World Futures Fall 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic and killing of George Floyd along with other recent deaths of Black people at the hands of police have laid bare stark structural and systemic racial inequities and their impacts on the health and well-being of individuals and communities. While these events have brought health and health care disparities into sharp focus for the media and public, they are not new. These longstanding and persistent health disparities are symptoms of broader social and economic challenges that are rooted in structural and systemic barriers across sectors - including housing, education, employment, and the justice system - as well as underlying racism and discrimination. Amid this difficult time for our nation, the increased recognition and understanding of disparities could provide a catalyst for the challenging work required to address them.

"Data sharing can also drive better business decisions. Knowing the weather patterns at other farms around the world can prepare growers for shifts in the market, from potential yields to pricing trends. ... "So, bringing that data story together helps individual farmers grow and makes sure they have a sustainable business model."

Schools across the country are offering less healthy lunch options as they struggle with dwindling supplies, delayed shipments and fewer cafeteria workers.

"Innovations in digital technology and the use of alternative data sources have decreased the cost and increased the speed of data collection and use. Harnessing this potential requires increased investment by donors and governments and a more effective approach that strengthens foundational data systems and governance frameworks, and supports local knowledge and capacity development. "

Anticipatory legal framework centered on privacy in relation to expected advancements in Neurotechnology

"We're taking this approach to break down the barriers that candidates with autism most often face. In addition to bias, there may be challenges with how interviews are structured or conducted without the right tools. For these reasons, we will offer candidates in this program reasonable accommodations like extended interview time, providing questions in advance, or conducting the interview in writing in a Google Doc rather than verbally on a call. These accommodations don't give those candidates an unfair advantage. It's just the opposite: They remove an unfair disadvantage so candidates have a fair and equitable chance to compete for the job."

SpaceX is using the county and eminent domain to take the homes in Boca Chica. "SpaceX can't force the residents to leave, but the county can. In 2013, county commissioners established a corporation "to assist in the promotion and development of a spaceport project" in Cameron County. Under Texas law, the corporation has the authority to exercise the same right that lets governments take over private property and compensate its owners. "

76 pages of Boeing history and them patting themselves on the back but a great tool effort to show their commitment to ESG. I was super interested in page 6-11 where they focus on sustainability for aerospace.

"The present study found that approximately 63% of the hotels which were inspected following a Legionnaires' disease case notification were found to be colonized with Legionella spp. The study also evaluated the significant factors that contribute to the maintenance, management and disinfection of water distribution systems, including the successful implementation of WSPs to improve hotel water supply and sanitation systems. Chemical treatment and the monitoring of drinking water quality, including chlorine disinfection, pH adjustment, and water temperature control of hot water systems are recommended as control measures in water safety plans, in conjunction with other procedures. It has also been found that antiquated hotel buildings are at increased risk in terms of the safety and quality of the water in their distribution systems. To conclude, risk assessment, environmental monitoring and disinfection of water systems, as well as the implementation of preventive control measures (WSPs) are the key elements for preventing contamination by pathogenic microorganisms in large public and private water distribution systems."

"Installing chlorine booster stations at strategic network locations or increasing the outlet disinfectant dose directly at the sources are among commonly used measures to increase disinfectant residuals throughout the network [29]. To test the network robustness to lower demand, the chlorine concentrations at the outlet of each of the three WTPs were increased to 2 mg/L. This allowed for investigating the potential of increasing chlorine dosage at the WTPs to compensate for the performance degradation under water conservation scenarios. "

"However, in this configuration, the alluvial aquifers are also highly vulnerable to pollution. To address the issue of pollutant transfer, it is common to use natural or artificial tracing methods. In particular, the stable isotopes of the water molecule (2H, 18O) have many applications, allowing a better understanding of hydrosystems. They are used to estimate the recharge, to know the origin of water, the mixing processes and the transit times [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. The use of this tracer is particularly relevant in the context of short transit times within the aquifer, as is the case for exchanges between alluvial aquifers and rivers. However, it is necessary to have a marked isotopic signature for the input signal to the system and a different signature between the input and output signal [11]."

"The directive sets essential quality standards at the EU level. One requirement of the directive is that a total of 48 microbiological, chemical and indicator parameters must be regularly monitored and tested. When transposing the Drinking Water Directive into national law, EU member states can set higher but not lower standards. The limits of the microbiological, chemical and indicator parameters are specified in the annexes to the Drinking Water Directive. For water meters, this means that the measurement accuracy must be maintained for all types of water that comply with the parameter limits specified in this document. This can pose a real challenge in terms of the measurement accuracy and particularly the measurement stability of water meters for some of the parameters"