Has Western capitalism failed? 23 September 2011Last updated at 00:06 Twenty years ago, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe seemed to prove the triumph of capitalism. But was that an illusion? Constant shocks to the world's financial system over the past few years prompted the BBC World Service's Business Daily programme to ask leading figures whether they thought Western capitalism had failed. My answer to this question would be no. But I also wonder whether capitalism should be answering to the prosecution. We failed as regulators, we failed as supervisors, we failed as corporate governance managers, we failed as risk managers, and we also failed in the allocation of roles and responsibilities for international economic organisations. Some international organisations saw the crisis coming. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote It is very important to send clear signals of how we are going to address this debt problem without sacrificing growth and employment” End Quote So the crisis left a dire legacy.
The Regulation of Genetically Modified Foods Help on accessing alternative formats, such as Portable Document Format (PDF), Microsoft Word and PowerPoint (PPT) files, can be obtained in the alternate format help section. Health Canada's Mandate Health Canada is responsible, under the Food and Drugs Act and its Regulations, for provisions related to public health, food safety and nutrition. Through science-based regulation, guidelines and public health policy, as well as health risk assessments concerning chemical, physical and microbiological contaminants, toxicants and allergens in the food supply, Health Canada works to protect the health and safety of Canadians. Biotechnology is an umbrella term that covers a broad spectrum of scientific tools and techniques, including genetic modification and genetic engineering. Canadian Regulation of Foods Derived from Biotechnology It is a seven to ten year process to research, develop, test and assess the safety of a new GM food. The steps in the regulatory process are described below:
Economists: Every $1 of electricity from coal does $2 in damage to U.S. We all knew coal is harmful — we figured people just ignored that harm because of their profit margins. But according to the prestigious American Economic Review, harm from coal-fired electrical plants costs more than twice as much as the electricity they generate. All told, coal plants cause $53 billion in damage every year. And none of that even takes climate impacts into account. Health effects from coal-fired plants — increased deaths from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates — comprise more than a quarter of pollution-related damages from U.S. industry. The findings show that, contrary to current political mythology, coal is underregulated.
The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) Is ethical optimal Distributed Leadership and The New Flow. (A note to the reader: This post is long. And in 2011, when we all have the concentration of monkeys, reading something beyond 500 words can be a challenge. Well, it is for me anyway. So, if you have the time, I'd be grateful if you sat down, got a cup of tea, and read it. If not, that is cool too. Click on one of the other 10 tabs. A few weeks ago on Google Plus, Ishan Shapiro ( @notthisbody ) sparked off an inquiry about 'Distributed Leadership'. “Being of service to the individuals and collective – reciprocal enhancement of the individuals and collective.” What does that mean Eddie, you ask. Let me continue. I have been thinking along similar lines for a while. Having been influenced a lot from the likes of John Hagel , who advocates the value of small acts that can potentially lead to big things, as well my personal explorations into system thinking (amongst other things) - I have found that these ideas have finally morphed together in one semi-cohesive whole. Right, ok, Eddie.
A Very Short Primer on Resilience As Design 4 Resilience approaches, the D4R team is boning up on resilience thinking. And sharing what we're learning on Shareable's D4R channel, Twitter's #D4R hashtag, and the D4R tag on Delicious. One thing we've learned is that there are many perspectives on resilience. As examples, psychological resilience is a robust field. Recently, a team of psychologists at University of Pennsylvania lead by Martin Seligman began work on a $100 million contract to train Army personnel in psychological resilience. Then there's urban resilience. A cross-discipline, cross-scale exploration of resilience is one thing we're striving for. Now that we understand that there are many perspectives on resilience, let's jump into our primer while realizing it has biases. Definition: resilience is the ability of an interdependent social and ecological system to absorb disturbances and maintain the same structure and function. Nonlinearity, alternate regimes and thresholds. Image courtesy of Tsalon.
The perils of pragmamorphism | Emanuel Derman Having been a scientist, one of my major pet peeves is the naïve use of science. Let me give you several examples. The influential biologist and evangelistic atheist Richard Dawkins wrote in the Los Angeles Times several years ago about what he called the scientific “vandalism” involved in hanging Saddam Hussein: “Hussein’s mind would have been a unique resource for historical, political and psychological research, a resource that is now forever unavailable to scholars. … Psychologists, struggling to understand how an individual human being could be so evil … would give their eye teeth for such a rich research subject. Elsewhere, Dawkins has also opined on the pernicious effect of fairy tales on children: “So many of the stories I read allowed the possibility of frogs turning into princes and I’m not sure whether that has a sort of insidious affect on rationality.” This reminds me a bit of the practical nursery rhymes taught to the alphas in Huxley’s Brave New World: Theories first.
