Oceans' acidic shift accelerating to record highs
Reuters, 01Mar2012
The world's oceans are turning acidic at what could be the fastest pace of any time in the past 300 million years, even more rapidly than during a monster emission of planet-warming carbon 56 million years ago, scientists said.

Human blunders seen at heart of ship disaster
Reuters, 16Jan2012
Over-reliance on electronic navigation systems and a failure of judgment by the captain are seen as possible reasons for one of the worst cruise liner disasters of all time, maritime specialists say.

Winds of Change
By Lucy Williamson, BBC News, 02Dec2011
Can South Korea's drive for renewable energy help meet ambitious targets and boost economic growth?

U.S. Congress, Communists and God
By Bernd Debusmann, Reuters, 29Nov2011
Many think there’s nothing the divided House of Representatives can agree on. But among the few topics on which Democrats and Republicans in the GOP-dominated House see eye-to-eye is the official motto of the United States: “In God We Trust.”

All the News That’s Fit to Forget
Why you’re not hearing much about embryonic stem cells these days
By WESLEY J. SMITH, Weekly Standard Magazine,
Nov 28, 2011, Vol. 17, No. 11
For years, the media touted the promise of embryonic stem cells. Year after year, Geron Corporation announced that its embryonic stem cell treatment for acute spinal cord injury would receive FDA approval “next year” for human testing. And year after year, the media dutifully informed readers and viewers that cures were imminent. When the FDA finally did approve a tiny human trial for 10 patients in January 2009, the news exploded around the world. This was it: The era of embryonic stem cell therapy had arrived!
Not exactly.

America world’s Number One? Think again
By Bernd Debusmann, Reuters, 28Oct2011
The United States is the greatest country on earth, different from others and better than the rest in all respects. Or so the great majority of its citizens believe, in good times and bad. Two new reports might dent that self-image.

Europe's lost generation stuck in junk jobs
Reuters, 17Oct2011
With Spain's high youth unemployment rate, young professionals accept any conditions in starting their careers. More and more people in Portugal and Italy also have so-called junk jobs: temporary contracts now used by all kinds of companies.

OECD indicators paint dark picture of global economy
Reuters, 10Oct2011
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said its composite leading indicator (CLI) for its 33 member countries dropped for a fifth straight month in August, hitting 100.8 after 101.4 in July and signaling a slowdown in economic activity.

Cash Is the Problem, Not ‘Confidence’
Another poor excuse for the stagnant economy
By LAWRENCE B. LINDSEY,
Weekly Standard Magazine, Oct 17, 2011, Vol. 17, No. 05
At the start of every economic downturn in memory there has been a chorus of voices saying that recovery is just a matter of “confidence.” Supposedly all we have to do is pick ourselves up and “not talk ourselves into a recession.”

America's rich are losing a tussle over taxes
By Chris Vellacott, Reuters, 30Sep2011
Cash-strapped western governments are on the offensive against their own elites. Wealth taxes are up, loopholes are being closed and crackdowns on offshore havens and Swiss bank accounts are gaining momentum.

Do loved ones bid farewell from beyond the grave?
By John Blake, CNN, 23Sep2011
A man in the doorway of a hair salon. A voice on a static-filled phone. A 2 a.m. visit from a dying grandfather. They seemed real at the time; only later did those who experienced these "crisis apparitions" learn their loved ones were dead.

China "stem cell therapies" offer heartbreak for many
Reuters, 21Sep2011
Desperate for help, patients with incurable diseases are admitting themselves into hospitals in China for "stem cell therapies" but experts say such treatments are backed by little or no scientific evidence and are at best experimental.

Record Number of Americans Living in Poverty, Census Reports
Fox News/AP, 13Sep2011
Report finds more Americans living in poverty than at any time since the '50s, with an overall rate of 15 percent