What goes around comes around. What ancient Greeks practiced some 2,523 years ago, demokratia — “the rule by the people” — is back in vogue despite recent setbacks. And, as we forecast in our summer 2011 Trends Journal, Direct Democracy — “the rule of the people” — has become a megatrend in motion that will...
Category: Uncategorized
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Trendpost
Can Direct Democracy become a reality, or is the Swiss model unique and the Greek vote a one-off? On issues ranging from federal to local — foreign entanglements, foreign aid, trade agreements, immigration, taxes (federal, state, school, value-added, etc.), health care reform, abortion, drug decriminalization, capital punishment, right to die, oil drilling, hydrofracking, same-sex marriage,...
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Cradle of democracy?
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Race on for faster, cleaner
The “Dominant Energy” landscape has been, as forecast, active, multi-dimensional and moving fast across a spectrum of energy sources and delivery systems that will redefine how energy is marketed, priced, delivered and used. New drilling still favors gas, with US production up seven percent during the first six months of 2015. Exports of liquefied natural...
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The future of learning
The structure of education is driven by, and mirrors, the needs of the economy that it supports. At the turn of the 20th century, mass migration from rural America was underway. Individuals migrated to industrialized cities in unprecedented numbers. The daily rhythm of the rural community was out of sync with the rigid structure of...
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Trendpost
Not all students can learn efficiently over the Internet. Different people learn different ways. Visual and auditory learners do better than kinesthetic learners, who learn by doing. Individual learners and social learners have different needs. Public, private, hybrid and community approaches can be taken. Traditional universities can benefit from integration with major online organizations by...
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Follow nature’s lead for green energy
Solar panels and wind turbines are a big part of our energy future but, to a growing number of researchers, these devices are only transition technologies. These scientists hope to make energy directly from sunlight, water and air, the way plants do — what they call “solar fuels” — and they’re steadily coming closer to...
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Trendpost
A handful of small companies such as HyperSolar in Santa Barbara, California, and Proton OnSite, in the Connecticut suburbs of New York City, already are designing commercial products based on artificial photosynthesis. Larger companies hang back but several are taking an interest, including Total — one of the world’s five largest oil companies — and...
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