Emergent Futures Tumblelog

robertreich:

How debates are framed is critical because the “center” or “middle ground” is supposedly halfway between the two extremes.

We continue to hear that the Great Budget Debate has two sides: The President and the Democrats want to cut the budget deficit mainly by increasing taxes on the rich and…

Paul Higgins: Agree to some extent Stowe but overreaction in this direction is partly because it was overbalanced in the other direction. Seen plenty of examples where medical profession are treated as gods not to be questioned, or where service is poor or non existent. Relationship cannot be a purely commercial one but the healthcare sector truly needs some “consumer lessons”

underpaidgenius:

Paul Krugman cuts to the heart of the health care debate, and indirectly makes the case that some activities in the world should be outside of marketplace forces, which is why we don’t have to haggle a price when we call 911, and why America’s (generally) believe that public education and federally supported highways are a good idea.

But the GOP is skewing the discussing about health by calling patients ‘consumers’:

Paul Krugman, Patients Are Not Consumers

How did it become normal, or for that matter even acceptable, to refer to medical patients as “consumers”? The relationship between patient and doctor used to be considered something special, almost sacred. Now politicians and supposed reformers talk about the act of receiving care as if it were no different from a commercial transaction, like buying a car — and their only complaint is that it isn’t commercial enough.

What has gone wrong with us?

[…]

The idea that all this can be reduced to money — that doctors are just “providers” selling services to health care “consumers” — is, well, sickening. And the prevalence of this kind of language is a sign that something has gone very wrong not just with this discussion, but with our society’s values.

Yes, Paul, what is wrong with us?

Paul Higgins: I think that they have to some extent but as I understand it not as strongly entrenched in the constitution and culture as in the USA. There is a lot less of this sort of money and influence in Australian politics although it is increasing.

climateadaptation:

What this doesn’t show is that Koch has a protected right to free speech in the United States. Do they in Australia?

visualoop:

smarterplanet:

Cities are trying to tap into information generated by mobile phones, but that approach threatens to leave poor people behind.

Citizens are becoming the source of a lot of information that helps cities improve how they provide public services. For example, Boston just unveiled an iPhone app that uses the device’s accelerometer to detect possible potholes in city roads. Housing officials in South Africa use information from mobile phones to track conditions in temporary settlements. But although these technologies can help direct officials’ attention to problems they need to address, designing government initiatives around them could fail to account for the people who lack the latest devices.

“Customers will be able to check out a Kindle book from their local library and start reading on any Kindle device or free Kindle app for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone,” the company said in its announcement. “If a Kindle book is checked out again or that book is purchased from Amazon, all of a customer’s annotations and bookmarks will be preserved.”

Paul Higgins: A very interesting development. If Amazon can guarantee people the security of their own notes then the e-library you borrow from becomes and extension of your own library of books

via @umairh

Full Story: The Chronicle of Higher Education

climateadaptation:

Climate deniers got you down? Check out this lecture with what seems to be some high quality data used to debunk the debunkers. Starts slow, but then shifts to grab your attention. Last month, Dr. John Mashey broke down the climate denier claims with an intensity and depth that has yet to be…

Our best investments have emergent use cases that the founders never considered when they launched them. Kickstarter is showing that in spades right now. When Perry initially imagined Kickstarter almost ten years ago now as a way to raise money for a music festival, he certainly never thought a golf pro would use Kickstarter to raise the sponsorship money he needs to play a season on the pro tour. And yet that is exactly what is happening right now.

In what felt like a campaign stop, streamed live on the White House’s Facebook page, Obama discussed the budget deficit, fiscal responsibility, investments in technology, health-care reform, the housing crisis and the power of social media.

Paul Higgins: Umair Haque (@umairh) referred to this on his Twitter stream as:

“A well-intended, and possibly interesting, but dangerously vacuous stunt..”

I agree to some extent but also believe that the person on the street is a lot easier to communicate with politically when they feel connected. The problem with a lot of politics today is that politicians seem (and can be) far too distant from the lives of real people. If this sort of communication effort bridges part of that gap then that is a good thing. That bridge is a delicate thing though. It can be destroyed by one moment of  Orwellian double talk as seems to have happened a couple of times this week. Once on tax hikes (which Obama referred to as a reduction in the tax code  rather than cutting tax breaks to the rich-see Daily Show: Slashdance - Democratic Deficit Reduction Plan for Jon Stewart’s skewering of this) and once on an announcement of an investigation into energy speculators.

mediafuturist:

Finally went up on Youtube:) And the slideshow that goes with it Selling 2.0 The Future of Commerce: Gerd Leonhard at Google Zuerich View more presentations from Gerd Leonhard