martes, diciembre 31, 2013

Review main issues 2013-2010

Jerry Glenn, Director
The Millennium Project Global Futures Studies & Research

2013 Year in Review

  1. New Pope sets a new tone for the 1.2 billion Roman Catholics
  2. Global Slavery Index estimates there are about 30 million slaves in 2013.
  3. Nearly 40% of humanity uses the Internet
  4. Malala Yousafzai survives Taliban assignation and becomes a new world force
  5. Nelson Mandela passing reminds the world of greatness
  6. The largest petition to recall a government in history:  22 million sign petition in Egyptian for Morsi’s resignation
  7. Egyptian military crackdown on the Moslem Brotherhood
  8. China lands a robot rover on the Moon, India launches spacecraft to Mars
  9. Elon Musk continues private sector space program SpaceX Falcon 9 launching a geostationery satellite at 1/3 the cost
  10. Syrian Civil War worsens while it agreed to disarm chemical weapons
  11. Hassan Rouhani opens Iran to the West and signs nuclear processing agreement
  12. No. Korean conducts 3rd underground nuclear bomb test and executes Pres’s uncle
  13. US Government Shutdown begins the decline of the Tea Party’s power
  14. China tensions with Japan & neighbors increase; US & China warships monitor
  15. US Affordable Health Care Website problems
  16. CO2 passes 400 parts per million in the atmosphere; 2013 7th hottest year recorded
  17. Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines with the most powerful tropical storm to make landfall on record with gusts reaching 235 mph.
  18. Shanghai and California initiate cap and trade systems
  19. First hamburger publically cooked and tested from pure meat tissue grown without growing a cow
  20. UN adopts the Arms Trade Treaty of conventional weapons
  21. Edward Snowden release of US intelligence write tapping heads of state.
  22. Largest meteor in a century hits Russian city of Chelyabinsk
  23. USA makes recreational use of marijuana legal in Colorado and Washington and Uruguay becomes the first country to make it legal to produce and sale marajuana
  24. US Government shutdow for 16 days; Tea Party begins to lose power in the US
  25. Human adult cell nuclei inserted in egg cells with previous nuclei removed that produced new embryonic stem cells clonded for new stem cell line.
  26. Higgs particle confirmed that gives rise to matter
  27. Google Glass demonstrated
  28. President Obama annouces Human Brain Initiative
  29. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report
  30. The were 628 recorded cyber-attacks over a 24 hour period on July 24, 2013 with majority targeting the USA


For comparison, here’s my list from last three years:

2012 Year in Review

  1. Humanity continues to be succeeding /winning more than it is losing, according to the 28 variables in the State of the Future Index
  2. Higgs-like Particle discovered that may explain how matter is created
  3. Skydive from the edge of space (24 miles) going faster than sound (Mach 1.24)
  4. Moslem Brotherhood takes over the leadership of Egypt
  5. Egypt’s Morsi goes from world hero (cease fire agreement) to world pariah dictator within 24 hours
  6. China and its ocean neighbors contest boundaries increasing tensions with and  among  Japan, Philippians, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei
  7. North Korea successfully launches intercontinental missile for orbital satellite
  8. Wikipedia and others went dark to successfully block the US Congress’s SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act).
  9. Big Data becomes popular subject for decisionmakers to explore how to use
  10. China’s third human space launch carring the first Chinese woman into space  rendezvoused with China’s Space Lab
  11. SpaceX’s Dragon is the first successful private sector station re-supply vehicle 
  12. Mars Landing of Curiosity Robot
  13. China proposes space power collaboration with India
  14. Driverless cars by Google are legal in US (California, Florida, and Nevada)
  15. President Obama’s endorsement of Gay Marriage
  16. London Olympics – nurtures spirit of world peace
  17. Facebook’s IPO financial loss
  18. Pope’s assistant exposes some of the Vatican’s inner political corruption.
  19. Severe political stalemate in Washington, D.C., US continues
  20. More than 100 journalists have been killed so far this year, making 2012 the deadliest year for media since UNESCO began keeping records on the issue
  21. Syria’s civil war accellorates.
  22. Likely 2012 will be the hottest year in US recorded history
  23. Climate continues to change: USA is 60% in drought, super hurricane Sandy, heavy flooding in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, UK
  24. Euro financial crisis continues with riots especially in Greece and Spain

2011 Year in Review

  1. World grew to 7 billion people
  2. Arab Spring/Awakening
  3. Occupy Movements initially on Wall Street
  4. Other protests took to the streets in Greece, Russia, China, Spain, others
  5. Japan Disasters
  6. Tenth Anniversary of 911 Terrorist                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
  7. Bin Laden Killed                                           
  8. US pulled out of Iraq
  9. Steve Jobs Died
  10. Tablet computers
  11. Space Shuttle retired
  12. China produced more cars that the US or Japan                                                                                                                      
  13. Severe political stalemate in Washington, D.C., US
  14. Robot 25% of Japan over 65 years old
  15. Robonaut 2 humanoid robot (without legs) on International Space Station
  16. IBM Watson computer beats human Jeopardy champions
  17. Super High Vision 7,680 by 4,320 parcels created by Sharp is 16 times HD resolution
  18. Brittan’s Royal Wedding
  19. Unprecedented volume of Methane found bubbling up from shallow Arctic sea floor
  20. Large Hadron Collider discovered a particle composed of a quark and anti-quark
  21. Programmable quantum photonic chip
  22. 26 Year old in charge of nuclear weapons in North Korea
  23. More Internet users in China than the entire population of the USA


2010 year in review

  1. 2010 was the warmest year the earth has yet recorded.
  2. China passed Japan in 2010 to become the world's second-largest economy behind the United States, and has the second largest number of billionaires in the world.
  3. BP Gulf Oil catastrophe
  4. Wikileaks
  5. Philippines may pass India this year as the largest call center than India – Financial Times.
  6. Airports across Europe closed for a week by Volcano ash (Eyjafjallajökull) causing chaos for millions.
  7. North Korea’s sinking a South Korean ship and shelling one of its islands.
  8. Stuxnet computer worms attacking Iran’s nuclear program.
  9. Financial crises and severe government cut backs across much of Europe.
  10. Synthetic biology breakthrough creating an artificial life form.
  11. US health care law
  12. Haitian earth quake and cholera, Pakistan floods
  13. Mexican organized crime violence continues to escalate
  14. More electronic than paper books sold by Amazon.
  15. Tea Pot boils in the USA
  16. Sarah Palin shots a defenseless animal.
  17. Gays ok in US Military.
  18. Polar Ice continues to melt faster than forecasted, while few results in Copenhagen and Cancun.
  19. Frozen water discovered on the Moon – One the lunar pole about 600 million metric tons (158 billion gallons) in 40 craters.
  20. H1N1 declared a pandemic
  21. Combat troops out of Iraq