Le plan secret allemand pour sauver la Grce Existe-t-il une alternative crédible aux plans étudiés actuellement concernant le sauvetage de la Grèce, qui résoudrait la question du surendettement sans provoquer de défaut, et qui sortirait durablement le pays de la spirale de la récession et du désordre social ? Équation difficile à résoudre et que n'intègrent pas les plans en cours de discussion aujourd'hui. Ce plan existe. Baptisé « Eureca », il a été mis au point par des consultants très influents auprès du gouvernement d'Angela Merkel, pilotés par Martin Wittig, CEO du groupe Roland Berger. Il se décline en six phases essentielles, que l'on peut résumer ainsi : ? ? ? ? ? ? Opposition des banques Quelles sont les chances de ce programme d'être adopté par la Grèce et les gouvernements européens, qui travaillent sur d'autres pistes ? Même si ce plan est « porté » par un groupe de consultants, il est très probable qu'il n'a pas été conçu en dehors de l'entourage d'Angela Merkel et des experts de la Troïka.
Recasting Globalizations Narrative By Dani Rodrik “Today, the self-assured attitude of globalization’s cheerleaders has all but disappeared, replaced by doubts, questions, and skepticism.” Doubts all around When countries on the periphery of the global system such as Thailand and Indonesia are overcome by crisis, we blame them for their failures and their inability to adjust to the system’s rigors. What might have prevented the financial crisis? Our basic narrative has lost its credibility and appeal. Developing nations have always complained that the system is biased against their interests since it is the big boys that make the rules. “We need a new narrative to shape the next stage of globalization. To continue reading, subscribe using the link on the homepage to our digital edition for £4.99 for three month or purchase one article for $1 per day.
Engineers can build a low-carbon world if we let them - opinion - 26 September 2011 Read full article Continue reading page |1|2 The engineering solutions to combat climate change already exist. Politicians must be brave enough to use them before it's too late One word sums up the attitude of engineers towards climate change: frustration. Engineers know there is so much more that we could do. Wind, wave and solar power, zero-emissions transport, low-carbon buildings and energy-efficiency technologies have all been shown feasible. Climate call The barriers preventing the creation of a low-carbon society are not technological but political and financial. The statement calls on governments to move from warm words to solid actions. – an assessment of the climate change challenge in the UK – that the move to a low-carbon society will cost no more than 1 per cent of GDP by 2050. Resistance to wind turbines and the power lines they feed, nuclear power and electric cars, as well as the economic costs, all make public opinion a powerful brake on change. China in front Recommended by
The Rise of the Zuckerverb: The New Language of Facebook - Ben Zimmer - Technology Last week, as he paced around the stage at the f8 Developers Conference, Mark Zuckerberg declared with wide-eyed optimism that Facebook was "helping to define a brand-new language for how people connect." "When we started," Zuckerberg explained, "the vocabulary was really limited. You could only express a small number of things, like who you were friends with. Then last year, when we introduced the Open Graph, we added nouns, so you could like anything that you wanted." And then he delivered the breathless payoff: "This year, we're adding verbs. Last of all, the authors of the languages formed the verbs, as we observe children expressing nouns and particles but leaving the verbs to be understood. -- Giambattista Vico, The New Science, 1744 By adding verbs to the "brand-new language" of social connectivity, Zuckerberg told the f8 audience that Facebook was going to "make it so people can express an order of magnitude more things than they could before."
Engineers can build a low-carbon world if we let them - opinion - 26 September 2011 Read full article Continue reading page |1|2 The engineering solutions to combat climate change already exist. Politicians must be brave enough to use them before it's too late One word sums up the attitude of engineers towards climate change: frustration. Political inertia following the high-profile failure of 2009's Copenhagen climate conference has coupled with a chorus of criticism from a vocal minority of climate-change sceptics. Engineers know there is so much more that we could do. Wind, wave and solar power, zero-emissions transport, low-carbon buildings and energy-efficiency technologies have all been shown feasible. Climate call The barriers preventing the creation of a low-carbon society are not technological but political and financial. The statement calls on governments to move from warm words to solid actions. – an assessment of the climate change challenge in the UK – that the move to a low-carbon society will cost no more than 1 per cent of GDP by 2050. China in front