SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is laying off as many as 22,000 state employees. New York’s governor is raising the possibility of selling – or more accurately, leasing – the Brooklyn Bridge. Nevada is burning through its rainy-day fund like a gambler on a losing streak. And Maryland is pinning its hopes on slot machines. With the economy in a slide and the housing market in crisis, states are collectively rolling up tens of billions of dollars in budget deficits in one of the worst financial crunches in the U.S. since the 1970s. The startlingly rapid drop-off in tax revenue is forcing many states to make some hard decisions: Raise taxes? Cut programs and jobs? Dip into reserves? Borrow money? Lease or sell state assets? ‘They’re all terrible choices,’ Nevada Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley said of the cuts her state made in a special session last month. ‘I believe we should never have to make these kinds of choices ever again.’ Worse, economists say the red ink is only going to get deeper later in the fiscal year when 2008 tax returns start coming in. ‘The big question is when will states hit the […]
Children Have Lost Touch with the Natural World and are Unable to Identify Common Animals and Plants
Half of youngsters aged nine to 11 were unable to identify a daddy-long-legs, oak tree, blue tit or bluebell, in the poll by BBC Wildlife Magazine. The study also found that playing in the countryside was children’s least popular way of spending their spare time, and that they would rather see friends or play on their computer than go for a walk or play outdoors. The survey asked 700 children to identify pictured flora and fauna. Just over half could name bluebells, 54 per cent knew what blue tits were and 45 per cent could identify an oak. Less than two-thirds (62 per cent) identified frogs and 12 per cent knew what a primrose was. Children performed better at identifying robins (95 per cent) and badgers, correctly labelled by nine out of 10. Sir David Attenborough warned that children who lack any understanding of the natural world would not grow into adults who cared about the environment. ‘The wild world is becoming so remote to children that they miss out,’ he said, ‘and an interest in the natural world doesn’t grow as it should. Nobody is going protect the natural world unless they understand it.’ Fergus […]
WASHINGTON — The nation’s unemployment rate climbed to a four-year high of 5.7 percent in July as employers cut 51,000 jobs, dashing the hopes of an influx of young people looking for summer work. Payroll cuts weren’t as deep as the 72,000 predicted by economists, however. And, job losses for both May and June were smaller than previously reported. July’s reductions marked the seventh straight month where employers eliminated jobs. The economy has lost a total of 463,00 jobs so far this year. The latest snapshot, released by the Labor Department on Friday, showed a lack of credit has stunted employers’ expansion plans and willingness to hire. Fallout from the housing slump and high energy prices also are weighing on employers. The increase in the unemployment rate to 5.7 percent, from 5.5 percent in June, in part came as many young people streamed into the labor market looking for summer jobs. This year, fewer of them were able to find work, the government said. The unemployment rate for teenagers jumped to 20.3 percent, the highest since late 1992. Wall Street initially found reason for optimism in the report, but news that General Motors Corp. (GM) […]
Exercise in a pill.’ That’s how researchers are describing two drugs that apparently mimic the effects of physical exercise on the body, raising prospects of new treatments against diseases, new ways to cheat at sports, and new rationalizations for couch potatoes to stuff themselves at brunch. In a series of startling experiments in mice, the drugs improved the ability of cells to burn fat and retain muscle mass, and they substantially prolonged endurance during exercise. Using one of the compounds for just a month, even sedentary, couch-potato mice improved their endurance running by a staggering 44%. Some mice that combined a month of exercise with the other drug bolstered their long-distance running by about 70% over untreated mice. One of the drugs is already in late-stage human trials for other purposes, and the mouse experiments raise hopes for new strategies to protect people against obesity, diabetes and muscle-wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy. [One of the study’s tireless mice during its long-distance workout] The Salk Institute One of the study’s tireless mice during its long-distance workout But underscoring the risks, one of the compounds has been withdrawn from human trials because of toxic side effects, and […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
