Governments gave 20% more in overseas aid funding to fossil fuel projects over the last two years than to programmes to cut the air pollution they cause, according to an analysis from the Clean Air Fund. Air pollution kills more people than HIV/Aids, malaria, and tuberculosis combined, but just 1% of global development aid is …
The United States in 2020 saw the highest number of drug overdose deaths on record, “staggering” data from the National Center for Health Statistics showed. There were an estimated 93,331 deaths from overdoses last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, about a 30 percent increase from 2019. This was the biggest jump from year to year since 2016, when the number …
Don’t feel guilty about engaging in office gossip, “As long as it’s not malicious, it can serve practical, positive purposes.” A 2019 study found that workers gossip an average of 52 minutes a day. Most of the conversations “weren’t positive or negative, but neutral.” This chatter can help people make sense of their environment, says …
A new study has found that meditating for ten to 15 minutes a day can boost the brain’s ability to concentrate on everyday tasks. Brain scans of students at Binghamton University in New York revealed marked changes in the ability to switch between states of consciousness after subjects took up mediation five times a week …
Did you know that the latest figures show that 875,000 people use cocaine in Britain every year at a cost of up to £100 pounds ($130} per gram? Did you know that in Mexico in 2017 there were 29,000 drug- related murders, with civilians caught in the crossfire, and the demand fueled by Westerners with …
It has been argued that we are again living in a golden age of conspiracy theories. Indeed, a “rabble of cranks and conspiracy theorists” descended on central London over the weekend. When people march with placards calling Covid a hoax and linking the virus to 5G, we tend to dismiss them as idiots, or cite …
“To those who abuse us for simply making polite requests to wear masks or to maintain social distance in hospitals or GP practices, to those who deny the existence of the pandemic or the science of vaccination, to those who issue death threats or incite violence against us, we say enough is enough.” (Gill Walton, …
It seems that 75% of people with mobile phones value an actual phone conversation, but that 92% mainly use their phones for internet access. Long rambling phone calls are on the out, declining yearly. Extroverts prefer face-to-face conversations, which they find energising. Introverts, of which I am one, use the phone mainly for utilitarian purposes …
The Disease Control and Prevention Department has said that 40 million Americans have lost some hearing because of excessive noise, half of them, owing to leaf- blowers, machinery, generators, sirens, rock concerts, listening to music with headphones and the volume too loud. 25% of Americans aged 20 to 69 have some hearing loss, or have …
I have had several occasions where my right leg has caved under me, causing me to fall. My GP referred me to the National Health Service Falls Centre, which trains people to avoid falls and breakages. After a session I started on home with my wife, armed with a list of exercises. Running for …
More than one in eighty U.K. school pupils have failed to return to school following the lifting of coronavirus lockdowns, according to a new analysis of official U.K. data. The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found that 93,514 pupils were “severely absent” – absent more often than they were present – during the autumn school …
Continue reading ‘100,000 children have not appeared at school’ »
Back in 2019 research revealed by The Guardian ( 5 July) showed that one in ten people in a hospital bed in the UK are alcohol-dependent, and one in five inpatients are doing themselves harm by their drinking. While it is estimated that heavy drinking costs the NHS £3.5bn a year, the numbers of people …
Discomfort among European leaders early in May after Joe Biden’s surprise proposal of a temporary patents waiver to boost the supply of Covid vaccines for poorer countries. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission boss, said the EU was open to the idea, but at a summit in Porto, Germany and France gave it a …
A US study shows that people who are less physically active are more likely to be hospitalised and die with Covid-19. According to these new calculations, being inactive puts you at a greater risk from Covid-19 than any other risk factor except age and having had an organ transplant. If this is right, it’s a …
Just the other week, hundreds of residents who live near Luke air force base in Arizona were advised not to drink their water, when tests detected high levels of toxic chemicals. Scientists have found these substances in the blood of nearly all the people they tested in the US. No country or region on earth …
Continue reading ‘The decimation of fertility. No. 3 (last comments)’ »
