chall's blog

A number of jobs in existence today were created anew in the last decade thanks to the "weightless economy." One of the most notable of these nascent occupations is blogging. The internet has made it possible, and profitable, for individuals with a computer, a little gumption, and some free time to make a living sharing their thoughts and ideas online. For a list of other careers cropping up in the last decade, click here.

For your viewing pleasure, an animated summary of the past year and a collection of the best photographs of the decade.

See you in 2010!

Unsurprisingly, the '00s was a decade defined by its technological achievement. It is the era in which we truly became a technologically dependent society. The numbers speak for themselves:

Climate change was one of the most hotly debated issues of the decade. In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) debated whether the phenomenon existed. Today, the scientific community is almost unanimously of the opinion that human activity is responsible for the rise in global temperature. One of the many pieces of evidence emerging during the last decade that led scientists to this conclusion is the accelerating rate of ice melt at the poles.

As we near the end of the first decade of the 2000s, it would behoove us to look back at how the world has changed over the last 10 years. More precisely, how has the world been shaped by each of the seven revolutions and how have our prospects for the future shifted as a result of our ability (or inability) to cope with them?

Things are heating up in Copenhagen as the Climate Change Conference enters its second and final week. Negotiations are scheduled to end on Friday, by which time participants are hoping to have a treaty ready to bring back to their home countries. However, progress has stalled on a number of points of contention.

The breach of Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account was among the major scandals of last year’s presidential campaign and an event that Palin herself described as “the most disruptive and discouraging” of her VP bid.  It was unnerving in many respects - how easily a hacker could gain access to accounts in public webmail systems like Yahoo; how elected officials would consider conducting official business on systems as unguarded as Yahoo - and it served as a reminder of just how vulnerable information we shar

Most of GSI’s work is concerned with how current trends and patterns will affect the world on an international level. However, these same trends and patterns will influence local and regional communities as well. In fact, GSI’s hometown of Washington, DC will face a number of its own challenges, including a projected 2 million person increase in population, a public transportation shortfall in the next decade, and a potential health crisis stemming from having the highest rate of HIV infection in the nation.

We live in the internet age, but it often seems that our government exists in another era. For most of us, dealing with the government still requires a printer and a fax machine or a stamp, even though all other transactions in our lives are facilitated by fast and easy connections to the internet. Some say the government has to be this way, whether for safety reasons or by dint of its bloat. Lately, however, the government has been stepping into the 21st century, albeit slowly, which is offering hope for a time when government will be more transparent and user-friendly.

The story of Icarus teaches us that it is dangerous to fly close to the sun.  But only when you are wearing wings made of wax.  When you are harnessing the sun’s energy with photovoltaic cells, closer is actually better.  In fact, solar energy is five times stronger in space than it is on the Earth's surface.  Taking this to heart, Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency announced this week that by 2030 it plans to build an energy station that will capture solar powe