from Fast Company In the new hybrid workforce model, everything needs to be more intentional, and that’s probably a good thing. Expectations will have to be made more clear, and two-way communication and feedback will have to be more explicit in a remote work scenario. That’s a good change. And workers will be rewarded for what they produce, not just for “face time” with the boss (pun intended). In fact, useless video meetings, where nothing gets done, will become less and less tolerated as “video fatigue” and effective time management become more important and more visible. When there’s no one […]
Continue readingCities Aren’t Adapting To Climate Change Fast Enough
from Fast Company Just 25 of the world’s cities account for 52% of total urban greenhouse gas emissions. This means that focusing on these cities can make a huge difference to the arc of long-term warming. More here.
Continue readingAfraid of Afraid
from Seth’s Blog We’d probably be better off if we could simply say, “I’m afraid.” Our culture has persistently reminded us that the only thing to fear is fear itself, that confessing fear is a failure and that it’s better to lie than to appear un-brave. And so we pretend to be experts in public health and epidemiology instead of simply saying, “I’m afraid.” We fight possible change from the start instead of examining it on the merits. And we make uninformed assertions about the causes and implications of global phenomena instead of acknowledging that change is scary. Fear of […]
Continue readingDate of Viking Visit to North America Pinpointed to 1021 AD
from Kottke Using samples of chopped-down wood left behind by Viking explorers at their settlement in Newfoundland and known chemical markers of powerful solar storms in 993 AD, a group of scientists has determined the exact timing of the first-known visit of Europeans to North America: 1021 AD. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s 471 years before Columbus. A team of scientists looked at wood found at the L’Anse aux Meadows Viking site. In three cases the trees had been physically cut down, and moreover, they were clearly cut with metal tools — Vikings had metal implements at the […]
Continue readingColin Powell, the Humble American
from The New Yorker In 2003, when Colin Powell was Secretary of State, I invited him to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the annual black-tie gala where journalists bring officials as their guests to develop sources and schmooze in a noisy ballroom at the Washington Hilton. Powell was then the rock star in the Bush Administration, a group of people seen widely in Washington as aloof, inaccessible, entitled, or just boring. At pre-dinner receptions in the hotel, Powell commanded whatever room we were in. He had the authoritative bearing of a retired four-star general, but he also had an […]
Continue readingThe Case for File Cabinets
from NYTs Remember filing cabinets? Those lumbering, clattering towers of drawers stuffed full of Pendaflex folders? They were once vital to every workplace, as much a part of the landscape as desks and chairs. There was always a warren of them in a back room somewhere, and no matter what your eventual profession, if you ever served time as an intern, an executive assistant, a clerk or a catalog manager, you filed. You filed and filed until your thumbs wore down. You’d painstakingly recenter those metal rods, always prone to slipping free; you’d occasionally handwrite a label onto the perforated […]
Continue readingHackers Keep Targeting the US Water Supply
from Wired IN LIGHT OF all the Facebook news lately—although frankly, when isn’t there any—you may finally be thinking about jumping ship. If so, here’s how to delete your Facebook account. You’re welcome. That’s not all that happened this week, though! Google shed some new light on the Iranian hacking group known as APT35, or Charming Kitten, and how they use Telegram bots to let them know when a phishing lure has a nibble. Speaking of Telegram, a new report shows just how poor a job the messaging service has done keeping extremism off the platform. There was good news […]
Continue readingA New Global Economic Consensus
from Project Syndicate The Washington Consensus is on its way out. In a report released this week, the G7 Economic Resilience Panel (where I represent Italy) demands a radically different relationship between the public and private sectors to create a sustainable, equitable, and resilient economy. When G20 leaders gather on October 30-31 to discuss how to “overcome the great challenges of today” – including the pandemic, climate change, rising inequality, and economic fragility – they must avoid falling back on the outdated assumptions that landed us in our current mess. The Washington Consensus defined the rules of the game for […]
Continue readingHow The Climate Crisis Is Transforming The Meaning Of ‘Sustainability’ In Business
from Fast Company In his 2021 letter to CEOs, Larry Fink, the CEO and chairman of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment manager, wrote: “No issue ranks higher than climate change on our clients’ lists of priorities.” His comment reflected a growing unease with how the climate crisis is already disrupting businesses. Companies’ concerns about climate change have typically been focused on their operational, financial and reputational risks, the latter associated with the growing importance of the issue among young people. Now, climate change is calling into question the traditional paradigm of corporate sustainability and how companies address their impacts on […]
Continue readingShift Your Tech Time Horizon
from Seth’s Blog Ten years ago, if you were as good at using networks and software as you are today, most of your peers would have considered you some sort of wizard. The question isn’t whether or not each of us is going to get better at using our tools, the only issue is: how soon? We can choose to live behind the curve or ahead of it. It turns out that there are significant rewards for pushing through discomfort and getting (much) better at all the resources that are suddenly freely available in data acquisition, learning technologies, financial tech, […]
Continue readingShareholder Democracy Is Getting Bigger Trial Runs
from NYTs When you buy shares of a publicly traded company, you’re a part owner and, in theory, have a right to vote on some important matters that come before that company’s board of directors. Yet millions of people have had virtually no voice in the decisions of publicly traded American corporations, even though they have ownership stakes. The problem is that those stakes are indirect — held through mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and pension funds. Under current regulations, these various funds control voting rights that might otherwise go to shareholders and to those who receive or are vested in […]
Continue readingUS Gov’t Will Slap Contractors With Civil Lawsuits For Hiding Breaches
from ars technica In a groundbreaking initiative announced by the Department of Justice this week, federal contractors will be sued if they fail to report a cyber attack or data breaches. The newly introduced “Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative” will leverage the existing False Claims Act to pursue contractors and grant recipients involved in what the DOJ calls “cybersecurity fraud.” Usually, the False Claims Act is used by the government to tackle civil lawsuits over false claims made in relation to federal funds and property connected with government programs. More here.
