The United Kingdom has been ranked as one of the most stable and prosperous countries in the world, beating the United States, France and even Switzerland in a global assessment of every nation’s achievements and standards. A one-year investigation and analysis of 235 countries and dependent territories has put the UK joint seventh in the premier league of nations. The top ten comprise also the Vatican, Sweden, Luxembourg, Monaco, Gibraltar, San Marino, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands and the Irish Republic. The US lies 22nd and Switzerland, normally associated with wealth and untouchable stability, is rated 17th, losing points in the assessment of its social achievements. The bottom ten, surprisingly, do not include Iraq. They are listed as Gaza and the West Bank, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. The UK received high marks despite the deployment of combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the suicide bombings in London on July 7, 2005, the continuing threat from home-grown terrorists and the collapse of the Northern Rock bank. The global check on every country recognised as an individual state or territory by the United Nations was […]
Researchers at Oxford University have teamed up with their US counterparts at the Texas Christian University (TCU) to study the ecological and socio-economic impacts of wind power. A five-year research initiative, funded by US wind power giant FPL Energy, will attempt to better understand the impact that wind turbines have on birds and bats, as well as their ecological and socio-economic implications. The research will be coordinated by TCU’s Institute for Environmental Studies (IES) and Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI). All the field research for the project will be conducted at FPL Energy’s wind farm locations across the US. ‘As the need for power increases across the US and the climate change debate intensifies, we believe now is the right time for a comprehensive research program to study the real environmental impacts and benefits of wind power. Although wind power cannot meet all of the energy needs of this country, we believe it can and should play a greater role than it does today,’ said Mitch Davidson, president of FPL Energy. The research partners hope the information generated from the research effort will be used to shape responsible future development of wind generation […]
Gallup’s World Poll reveals new findings on the ‘great global dream’ and how it will affect the rise of the next economic empire More and more often, global leaders are asking us the same simple, yet colossal, question: ‘Does anyone know for sure what the world is thinking?’ There is a great deal of classic economic data that records an infinite amount of human transactions, from GDP to unemployment to birth and death rates, that indicate what man and woman are doing, but there is no ongoing, infinite, systematic account of what man and woman are thinking. Global leaders are right to wonder. To know what the whole world is thinking — not just what people in their own countries are thinking — on almost all issues all the time would certainly make their jobs a lot easier at the very least. At most, knowing what the world is thinking would create newfound precision in world leadership. Leaders wouldn’t make mistakes and miss opportunities because they misjudge the hearts and minds of their constituencies and the other 6 billion with whom those constituencies interact. We think we have found a very good answer to that very […]
Underneath the shrill chords of the news there thrum deeper tones that shape our lives in ways great and small each day. This essay by the Gallup organziation, addresses one of them. I believe it to be so important that it is the sole story for today.
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
