Sustainability. Geo-Political Boundaries. Economic Progress. Jobs & Work. Debt. Money & Income. Humanity vs Technology. Truth & Reality. The "Yellow Vests" Show How Much the Ground Moves Under Our Feet. Via La Monde by David Graeber Our full coverage: Yellow Vests Movement Rocks France If one feature of any truly revolutionary moment is the complete failure of conventional categories to describe what’s happening around us, then that’s a pretty good sign we’re living in revolutionary times.
In Defence of Planet-Saving Localism. The Commons as a New/Old Paradigm of Human Flourishing. On June 21, I gave a presentation to a number of staffers and others at the Agence Française de Développement in Paris outlining my vision of the commons as an alternative vision of "development.
" The talk was entitled "Beyond Development: The Commons as a New/Old Paradigm of Human Flourishing. " Here are my prepared remarks: I am grateful to be back in your lovely city, and I am grateful for your invitation to speak today about the commons as a new vision of “development.” As the planet reels from the slow-motion catastrophe of climate change, we are seeing the distinct limits of the prevailing paradigms of economic thought, governance, law and politics. While collapse and catastrophe have their own lurid attraction to many, the human species – and our governments – have a duty to seriously entertain the questions: What new structures and logics will serve us better?
I submit that we need to take a longer view and abandon the whole mindset of “development” itself. I. II. III. IV. VI. Humanity's Future Reflected in Uber & Driverless Car Debates. Sometime during the 21st century you will stagger out of a club at 3am and hail a taxi.
The vehicle, no longer allowed to loiter in busy areas, will pop out of a stack nearby, find its way to you and honk. You and your drunk companions will stammer out your destinations until they flash up correctly on a screen. Humans Have Already Reached a Natural Lifespan Limit. Human beings have a natural limit to their lifespan which means it is highly unlikely anyone will ever live for more than 125 years, according to new research.
Scientists carried out a statistical analysis of the trends in the UK, US, France and Japan, the countries with the largest number of “super-centenarians” – those aged 110 or more. They found the average age at death for this group had not increased since 1968 and the chances of anyone exceeding 125 in any given year were less than one in 10,000, according to a paper in the journal Nature.
“We feel that the observed trajectories are compelling and our results strongly suggest that human lifespan has a natural limit,” the researchers wrote. Searching For Social Value: The Key Role Of NFP Provision. Every time Halton borough council buys a service, from housing support to specialist treatments, it aims to include one social value outcome.
Social value - a way of purchasing services that recognises additional social, economic and environmental benefits beyond the direct buying of goods - is at the heart of the borough’s contracts. The Cheshire borough, which drafted its own charter and procurement framework for social value, has won government plaudits for its approach. The Office for Civil Society is currently showcasing providers with expertise in social value and/or impact management, to work with commissioners in practically applying the Public Services (Social Value Act) 2012.
A Newly Drawn Tree of Life Reminds Us to Question What We Know About the History of Earth. A recently released diagram of all life on Earth, the Tree of Life, contains a whole new branch, full of microbes — which appear to dominate Earth’s biodiversity.
How did we miss this? Since Darwin’s day, scientists have worked to map all of life on a single tree to show how all forms of life on Earth evolved and are related. The DNA sequencing revolution has allowed us to fill in more of the blanks than ever before, greatly accelerating research into biodiversity and Earth’s ecosystems and constantly changing our understanding of life. This past April, our perspective shifted dramatically when researchers unveiled a newly updated Tree of Life showing a whole branch of heretofore-unknown microbes that appear to dominate Earth’s biodiversity.
Frontier Of Physics: Theories of Everything Mapped. “Ever since the dawn of civilization,” Stephen Hawking wrote in his international bestseller A Brief History of Time, “people have not been content to see events as unconnected and inexplicable.
Should Rivers Have Rights? A Growing Movement Says It’s About Time. Chile is a land of rivers. Along its narrow 3,000-mile length, thousands of rivers and wetlands bring freshwater and nutrients down from the Andes Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Together, these river systems drain 101 major watersheds that support both terrestrial and marine ecosystems, ranging from arid lands in the north to blue whale nurseries off of Patagonia in the south. Chile’s second-longest river, the 240-mile Biobío, once tumbled fast and wild through deep gorges and spectacular scenery on its way from the Andes to the sea.