Continue readingTools For Modern Citizens
from Seth’s Blog It has taken us by surprise, but in our current situation, when everyone has more of a voice and more impact on the public than ever before, it suddenly matters. You wouldn’t take your car to a mechanic who didn’t know how to fix a car, and citizens, each of us, should be held to at least as high a standard of knowledge. Everyone around us needs to know about: More here.
Continue readingFlipped Learning: What Is It, And When Is It Effective?
from Brookings Instructors are constantly on the lookout for more effective and innovative ways to teach. Over the last 18 months, this quest has become even more salient, as COVID-19 has shaken up the academic landscape and pushed teachers to experiment with new strategies for engaging their students. One innovative teaching method that may be particularly amenable to teaching during the pandemic is flipped learning. But does it work? In this post, we discuss our new reportsummarizing the lessons from over 300 published studies on flipped learning. The findings suggest that, for many of us who work with students, flipped […]
Continue readingThe Grid Isn’t Ready for the Renewable Revolution
from Wired YOU CAN ALMOST hear the electrical grid creaking and groaning under the weight of the future, as two forces converge to push it—often literally—to its breaking point. One force is climate change, which can exacerbate disasters that take down parts of the grid, as Hurricane Ida did this summer, knocking New Orleans offline just as a heat wave settled in. Or extreme weather can suddenly spike the demand for energy just when the grid is least able to provide it, like during last winter’s Texas freeze and subsequent power system failure. The other force, ironically enough, is the massive […]
Continue readingFCC Plans To Rein In “Gateway” Carriers That Bring Foreign Robocalls To Us
from are technica The Federal Communications Commission hopes to reduce the number of illegal robocalls from overseas with an expansion of rules that require phone companies to implement Caller ID authentication technology and block illegal calls. “Eliminating illegal robocalls that originate abroad is one of the most vexing challenges the commission faces because of the difficulty in reaching foreign-based robocallers and the foreign voice service providers that originate their traffic,” the FCC said. To make a dent in that problem, the FCC is proposing new requirements on domestic gateway providers that accept calls from outside the US. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking […]
Continue readingHow an 11-Foot-Tall 3-D Printer Is Helping to Create a Community
from NYTs Three-dimensional printing can create nearly any object. A partnership in Mexico is putting that theory to the test, building a village for residents living in poverty. More here.
Continue readingCongestion Pricing Is Coming to New York. Everyone Has an Opinion.
from NYTs More than two years after New York State lawmakers approved a congestion pricing plan that would toll drivers entering the busiest parts of Manhattan — the first such program in the country — New Yorkers and those who travel alongside them are getting a chance to voice their opinions. Public hearings, which started last week, kick off an extensive review process that federal officials are requiring the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to complete before the agency can begin charging vehicles that enter Manhattan between 60th Street and the Battery. Congestion pricing is meant to discourage drivers and address the […]
Continue readingAn Insider from the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Speaks Out
from The New Yorker One day last spring, Ryan Hampton had a secret meeting with David Sackler, whose family’s company, Purdue Pharma, stood accused of helping to precipitate the opioid crisis. Hampton was the co-chair of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (U.C.C.), a powerful group that represented thousands of people and entities with claims against Purdue in what was then an ongoing bankruptcy proceeding. His job was to act as a sort of watchdog, and he had access to a trove of sensitive material that Purdue and the Sacklers were compelled to turn over in discovery. Hampton was also […]
Continue readingPowerful Consumer Trends To Watch In 2021
from Forbes Consumer data from 2020 is rolling in, and the numbers are telling. Covid-19 drove major shifts in consumer behavior that will likely have lasting effects. To understand and respond to consumer trends, it’s important to examine the underlying patterns that power a new approach to life, work and buying. At my company, we keep our ears to the ground, ready to sense the tremors that will shake things up. It’s what our clients have come to expect from us; time and time again, we’ve used our foresight and market responsiveness to create future-facing content that matters. Here’s my […]
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