The Guardian, Smart cities need thick data, not big data, By Adrian Smith, Professor of Technology and Society at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, Wed 18 Apr 2018 Talking about noise in Plaça del Sol Photograph: Making Sense Residents living around Plaça del Sol joke that theirs is the only square where, despite the name, rain is preferable. …
Our wealthiest tell pollsters they value their health over their wealth. What about our health?
‘Lock ‘Em Up’: An Update for Our Opioid Age, by Sam Pizzigati, Our Great Divide, 19 Apr 2018 Wealthy people in the United States, a new survey out of the Swiss banking giant UBS has found, worry a great deal about health. Their own. What could we do to encourage more of these wealthy to worry — and care — about everyone’s health? Senator Bernie Sanders …
Novel antioxidant makes old blood vessels seem young again. Epstein bar virus related to MS, lupus, diabetes and more. And more people have died or been injured in mass school shootings in the US in the past 18 years than in the entire 20th century
Science Daily.com April 2018. Also see further down: Using a homemade, high-tech microscope, scientists have revealed how a cancer-causing virus anchors itself to our DNA. That discovery could pave the way for doctors to cure incurable diseases by flushing out viruses, including HPV and Epstein-Barr, that now permanently embed themselves in our cells Older adults who take a novel antioxidant that …
7 things to know about our taxes. Corporations pay less than 9% of US taxes already, and fewer than 3% of workers getting anything from those corporate tax breaks.
Lindsay Koshgarian posted Apr 17, 2018 1. Thanks to the Trump tax deal, taxes are way down for corporations and billionaires. In 2017, individuals and corporations were still paying taxes under the old system. The Trump tax plan that Congress passed in December 2017 hadn’t yet taken effect. In 2018, the rules have changed. The new tax plan favors billionaires and …
Kids are suing Gov. Rick Scott to force Florida to take action on climate change
By Alex Harris, aharris@miamiherald.com, April 16, 2018 Florida Gov. Rick Scott doesn’t talk about climate change. He notoriously declared “I’m not a scientist” when asked his thoughts on humanity’s well-documented impact on the warming planet, banned the phrase in his administration (a charge he denies) and backed up President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris accord. On Monday, an unusual group sued Scott for ignoring the …
After Soda Tax, Philadelphians 40 Percent Less Likely to Guzzle Sugar
By Katie O’Reilly, Apr. 12, 2018 Just two months after a tax of $0.015 per ounce of soda, energy drinks and other sugary beverages went into effect in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphians were already reaching for the sweet stuff significantly less often than their counterparts in nearby cities. A study published Thursday in the American Journal of Preventive …
The story behind the cell phone industry and health effects research on cell phones, prior to WHO 2011 classification of cell-phone radiation as a “possible” human carcinogen and the governments of Great Britain, France, and Israel to issue strong warnings on cell-phone use by children
on the global industry behind cell phones—and the industry’s long campaign to make people believe that cell phones are safe. Carlo’s story underscores the need for caution, however, particularly since it evokes eerie parallels with two of the most notorious cases of corporate deception on record: the campaigns by the tobacco and fossil-fuel industries to obscure the dangers of smoking …
Taking a longer, harder look at the research that shows that more equal societies also turn out to be safer societies
By Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org, March 2018 Last month’s homicidal horror at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida has Americans searching for answers to the most elemental question a parent can ever ask. How can we, Americans want to know, protect our kids? Overwhelming majorities of us, the polls tell us, feel that the answer involves some sort of meaningful limits on …
Even the government admits that about half of all American adults—117 million individuals—have one or more preventable chronic diseases
The U.S. now spends more money on so-called healthcare than any other nation on Earth—$3.5 trillion a year. Yet, public health continues to deteriorate, thanks to an environment contaminated by more than 84,000 industrial and agricultural chemicals, and a steady diet of cheap, unhealthy grub dished up in supermarkets, restaurants, schools and institutional settings. Even the government admits that about …
High-quality social interactions building intimacy and trust with others can promote egalitarianism and is essential to happiness and well-being
Quarz.com March 2018 The new World Happiness Report again ranks Denmark among the top three happiest of 155 countries surveyed—a distinction that the country has earned for seven consecutive years. The US, on the other hand, ranked 18th in this year’s World Happiness Report, a four-spot drop from last year’s report. Denmark’s place among the world’s happiest countries is consistent with many other national …