From SwissInfo: The United Nations is facing a serious cashflow crisis, as 63 states – including its largest contributor, the United States – have not paid their annual dues. In Geneva, officials at the UN’s European headquarters (UNOG) are considering ways to cut costs, while the host nation looks on anxiously. The statement by UN … [Read more…]
From Mather Jones, September 26, 2019, Arctic Ice Is Melting Faster Than Expected. These Scientists Have a Radical Idea to Save It. Costly and controversial, yes. But we may be running out of choices. “We’re getting much more attention because of how dire thing are,” says inventor and engineer Leslie Field, founder of Ice911, a … [Read more…]
Guardian, 17 September, 2019: Six whistleblowers and ex-government scientists describe how the Trump administration made them bury climate science – and why they won’t stay quiet by Oliver Milman From weakening vehicle emissions to blocking warnings about how coastal parks could flood or the impact on the Arctic, the Trump administration is accused of muzzling … [Read more…]
From the Guardian, Sept 9th, 2019: “The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it,” Yoshiaki Harada told a news briefing in Tokyo on Tuesday. “The whole of the government will discuss this, but I would like to offer my simple opinion.” … Six years ago during the city’s bid … [Read more…]
‘Scary for democracy’ Adam Gabbatt in Youngstown, Ohio Wed 21 Aug 2019 It was in the late 1920s that the Ku Klux Klan regularly began gathering outside the home of William F Maag Jr in Youngstown. Maag owned the Vindicator newspaper, which unlike others in this once prosperous part of Ohio, had been willing to … [Read more…]
From the Guardian, Andrew Roth in Moscow, Sat 10 Aug 2019: Rosatom says five staff died in accident that caused radiation levels to spike in Arkhangelsk. Russia’s nuclear energy agency has said an explosion that caused radiation levels to spike in the Arkhangelsk region was caused by an accident during a test of an “isotope … [Read more…]
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power” ? Benito Mussolini
In a New Yorker book review, Elizabeth Kolbert tells us about “Barnum: An American Life” by Robert Wilson. Her review is very interesting in that it brings to the surface the similarities between Barnum and Donald Trump, even if she never actually makes the leap. Embedded in the review are some fascinating details making it … [Read more…]
In the New York Review of Books, this essay Real Americans by Joseph O’Neill is noteworthy. O’Neill reviews two books, This America: The Case for the Nation by Jill Lepore and This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto by Suketu Mehta. O’Neill delivers a fine essay covering many points of the current state in … [Read more…]
Yet another reason why you should turn off the TV, it makes you stupid. How trashy TV made children dumber and enabled a wave of populist leaders, Washington Post, Andrew Van Dam July 20. By 1990, 49 out of 50 Italians could watch Mediaset — half of the country had gained access in just five … [Read more…]