Five Interesting Things: Today’s Scan Hits
Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today.
- More than 200 US colleges are offering their students the opportunity to take an SAT-style test after graduation, to demonstrate their acquired thinking and communication skills to potential employers. Separating the the pricey educational credential from the cheap employment credential may accelerate the popularity of virtual or “homeschooling” approaches to college learning.
- India has passed the world’s first corporate responsibility law. Domestic companies that have made over $80 million in profits over the past three years are now required to spend 2% of their profits on CSR initiatives, and will be penalized if they don’t.
- China is facing a number of substantial obstacles to increasing its agricultural output if it wishes to meet the increasing demands of a swelling middle-class with more expensive food tastes. According to this article in The Atlantic, China’s farmland is shrinking, down 6% between 1997 and 2008, nearly 20% of that is polluted by salinization, industrial waste, sewage or excessive ag chemicals, while five of its largest fresh water lakes have nitrogen-caused deadzones.
- Researchers from Nagoya University in Japan and Aalto Universtiy in Finland have developed integrated circuits made from carbon-based plastic. These circuits can be manufactured and molded like ordinary plastic, allowing for new applications. For example, using these new circuits, the plastic casings on mobile devices and personal electronics could be integrated into the function of the device.
- A Chinese art project/installation collects the prevailing sentiment on China’s popular microblogging services and reflects the aggregate mood by changing the color of the Watercube, Beijing’s Olympic Aquatic Center.