NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s multiple crusades to improve public health

Mike Bloomberg is a mayor with a mission. More specifically, a public health mission: Over the course of a decade he has made New York City a laboratory to test policies that manipulate the healthiness of public environments. His much-protested idea for a large-soda ban comes from a long lineage of much-protested smoking bans and …

The Walking Dead Escape: Live the Apocalypse

  The Walking Dead Escape: Live the Apocalypse July 12-14 during San Diego’s Comic-Con   OVERVIEW The course has been specifically designed for participants with a wide range of abilities. The world we know is about to end. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions will sweep the globe causing the dead to rise and feed on …

Last weekend, half of Germany was running on solar power

Here’s how they did it, and how we can too This is what can happen when citizens and government agree that it’s worth spending a bit more for clean, carbon-free power: German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity – equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity – through the …

Israeli government bans ultra-thin models and photoshop in advertisements

On Monday, March 19, the Israeli parliament passed legislation ubiquitously known in the country as the Photoshop laws. The new regulations on the fashion and advertising industry ban underweight models as determined by Body Mass Index and regulate Photoshop usage in media and advertising. Abroad, the laws have opened new discussion on a government’s right …

European Union needs a President – says German Finance Minister

The European Union needs to become more integrated with a common finance policy and a central government, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Wednesday (16 May). “I would be for the further development of the European Commission into a government. I am for the election of a European president, he said at an event in …

California’s budget troubles – say hello to billions in tax revenue from Facebook’s IPO

California is hoping for another Google-effect like the one that happened in 2005, after the company’s IPO. From 2004 to 2005 the revenue from capital gains taxes in California shot up $14 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, whose initial public stock offering in two weeks could value the company at $96 billion, will cut in the state …

Canadian penny is going away – cost 1.6 cents to produce

In April 2012, the Canadian government will begin phasing out the Canadian penny. It was left out of the latest budget because it just didn’t make financial sense to keep it going. “The penny is a currency without any currency” The Canadian penny now costs Canada 1.6 cents to produce. The government says it loses …

Most of us would probably survive a nuclear blast in Washington D.C.

It’s the most nightmarish scenario—a nuclear device being detonated in downtown Washington. Whammo and good night, right? For most of us, actually, that wouldn’t be the case, according to a recent study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The 120-page report, “Key Response Planning Factors for the Aftermath of Nuclear Terrorism,” was released last November. …

Chew – NY Times best seller about a Cibopath (one who gets psychic impressions from food)

Tony Chu is a cop with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he’s a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn’t mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit, and why. It’s a dirty …

Bees are in peril – and so are most of our major foods

Bees are nearing a “crises,” prompting the government to spend millions on a massive data base and asking beekeepers on March 27 for advice on how to save them and prevent the nation’s agriculture from collapsing. Honeybees are critical in agriculture. The value of crops in U.S. agriculture that depend on their pollination is $19 billion, according …