Led by a conservative majority, the Texas Board of Education is stepping into the national media furor over a rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States, gearing up to vote later this week on whether or not ‘pro-Islamic bias’ should be banned from school books.

Granted, there’s not any previously existing ‘pro-Islamic bias’ in Texas texts, nor are there any Muslims on the board of education, let alone in the state’s government.

‘But the possibility that could happen is a concern for conservative activist Randy Rives. He ran unsuccessfully for State Board of Education this year,’ reporter Nathan Bernier explained in a recent audio segment for KUT, Austin’s public radio station.

‘Rives wrote a resolution that was put on the State Board of Education agenda this week by some socially conservative members of the board.

”There’s a lot of people that think that, and I think rightfully so, that the key to terrorism comes from this jihad philosophy,’ Rives said. ‘We want to make sure there’s not something in our textbooks to influence our young people’s minds that takes them toward a path we don’t want them to go,’ he said. When asked specifically whether he meant jihad, Rives answered, ‘Yes.”

The board’s […]

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The costs associated with dementia will amount to more than 1% of the world’s gross domestic product this year at $604bn (£388bn), a report says.

The World Alzheimer Report says this is more than the revenue of retail giant Wal-Mart or oil firm Exxon Mobil.

The authors say dementia poses the most significant health and social crisis of the century as its global financial burden continues to escalate.

They want the World Health Organization to make dementia a world priority.

A large part of the problem is people living longer – as life expectancy goes up around the world there will be more people who will develop dementia.
‘Substantial investments’

The number of people with dementia is expected to double by 2030, and more than triple by 2050.

But experts say the costs of caring for people with dementia are likely to rise even faster than the prevalence, especially in the developing world, as more formal social care systems emerge and rising incomes lead to higher opportunity costs.

Governments must show greater leadership

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Solar power may almost double in Germany this year just as a natural gas glut sends electricity prices to near five-month lows.

Capacity at plants converting sunlight to electricity in Europe’s biggest energy market will rise to 18,000 megawatts from 9,786 megawatts, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts. No other power source will grow as fast, increasing the glut that emerged after last year’s recession, UBS AG said.

‘What’s new and special in Germany this year is the devilish growth in solar,

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Major health insurance companies in California and other states have decided to stop selling policies for children rather than comply with a new federal healthcare law that bars them from rejecting youngsters with preexisting medical conditions.

Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna Inc. and others will halt new child-only policies in California, Illinois, Florida, Connecticut and elsewhere as early as Thursday when provisions of the nation’s new healthcare law take effect, including a requirement that insurers cover children under age 19 regardless of their health histories.

The action will apply only to new coverage sought for children and not to existing child-only plans, family policies or insurance provided to youngsters through their parents’ employers. An estimated 80,000 California children currently without insurance - and as many as 500,000 nationwide - would be affected, according to experts.

Insurers said they were acting because the new federal requirement could create huge and unexpected costs for covering children. They said the rule might prompt parents to buy policies only after their kids became sick, producing a glut of ill youngsters to insure. As a result, they said, many companies would flee the marketplace, leaving behind a handful to shoulder a huge financial burden.

The insurers said they now sell […]

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Charles Seife is steaming mad about all the ways that numbers are being twisted to erode our democracy. We’re used to being lied to with words (‘I am not a crook

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