To The Economist Limiting temperature rises to 2°C above pre-industrial norms would still leave atmospheric carbon dioxide at well over 450 parts per million (ppm). We evolved – and until less than a century ago, lived – on a 300ppm planet. We need to return the Earth’s climate to its pre-industrial state, without doing the …
“He sent what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called his “unidentified storm troopers” togged out like soldiers in a war zone onto streets filled with protesters in Portland, Oregon. Those camouflage-clad federal law enforcement agents were evidently from the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service and the Customs and Border Protection agency. Soon, hundreds of …
Verkhoyansk, Russia The highest temperature ever seen in the Arctic circle – 38°C – has been recorded in a town in Siberia. Scientists had previously predicted that the Arctic circle would not experience temperatures like that until 2100. A small town with a population of 1,000, some 3,000 miles east of Moscow, Verkhoyansk is known …
Continue reading ‘Meanwhile, the world temperatures are rising…….’ »
For an example of just how heartless and profit-obsessed health insurers are, take a look at what is playing out in Connecticut, where Cigna is based. Low income people with diabetes in Connecticut and other states are having a hard time paying for the insulin that they must have to stay alive–even though they have …
#1 – Talk to yourself. There are times you need expert advice. #2 – “In Style” are the clothes that still fit. #3 – You don’t need anger management. You need people to stop pissing you off. #4 – Your people skills …
Iceland has long enjoyed a reputation as a paragon of sexual equality. For the past 11 years, it has led the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index, and its women benefit from high levels of education and equality in the workplace. But this masks some “insidious problems in Icelandic society”, say Sigrún Sif Jóelsdóttir and …
Continue reading ‘Iceland: The dark underbelly of sexual equality’ »
Not long ago we fondly believed that one thing all nations would have in common was access to the same digital technology, that is (mainly) the internet. We were wrong. Ever since Beijing began building its Great Firewall in 1996, its censored version of the web has diverged from the one used by the rest …
Schools with huge endowments are pretending remote learning is the same experience as learning together with your fellow students. Excuse me? Harvard is one of the colleges who will offer the bulk of their courses online. But they refuse to reduce the cost of tuition. Colleges and universities are in a bind. Coronavirus continues to rage …
Continue reading ‘US universities are charging full fees for ‘virtual’ class this fall.’ »
Around a decade ago, scientists identified a gene called SCN9A – which plays a key role in transmitting pain signals up the spinal cord – and found that people with a mutation of this gene barely experience pain. Now, in experiments on mice, scientists at the University of San Diego in the US have discovered …
Oslo Norway’s response to the pandemic has been so effective, the country’s overall death rate has actually fallen – and six firms of undertakers have had to apply for state aid as a result. Erik Lande, a funeral director from the town of Lyngdal, said he’d normally expect to organise 30 funerals a month in …
The Black Lives Matter protest movement shows again why America needs to defund bloated and militarized police departments. The brutal videotaped killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, has pushed Americans to the limit of what they will tolerate from police. While many of the problems can be laid at the feet …
Continue reading ‘Police violence Is enabled by massive spending’ »
Care England, Britain’s largest representative body for care homes, reckons that by the end of April 7,500 residents may have died of the virus. But only those who die in hospital after testing positive are included in the statistics. Elderly sufferers, unseen, disregarded, have gone uncounted. Average life expectancy in nursing homes is only two years anyway, …
Continue reading ‘A moral catastrophe: not just in the United States’ »
For the richest man in the world, $13 billion is just one day’s profit – a day’s profit that happens to be more than the entire GDP of 77 countries across the world. In one single day, Jeff Bezos makes more money than he could ever hope to spend in one lifetime and became one …
A chunk of Neanderthal DNA carried by some people living today appears to reduce the chance of miscarriage and promote fertility. The finding is the latest evidence that Homo sapiens benefitted from Stone Age sexual encounters with other human species. Genetic studies suggest that people of non-African modern humans descent carry about 1 – 2% …
“The UK’s new start – let’s get going.” That’s the lame slogan unveiled this week to exhort businesses to prepare for Brexit proper in January. For UK consumers, that “sunny” new start means sky-high phone roaming charges, comprehensive travel insurance to cross the Channel, and the need to visit a vet four months in …
I have to say that the modern world – and especially politics – can be crude, vulgar, and lacking any kindness and thoughtfulness for others. If there is one thing that separates those who espouse Epicureanism from most (not all!) of the rest of the human race , or the male half of it, anyway, …
Choice They think we’ll rejoice, offered infinite choice, But in fact more is less; indecision means stress. How did they ever think it was clever To propose the adoption of every damned option Under the sun, instead of just one? Just take the car, where they’ve gone far too far. Do I have to …
Millions of Americans are facing unaffordable bills for running water and risk being disconnected or losing their homes Water bills weigh heavily on many Americans as utilities have been hiking prices to pay for environmental clean-ups, infrastructure upgrades and climate emergency defences to deal with floods and droughts. Federal funding for America’s ageing water system …
Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat has a good thing going. Corbat pocketed $24 million last year and $24 million the year before. This year, Citibank, the world’s largest credit card issuer, has an even better thing going. Citi is paying just 0.35 percent interest on corona-crisis loans from the Federal Reserve and charging customers as much …
Falling fertility rates mean that nearly every country could have shrinking populations by the end of the century. 23 nations – including Spain and Japan – are expected to see their populations halve by 2100. Countries will also age dramatically, with as many people turning 80 as there are being born. The fertility rate – …
Continue reading ‘Fertility rate: ‘jaw-dropping’ global crash in children being born”’ »
This is apparently the actual dialogue, from the WordPerfect customer support Helpline, transcribed from a recording monitoring the customer care department. Needless to say the Help Desk employee was fired; however, he/she is currently suing the WordPerfect organization for ‘Termination without Cause’. Operator: ‘Ridge Hall, computer assistance; may I help you?’ Caller: ‘Yes, well, I’m having trouble with WordPerfect …
Bet you didn’t know! The Anti Defamation League (ADL), a self-proclaimed Jewish civil rights group, is the largest non-governmental trainer of police in this country, facilitating an exchange of the worst practices between U.S. police, ICE and FBI, and the Israeli police and military. This is kept rather quiet, for obvious reasons. The US government gives billions …
Why is the US corona virus situation such a disgraceful mess? All politicians in America depend on big donors for their elections. That is a given. But some governors, (mainly in the South) are more than ever in the pockets of the super-rich in a country of obscene disparities of wealth. Having donated handsomely, the …
Continue reading ‘The shame Americans should feel: corona virus and the big donations’ »
”In two blows to church-state separation, Justices Breyer and Kagan joined the conservative majority on the Supreme Court in granting even more preferential treatment to religious bodies. In one case, the court gave the green light to religious employers to apply the “ministerial exemption” to pretty much any employee; a teacher is a coach is …
“If I wanted to be buried so that I was eventually fossilised, for possible discovery in the far future, where would be the best location on Earth to do this?” (Jonathan Wallace, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) If your aim is to be fossilised after you die, I would suggest that you ask your relatives to sink …
Continue reading ‘A weird question to the New Scientist, plus two answers’ »
