Resources / Ripples & Wipeouts

This summer there have been some highly significant news stories that go beyond the normal chatter of the news cycle to address sweeping trends that are changing the way we live and do business. Here are the ones that rocked my world. I call them the VIP Five.

1) The (actual) future of the Big Idea, from Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab, challenges the assumption that ideas need exposure in ‘Big Media’ in order to become big ideas.  What, author Megan Garber asks, happens when the Big Media become not so big after all? 

2) The title of this BBC News piece says it all – Species flee warming faster than previously thought. What will happen when most of the animals and plants have moved toward the poles? And what about those that already live there?

3) Here’s a sobering thought: “Somewhere between 2025 & 2045 computers are expected to develop self-awareness.” This, according to Peer 1 Hosting, is only one of the staggering developments that will come about through the progression of super computing technologies. Read it (and weep?) on one of my favorite sites, Read, Write Web:

4) Most of us know that mapping the human genome has shown that all humans are of a single race. Why, then, do ideas about race persist? Dorothy Roberts explains how “race is an invented political system” in Lies About Race, featured in The Root. 

5) Not to be lost in the new media feeding frenzy, our old friend, The New York Times, presses on. (OK, it’s a bad pun, but I couldn’t resist.) Many Baby Boomers built successful careers right out of high school. “That’s all in the past now. Money changes everything.” The Master’s as the New Bachelor’s - NYTimes.com

-- Bonnie McEwan