AS THE ARCTIC MELTS: WORRIED ABOUT RISING SEA LEVELS? BETTER WORRY TOO ABOUT RAPID ACIDIFICATION OF ARCTIC WATERS. New scientific report, reviewed by BBC, documents the rise in pH levels in Arctic region as CO-2 emissions are absorbed in the cold waters of a polar meltdown. The degree of the environmental threat from this [...]
A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING EUROPE AND AMERICA: AND IT’S NAME IS AUSTERITY. The literally killing effects of austerity measures undertaken as a solutions to the “financial crisis” are documented in a new book by David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu. Decimation of health support services is blamed with creating epidemics of everything from HIV and [...]
An aggressive austerity agenda that has gripped Europe’s economy in a burgeoning malaise for nearly five years has come to an unexpected head in the tiny island nation of Cyprus. The latest fiscal catastrophe to develop across the pond has thrown global markets into turmoil and raised questions of how far Europeans are willing to [...]
IT’S NOT EASY BEING A PELICAN IN COSTA RICA—NOR A PORPOISE NOR AN ALLIGATOR EITHER. These animals, among others, are given protection in a Marine Park in Puntarenas from the hazards of their life styles (like water dives of pelicans) and of the human animals who sometimes harass them. A gated park provides a [...]
IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN LOOKS AT THE GLOBE AND FINDS TURMOIL AND THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT IN THE “MIDDLE RUN” FUTURE. While predictions for a given year are a “fool’s mission” and those for centuries in the future only too easy to make, those for the “middle run” of a decade or so hence are subject to [...]
THE FORGOTTEN VICTIMS OF HURRICANE SANDY. While much of the media is focused breathlessly on the aftermath of winds and storm surge that battered New York and New Jersey during this week’s landfall of “super storm” Sandy, the hurricane’s first stop is generally ignored by the rest of the world. Before it threatened [...]
CAN THE PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT PUT THE TALIBAN GENIE BACK INTO THE BOTTLE AFTER THEY HAVE RELEASED IT? This question is raised by the much publicized case of Malala Yusafzai, the 14-year old Swat Valley girl who infuriated Taliban extremists by asserting the right of girls to an education and as doctors struggle to save [...]
THE EURO-ZONE IN TROUBLE? PUT THE BLAME ON THE SOUTH OF ITALY. A New York Times article highlights this take on European Union economic troubles, in which northern members of the European Union tend to blame delinquencies in countries the like of Greece, Italy and Spain for their “Euro” troubles. The article describes the [...]
WHAT’S MORE “INEFFECTIVE”? PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS OR NEW STUDENT/TEACHER EVALUATIONS? Principals and teachers in New York state are witnessing the first round of student and teacher evaluations under the new test-based achievement guidelines championed by education “reformers.” The results have been as flawed as many expected leading thousands of teachers and principals to protest [...]
AUSTERITY-PROTESTING CHAOS IN STREETS OF SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND GREECE—AND NEW YORK TIMES CHOOSES MOSTLY THE FACT THAT MARKETS “FALTER” IN THESE COUNTRIES AS THE NEWS “THAT’S FIT TO PRINT.” As European central bank demands austerity measures cutting benefits to people as condition of buying up their bad debts, riots occur across southern Europe and [...]
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