Sometime next month, the U.S. Census Bureau will announce that the population of the United States has reached 300 million. The USA has the world’s third-largest population, trailing far behind China (1.3 billion) and India (1.1 billion). Accompanying the 300 million milestone will be numerous complaints about the supposed overpopulation and overcrowding of America, yet the United States, on a list of the world’s 193 nations arranged by population density, ranks only 143 and has one of the world’s richest sets of natural resources to boot. Despite suburban sprawl and rapid population growth in some metropolitan regions, the United States as a whole is far from overpopulated. The world’s population density is 43 people per square kilometer. That includes the vast areas of land — the Sahara desert, the Australian interior, Greenland — where almost no one lives. The USA’s population density is 30. One of the paramount complaints made about America’s population expansion will be environmental: Population growth is making our environment unsustainable. Yet many nations with environmental records equal to or superior to our own, in most environmentalists’ eyes, have far greater population densities: Austria, 97; France, 110; Denmark, 126; Switzerland, 181; Italy, 192; Germany, 230; […]
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan Congressional report documents hundreds of contacts between White House officials and the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his partners, including at least 10 direct contacts between Mr. Abramoff and Karl Rove, the president’s chief political strategist. The House Government Reform Committee report, based on e-mail messages and other records subpoenaed from Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying firm, found 485 contacts between Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying team and White House officials from 2001 to 2004, including 82 with Mr. Rove’s office. The lobbyists spent almost $25,000 in meals and drinks for the White House officials and provided them with tickets to numerous sporting events and concerts, according to the report, scheduled for release Friday. The authors of the report said it was generally unclear from available records whether the aides reimbursed Mr. Abramoff for the meals or tickets. Ethics rules bar White House officials from accepting lobbyists’ gifts worth more than $20. A White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said Thursday that while White House officials had not seen the report, earlier evidence showed that Mr. Abramoff had exaggerated his ties to the administration and was ‘ineffective in terms of getting government officials to take actions.’ […]
Nearly 90% of the 9 million children who lack health insurance live in households with at least one working parent, according to a report released Thursday by consumer group Families USA. And three in 10 uninsured kids live in families with two working parents, the report found. ‘I think it changes what might be a stereotype about who uninsured people or uninsured children are,’ says Ron Pollack, the group’s executive director. The report finds Vermont has the lowest rate of uninsured children at 5.6%. Hawaii, Michigan, and New Hampshire also had rates among the nation’s lowest. Meanwhile, more than 20% of children in Texas remain without medical coverage, ranking that state at the top. Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, and Montana all had uninsured rates above 16%, according to the report. It concludes that uninsured children were three times as likely to go without a doctor visit in the past year and five times as likely to have an untreated dental or vision problem as children with coverage. Kids’ Insurance Debate Continues The 1997 law creating the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for low-income children expires next year. Congress will have to […]
LONDON — The length of a girl’s ring finger could be an indicator of her future sporting potential, researchers at King’s College London said on Thursday. In the largest study of its kind, hand measurements of 607 female twins aged 25-79 from the UK were compared with the women’s lifetime sporting achievements. The findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that women with ring fingers longer than their index fingers had performed better at running and associated running sports such as soccer and tennis. In women the ring finger is commonly shorter or the same length as the index finger, while in men the ring finger is generally longer. The report said detection of sporting potential by examining the ratio between the index and ring fingers ‘could help identify talented individuals at a pre-competitive stage.’ Not sure why The reasons for the findings were unclear, said one of the report’s authors, Professor Tim Spector from the Twins Research Unit at King’s College, who said he was originally skeptical about the link to sporting ability. ‘Previous studies have suggested the change in finger length was due to changes in testosterone levels […]
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday signed into law a sweeping global warming initiative that imposes the nation’s first cap on greenhouse gas emissions, saying the effort kicks off ‘a bold new era of environmental protection.’ Standing on picturesque Treasure Island with San Francisco’s skyline in the background, Schwarzenegger called the fight against global warming one of the most important issues of modern times. ‘We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late,’ Schwarzenegger said during an address before signing the bill. Mayor Gavin Newsom and New York Gov. George Pataki, as well as Democratic legislators, joined Schwarzenegger for the high-profile ceremony. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who struck a deal with Schwarzenegger over the summer to develop clean technologies, joined the ceremony via video link. Blair called the bill-signing ‘a proud day for political leadership’ and ‘a historic day for the rest of the world, as well.’ California’s efforts on global warming have been in the spotlight since Schwarzenegger and the state’s legislative Democrats reached an accord last month on the Democrat-authored bill to cut greenhouse gases. The negotiations culminated […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
