The IMF says that we can expect ten years of job cuts and rising taxes. Fund manager George Soros says the rosy view on the American economy has everything to do with the fact that the US banks’ big profits right now are just a ‘gift’ from the state and nothing more. There are no substantial signs that the recession is over in North America and Europe. The Financial Times is even asking “Where have all the promising green shots of half a year ago gone - all those promising signs that the economy is recovering?” Europe and North America still consider themselves as the most “developed” part of the world, but with an immense debt they no longer think that they are leading the world as they did before. (Click on Read Why It’s Cool for more)

This is Andre Sousa, a young graduate in Design from Portugal, applying for an internship: “I am extremely communicative, brimming with initiative and self-motivation and more organised and far-seeing than the Secretary of State for Economic Planning… Also, I have a ‘guru-like’ command of all soft wares, including some that have not even been invented, plus a mastery of 17 languages, including 5 dead ones and 6 dialects of as yet undiscovered peoples”. The company did not react (yet), but several others appreciated the point Andre wants to make.

Picture taken by Enzo dal Verme
What we from Science of the Time found most attractive and inspiring in 2008 was not a gadget or whatever superficial thing people keeps running. It is cool in its simplicity and we hope it wil keep inspire people in 2009. Massimo Voltolina started practising sport only when he was 30 and he trains without following rigid schedules: he simply “listens to his body”. At the age of 43 Massimo Voltolina is one of the two Italians that has swam from France to England across the Channel. Of course, with worse weather conditions and a better timing. He is now getting ready for his next adventure: crossing the Adriatic sea.

Lots of young people in Brazil, especially in São Paulo (16 million inhabitants), are turning back to religiosity. Not that traditional catholic one but the more evangelical churches. It is called “Bola de Neve” (Snow Ball) Church. The mass is a little kind of party at night, with bands playing reggae music & rock and roll for hours, and with lots of white lights shining at the same time. Bola de Neve is growing a lot and now builds businesses as well, like the label Bola Music, responsible for launching the “gospel” groups that use to perform on the masses. A very popular young rock star in the 90´s in Brazil, Rodolfo Abrantes, has converted himself to Bola de Neve and is currently one of its more powerful non-official speakers.

Josh Levine (Los Angeles), Jan van Mol (South Africa) and Pim Derneden (inhabitant of the virtual world) all send us contributions that radiate a desire of a Better World in surprising new ways – and always empowered by the Internet.
Josh: The X-PRIZE Foundation’s mantra is “Revolution through Innovation.” Founded by some of the biggest brains and wallets around, X-PRIZE creates and manages competitions that drive innovators to solve what it deems significant problems. The first contest was to create and launch a spacecraft that could take three civilians into space — within two weeks. Paul Allen’s team won. The foundation claims that the amount of money spent by teams in search of the solution was 10X the $10 million prize awarded to the winner. One of the new contests will award a multi-million dollar cash prize to the contestant who builds a commercially viable car that gets 100 miles per gallon. Their idea is to change the world by changing the way philanthropy is executed. Instead of asking people to donate to good causes, they want to tap into people’s competitive spirit and self-interests by holding carrots in front of the right goals. We think that’s pretty cool.
Pim: Companies are exploring green design for environmentally conscious consumers. The list of green blogs is becoming bigger and bigger. I think http://www.hugg.com the best. With only the newest in Green. It is still small but with the eco-chic trend it has a lot of future growth potential. Check it out on: www.hugg.com.
Jan: Actics is a new way to live your ethical values through feedback from the people who matter to you. Actics is about turning ethics into action through feedback from those your ethics concern.
From its very conception Actics was meant to:
1. Make ethics concrete
2. Help agents navigate between demands from multiple different stakeholders.
3. Measure agents against their own values instead of detached universal codes and thus making general benchmarking meaningful.
An attempt to use the open Source system of the internet, for reflection on human values, your personal goals and tasks, and adding concrete next steps as well as an evaluation system to it.
I’m not sure if it will work, since it demands a lot of openness from the contributors. It seems less active now then a couple of months ago, but interesting enough to follow up on.

a 21 year old male from Henan Province. Eddy works as an apprentice in a Shanghai hairsalon. Keenly aware of current trends in looks, styles and fashions, he’ll spend just as much time styling himself as he will the clients. Everyday he uses Lancome’s Mens Line Face Wash (sourced cheaply from taobao.com), checks for eyebrow hairs ripe for plucking, selects from a plethora of earrings, and then sprays some cologne. On occasion a little eyeliner comes out to enhance his Asian eyes. Then he’ll blow dry and style his hair. Says Eddy: “All this is normal daily things a guy’s gotta do. But one thing I really want to do and saving up for is to have my eyes and nose operated on. I want a double eyelid and a taller nose! Most of my friends have had it done.”