Demos Greenhouse
- The type of information people have matters Big 'Big Brother' headline today, on the front of the Daily Mail. A written answer to a question from the Liberal Democrats shows the number of DNA profiles on the National DNA Database (NDNA), as of 25 October, to be about 4.5 million profiles. I can't find the full written answer online yet, but here's some more coverage of it. Some are duplicates - but the proportion of the population on there seems to be about 6-7%.This isn't really news. The Home Office website proudly boasts that it is... continue reading on 5th November 2007 in For Your Information Comments (1)
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Warning: the type of information that you provide to people may matter
This strikes me as a great idea:
'Drinkers worried about liver damage can test themselves at home. The LiverCheck test measures levels of two enzymes in the blood produced when alcohol damages liver cells. The makers say the test will give users an idea of whether they are drinking too much.'
continue reading on 30th October 2007 Comments (1) - Get off the floor Ozzers, it's time to vote So after a month of working and travelling in Australia, I finally find myself back in London. For those of you who don't pay attention to the international pages, Oz is currently in the grip of an election campaign. Kevin Rudd's lacklustre Labour Party is expected to thoroughly trounce John Howard's knackered Liberal/National coalition.But what struck me most about the campaign was the things that weren't being talked about. Australia's a beautiful country with some excellent state... continue reading 30th October 2007
- Agile Government response While in Australia doing research for the Agile Government project, we held a roundtable of public administration experts, academics, and senior civil servants. At the event, Professor Geoff Gallop, Director of the Graduate School of Government at the University of Sydney and Premier of Western Australia from 2001 to 2006, presented a formal response to our Agile Government Provocation Paper. It's an excellent piece and well worth a read. It's available to download here. continue reading 30th October 2007 Comments (3)
- Innovation for development The Council for Science Editors, who are behind the most important scientific journals, are publishing a bunch of special issues, editorials and research reports related to global poverty and development challenges. Next week, we will be holding a workshop aiming to make a small contribution to a small area of science, bringing together those interested in developing world issues with those interested in nanotechnology. One of the speakers will be Richard Jones, whose excellent blog discusses... continue reading on 30th October 2007 in Technology and Civil Society (STACS) ,Science Comments (2)
- Podcast: Out Of Step There's a new pamphlet around the corner about the future of the British Armed Forces - available from here on Nov 5th. "Out of Step - The case for change in the British Armed forces" argues that the armed forces are constrained from responding to the 21st century challenges by tradition and hierarchy. You can listen to the free Demos podcast...1. VIA THE I-TUNES STORE!2. By subscribing via feedburner3. Listening via the Internet Archive4. Downloading the file (5.78MB) 5.... continue reading on 26th October 2007 in Demos Podcasts
- Seen and Heard Video & Launch Adam is an audio-visual intern at the moment. He created this video that provides an introduction to the issues raised in the forthcoming pamphlet Seen and Heard - Reclaiming the public realm with children and young people. The report will be launched on Wednesday 14th November at 9am at The Young Vic, 66 The Cut. Register here. continue reading 23rd October 2007 in Children Make Places Comments (1)
- Humphrys unwittingly undermines his raison d'etre Recently there have been some good moments on the Today programme for people who think there's something iffy about the assumption that good public debate comes from slinging as much dirt at people as possible and seeing if they can still stand up.Exhibit 1. Humphry's obvious incredulity (yesterday) at a Cambridge student's suggestion that allowing an interviewee to hear some of the questions they are going to be asked first, could actually be better for public debate and the listener.If you... continue reading 23rd October 2007
- The synthesizer Demos has this morning hosted a round table with Craig Venter, controversial human genome projecteer and now spearhead of the next Next Big Thing: Synthetic Biology (or Synthetic Genomics if you prefer). Venter was engagingly open about the possibilities and pitfalls of Syn Bio, which promises to combine engineering with biology to design new lifeforms. He pointed to the possibilities of energy and fuel generation from new organisms and warned us that, if an innovative Siberian happened upon... continue reading on 23rd October 2007
- Bad behaviour Anyone interested in the debate on public behaviour – and the role of government in affecting it or otherwise – should read today’s leader in The Times. It contains makes one unspectacular but extremely important point…and then another that sums up some of the problems we’re having in dealing with these kind of issues. The point that I agree with is that before government wanders into the political minefield (and operational complexities) of human... continue reading on 22nd October 2007