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How Hillary Clinton boosted Tulsi Gabbard

How Hillary Clinton boosted Tulsi Gabbard

Tom Nichols writes: What was Hillary Clinton thinking? The 2016 Democratic nominee, for some reason, felt the need to insert herself into the 2020 race with an attack on Tulsi Gabbard, an oddball Democratic presidential contender who barely registered in polls. The congresswoman from Hawaii is a completely discreditable candidate—more on that in a moment—but Clinton’s accusation that Gabbard is a tool of the Russians was so blunt and clumsy that it has added new life to a primary bid…

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World economy is sleepwalking into a new financial crisis, warns former chief of Bank of England

World economy is sleepwalking into a new financial crisis, warns former chief of Bank of England

The Guardian reports: The world is sleepwalking towards a fresh economic and financial crisis that will have devastating consequences for the democratic market system, according to the former Bank of England governor Mervyn King. Lord King, who was in charge at Threadneedle Street during the near-death of the global banking system and deep economic slump a decade ago, said the resistance to new thinking meant a repeat of the chaos of the 2008-09 period was looming. Giving a lecture in…

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We live in a one track world but anyone can become a polymath

We live in a one track world but anyone can become a polymath

Robert Twigger writes: I travelled with Bedouin in the Western Desert of Egypt. When we got a puncture, they used tape and an old inner tube to suck air from three tyres to inflate a fourth. It was the cook who suggested the idea; maybe he was used to making food designed for a few go further. Far from expressing shame at having no pump, they told me that carrying too many tools is the sign of a weak man;…

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Exploring a newly discovered universe of microproteins

Exploring a newly discovered universe of microproteins

Mitch Leslie writes: Mice put human runners to shame. Despite taking puny strides, the rodents can log 10 kilometers or more per night on an exercise wheel. But the mice that muscle biologist Eric Olson of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and colleagues unveiled in 2015 stood out. On a treadmill, the mice could scurry up a steep 10% grade for about 90 minutes before faltering, 31% longer than other rodents. Those iron mice differed from…

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A new world order is up for grabs

A new world order is up for grabs

Simon Tisdall writes: Syrian developments [have been] taken by some observers as proof that an increasingly isolationist America is turning in on itself and giving way – as failing empires inevitably do – to a successor world order shaped by emerging global powers, principally China. But is the Syrian crisis really a watershed moment? And if it is, who are the contenders for America’s crown as no 1 global superpower – and what are their own strengths and weaknesses? The…

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Socialism doesn’t work? An emerging middle class of Bolivians would beg to differ

Socialism doesn’t work? An emerging middle class of Bolivians would beg to differ

The Washington Post reports from La Paz, Bolivia: People in this high-altitude metropolis once schlepped to work through the mud. Now they commute via ­Disney-esque aerial cable cars. Brick hovels have been replaced by whimsical mansions. The poorest are reveling in a basic convenience they lacked before massive investment in state infrastructure: indoor toilets. “We used to do our ‘business’ in bags, and bring them down to the river,” said Vidal Colorado ­Mamani, community association president in Huancané, an indigenous…

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ISIS eyes breakout opportunity as Turkish forces batter Kurds

ISIS eyes breakout opportunity as Turkish forces batter Kurds

The Washington Post reports: The Islamic State is racing to capitalize on the deteriorating security situation in northern Syria, stepping up attacks on prisons as well as on the now-weakened Kurdish militia that served as the vanguard in the U.S.-led war against the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate, intelligence officials and terrorism experts say. Despite Thursday’s announced cease-fire, Turkey’s week-old incursion into northeast Syria is already proving to be a propaganda windfall for the extremist group, which in recent months had been…

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How Trump operates above the law and outside ethical standards — even those he set for himself

How Trump operates above the law and outside ethical standards — even those he set for himself

The New York Times reports: The rules are clear for nearly everyone who works in the executive branch: Officials are prohibited from playing even a minor role in a decision that directly creates a financial benefit for the employee or the employee’s immediate family. But those rules do not apply to the president and vice president, the only executive branch officials who are exempt from a criminal statute and a separate ethics regulation that govern conflicts of interest. That exemption…

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We need indigenous wisdom to survive the Apocalypse

We need indigenous wisdom to survive the Apocalypse

Julian Brave Noisecat writes: For hundreds of years, the Mohawk have defied the governments superimposed over their own. Since the 1600s, they resisted successive French, Dutch, British, American, and Canadian invasions, often successfully. And when the wars ended, they kept fighting. In the ­early 1900s, a Mohawk iron­worker crossed the US–Canada border with his family to live and work in Philadelphia. When the Americans prosecuted him as an “illegal alien,” he insisted that free passage was his birthright as a…

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Evolution tells us we might be the only intelligent life in the universe

Evolution tells us we might be the only intelligent life in the universe

NASA By Nick Longrich, University of Bath Are we alone in the universe? It comes down to whether intelligence is a probable outcome of natural selection, or an improbable fluke. By definition, probable events occur frequently, improbable events occur rarely – or once. Our evolutionary history shows that many key adaptations – not just intelligence, but complex animals, complex cells, photosynthesis, and life itself – were unique, one-off events, and therefore highly improbable. Our evolution may have been like winning…

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Neanderthal legs and feet — suited to sprinting

Neanderthal legs and feet — suited to sprinting

By Anna Goldfield If you’re like me, you view long-distance running as a somewhat unrealistic aspiration and see those people who do it well as remarkable creatures. The truth, though, is that Homo sapiens are well-designed for loping along for long distances across open landscapes—especially when compared to Neanderthals. They had legs and feet that, recent research suggests, were better suited to sprinting, squatting, and hilly hiking than to running. Unlike the open African plains in which H. sapiens lived…

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How ballooning carbon emissions will impact trees

How ballooning carbon emissions will impact trees

Daniel Grossman writes: Apart from the experts, few people realize that climate change could be worse. Every year, trees, shrubs, and every other kind of plant absorb 9 billion tons of CO2—one quarter of what we let loose from our tailpipes and smokestacks—and help slow the gas’s accumulation in the atmosphere. If not for the world’s photosynthesizers, the concentration of CO2 in the air, along with Earth’s temperature, would be rising much faster than it already is. Our terrestrial plants…

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Why conservatives who want to save America may need to vote for Elizabeth Warren

Why conservatives who want to save America may need to vote for Elizabeth Warren

The conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks, is (not surprisingly) not a supporter of Elizabeth Warren, but, he writes: [I]f it comes to Trump vs. Warren in a general election, the only plausible choice is to support Warren. Over the past month Donald Trump has given us fresh reminders of the unique and exceptional ways he corrupts American life. You’re either part of removing that corruption or you are not. When your nation’s political system is in danger, staying…

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Ugly America

Ugly America

Gary Younge writes: The rhetorical objects of [Trump’s] disdain are not random. He has not lashed out at the National Rifle Association, the religious right or white people. Politically, his tantrums invariably find their mark in the weak, the poor, the dark, the female, the Muslim, the marginalised and the foreigner. (He will attack powerful people, but not simply for existing. They must cross him first.) These inclinations were clear when he stood for the presidency. He has been every…

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