Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Articles”
A Phalanx close-in weapons system (CIWS), which Human Rights Watch calls a prototype for fully autonomous weapons—or “killer robots”—fires at sea. (Photo: U.S. Navy/flickr/cc) Fully autonomous weapons, or “killer robots,” present a legal and ethical quagmire and must be banned before they can be further developed, a new human rights report published Thursday urges ahead of next week’s United Nations …
As Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting points out, until a video surfaced of South Carolina policeman Michael Slager murdering Walter Scott, the media was reporting a package of lies manufactured by the police: a fight that never occurred, witnesses who didn’t exist, the victim taking the policeman’s taser, etc. The lies collapsed because the video appeared. I find myself asking why …
After spending five long years negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the Obama administration is now pushing for the fast-track authority from Congress that would make it easier to get the final deal approved. One serious problem is that the TPP is not likely to include rules on currency, which is leading lawmakers from both parties to consider opposing the …
The idea of Iran as a regional marauder that is gobbling up other countries in the Middle East and against which pressure must therefore be unrelenting has become one of the favorite themes of those determined to kill the nuclear agreement with Tehran. As an argument for rejecting the nuclear deal, this approach has always suffered from major factual and …
The financial media as well as segments of the alternative media are pointing to a possible weakening of the US dollar as a global trading currency resulting from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) initiative. One of the central arguments in this debate on competing World currencies hinges on the BRICS initiative to create a development bank …
Harvey Wasserman | EcoWatch.com Randy Hayes is a great green lifer. Decades ago he founded the Rainforest Action Network, still one of the major players in the save-the-Earth infrastructure. Now he runs Foundation Earth. Never one to comprise, Randy has gone beyond his fair share of assorted jail stints and come out more dedicated than ever. “We need to double the world’s …
As long as these weapons exist, humanity’s survival remains up for grabs. Sooner or later they’ll be used. Armageddon may follow. The world’s entire nuclear weapons stockpile must be eliminated to prevent it. The consequences otherwise are too potentially catastrophic to ignore. Albert Einstein deplored nuclear weapons. “I have always condemned the use of the atomic bomb against Japan,” he …
A new scientific synthesis suggests a gradual, prolonged release of greenhouse gases from permafrost soils in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, which may afford society more time to adapt to environmental changes, say scientists in an April 9 paper published in Nature. “Twenty years ago there was very little research about the possible rate of permafrost carbon release,” said co-author A. …
The difference between living to 90 and living past 105 seems to depend largely on genes, according to a study of siblings. For people who live to 90 years old, the chance of their siblings also reaching age 90 is relatively small—about 1.7 times greater than for the average person born around the same time. But for people who survive …
The United States is supplying intelligence to the Saudi-led coalition bombing rebel positions in Yemen and will expedite arms supplies to the alliance, Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken said in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday. After talks with the Saudi officials, Blinken told reporters that Saudi Arabia was sending a “strong message to the Houthis and their allies …
