What's Emerging end of February 2024
A newsletter on interesting stuff that is emerging around the world so you can think about strategy.
Welcome to our end of February Newsletter
Apologies for this being late but Paul has suffered a bereavement in his family.
In the next few weeks Paul will be working on the strategy consultation process with RSL Victoria, and working with a Melbourne Council. He will also be facilitating an economic development workshop in Canberra and presenting to a CEO Institute syndicate on Foresight for Practical Strategy. He will also continue in his role of venture philanthropy organisation Social Venture Partners Melbourne that is conducting a wide ranging strategy review in March (stand by for news from that).
If you are interested in talking to us about any of our strategy approaches, foresight approaches, workshops, or conference presentations for next year, please Contact Us.
The Emergent Futures Team
In case you missed it. The most popular link from the last edition was one of our business tips:
Two keys to go from being busy to becoming productive and having guilt-free time for your personal life
These two scheduling methods can help you get deep work done and have guilt-free time for things you enjoy outside of work.....…. Read More
What are we Writing About?
Paul’s presentation to the YMCA in Geelong is now up on our website. You can look at it by going to our home page and looking under our latest work.
What’s Emerging
Bobcat's All-Electric Compact Loader, the S7X, at CES
A New Version of Dengue Is Plaguing Florida: 'Unprecedented' Outbreaks
The Aedes mosquitoes that spread dengue typically live in tropical areas of the world. But over the past few decades, their range has expanded, as has the risk of catching dengue. According to the World Health Organization, the number of reported dengue cases has increased tenfold globally since 2000, with more than 5 million cases documented in 2019, and the virus is now endemic in more than 100 countries.........…..Read More
Interactions between climate change, urban infrastructure and mobility are driving dengue emergence in Vietnam
For a more detailed look at what is driving some of the changes around Dengue here is an article in Nature Communications.........…..Read More
What If COVID Reinfections Wear Down Our Immunity?
Nearly three years into the pandemic, it’s clear early expectations about the behaviour of the coronavirus and its toll on our bodies have proven overly optimistic. Paul: What If Scenarios are an important tool for thinking about the future. I posed a similar question to this to the YMCA meeting in Geelong - what if multiple COVID infections lead to a large cohort of young people with disability?...........……. Read more
We are close to creating the first artificial plant genome
Scientists have created a partially synthetic version of moss for industrial use. This could lead to new methods for producing medicines and other products.......……. Read More
Deadly H5N1 avian influenza strain detected on mainland Antarctica for the first time
The arrival of a devastating strain of avian influenza, which has killed millions of animals globally, to the Antarctic mainland makes Australia the last continent free of the virus. The highly-contagious strain of bird flu, known as H5N1, was confirmed over the weekend in two brown skua, which are large seabirds that prey on fish, small mammals and other birds like penguin chicks .....…..Read more
First gene-edited meat will come from disease-proof CRISPR pigs
Pigs that have been given genetically engineered immunity to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, a major and costly disease, could be on the market within two years.........…..Read more
Working from home is producing economic benefits return-to-office rules would quash
Fewer people, especially women and parents with young children, would put themselves forward for work. The pool of skills that employers are looking for would shrink. And job-matching in the labour market becomes less efficient. The result would be more Australians unemployed, and more Australians dropping out of the paid workforce, than if we had continued to embrace working from home......….. Read more
Satellites Are Becoming the New Cellphone Towers
Larger antennas and better beamforming are routing calls through orbit.……. Read more
Meta won't renew commercial deals with Australian news media
Three years ago, the company signed deals with Australian news outlets following the introduction of the News Media Bargaining Code, laws which required tech giants to pay for displaying news on their platforms. The deals were due to expire in the next few months and had provided Australian media companies, including the ABC and Nine, with up to $200 million, according to the government. Paul: I never really understood this law. It is like someone recommending a restaurant online and then that person being expected to pay the restaurant for doing that. There is a whole different argument around Large Language Models using online content to fashion new content which means the user never goes to the original site. .......…..Read more
This disused mine in Finland is being turned into a gravity battery to store renewable energy
One of Europe’s deepest mines is being transformed into an underground energy store. It will use gravity to retain excess power for when it is needed. The remote Finnish community of Pyhäjärvi is 450 kilometres north of Helsinki. Its more than 1,400-metre-deep zinc and copper Pyhäsalmi mine was decommissioned but is now being given a new lease of life by Scotland-based company Gravitricity.......….. Read more
Satellite mapping reveals extensive industrial activity at sea
The world’s population increasingly relies on the ocean for food, energy production and global trade yet human activities at sea are not well quantified. This study combined satellite imagery, vessel GPS data and deep-learning models to map industrial vessel activities and offshore energy infrastructure across the world’s coastal waters from 2017 to 2021............….….Read more
Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline’s chatbot
After months of resisting, Air Canada was forced to give a partial refund to a grieving passenger who was misled by an airline chatbot inaccurately explaining the airline's bereavement travel policy....….…Read more.
“Corolla killer:” BYD launches $US15,000 EV in direct attack on legacy makers
At $US15,000, BYD’s new Qin EV is already being touted as a “Corolla killer”, as the world’s second largest EV maker continues to disrupt the global auto market. The all-electric Qin Plus has five variants priced between 109,800 RMB to ($A23,300) to 139,800 RMB ($A29,700). The Qin Plus comes with a 100 kW motor and the option of either a 48 kWh battery providing 420 km CLTC range or a 57.6 kW hour battery with 510 km range......… Read more.
Gen Xers expect to keep working longer than they planned–and will be the first generation to go into retirement with less financial security than their parents and grandparents
The shift promises to be difficult. According to the recently released Schroders 2023 U.S. Retirement Survey, 61% of non-retired Gen Xers are not confident in their ability to achieve a dream retirement. This compares to 49% of millennials and 53% of non-retired baby boomers. And based on my conversations, a dream retirement for Gen Xers does not mean lavish holidays and private yachts. It means the lowest level of minimum financial certainty to meet our changing needs as we age....……...… Read more.
Business and Other Tips
How Asana and Slack’s meeting purges have paid off
Shopify made headlines last year when it announced its calendar purge and subsequent meeting cost calculator. From there, many other large companies followed suit and asked themselves how they, too, could minimize the amount of meetings on people’s calendars. ...…..read more
Chrome’s new AI feature can help you write on the web
You can now turn on “Help me write,” a new experimental AI feature in Chrome that can help you write content online......…. Read More
New review unpacks what we know about junk food and 32 health issues
The review found "convincing evidence" higher junk food intake was associated with:
About a 50 per cent increased risk of cardiovascular disease-related death
A 48 to 53 per cent higher risk of anxiety and common mental disorders
A 12 per cent greater risk of type 2 diabetes ……Read More
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