Word: ideas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...somewhat contrarian perspective: geoengineering, or using technology to directly cool the earth to compensate for man-made climate change. The authors visit Nathan Myhrvold, the brilliant former chief technology officer of Microsoft and co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, a private think tank. Myhrvold and his staff have the idea to build a giant "garden hose to the sky" that would pump liquefied sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Scientists know that increasing SO2 in the air deflects sunlight, which cools down the earth; when Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines exploded in 1992, for instance, the SO2 sent into the atmosphere created...
That wouldn't be a bad idea, except, as many environmentalists and climatologists are quick to point out, we don't know what the potential side effects of geoengineering might be or whether the entire operation would backfire badly. Geoengineering might be a cheaper option, but followed out to at least one logical conclusion, it could be a pitfall. Say we try to use Myhrvold's giant-garden-hose scheme (after hopefully giving it a better name) without reducing carbon emissions. We could end up in a situation in which we can't abandon geoengineering without risking sudden, disastrous warming...
...future, Alessandro says, is for Benetton to keep investing - but also for it to retain its strong entrepreneurial culture. Ask him about strategy and he'll talk about changes - but he always comes back to the idea of continuity. "Many people think that the way to start is by listing the things you want to change. My approach is to start from the list of things I thought it would be a big mistake to change," he says. He is, after all, a Benetton. As he says of his own ascent to prominence: "I love to describe this...
Geisinger's brand of care can take some getting used to - at least for the doctors. Come to work for Geisinger and the first thing you notice is that your days as a medical free agent are over. You are now an employee, an idea that may seem like a very bad thing - until you get used to it and realize that it can be a very good thing. (See pictures of angry health-care debates...
...service carousel, but salary-plus-incentives means that sometimes you won't meet your targets and your paycheck will dwindle. And some docs may chafe at being hitched to a team. One sweetener Dartmouth's Fisher recommends is forgiving some medical-school debts - an idea Obama endorsed at an Oct. 5 photo op with doctors, though in his plan, the break would be limited to those who agree to work in underserved or rural markets...