Business changes the world–at every moment, in myriad ways, for good and ill. Decisions in boardrooms or on factory floors set in motion both staggering progress and far-reaching disasters: Microsoft tweaks its software and rearranges the virtual desktops of millions of people, shaping how they work every day. BP apparently shrugs off maintenance, and oil pours from a corroded pipeline into Prudhoe Bay. Wal-Mart shifts its gaze, just slightly, and drives organic produce to folks whose income once limited them to preservative-laden processed food. But unlike the chaos-theory butterfly, business is not an uncalculating force of nature. It can behave with intention. Indeed, we have left the era in which business leaders were expected to treat their companies as mute, dumb giants, merely swinging pickaxes in a profit quarry. We are waking to the idea that if business inevitably shapes the future, it has a responsibility to choose what that future will be. For guidance in this new realm, business is looking to social entrepreneurs. Not because they excel at that do-gooder thing, but because they have sophisticated, tested theories of change. They know their markets. They understand systems and levers of action as few others do. And, […]
Mohammed, and its most common alternative spelling Muhammad, are now more popular babies’ names in England and Wales than George, reflecting the diverse ethnic mix of the population. The Office for National Statistics said there were 2,833 baby boys called Mohammed in 2006. Top ten names The name is 22nd in the list of most popular boys’ names, moving up a place from last year. Spelled Muhammad, it is the 44th most popular name and enters the top 50 for the first time along with Noah, Oscar, Lucas and Rhys. There were 2,833 babies called Mohammed born in 2006 and 1,422 called Muhammad. The total exceeds the number of Georges (3,386) or Josephs (3,755). The list of popular babies’ names for 2006 also shows that the cult of celebrity is changing the baptismal tide. There were 38 babies called Cruz (after David Beckham’s third child) this year, raising the name from 1,508th to 650th. There were 14 Peaches (after the daughter of Bob Geldof), raising that name from 4,509th to 1,561st. Jack has been the top boys’ name for 12 years but Olivia has risen three places from last year. Last […]
NEW YORK – There’s some very good news in the battle against illicit drugs: Use by America’s teens has dropped more than 23 percent during the last five years. But their abuse of medicines, both over-the-counter and prescription, is rising. These opposing trends – detailed in a survey of teens released Thursday – reflect the complexity of the US drug scene. They also present a new set of challenges. The most important: How to apply the prevention tools that have apparently succeeded in combating illegal drug use to fight the abuse of legal medicines. Experts credit campaigns focusing on parental involvement and the dangers of abuse for the significant declines in not only drugs like marijuana, but alcohol and cigarettes as well. The newly released Monitoring the Future study, which experts consider to be one of the most definitive in the US, is done by the University of Michigan and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It found that teen use of marijuana – their most common drug – declined from 35 percent in 2001 to 29 percent in 2006. ‘The broad nature of these declines across multiple drugs and alcohol and cigarettes … […]
About half of the billions of dollars donated by individuals, companies and governments worldwide to help the victims of the southeast Asian tsunami two years ago has still not been spent, the BBC said. According to figures obtained by the broadcaster from a database compiled by the United Nations Department for Aid and Development, several foreign governments have also only given only a small proportion, and at times none, of the money they promised. Of the 6.7 billion dollars (5.1 billion euros) pledged, about a tenth has yet to be delivered, and only 3.4 billion dollars has been spent thus far, the BBC said. Among the countries that came up with a fraction of what they promised, China offered 301 million dollars to help Sri Lanka recover from the disaster, but has thus far delivered just one million dollars, the broadcaster said. Spain pledged 60 million dollars to Sri Lanka, but came up with less than a million, while France said it would give 79 million dollars, but delivered just over a million dollars. Kuwait had pledged slightly less than 10 million dollars to the Maldives, but has yet to actually hand over any money. […]
LONDON — Body weight and obesity could be affected not only by what we eat but also by how it is digested in the gut, American scientists said on Wednesday. They have discovered that levels of two types of good microbes or bacteria in the gut that help to break down foods are different in obese and lean people and mice. The finding, reported in the science journal Nature, could lead to a better understanding of why some people may be prone to obesity and help find new ways of preventing or treating it. ‘Our gut microbial structure should be considered when understanding the elements that might regulate our energy balance and may predispose us to obesity,’ Jeffrey Gordon, of the Washington University of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, said in an interview. ‘There is something very startling about the amount of fat you have and the structure of your gut microbial community,’ he added. There are trillions of bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract, but two groups called the Bacteroidetes and the Firmicutes are the most dominant and their proportion varies in lean and obese mice and humans. The scientists found that the proportion […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
