What's Emerging end-of-April 2023
A newsletter on interesting stuff that is emerging around the world so you can think about strategy.
Welcome to our end-of-April newsletter
In the next few weeks Paul will continue working on a large foresight and strategic planning program for RSL Victoria. He is also working with the mining services representative body Austmine to challenge their strategy. He will also be working with several clients on Wardley mapping analysis of their strategic options as part of our “try before you buy” option for foresight and strategy approaches utilising Wardley mapping. Please contact us if you are interested in our free 2nd Opinion process that demonstrates our approach while working on a real-world issue for you.
Paul will also be continuing his work with Save the Children and his new position as Chair of Social Venture Partners Melbourne, which supports innovative not-for-profit startups to scale their operations through engaged philanthropy. If you in Melbourne are interested in exploring what it is like to be a partner, they are holding a networking event on May 10th. You can reserve a spot at EventBrite.
The Emergent Futures Team
In case you missed it. The most popular link from the last edition:
The runaway winner was again
Scammers can disguise their number so it looks like your bank is calling — here are red flags to watch for
The ACCC's Scamwatch is warning people that scammers are using technology to trick victims by:
making the call appear to come from the bank's legitimate phone number
sending a text that appears in the same conversation thread as genuine bank messages
Paul: this happened to me. A message from a scammer appeared in the middle of a series of legitimate text messages from my bank. Be careful out there.....…. Read More
What are we Writing About?
As all work in the last two weeks has been private, we have nothing in this section this edition
What’s Emerging
'High Risk of Biological Hazard' In Sudan After Fighters Seize Biolab, WHO Says
The lab contains “reference laboratories related to the control of some diseases such as polio, measles, tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS.” The lab is engaged in various aspects of studying and controlling diseases, including identifying pathogens, testing for them, and sending samples to international labs. The work is aimed at preventing and identifying possible epidemics, and the lab works with the WHO. …..Read More
Vaccine printer could help vaccines reach more people
The printer generates vaccine-filled microneedle patches that can be stored long-term at room temperature and applied to the skin.In a study in Nature Biotechnology, the researchers showed they could use the printer to produce thermostable Covid-19 RNA vaccines that could induce a comparable immune response to that generated by injected RNA vaccines, in mice.…..Read More
London Ambulance Service Decarbonises in Style with a Fleet of 42 Mustang Mach-E Electric Vehicles
London Ambulance Service (LAS) is leading the charge towards eco-friendly healthcare by investing £31m in a decarbonisation program that includes the UK’s largest fully electric Fast Response Unit fleet. The fleet comprises 42 electric Mustang Mach-E cars that take just 40 mins to charge and can travel over 300 miles, ten times further than a typical ambulance in a single shift. LAS has also introduced electric motorcycles to the fleet and will roll out four fully electric ambulances in August........……. Read more
US generated 91m tons of surplus food in 2021, representing 6% of all GHG emissions. Just 2% was donated.
ReFED defines “surplus food” as “food that goes unsold or uneaten.” Households in the US generate about 50% of this surplus food, while consumer-facing businesses like restaurants and grocery stores generate another 20%. Collectively, surplus food accounts for nearly 6% of annual greenhouse gas emissions in the US, or the equivalent of driving 83 million passenger vehicles for a full year, says ReFED..........……. Read More
How prompt injection attacks hijack today's top-end AI
Large language models that are all the rage all of a sudden have numerous security problems, and it's not clear how easily these can be fixed. The issue that most concerns Simon Willison, the maintainer of open source Datasette project, is prompt injection....…..Read more
With its U.S. future in doubt, TikTok Shop is thriving in Indonesia
TikTok Shop has caught fire in the app's second-biggest market. “This is truly the year of TikTok,” says one seller........…..Read more
A Bleak Outlook for Manhattan’s Office Space May Signal a Bigger Problem
Remote work and rising interest rates are dealing a double blow to office landlords, with potentially grave consequences for the city and even national economy......….. Read more
$50 million boost for long COVID research as parliamentary inquiry hands down report
Health Minister Mark Butler said the funding would better inform policy decisions and improve health outcomes for patients.The Department of Health and Aged Care has been tasked with developing a national plan to respond to long COVID..…. Read more
Pivot Bio pilot replaces synthetic nitrogen on nearly 1m acres of farmland
“This was meant to be a small pilot,” Pivot Bio’s Mitchell Craft tells AFN. “We were not planning on it becoming a commercial-scale sustainability program that captured this kind of impact.”......…..Read more
More than 3,300 sea lions in Chile die of H5N1 bird flu
More than 3,300 sea lions in Chile have died of H5N1 bird flu, a six-fold increase in just 4 weeks, according to government estimates…….. The outbreak is also affecting other marine animals, including dolphins, porpoises, sea otters and penguins. Paul - keeping a close eye on this...........….. Read more
Inmarsat I-4F1 satellite outage disables tractor GPS services for farming operations and some maritime safety
Farmers across Australia and New Zealand rely on GPS for planting and sowing, and businesses that sell technology that relies on GPS have been inundated with calls.Big agricultural brands and services are caught up in the outage, including John Deere, Case, Ag Leader and Trimble.Paul: As ag becomes more and more dependent on data this will become a bigger and bigger problem.......….….Read more
‘Overemployed’ Hustlers Exploit ChatGPT To Take On Even More Full-Time Jobs
Over the last few months, the exploding popularity of ChatGPT and similar products has led to growing concerns about AI’s potential effects on the international job market—specifically, the percentage of jobs that could be automated away, replaced by a well-oiled army of chatbots. But for a small cohort of fast-thinking and occasionally devious go-getters, AI technology has turned into an opportunity not to be feared but exploited, with their employers apparently none the wiser. Paul: A short lived effect …Read more.
Demand for electric cars is booming, with sales expected to leap 35% this year after a record-breaking 2022
The global auto industry is undergoing a sea change, with implications for the energy sector, as electrification is set to avoid the need for 5 million barrels of oil a day by 2030.......…Read more.
New Research Sparks Concerns That Ocean Circulation Will Collapse
Scientists have long feared that warming could cause a breakdown of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic. But new research finds the real risk lies in Antarctica’s waters, where melting could disrupt currents in the next few decades, with profound impacts on global climate.............…Read more.
Business Tips
How companies are using behavioral data to inform office design
Not only are office occupancy rates rarely at 100% but when people are in the office they are also using the workspace differently compared to before the pandemic. To attract people to come into the office, companies are increasingly relying on employee behavioral data to ensure the space provides what workers need when they’re there....…..read more.
This AI chatbot can sum up any PDF and answer any question you have about it
As the name implies, ChatPDF allows you to chat with your PDF. ChatPDF runs on OpenAI's GPT 3.5 large language model and can answer any question you have about the PDF you upload. The chatbot can even give you a full summary of the PDF without you having to read it. Paul: do not upload any information that is private and confidential……Read more
Harnessing the power of client feedback
A good client feedback system helps improve both client outcomes and financial sustainability. What does it look like...…. Read More
We make thousands of unconscious decisions every day. Here’s how your brain copes with that
Do you remember learning to drive a car? You probably fumbled around for the controls, checked every mirror multiple times, made sure your foot was on the brake pedal, then ever-so-slowly rolled your car forward. Fast forward to now and you’re probably driving places and thinking, “how did I even get here? I don’t remember the drive”. The task of driving, which used to take a lot of mental energy and concentration, has now become subconscious, automatic – habitual. Paul-: understanding this better will help your decision-making..…. Read More
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