Contents of Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble - by Lester R. Brown - Earth Policy Institute - Entering a New World - Restoring the Earth: "Plan B 2.0:
Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble

2006"

Foreign Affairs - The Myth Behind China's Miracle - George J. Gilboy: "Summary: Washington need not worry about China's economic boom, much less respond with protectionism. Although China controls more of the world's exports than ever before, its high-return high-tech industries are dominated by foreign companies. And Chinese firms will not displace them any time soon: Beijing's one-party politics have bred a timid business culture that prevents domestic firms from developing key technologies and keeps them dependent on the West."

Earth Policy Institute Book Bytes - A New Materials Economy: "The potential for reducing materials use has been examined over the last decade in three specific studies. The first—Factor Four, by Ernst von Weizsäcker, an environmentalist and leader in the German Bundestag—argued that modern industrial economies could function very effectively with a level of virgin raw material use only one fourth that of today. This was followed a few years later by research from the Factor Ten Institute organized in France under the leadership of Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek. It concluded that resource productivity can be raised by a factor of 10, which is well within the reach of existing technology and management, given the appropriate policy incentives."

Minsky talks about life, love in the age of artificial intelligence - The Boston Globe: "The theme of the book is really resourcefulness and why are people so much better at controlling the world than animals are? The argument is: because they have far more different ways to think than any competitor."

Wired 14.12: Me Translate Pretty One Day: "Spanish to English? French to Russian? Computers haven't been up to the task. But a New York firm with an ingenious algorithm and a really big dictionary is finally cracking the code."