In This Issue:
* Laws Governing the Heavens
* Ethnicity and Alzheimer's Disease
* Risk Assessment: Emotion Trumps Logic
* Boom in the Baltics
* Click of the Month: Monkey News
* News from the Futurist Community
If a baby is born in outer space, what is its nationality? If two astronauts get in a fight, whose criminal justice system applies? If you invent something while working in a lab on the International Space Station, where do you apply for a patent?
Such sky-high legal issues may become immediate concerns. Europe's space laboratory Columbus is scheduled to ride the U.S. shuttle Atlantis in December and join the International Space Station.
To help bring about consensus on celestial legal issues, the European Science Foundation and the European Space Policy Institute organized a multidisciplinary, multinational symposium in October on Humans in Outer Space.
One initial proposal that was rejected was for U.S. law to prevail on the International Space Station. But the symposium participants did agree that, in matters of criminal law, an accused astronaut's own country would have jurisdiction over laws broken in space. The nationality of future Moon babies was not decided.
SOURCE: European Science Foundation,
http://www.esf.org/research-areas/humanities/news/ext-news-singleview/ar...
Latinos and African Americans with Alzheimer's disease live longer than do whites, Native Americans, and Asians, according to a study published by the journal NEUROLOGY. The findings transcended socioeconomic status, education levels, age when symptoms began, and other factors.
The study followed 31,000 Alzheimer's patients for an average of 2.4 years and found that Latinos lived an average of 40% longer than whites, while African Americans lived 15% longer than whites. Asian and Native American patients' longevity was similar to that of whites.
Factors that could account for the differences include the social support of extended families and varying levels of health and other diseases in addition to the Alzheimer's, according to study author Kala Mehta of the University of California, San Francisco.
"Determining the underlying factors behind this difference could lead to longer survival for everyone with Alzheimer's disease," says Mehta. "Regardless of the reason for this difference, these findings may have implications for health-care planning for people with Alzheimer's disease."
SOURCE: NEUROLOGY, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology,
http://www.aan.com/press/index.cfm?fuseaction=release.view&release=559
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More than 70 outstanding futurists and professionals from a wide variety of disciplines have already been confirmed as presenters at WorldFuture 2008: Seeing the Future Through New Eyes, the Society's next annual conference, to be held July 26-28 in Washington, D.C.
Among those you'll have the opportunity to exchange ideas with are international affairs professor Leon S. Fuerth, who served as Vice President Al Gore's national security adviser; WFS founding president Edward Cornish; NASA-Langley chief scientist Dennis N. Bushnell; and Elizabeth Carlson, executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
In addition to the general sessions, an exciting program of special events, preconference courses, professional meetings, and networking opportunities is in the works.
LEARN MORE: http://www.wfs.org/2008main.htm
REGISTER BY DECEMBER 31 and save $200 off the on-site registration fee:
https://www.wfs.org/2008regform.htm
CONFERENCE VOLUME SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
http://www.wfs.org/2008volguidelines.htm
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Why would anyone choose to live in a place that may burn in a wildfire or be swept away by a hurricane or a flood? Because it's awe-inspiringly beautiful, and they love it.
The proximity to ocean views is an emotional attraction for people to live in the heavily wooded areas of Southern California, where 2,000 homes were destroyed by October's wildfires. This emotion led the homeowners to discount the risks, according to National Science Foundation risk-management researchers.
If people really want to do something that is risky, they tend to judge the risks as low, despite all the available information about the hazards of their choice. Providing information that is more emotionally vivid (e.g., scare tactics) may help alter the public's judgment of risks.
But information that is too vivid could backfire, warns researcher Jacqueline Meszaros. Studies of fear-based anti-smoking campaigns, for instance, have found that some vivid messages can actually lead to more kids smoking.
SOURCE: National Science Foundation,
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=110590
The Baltic Sea region's prospects appear bright, with four countries in the top 10 of the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index: Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Finland. Key ingredients to the region's general success are increased labor productivity and mobilization, according to the ScanBalt network's 2007 State of the Region report.
The region also scores high on employment, innovation, social cohesion, and the environment. But there are clouds on the horizon, including increasing global competition and demographic pressures such as aging populations.
"Economic growth will increase wage pressure, lead to shortages of skilled labor, and can easily create social divisions between those that are well prepared to take advantage of these new opportunities, such as young, urban and well educated people, and those that can’t," report author Christian Ketels of Harvard Business School told the BALTIC TIMES. "There is a danger that the Baltics will become much less of a 'good deal' if wages continue to rise while economic opportunities for productivity growth become smaller."
SOURCES: World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index 2007-2008,
http://www.weforum.org/en/media/Latest%20Press%20Releases/GCR08Release
"Harvard Economist Advocates Effective Government Regulation," BALTIC TIMES (July 12, 2006): http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/15853/
ScanBalt, http://www.scanbalt.org
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Membership in the World Future Society makes not only a thoughtful gift, but also a wise one--a gift that will keep provoking thought all year long.
Insightful articles by industry experts, creative thinkers, and leading intellectuals give you a new way to think about the trends that are shaping your world--and fresh ideas for managing those trends to create the future you hope for.
Ideal for clients, customers, colleagues, teachers, students, friends, family, neighbors, mentors, and protégés, gift memberships are just $49 for the first membership and $39 each for additional recipients.
And if there are full-time students under age 25 on your list, their gift memberships are just $20 each!
GIVE GIFT MEMBERSHIPS NOW: http://www.wfs.org/membership.htm
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http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=501
Looking for a new angle on news? The Washington, D.C., based radio station WTOP maintains its Monkey News department on its Web site because, frankly, the news can be depressing and monkeys are a way of lightening things up.
And monkeys are quite relevant to the future, since they are affected by environmental trends, are involved in cutting-edge research, and participate (in their own monkey way) in groundbreaking legal matters. Recent monkey headlines:
* "Monkey Clones Unlikely to Bring New Care," on the use of stem cells cloned from monkey embryos.
* "Court Won't Declare Chimp a Person," on an animal rights case in Austria.
* "Chimpanzee Who Knew Sign Language Dies," on Washoe, a female chimp thought to be the first nonhuman to learn our language.
* "Ebola Said Depleting Gorilla Populations," on the peril of a species now thought to be one step away from extinction.
Of course, chimps and gorillas are really apes, not monkeys, but WTOP reasons that few humans would bother to click on "Primate News."
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NOW PLAYING ON FUTURE TV: Top 10 Forecasts, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKYY_8iqaB0
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* MILLENNIUM PROJECT NODE IN DUBAI: The Millennium Project, an international futures research think tank supported by the World Federation of United Nations Associations, welcomes its 31st Node or global partner: the Innovation Unit of the Dubai government's Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA). The new Dubai Node will focus on research to increase individual human intelligence and brain functioning. Other nations interested in establishing Millennium Project Nodes include Nigeria, Tanzania, and Burundi. DETAILS: KHDA, http://www.ameinfo.com/138182.html or contact Jerome C. Glenn, Millennium Project director, mailto:jglenn@igc.org
* EDITOR'S QUERY: Would you be interested in receiving a separate monthly newsletter exclusively covering News from the Futurist Community? The World Future Society would like your input on such a project. Like FUTURIST UPDATE, the proposed Community newsletter would be free and sent to subscribers by e-mail each month.
Please send an e-mail with "Yes [or No] Futurist Community Newsletter" in the subject line to mailto:cwagner@wfs.org