CFM's Voices of the Future
Center for the Future of Museums
What do you think museums will look like in five, 10 or 20 years? What are the greatest challenges we face in the coming decade? Grab a video camera and start recording! We want to hear from you - as wild and crazy or as sane and thoughtful as you'd like to be. Experience CFM's Voices of the Future on our YouTube nonprofit channel at http://www.youtube.com/futureofmuseums.More

Europe finds stimulus money for its museums
Newsweek
In Europe, countries looking for ways to reboot their economies have been finding cash to splurge on their cultural infrastructures or forging ahead with prominent projects that could spell future prosperity. Unlike in America, where museums faced with plummeting endowments are being forced to cut back on renovations and acquisitions - as well as staff, hours, and shows - many of Europe's cultural institutions are getting a recession makeover.More

Record highs far outpace record lows across U.S.
Research.gov
Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research from the National Center for Atmospheric Research shows. The ratio of record highs to lows is likely to increase dramatically in coming decades if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to climb.More

100 Most Creative People in Business
Fast Company
There are no rules about creativity. Which made constructing our list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business a tricky task. We at Fast Company looked for dazzling new thinkers, rising stars, and boldface names who couldn't be ignored.More

Baby boomers winning in job market over younger workers
Daily Press via Hispanic Business
New data shows that older workers are staying on the job longer causing younger job seekers to be squeezed out of the job market. A new report by the Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends project revealed that the recession is having a very different impact by age.More

According to 55 percent surveyed, there is an immigrant and native born conflict
Pew Research Center
A majority, 55 percent, of adults said there are "very strong" or "strong" conflicts between immigrants and people born in the United States.More

Social innovation: What only the White House can do
HarvardBusiness.org
Blogger Dan Pallotta writes that "Last I heard, the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation is focused on granting some $50 million to organizations that have proven to be successful and innovative. Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't giving money to innovative organizations what hundreds of foundations try to do every year?" Instead, he recommends six other things the government can do to promote innovation at nonprofits (including ways to encourage foundations to support general operating costs.)More

Regional leaders set vision for 2050
Washington Business Journal
A group of some 30 regional leaders and planners is setting ambitious smart growth goals to accommodate the 2 million people expected to move to the Washington, D.C., area by 2050. In its long-term plan, the Greater Washington 2050 Coalition sets a growth vision that addresses land use, transportation, environmental practices, climate and energy, housing, health, education, economics and public safety.More

The future of American high speed rail: Regional and slow
Planetizen
During his dramatic presentation last April, President Barack Obama laid out a bold vision for high speed rail in America. In reality, limited funds, our dysfunctional planning processes, and the historical lack of investment in rail will mean the U.S. will most likely end up with a diverse collection of regional rail systems that may not go that fast.More

The long-life gene
The Cavalier Daily
Scientists may have discovered the fountain of youth in an Ashkenazi Jewish community in New York. A team of researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine discovered a gene in all subjects - who averaged 97 years old - that prevents their cells from aging.More

New Italian museum has eye toward art's future
Associated Press via MSNBC
Italy is opening its first national museum for contemporary arts and architecture in a bid to shed its image as merely a keeper of a glorious artistic past. The Culture Ministry decided to build the museum in 1998, recognizing that the country that produced Giotto, Michelangelo and Bernini - avant-garde artists of their times - must continue to promote contemporary creativity if it wants to have a cultural heritage in the future.More

Three tech-heads lay the digital media on thick at the Museum of Science and History
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Have you ever envisioned being trampled by a herd of stampeding cattle? Of course not; it's too painful to even think about. But we might reconsider if we could experience it without the consequences. And that's exactly what visitors to the new Fort Worth Museum of Science and History's Cattle Raisers Museum will be able to do, thanks to innovations created by three technological-design specialists.More

Syracuse, N.Y., galleries lure new audiences with films, readings and music
Syracuse.com
Museum directors and gallery owners know for art appreciation to occur they must put out a welcome mat. Think of it as a charm offensive. Visitors are lured by film series, music concerts, political discussions, workshops, play and poetry readings and documentaries. Once in the building, ideally, the new arrivals become comfortable with their surroundings and the experience. Examples from local institutions in Central New York. ♦ This article quotes AAM president Ford Bell on the future of museums.More

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Best of what's new 2009: The year's 100 greatest innovations
Popular Science
From the editors of Popular Science: "Innovation manifests itself in myriad ways: groundbreaking, revolutionary bursts we'd never before imagined possible, or in more nuanced but no less brilliant refinements of existing technology. And while this year's list contains plenty of instances of the former, in compiling it we've noticed one thing: 2009 is the year of stealth innovation."More

Students get a look at classroom of future
The Indianapolis Star
A small group of children from the school spent the day learning lessons on interactive whiteboards and doing their work on personal laptops. They used Google mapping to examine three centuries of trends of urbanization in America, performed in front of a studio's green screens to make movies and used electronic microscopes for science lessons.More