What’s Going On?
China’s Ecological Mess
Thousands of pigs were found dead in rivers supplying Shanghai’s water, a grisly discovery that has drawn attention again to China’s toxic pollution, which contributes to some 700,000 deaths each year. Here are some points of concern: WASTE Tai Lake—a ...
Demographic suicide
Among the consequences of Europe’s aban-Ife donment of its religious roots and the moral "code that derives therefrom is a plunge in its birth rates to below the replacements level. Abortion, birth control, acceptance of gay marriage and casual sex ...
CRIME IN JAPAN
Police in Japan have reported that crime is at a minimum and that they have nothing to do. They say that there has only been one gun homicide since 2015 when they made firearms illegal. Gun control is the major ...
The rise of ‘drunkorexia’
A scary new trend among college students combines starvation with binge drinking, says TheAtlantic.com. Researchers say “drunkorexia” now affects as many as one in four college students, who diet all day so that they can drink at night without gaining ...
A mind-control parasite
A parasite lurking in your cat’s litter box could make you suicidal. A study of 46,000 Danish women found that those who were infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a common parasite that lives in the guts of cats and is transmitted ...
The sad state of warehoused children
Russian orphanages are a scandal, said Jennifer Rankin. State institutions house nearly 400,000 children, a population larger than many cities. But less than one third of these children are actually orphans. Many “fall into the system when their parents, often ...
Secondhand smoke still lingers
Over the past decade, thanks in part to widespread restrictions on when and where people can light up, the number of Americans who smoke has rapidly declined. But despite that reduction, some 58 million Americans are still regularly exposed to ...
Dehumanizing Hispanics as illegals
The Republicans have a euphemism for undocumented workers— illegals — said Peter Beinart. With a tone of disgust, that single, dehumanizing noun has become the GOP presidential candidates’ preferred way to describe the millions of human beings picking our produce, ...
Urbanization Helps China Eliminate Poverty
BEIJING - The greatest risk China faces in its historic modernization is the massive imbalance between urban and rural areas, according to the country's top agriculture official. "The most important and difficult task is to resolve issues concerning agriculture, countryside ...
Ancient Termite Megalopolis Found in Brazil
Researchers have found some 200 million termite mounds that stretch for thousands of miles across northeastern Brazil. The area measures 88,000 square miles an area larger than the state of Minnesota. They stand about 10 feet tall, about 30 feet ...