Greenhouse gas emissions were down by 0.7 percent across the industrialized world in 2011, according to a new data analysis by Reuters. The Guardian reports on the leading causes of the drop: “For the United States, it’s mainly a shift from coal to gas in power plants,” said Steffen Kallbekken, research director at the Centre for International Climate and […]

The Coconut Fragrance Princess, a Chinese cruise ship, embarked on Sunday for the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. It is the first such venture to the tiny island group that is the focus of an international dispute between Vietnam, Taiwan, and China. The ship will tour a handful of islands and guests will be […]

Forget botched surgery and hospital-borne infections: the biggest danger during your time as a patient is when your doctor is talking to you. The WSJ reports on a new study out of John Hopkins:   Researchers at Johns Hopkins University looked at more than 350,000 malpractice claims over 25 years. They found that diagnostic errors—defined as missed, […]

Clever Iranian sleuths have cracked the secret ingredient of the Jewish plan for world domination: sorcery. Mehdi Taeb, a well-known cleric and close confidante of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, disclosed to a group of students recently that “the Jews” unleashed their powers of witchcraft upon the Iranian elections of 2009. Thankfully, their occult schemes […]

To understand the stranglehold the blue model puts on growth, consider the case of Uber, the service powered by a smartphone app that makes it much easier to get a cab and pay the fare by credit card. New York City has belatedly approved Uber under a “pilot program” that will allow only a limited […]

The NYT published a story today on a poll that concluded that the United States is in the midst of an “isolationist streak” because Americans are largely opposed to sending the military to intervene in Syria and North Korea. We think this analysis misses the mark by confusing sensible prudence with isolationism.First, here are some of […]

In his first speech to parliament, center-left Italian PM Enrico Letta has charted the course his new, unwieldy coalition government will take. The way forward: new tax cuts along with increases in government spending. As for Europe? The FT reports: While Mr Letta promised that Italy would abide by fiscal commitments made to Europe he did not explain where the […]

Earlier this month more than 136,000 people pledged to telework as part of Mobile Work Exchange’s third-annual Telework Week. Today, Mobile Work Exchange (MWE), a telework advocacy group sponsored by several tech companies, released a report looking back on the results of this year’s Telework Week.This annual event accomplishes a couple of things. First, it […]

The Obama Administration is looking to privatize the crown jewel of the New Deal, the Tennessee Valley Authority, basically because with lots of capital expenditure in its future the agency could become a serious drain on federal finances. Selling it off to private investors could bring in some money now and would ensure that future […]

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard might want to start putting her resume together. Australia fiscal outlook was revised downward substantially today, and it’s bad news for Gillard and the ruling Labor party. The AP reports: Australia’s government said Monday that its tax revenue has continued to fall in recent months as company profits declined and […]