A national study suggests that intensive farming is perhaps the greatest danger to wild bee survival. Led by University of Vermont scientist Dr. Insu Koh, the research team is the first to compare the species’ population over time with the location of pollinator-dependent crops. The researchers found that between 2008 and 2013, the abundance of wild bees dropped in almost …
Joseph Stiglitz – What’s Holding Back the World Economy?
Seven years after the global financial crisis erupted in 2008, the world economy continued to stumble in 2015. According to the United Nations’ report World Economic Situation and Prospects 2016, the average growth rate in developed economies has declined by more than 54% since the crisis. An estimated 44 million people are unemployed in developed countries, about 12 million more than …
How scared of death are we really – and how does it affect us?
If death is the final taboo, it might not be for much longer. There has, in recent years, been increasing effort to promote conversations about death and dying, both in the home and in more public settings. For example, death cafes, first launched in Switzerland in 2004, have spread around the world, enabling people to speak about their fears over cake and coffee. …
Mike Lofgren – How Washington’s New Rich Live
In 1927, H.L. Mencken rode by train through the Pennsylvania coal country. The houses he saw along the way were so hideous, at least in his eyes, that he was moved to pen his famous essay, “The Libido for the Ugly.” Mencken was writing about towns inhabited by coal miners and railroad brakemen, but what would he say if he …
125-year mini ice age linked to the plague and fall of empires
Winter was coming. In AD 536, the first of three massive volcanic eruptions ushered in a mini ice age. It coincided with an epidemic of the plague, the decline of the eastern Roman Empire, and sweeping upheavals across Eurasia. Now we have the first evidence that the disruption to climate continued a lot longer than a decade, as was previously thought. …
Leonid Reshetnikov: ‘The US Is Hanging by a Thread’
Maria Pozdnyakova (AiF): Leonid Petrovich, why is the West working so hard to create conflict with Russia? Leonid Reshetnikov: The Western elite are furious. They didn’t expect us to show as much backbone as we have in Syria. The West already stopped paying attention to Russia 20 years ago. In 1992, CIA Director Robert Gates had his own victory parade in …
Josh Voorhees – Why Hillary Clinton Won’t Release Her Goldman Sachs Transcripts
Pressed during Thursday’s Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton said that she would “certainly look into” releasing the transcripts of the paid speeches she gave in private to Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street institutions. By Sunday, her promised careful consideration was apparently complete. “Let everybody who’s ever given a speech to any private group under any circumstances release them—we’ll all release …
Sarah Lazare – Dear Hillary, Madeleine and Gloria: Full Feminism Demands We Say No to America’s Deadly Imperial Wars
Two powerful backers of Hillary Clinton attracted headlines—and outrage—this weekend when they uttered sweeping statements under the banner of “feminism,” calling on young women to back the former Secretary of State’s presidential bid. Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of Sate, introduced Clinton in New Hampshire on Saturday by declaring, “There’s a special place in hell …
The pill that costs $9,000 in US sells for $70 in India
The Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech might be the first to come out with a vaccine for the Zika virus if its efficacy can be proved. If it does succeed, this won’t be the first time India has come to the rescue of the world. Indeed, the country’s generic medicines are a lifeline for millions not only in low and middle-income countries but also in …
Robert Fisk – A plan must be made for ‘life after Isis’ in the Middle East
There are times in the Middle East when nightmares and delusions take the place of the real and growing tragedy which is consuming the Arab lands. More and more earnest are the calls for peace as more and more nations launch more and more air raids, from Kabul to the Mediterranean, and down through Sinai and Yemen and across to …










