As families mourn the 11 workers thrown overboard in the worst oil rig disaster in decades and as the resulting spill continues to spread through the Gulf of Mexico, new questions are being raised about the training of the drill operators and about the oil company’s commitment to safety. Deepwater Horizon, the giant technically-advanced rig which exploded on April 20 and sank two days later, is leaking an estimated 42,000 gallons per day through a pipe about 5,000 feet below the surface. The spill has spread across 1,800 square miles — an area larger than Rhode Island — according to satellite images, oozing its way toward the Louisiana coast and posing a threat to wildlife, including a sperm whale spotted in the oil sheen. The massive $600 million rig, which holds the record for boring the deepest oil and gas well in the world — at 35,050 feet – had passed three recent federal inspections, the most recent on April 1, since it moved to its current location in January. The cause of the explosion has not been determined. Yet relatives of workers who are presumed dead claim that the oil behemoth BP and rig owner TransOcean […]
A 22-year-old today might have much more in common with his or her grandfather or even great-grandfather than his own parents, a new study suggests. The reason: Young Americans, like their counterparts in the early 1900s, are taking their time leaving home and becoming full-fledged adults. The researchers say it comes down to economics, as young people today are more financially insecure and take home lower wages. The result: greater burden on parents, of course. The result can be more than close quarters for burgeoning personalities and bodies. We’re in the middle of a recession (though experts argue on whether we’re truly in or out of the financial dive), which is already putting pressures on middle-class families, say the researchers, Richard Settersten, a professor of human development and family sciences at Oregon State University, and Barbara Ray, president of Hired Pen, Inc. The longer path to adulthood strains families as well as institutions that have traditionally supported young Americans in making that transition - residential colleges and universities, community colleges, the military, and national service programs. ‘Only by continuing or increasing investments in young people after the age of 18 can policymakers implement the supports needed […]
Robin Fasano , 33, recently returned from a 12-day trip to Iraq co-sponsored by Global Exchange and CodePink, two peace and social justice organizations. Before moving to Tucson two years ago, Fasano lived in New York City and Massachusetts, where she worked in publishing and public relations. What led to your decision to go to Iraq? I believe it’s important to witness what’s happening in Iraq and raise awareness about the situation. The United States can often have an insular view of events outside our borders. It’s too easy to get complacent about what’s happening elsewhere. Where did you go in Iraq? We stayed in the heart of Baghdad, close to the main square, and traveled mostly in Baghdad and its outlying areas. What did you do there? We spoke with and visited a wide range of people, both Iraqis and Americans. We spoke to Songul Chapouk, one of three women on the governing council, and with women’s organizations working with displaced women. We met with the Baghdad Museum’s director. We spoke with the Iraqi police chief and colonel, and an American police officer sent to set up an internal-affairs office in conjunction […]
Russell Pearce is the quintessential Arizona Republican. He wears stars-and-stripes shirts and has clips of John Wayne and Ronald Reagan on his website. He loves guns, his family, his Mormon faith, his country and the law, which he enforced for many years as deputy sheriff of Maricopa County. He jokes that being Republican, and thus not having a heart, saved his life when he got shot in the chest once. But his main passion is illegal immigrants, whom he calls ‘invaders. He loathed them even before his son Sean, also a sheriff’s deputy, got shot by one. But now it is personal. Mr Pearce, a state senator, has sponsored an Arizona law that, if enacted, would be the toughest in the country. It is so brazen it has caused outrage. This week it passed the last hurdles in the state legislature. As The Economist went to press, it was awaiting the signature of Arizona’s Republican governor, Jan Brewer. Illegal immigration is a federal crime. Mr Pearce’s law, however, would also make it a state crime and would require the police, as opposed to federal agents, to make arrests and check the immigration status of individuals who look suspicious […]
Levels of ‘viable’ sperm in human males are falling – and scientists believe they now understand the cause. Infertility can begin in the womb, says Steve Connor If scientists from Mars were to study the human male’s reproductive system they would probably conclude that he is destined for rapid extinction. Compared to other mammals, humans produce relatively low numbers of viable sperm – sperm capable of making that long competitive swim to penetrate an unfertilised egg. As many as one in five healthy young men between the ages of 18 and 25 produce abnormal sperm counts. Even the sperm they do produce is often of poor quality. In fact only between 5 and 15 per cent of their sperm is, on average, good enough to be classed as ‘normal’ under strict World Health Organisation rules – and these are young, healthy men. By contrast, more than 90 per cent of the sperm of a domestic bull or ram, or even laboratory rat, are normal. Human males also suffer a disproportionately high incidence of reproductive problems, from congenital defects and undescended testes to cancer and impotency. As these also affect fertility, it’s a minor miracle men are able […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
