The United Nations works across the world for peace, sustainable development, human rights and the rule of law. This collection of speeches by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shows the breadth of those efforts - advances and struggles alike - at a time of profound transition for the human family. Since taking office in 2007, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sought to mobilize the international community behind global solutions to urgent challenges ranging from climate change and poverty to armed conflict and the spread of deadly weapons. The goal: dignity, freedom and opportunity for all.
The book aims to promote greater understanding of social cohesion amidst existing complexities of faith and identity, and what this portends for our future. The emphasis is on the importance of engagement across beliefs and cultures, the different generations and segments of population, and the diverse interests of people in a digital and interconnected world. The policy officials, religious leaders, scholars and society-at-large will be able to better appreciate the search for common ground and harmony, thereby strengthening their endeavours for coexistence.The book seeks to continue the conversations and deliberations at the International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS) held from 19 to 21 June 2019 in Singapore. The three themes of the ICCS — Faith, Identity, Cohesion — stimulated significant discussions on the need for mutual respect, trust and understanding of each other's beliefs and cultures. Many ideas on the ways forward were raised and further discourse is necessary.An unprecedented line-up of academic, civil society, government, intellectual, policy, religious and youth leaders provided a wide array of perspectives on challenging issues faced by diverse societies around the world. The transcripts of the official speeches elucidate the vision of leadership and aspiration looking ahead. The book also features delightful photographs and graphic recordings of the key thrust articulated during the ICCS.
Why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers and how we can remedy the problem. The United States has too many low-quality, low-wage jobs. Every country has its share, but those in the United States are especially poorly paid and often without benefits. Meanwhile, overall productivity increases steadily and new technology has transformed large parts of the economy, enhancing the skills and paychecks of higher paid knowledge workers. What’s wrong with this picture? Why have so many workers benefited so little from decades of growth? The Work of the Future shows that technology is neither the problem nor the solution. We can build better jobs if we create institutions that leverage technological innovation and also support workers though long cycles of technological transformation. Building on findings from the multiyear MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, the book argues that we must foster institutional innovations that complement technological change. Skills programs that emphasize work-based and hybrid learning (in person and online), for example, empower workers to become and remain productive in a continuously evolving workplace. Industries fueled by new technology that augments workers can supply good jobs, and federal investment in R&D can help make these industries worker-friendly. We must act to ensure that the labor market of the future offers benefits, opportunity, and a measure of economic security to all.
In Designed for the Future, author Jared Green asks eighty of today's most innovative architects, urban planners, landscape architects, journalists, artists, and environmental leaders the same question: what gives you the hope that a sustainable future is possible? Their imaginative answers—covering everything from the cooling strategies employed at Cambodia's ancient temple city of Angkor Wat to the use of cutting-edge eco-friendly mushroom board as a replacement for Styrofoam—show the way to our future success on earth and begin a much-needed dialogue about what we can realistically accomplish in the decades ahead. Featuring an international roster of leading design thinkers including: • Biomimicry pioneer Janine Benyus • Curator Barry Bergdoll • Educator and author Alan Berger • Environmentalist and author Lester Brown • Architect Rick Cook • Urban Planner Paul Farmer • Critic Christopher Hume • Architect Bjarke Ingels • Landscape designer Mia Lehrer • Architect Rob Rogers • Critic Inga Saffron • Artist Janet Echelman
A magician introduces children to the fantastical powers of books in this delightful and encouraging read by a Super Bowl champion and literacy crusader. This is not your typical afternoon at the library—a magician invites kids to reach into his hat to pull out whatever they find when they dig down deep. Soon—poof!—each child comes away with something better than they could’ve imagined—a book that helps them become whatever they want to be, and makes their dreams come true through pages and words, and the adventures that follow. But each child can’t help but wonder, What’s really making the magic happen? Praise for The Magician’s Hat “Malcolm Mitchell is changing the world through the power of reading.” —Dav Pilkey, bestselling creator of the Dog Man and Captain Underpants series “The Magician’s Hat will cast its spell on you!” —Jeff Kinney, bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series “New England Patriot and literacy advocate Mitchell proves to have a touch of magic as an author as well as on the field . . . Perhaps youngsters who think they are more interested in football than reading will take the message to heart.” —Kirkus Reviews
From Super Bowl champion and literacy crusader Malcolm Mitchell comes an exciting new story that shows even reluctant readers that there is a book out there for everyone! Meet Henley, an all-around good kid, who hates to read. When he's supposed to be reading, he would rather do anything else. But one day, he gets the scariest homework assignment in the world: find your favorite book to share with the class tomorrow.What's a kid to do? How can Henley find a story that speaks to everything inside of him?Malcolm Mitchell, best-selling author of The Magician's Hat, pulls from his own literary triumph to deliver another hilarous and empowering picture book for readers of all abilities. Through his advocacy and his books, Malcolm imparts the important message that every story has the potential to become a favorite.
Come explore an incredible LEGO® universe in LEGO Space: Building the Future. Spaceships, orbital outposts, and new worlds come to life in this unique vision of the future, built completely from LEGO bricks. A selection of step-by-step building instructions will have you constructing your own cosmic creations to play with at home. Marvel at interstellar battlecruisers, space pirates, charming robots, and other stunning builds from an amazing future!
Bright Green Future chronicles a renaissance at the edge of a crisis. As climate change shifts our planet towards an uncertain future, a movement of unlikely heroes are building a blueprint for a better world. It’s a world where clean power grows wealth for local communities, resources regenerate themselves, city planning is driven by the people, and healthy soil is our greatest asset. These changemakers have opened a gateway for ordinary people to begin imagining and building the bright future we deserve.
Niccolò Machiavelli famously wrote, "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." That's what this book is about--innovation far more audacious than a new way to find a restaurant or a smart phone you can wear on your wrist. Harvard professor Amy Edmondson and journalist Susan Salter Reynolds explore how to bring into being systems that transform human experience and make the world more livable and sustainable. This demands "big teaming": intense collaboration across professions and industries that may have completely different mindsets and even be antagonistic to each other. To do this successfully requires practicing new forms of leadership that combine an expansive vision with incremental action--not an easy balance. To reveal how pioneers build the future, Edmondson and Reynolds tell the story of Living PlanIT, an award-winning "smart city" start-up with a breathtakingly ambitious goal: building a showcase high-tech city from scratch to pilot its software. This meant a joint effort spanning a truly disparate group of software entrepreneurs, real estate developers, city government officials, architects, construction companies, and technology corporations. We get to know Living PlanIT's leaders and follow them and their partners through cycles of hope, exhaustion, disillusionment, pragmatism, and renewal. There are powerful lessons here for anyone, in any industry, seeking to transform the world.
"Building a second brain is getting things done for the digital age. It's a ... productivity method for consuming, synthesizing, and remembering the vast amount of information we take in, allowing us to become more effective and creative and harness the unprecedented amount of technology we have at our disposal"--
