Zhang Lan, founder of restaurant chain South Beauty, is one of China’s richest women and a symbol of the country’s booming economic success. Thus it is not surprising that the recent news that the billionaire has renounced her Chinese citizenship to take on a foreign nationality has been met with some significant national soul-searching. …
2012 is nearly certain to be the warmest year ever for the US, according to the latest figures from the NOAA. It would take December being more than 1.0°F colder than the coldest December recorded in 1983 in order for 2012 not to be the nation’s warmest year ever, the …
The alternate media and blogosphere are buzzing with very disturbing stories about how the government intends to steal/seize private retirement accounts. A new effort by the Obama administration, Congress, the Treasury Department and labor unions aims to fundamentally alter how Americans plan and save for retirement. Warnings have been popping …
The TSA has refused to attend a House Transportation hearing this week, with agency head John Pistole personally refusing to appear and declaring that the Congressional Committee has “no jurisdiction over the TSA”. The hearing, schedule for Thursday, will be held by the Subcommittee on Aviation, a part of the …
Rep. Ron Paul, an icon to the libertarian Right and to some on the anti-war Left, gave a farewell address to Congress that expressed his neo-Confederate interpretation of the Constitution and his anti-historical view of the supposedly good old days of laissez-faire capitalism. In a near-hour-long rambling speechon Nov. 14, Paul also revealed …
An explosion Friday on a rig in the Gulf owned by Houston-based Black Elk Energy has reportedly injured several workers, with four missing, two possibly killed. This latest incident — just a day after the US department of justice’s historic settlement with BP over the Deepwater Horizon disaster — highlights the risks of offshore …
China will overtake the US in the next four years to become the largest economy in the world, says a leading international thinktank. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said China’s economy will be larger than the combined economies of the eurozone countries by the end of …
The idea of sharing is increasingly popular today as an answer to many of our social, environmental and economic problems. By learning how to share more in our everyday lives – in everything from cars, clothes, couches, meals, household tools, even our time and skills – we are able to …
U.S. plans to attack Iran with a mix of nuclear and conventional weapons have been in readiness since June, 2005, a distinguished authority on international affairs says. “Confirmed by military documents as well as official statements, both the U.S. and Israel contemplate the use of nuclear weapons directed against Iran,” …
China said Saturday the failure by Washington and Tokyo to fix their fiscal problems was hurting the global economy, as it called for “bold, swift and decisive action” to reverse a slowdown. Deputy central bank governor Yi Gang warned the absence of a “credible, medium-term fiscal consolidation in some of …
Pundits from both sides of the aisle have lauded Mitt Romney’s strong debate performance, praising his preparedness and ability to challenge President Obama’s policies and accomplishments. But Romney only accomplished this goal by repeatedly misleading viewers. He spoke for 38 minutes of the 90 minute debate and told at least 27 myths: …
Conventional wisdom says that most retractions of papers in scientific journals are triggered by unintentional errors. Not so, according to one of the largest-ever studies of retractions. A survey1 published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that two-thirds of retracted life-sciences papers were stricken from the scientific record because …
Since 2009, Anita Reyes’ wages have been as frozen as Lake Minnetonka in January. While the U.S. economy was recovering from the Great Recession, Reyes, 52, a casino dealer from Minneapolis, was dining on $1.67 cans of soup and searching for a way to keep her house, which was foreclosed on last October. “I …
Medications are nutrition. That’s essentially the rationale behind a couple of Big Pharma corporations’ decision to give a failed Alzheimer’s drug a second chance. In early August, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson said they were ending large-scale clinical trials of their experimental drug bapineuzumab in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, …
Missouri GOP senatorial candidate Todd Akin’s absurd comment that women’s bodies can prevent pregnancies in cases of “legitimate rape” is disgusting. It also points to a deeper problem within the GOP. Plainly, this is a party that hates women. And given the huge gender gap opening up in favor of …