American capitalism transformed the lives of millions and thereby did a good job for the majority. Arguably, happiness seems to have peaked in the 1950s. But now the system has clearly become self-serving, exploitative and unfit for purpose, creating massive wealth disparities and harming young people in particular with its employment policies. It has been …
Annual global sales of plastic bottles, glass bottles, cans and cartons are expected to reach 1.9 trillion in 2019. Volunteers who took part in 229 clean-up events on beaches and river banks in the UK found 49,000 pieces of packaging litter. Of this, 15.5% were Coca Cola bottles, and 10.3% were produced by Pepsi. Other …
Continue reading ‘Plastic waste (no, don’t move on to something else – this important! ) Part 1’ »
The threat posed by antibiotic resistance has finally got through to governments. 98 new formulations are being tested in animals, and nearly two-thirds attack bacteria differently from older drugs, increasing their chance of success. In May this year, the UK government will pay two companies to bring new anti-microbial drugs to market. The price of …
Continue reading ‘The war against antibiotic resistance: Part 2, the good news’ »
You have probably heard about the problem of anti- biotic resistance. This resistance is at last crumbling, but there is another problem – of economics. The issue is that pharma firms must recoup their investment in developing drugs, but antibiotics are the antithesis of a bestseller. They are taken for days or a few weeks, …
Continue reading ‘The war against antibiotic resistance. No.1: the problem’ »
It is now clear that Dr, Thomas Hofeller—who has been called “the Michelangelo of gerrymandering”— was the author of the idea of adding the citizenship question to the 2020 US census in order to create redistricting rules that would be “advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites.”? He conducted research showing that the citizenship question would significantly harm the political power of Latino communities. This is part of …
