Category: Aggregated

‘The President says he’ll veto the Keystone XL pipeline. He should do more, and put an end to the project altogether. He has the authority. Oil from Alberta’s tar sands is the dirtiest in the […]

‘Toxic fumes in cabin air pose a health risk to frequent fliers and aircrew, a coroner has said in a landmark report. Stanhope Payne, the senior coroner for Dorset, said people regularly exposed to fumes […]

If you’ve been wondering what all that coffee is doing to you, cheer up. A recent review of data completed at Gill Heart Institute in Kentucky focused on the cardiovascular, genetic, antioxidant and caffeine effects of coffee and found that drinking the brew reduces the risk of mortality right across the board. They also documented that coffee: Reduces risk of stroke Does not increase risk of coronary heart disease Does not increase risk of congestive heart failure and may be preventative Does not increase risk of sudden cardiac death Decreases risk of type 2 diabetes Does not increase risk of … Continue reading →

Not too long ago, Robert Wenzel shared this fascinating video of a robot dog created by Boston Dynamics (which is owned by Google): Personally, I love this kind of stuff. Anytime we’re able to increase our productivity and efficiency as humans, I get excited. There is one big (and very violent) elephant in the room though….The Empire. Unfortunately, the following chart shows who the biggest buyers of robots are (at the moment): That’s right, “defense” applications is first by a huge margin. Unless you’re an innocent little toddler, you know that “defense” really means “offense.” This concerns me for two … Continue reading →

By now everybody knows that the primary consequence, one which we originally predicted back in 2009 – and many have since agreed – was completely intended, of the past 6 years of unprecedented monetary policy has been to push wealth inequality to record levels, not just in the US but across the world. What may not be so clear is precisely when this period of unprecedented wealth disparity started. The answer, as the following handy chart from NPR shows, is that long before QE, the wealth gap for the 1% really started in the early 1980s, courtesy of none other … Continue reading →

AMERICAN AND BRITISH spies hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications across the globe, according to top-secret documents provided to The Intercept by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. The hack was perpetrated by a joint unit consisting of operatives from the NSA and its British counterpart Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. The breach, detailed in a secret 2010 GCHQ document, gave the surveillance agencies the potential to secretly monitor a large portion of the world’s cellular communications, including both voice … Continue reading →

When it comes to the ongoing Greek question, I see a lot of people eagerly jump to conclusions, after the ‘debt deal’, that I don’t think are justified; certainly not yet. The overall conviction in the press seems to be that Syriza has given in on just about all fronts, and Germany and Dijsselbloem are the big winners. But since that may well be the exact position Syriza wants ‘the other side’ to be in, where they think they have prevailed, one will have to try and think a few steps ahead before judging the situation. There’s far more grey … Continue reading →

From full-on, doomsday preppers to simple gun-owners who fear impending gun control (read, confiscation) by the U.S. government, Guns.com has seen quite a spike recently in inquiries on how to stash a few firearms underground. So, what should one consider before building a “hillbilly cache”? Shhhh… We’re hiding something A few years back, a shooter friend of mine from Canada told me about the fear he and his father felt towards Canadian gun control legislation. In the course of our conversation, he admitted that his dad had buried a bunch of guns “out by the family well”. I was glad he told … Continue reading →

Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War, by Paul Fussell What was it about the war that moved the troops to constant verbal subversion and contempt?  It was not just the danger and fear, the boredom and uncertainty and loneliness and deprivation.  It was rather the conviction that optimistic publicity and euphemism had rendered their experience so falsely that it would never be readily communicable. Those in the war – and most specifically, the small minority on the front line – knew the sanitized version that was portrayed for those at the home front; further, they knew that … Continue reading →

Editor’s Note: San Francisco is taking a page out of New York’s Vision Zero playbook by considering dropping the speed limit in the city to 20 mph. The measure, proposed by San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar, would be one of a number of command-and-control policies ostensibly designed to reduce the city’s pedestrian and bicycle fatalities to zero by 2024.The misguided Vision Zero movement originated in Sweden and moved to New York with the election of Mayor de Blasio. For more on Vision Zero, check out this e-newsletter. NMA E-Newsletter #262: Vision Zero Equals Zero Vision Former New York City Mayor … Continue reading →