June 21, 2010

Vulnerabilities Journal: June 2010

Each month we keep an eye on 15 major issues and here link to articles on major events in each category. These are global ‘vulnerabilities’ that can cause significant challenges or opportunities for the church and missions. Some categories will be empty month to month; we keep the categories standard. General Somalia in crisis: Drought, famine, narcotics trade, Islamic militias, pirates 1. Wars & Rumors of Wars Sudan landmines: Result of Landmine Impact Survey Sudan (as of Nov 2009) Sudan: Road Threat Map (as of Nov 2009) Yemen Removes 80 Per Cent Of Landmines- ICRC: some good news. 2. Ethnic [...]

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May 24, 2010

Self-learning software knows who you are

http://bit.ly/dqsUPh – Promise & Perils of Technology: $2 million DARPA project to develop computers that can teach themselves to spot objects in a picture. (Before humans helped build feature sets–but computers build sets for themselves?)

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March 22, 2010

Chairman of Nestle on Water Worries

“Monday is World Water Day, but I suspect relatively few will have noticed,” writes Peter Brabeck-Letmanthe, the chairman of Nestle. “The harsh fact is that we will probably run out of water long before we run out of fuel… global water requirements will be 40% greater than what can currently be sustainably supplied.” And of course impacts UPGs far more, because they are poorest and in unsustainable areas. In BBC News.

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March 5, 2010

Water Stress in Syria

Hundreds of thousands of farming families are moving to urban areas, with economic and political implications. via NYT.

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March 5, 2010

US & North Korean doctors create TB lab

A public health project is said to represent “an unprecedented level of cooperation” between doctors from the United States and North Korea. via NYT.

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October 1, 1998

Vulnerabilities and Opportunities

In this column we continue our regular series discussing the short-term vulnerabilities and opportunities which the church faces—possibilities that shape our future. A new book, 1998 State of the Future: issues and opportunities, produced by the American Council for the United Nations University and the Millennium Project, lists 15 issues and 15 opportunities which will affect the world through the short-term future. This list has direct bearing on our ‘scatter vision’ system of monitoring. We will begin adding this to our ‘vulnerability issues’ which we regularly scan for. Here is the list along with our commentary on church vulnerabilities in [...]

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