Good times continue to roll in Iran, according to the Wall Street Journal: Iran has dramatically increased executions over the past decade and abused the rights of students, women, journalists and religious minorities, according to a new United Nations report. . . .It cites an “alarming increase” in executions, from fewer than 100 people in […]

Watson’s entry into the job market is only the latest, clearest danger signal for white-collar jobs. The trouble has in fact been brewing for quite some time. A new study cited in The Atlantic refers to the past few years as a “lost decade” for college graduates, who have seen their (inflation-adjusted) entry-level wages fall […]

Those excitable greens are at it again. Regular Via Meadia readers are well aware of how alarmist hysteria, often underpinned by sloppy science, has undermined the credibility of the environmental movement and the cause they seek to advance. According to Michael Levi of the CFR, Canadian hockey fans are the latest target of a green terror campaign.Levi […]

Rahul Gandhi and his Congress Party lost big in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, in recent elections for the state assembly. The left-wing Samajwadi Party (SP) won a large enough majority to oust the incumbents (Bahujan Samaj Party) from the roost.This is bad news for the Congress Party, dominated by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has reigned […]

China and Europe have been butting heads this week over Europe’s new environmental regulations for aviation. The Wall Street Journal reports that China is putting orders for 45 Airbus planes by Chinese airliners on hold, costing the European manufacturer $12 billion in revenue. While the Chinese haven’t made any direct statements to this effect, most […]

South Africa will not nationalize its mining industry, said Deputy President Kgalema Molanthe this week, but the turmoil rippling through South Africa’s economy, and its political leadership, is not over.“It is not going to happen,” Molanthe told the BBC, confirming that the mines would not be nationalized. The nationalization campaign was championed by Julius Malema, formerly […]

The IBM supercomputer known as “Watson” is best known for its victory on Jeopardy, but its creators have much bigger plans for it: Citigroup has just announced that it has hired the computer, in what the Wall Street Journal refers to as “the beginning of the end of human employment at banks.”Watson is already on the […]

The medical world may be on the verge of a major breakthrough on par with the discovery of penicillin. As profiled in this NYT piece, a number of Silicon Valley companies and entrepreneurs are looking to lower the price of genome sequencing to the point that it will be within reach of the average consumer (below $1,000)—a […]

The attention being given to the defection of Syria’s deputy oil minister is part of a pattern: Journalists, especially in the West, let their (justified) sympathy for the Syrian revolt get the better of their judgement.In this case, the media is describing this deputy oil minister as “a top official” and his decision to join […]

Growth is down in Latin America’s largest economy and nervous, shell shocked Brazilians are crossing their fingers that their economy isn’t still stuck in its historic trap of commodity-dependence and high inflation.Brazil, which grew 2.7 percent last year, isn’t the only emerging economy to slow down in the wake of decelerating growth across the developed […]