The Mad Science of Nuclear Airplanes By Karl Grossman

Consider getting on to an airplane with nuclear-powered engines. Consider the consequences if an atomic airplane crashes. The Boeing Company last week received approval from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for an airplane engine that combines the use of lasers and nuclear power. “Boeing’s newly-patented engine provides thrust in a very different and rather novel manner,” heralded Business Insider.  It’s …

Charter Schools Are Mired in Fraud and Failure By Paul Buchheit

The inadequacies of charter schools have been confirmed by many recent studies. Even CREDO [3], which is part of a conservative think tank funded by the pro-privatization Walton Foundation, recently found that in comparison to traditional public schools “students in Ohio charter schools perform worse in both reading and mathematics.” Another recent CREDO study [4] of California schools reached mixed results, with charters showing higher …

How Technology Is Destroying Jobs By David Rotman

Given his calm and reasoned academic demeanor, it is easy to miss just how provocative Erik Brynjolfsson’s contention really is. ­Brynjolfsson, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and his collaborator and coauthor Andrew McAfee have been arguing for the last year and a half that impressive advances in computer technology—from improved industrial robotics to automated translation services—are …

Big Pharma: How They Manipulate American Medical Doctors By Dr. Gary G. Kohls

 “The pharmaceutical companies are an amoral bunch. They’re not a benevolent association.  So they are highly unlikely to donate large amounts of money without strings attached. Once one is dancing with the devil, you don’t always get to call the steps of the dance.”—A psychiatrist, quoted in the Boston Globe, 2002. The New England Journal of Medicine, under the editorship …

More than a quarter of Chicago county jail inmates suffer severe mental illness By George Marlowe

Recent reports have highlighted the fact that at least a quarter of the prison population at Chicago’s Cook County Jail suffer from serious mental health illnesses. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, the new head of the jail noted that out of the jail’s approximately 8,000 detainees, some 1,900 have been identified as suffering from mental illness. Dr. Nneka Jones, a 37-year-old …

Rot Of Empire: Moody’s Downgrades Chicago To Junk Bond Status – Dave Kanzler

I thought junk bonds were ‘high risk – high return’ whereas I’d have thought Chicago was more ‘high risk – no return.   Not so much junk bonds, just junk. Reader comment from  “Mike” It’s doubtful that Warren Buffet’s Moody’s Investor Services will face the same wrath from Obama that Obama inflicted on S&P after S&P downgraded the U.S. Government debt rating …

America’s Cities Mirror Baltimore’s Woes – Joel Kotkin

The rioting that swept Baltimore the past few days, sadly, was no exception, but part of a bigger trend in some of our core cities towards social and economic collapse. Rather than enjoying the much ballyhooed urban “renaissance,” many of these cities are actually in terrible shape, with miserable schools, struggling economies and a large segmented of alienated, mostly minority …

US Govt Lowers Fluoride Levels In Drinking Water For First Time in 50 Years – Anthony Gucciardi

The United States government has finally lowered fluoride levels in drinking water for the first time in 50 years following research by Harvard and other institutions that high exposure to fluoride can lower your IQ and wreak havoc on your body. It was around 3 years ago, after all, that the government actually backed the historic study by Harvard scientists …

We Aren’t Alone in Our Cities: 12 Ways Animals Have Adapted to Urban Life – Matt Soniak

As cities expand, it’s not just humans who are becoming increasingly urbanized. Concrete jungles and actual jungles are no longer realms apart, and as natural and human-created environments bleed into each other and intertwine, animals that walk on four legs, six or eight legs, fly or slither are calling cities home more and more. In Feral Cities: Adventures With Animals in …