Want to learn more about how futurists do their work? Check out this video from Forbes.com.

Geospatial mapping is a great way to analyze gobs of data, spot trends, and plan for the future. If you want to get your hands dirty with raw data, check out a guide to geostatistical mapping with open-source tools from the Flowing Data blog.

"Barcodes help objects tell their stories." New Scientist looks at "the internet of things," where the web and physical objects interact through tools like barcodes and smart-phones. One possible use: "linking memories to objects." Perhaps in a related development, the website How I Met Your Motherboard allows people to share memories of their first encounters with home computers.

New research on Engaging Teens and Tweens: "If you want middle and high school students to enroll in and stick with your after-school programs, give them lots of leadership opportunities within those programs. That's one of the findings in a new study from the Harvard Family Research Project and Public/Private Ventures (P/PV)."

The Big Reset: State Government After the Great Recession. "This paper examines some of the efforts states are undertaking to redesign government to meet the new austere realities and presents some of the ideas suggested for tackling the toughest issues. Many states are taking a hard look at the core services they provide and asking tough questions on what is essential and what can be made more efficient. Areas being examined include K-12 and higher education funding, corrections programs, state workforce size and costs, and government processes that cross all departments." From the National Governor's Association.

William Frey of the Brookings Institution (one of the nation's finest demographers) asks, Will Arizona Be America's Future?

Arizona's new immigration law raises many questions. Perhaps most fundamental, as the hue and cry continues, is this: Is Arizona out of touch with the rest of America? Or, is it the precursor of things to come elsewhere? To the extent that racial and ethnic conflict underpins these developments in the Grand Canyon State, there is reason to be wary. Demographically, there is no doubt Latinos and other immigrant minorities are America’s future, and on this, Arizona stands on the front lines. Over the past two decades the state has seen its Latino population grow by 180 percent as its racial composition shifted from 72 to 58 percent white. Yet there is an important demographic nuance to this growth—providing context to the white backlash in Arizona in ways that could play out else where.

"The Restaurant of the Future is a unique blend of research and practice aimed at something as common as eating and drinking. It is a place to experiment with new food products, preparation methods and self-service systems, and also a facility allowing close observation of consumer eating and drinking behaviour." Learn more from The Club of Amsterdam Journal.

Forbes looks at Your Life In 2020: how ubiquitous computing will remake everything from computing itself to homes, jobs, consumer choices, education—even diets.

The future of "ubiquitous computing" has been heralded for decades. It sounds grandiose-computing, everywhere!—but ironically, a future of ubiquitous computing is one where computers actually go unnoticed. ... [I]t's no longer "technology" in 2020 anymore—it's just how we get things done. ... But if technology and the ability to be connected disappear further into the background, what will occupy our foreground?

Technology to Enhance Learning in 2015? Derek Morrison asks, "What can, should, or will, we offer the digital generation by 2015?" His answer starts with a closer look at changes in educational technology over the past decade. For more on the future of education, visit 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning from the KnowledgeWorks Foundation.

"How the Recession Has Changed American Migration" was published a few months ago by the right-tilting American Enterprise Institute. It traces some key demographic trends, especially the reverse of the internal migration of Americans towards the Sun Belt. As author Michael Barone writes, "Demography is destiny, or at least a significant part of it, and America's changing demography has had enormous consequences in every realm of life. Americans historically have been a mobile people. But the old saying that Americans have been moving from the Snow Belt to the Sun Belt fails to capture what has been happening from 1990 to the onset of the current recession in 2007. And there are entirely new realities due to the recession that are remaking states and regions in important ways."

"Redefining longevity: the new centenarian spirit." From the Christian Science Monitor, a close look at one of America's fastest-growing populations: the over-100 crowd.  

The Infrastructurist blog explains how cul-de-sacs are killing your community: "The Harvard Business Review has a piece this month on research by Lawrence Frank, Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Transportation at the University of British Columbia, on the effects of cul-de-sacs in neighborhoods in King County, Washington. He found that residents in areas with the most interconnected streets travel 26% fewer miles by automobile than those in areas with many cul-de-sacs. Meanwhile, recent studies by Frank and others show that the higher a neighborhood’s overall walkability, the greater the amount of walking and biking—which means a drop in per capita air pollution, fuel use, and body mass index."

"Now We’re All Editors," according to the PSFK blog. "Interactions Magazine has published an interesting article that explores the roles that editing and curation play in our information-rich modern world. From the historic function of editors as polishers of content, to the modern curatorial duties of the digital realm, Interactions breaks down the art and science of editing, examining the crucial skills needed for the task." Read the original essay here.

Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, explores a fundamental problem with our arts ecology: "the biggest problem we face in the arts is a lack of trained arts managers and board members. One can trace the demise of virtually every bankrupt arts organization to a lack of competent staff and/or board leadership."

From the American Human Development Project comes A Century Apart: New Measures of Well-Being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups: "Our national conversation about race tends to take place in black and white, yet the greatest disparities in human well-being to be found in the U.S. are between Asian Americans in New Jersey and Native Americans in South Dakota. An entire century of human progress separates the worst-off from the best-off groups within the U.S., according to the latest update of the American Human Development (HD) Index." (Summary via IssueLab.)

Philadelphia: The State of the City—A 2010 Update. An impressive overview of social, political, economic and cultural trends in one city from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

How to Turn Procrastination into Productivity. Watch this video. Then get back to work.

A lecture on "Meat" from the Population Reference Bureau. Earlier this year, Joel E. Cohen of Rockefeller University and the Earth Institute of Columbia University delivered the first Malthus Lecture. His topic was meat (i.e., "the strong demographic, economic, environmental, and cultural interactions between human and livestock populations and their implications for public policy").

Debunking 10 Brain Myths. "You are a lifelong learner. You may also be a caregiver, or a professional in fields such as health care, education, or psychology. The goal of this online resource is to help you make informed decisions about brain health and cognitive fitness, based on latest scientific findings." While you are at the SharpBrains website, also take a look at this discussion of future trends in brain fitness.

Suggestions for redesigning U.S. currency.

A virtual exhibit from the Milwaukee Public Museum: 125 Objects, 125 Years (not, strictly speaking, one object from each year the museum has been open—but close).

Do Not Touch: 8 Times Museum Patrons Mangled Works of Art. Every story will make museum professionals cringe.