other beneficial chemicals boosted by sex include oxytocin and vasopressin, which generate feelings of trust and attachment—the perfect prescription for better team work. And of course there's testosterone, which improves self-confidence in both men and women. In higher doses, it stimulates competitiveness and, hence, productivity.
SOURCE: Helen Fisher, Chemistry.com
As students head back to school this fall, California will become the first state to offer free, open-source, online textbooks for high-school students.
One of the first texts approved for the program is Advanced Algebra II by Raleigh, North Carolina, math teacher Kenny Felder and submitted through Rice University's open-education program, Connexions.
The move toward free online curricula could be a boon for states facing severe budget restrictions—and for students facing textbook overload in their backpacks.
"Everyone is looking to cut costs over the next couple of years, but the real beauty of open-educational resources like Kenny Felder's book is that they provide the foundation for a step-change in the quality of education in the United States," says Connexions executive director Joel Thierstein.
SOURCE: Connexions View results of The Free Digital Textbook Initiative
Plans are under way for the World Future Society’s 2010 conference in Boston, to be held July 8-10 at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel.
Panel sessions, workshops, and stimulating keynote presentations will focus on what we mean by “sustainable futures,” what paths may lead us there, and what strategies and technologies we may be able to use to create the futures we aspire to achieve.
Join a thousand forward thinkers from around the world to learn from an estimated 150 speakers, like inventors Ray Kurzweil and Stephen Thaler, health futurist Kevin Fickenscher, and media experts Michael Rogers, Lee Rainie, and Michael R. Nelson.
Both life expectancy and the mortality rate have made records in the United States, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Men and women are living longer than ever (75.3 years and 80.4 years respectively), and the age-adjusted death rate dropped to a record low of 760.3 deaths per 100,000 population, according to the latest report from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, "Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2007."
Another record: For the first time, life expectancy for black males reached 70 years, according to the report. The gap between white and black males (5.3 years) is now nearly equal to the gap between males and females (5.1 years).
Heart disease and cancer remain the top two causes of death, accounting for 48.5% of U.S. mortality. Deaths from HIV/AIDS experienced the biggest one-year decline (10%) since 1998.
SOURCE: CDC
www.covalence.ch/index.php/products/services/live-ethicalquote/
How ethical is the company that wants to do business with you, or that you want to buy products from? Searching the Internet for clues about a company's reputation can lead to spotty or misleading information.
With its Live EthicalQuote feature, research consultant group Covalence offers a scorecard based on thousands of news stories—good, bad, and ugly—about more than 500 companies in 18 sectors. The quotes are updated daily based on evaluations by an international team of ethical analysts.
Note that the free public version does not include information from the last 12 months. Up-to-the-moment quotes are available only to Covalence clients and subscribers.
THE SINGULARITY SUMMIT 2009—THINKING ABOUT THINKING: The Singularity Summit will be held October 3-4, 2009, at the 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York.
The Summit is an annual event to further understanding and discussion about the Singularity concept and the future of human technological progress. It was founded in 2006 as a venue for leading thinkers—whether scientist, enthusiast, or skeptic—to explore the subject.
Speakers at this year's summit include PayPal founder Peter Thiel, longevity author Aubrey de Grey, and inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, among others. Register at http://www.singularitysummit.com/
The World Future Society is a proud media partner for the Singularity Summit.
* PREVIEW WEEKEND FOR STRATEGIC FORESIGHT: Considering a degree in strategic foresight? Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is offering a preview weekend November 11-14. Tour the campus and learn about the undergraduate and graduate degree programs that will prepare you for a career as a professional futurist. DETAILS or contact @drjaygary on Twitter.
* WEB 2.0 AS DISTANCE LEARNING’S “GREEN SOLUTION”: Youngstown State University’s second annual Distance Education Conference, to be held Friday, October 16, in Youngstown, Ohio, will focus on how Web 2.0 and other technologies are changing distance education. Invited guest speaker is Ohio Vice Chancellor Barbara Gellman-Danley. DETAILS, or in Second Life.
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* WFS PRESIDENT ON TECH TUESDAY WEBINAR: Tim Mack speaks on the Strategic Value of Foresight for Business in the August 25 episode of FIATECH’s Tech Tuesday Webinar series. DETAILS
* TWEETS TO PONDER: A few interesting questions have recently landed in World Future Society’s Twitter feeds:
@davidhodgson (via @ken_homer) Question: How will your great-grandchildren assess your effectiveness in passing on a healthy world to them?
@maxmarmer Do you think there is a correlation btwn being an entrepreneur and being athletic at a young age? Seems like mindset/skillset transfer
@mennovandoorn Should companies start their real life soap and broadcast to become authentic and transparent?
@gleonhard More comments on the debate about the new Altnet/Kazaa p2p system - back to the stone ages of digital content? http://ow.ly/kZjV
Join in the conversations at http://twitter.com/WorldFutureSoc (WFS and futurist community news) and http://twitter.com/Theyear2030 (news tips from The Futurist magazine).