LONGER
LIVES--MORE HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS
People are living longer--that's the good news. The bad news is that
growing numbers of older persons susceptible to heart failure are contributing to an
epidemic of hospital admissions, according to a study by the Mayo Clinic.
Admissions due to heart failure have increased 155% in the past 20 years
among Americans over age 65--not because of increased rates of disease but because more
people are surviving the disease.
Heart-disease survivors are living longer but may continue to experience
symptoms sending them to the hospital.
The study recommends that, as the population ages, new ways to treat the
symptoms of heart-disease flare-ups should be pursued that would enable patients to
receive care at home rather than in hospitals. The result would be less strain on the
health-care system and an improved quality of life for patients.
SOURCE: Mayo Clinic,
http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2004-rst/2353.html
CARBON DIOXIDE ALTERING OCEAN CHEMISTRY
The oceans are absorbing much of the carbon dioxide produced by humans,
keeping it out of the atmosphere, but the result is a chemically altered habitat for
marine life.
"About half of the anthropogenic CO2 taken up over the last 200
years can be found in the upper 10% of the ocean," says oceanographer Christopher
Sabine.
The problem is that this storage is altering the surface chemistry of
oceans, increasing its acidity and lowering the pH levels. Surface ocean pH could drop
lower than it has been for more than 5 million years, according to one study.
As CO2 levels increase, the calcium carbonate found in the shells of
marine animals dissolves. While the dissolved calcium carbonate partially neutralizes the
CO2, the decreased calcification could affect marine food webs, altering oceanic diversity
and productivity.
SOURCE: National Science Foundation,
http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/newsroom/pr.cfm?ni=10000000000105
WILL EUROPE'S DREAMS SURPASS THE AMERICAN DREAM?
With the accession of 10 new states to the European Union this year,
Europeans have high hopes of matching the might of the U.S. economy.
But living the European dream will be very different from the American
goal of independence and individuality; the European dream will be based on different
assumptions about happiness, security, and freedom.
"For Europeans, freedom is not found in autonomy but in
embeddedness," writes Jeremy Rifkin in his forthcoming book THE EUROPEAN DREAM.
"To be free is to have access to a myriad of interdependent relationships with
others. The more communities one has access to, the more options and choices one has for
living a full and meaningful life. With relationships comes inclusivity and with
inclusivity, comes security."
PRE-ORDER THE EUROPEAN DREAM (Tarcher/Penguin. August 19, 2004. 400
pages. cloth): Order now.
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GOING TO WORLDFUTURE 2004?
Online registration closes at 10 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday morning,
July 28, but you can still register by phone (toll free 1-800-989-8274) or on site for
WorldFuture 2004, the World Future Society's annual meeting, in Washington, D.C., running
Saturday, July 31, through Monday, August 2.
Starting Wednesday afternoon, you may register by calling conference
director Susan Echard at the Grand Hyatt Washington hotel, 202-582-1234. Or come to the
registration desk starting Friday. The hotel is located at 1000 H Street, N.W., at the
Metro Center subway stop.
Neighborhood map for the Metro Center subway stop:
http://www.stationmasters.com/System_Map/METROCEN/metrocen.html
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FUTURISTS AND POLICY STUDIES
How does future-oriented policy making differ from planning and
strategy? What lessons does it offer for government, business, and civil-society leaders?
These and other key issues will be addressed at a special course on
Policy-Oriented Futures Studies, to be hosted by Tamkang University in Taiwan August
23-27.
Combining lectures, workshops, debates, and group and individual
projects, the course will focus on developing creative approaches to policy planning using
future-studies skills and techniques.
The course is offered in partnership with Tamkang University, the World
Futures Studies Federation, the University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia), and the
World Future Society. The course directors are Kuo-Hua Chen and Sohail Inayatullah;
faculty members include Richard Slaughter, Sesh Velamoor, Timothy Mack, and other
distinguished international futures scholars and researchers.
DETAILS: Contact Sohail Inayatullah,
mailto:s.inayatullah@qut.edu.au
THOUGHT CONTROL FOR VIDEO GAMES
People with physical disabilities may someday be able to use their minds
to control objects.
A recent study of four adults with epilepsy found that the patients were
able to quickly learn how to play (and win) a simple video game by using their thoughts to
control the computer.
After their brain waves were recorded while they performed simple
movements, such as opening and closing their hands or moving their tongues, the patients
were instructed to move a cursor on a computer screen by imagining those movements. With
the aid of feedback from their recorded brain waves for the movements, the patients were
able to learn to control the cursor with their thoughts.
While practical, medical applications of such work may be many years in
the future, the researchers are excited by how quickly the study's subjects were able to
learn to control their computers with their minds.
"Brain-computer interface research is one of the hottest things
going in biomedical engineering today," says researcher Daniel Moran of the Whitaker
Foundation.
SOURCE: The Whitaker Foundation, http://www.whitaker.org/news/moran.html
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CLICK
OF THE MONTH: COPENHAGEN INSTITUTE FOR FUTURES
STUDIES http://www.cifs.dk/en/
"Storytelling has become a widespread feature of life today,"
writes futurist Johan Peter Paludan on the Web site of the Copenhagen Institute for
Futures Studies. Learn how the inspiration of dreaming and the art of storytelling are
helping to shape the future.
The Copenhagen Institute offers research and analysis services for
business and government decision makers. The Web site also offers open access to some of
its more intriguing essays, as well as announcements of new member reports and upcoming
activities. On the agenda for August and September are meetings on the home as paradise,
revolutions in the Middle East, and the trend of "buying your life"--creating
your identity through consumption.
