Stephen Edelstein, - Green Car Reports
Stephan: Here is some good news from India; news made all the better because it represents a 180 turn from prior Indian government policy. India wants to have all the cars and many of the trucks on its roads be electric vehicles in less than 15 years.
Smog in Delhi India
Credit: Mfield/Flickr
Several countries have committed to putting more electric cars on their roads in the near future as a way to reduce air pollution and combat climate change.
But what if one country—and a very large one at that—decided to make every car on its roads electric inside of 15 years?
That’s the incredibly ambitious goal now being proposed by the Indian government.
It aims to establish an aggressive incentive program with the goal of having all electric cars on Indian roads by 2030.
At a recent press conference, Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal announced that a working group including the country’s Road Minister, Oil Minister, and Environment Minister had been established to work toward this goal, according to Gadgets360 (via Charged EVs).
Goyal said the incentive scheme would allow citizens to obtain electric cars with no down payment, and […]
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Stephan: Here is the latest on the issue of the world's growing obesity. It is a worldwide death trend.
A woman walks by a sign advertising sugary drinks in a Brooklyn, USA, neighborhood
Credit: AFP/Spencer Platt
More than 640 million people globally now weigh in as obese and the world has more overweight than underweight people, according to an analysis of global trends in body mass index (BMI).
A startling increase in rates of obesity in the past 40 years means the number of people with a BMI of more than 30 has risen from 105 million in 1975 to 641 million in 2014, the study found. More than one in 10 men and one in seven women are obese.
BMI is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared, and is an indication of whether a person is a healthy weight. A BMI score over 25 is overweight, over 30 is obese and over 40 is morbidly obese.
“The number of people across the globe whose weight poses a serious threat to […]
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, - Channel News Asia (Singapore)
Stephan: Obesity, as I have reported in SR frequently is on the rise and, as this report spells out, bum bellies are literally killing people.
MIAMI — A study involving people with diabetes has shown that belly size is a stronger predictor of a dangerous kind of heart disease than body mass index, researchers said on Saturday (Apr 2).
The study released at the American College of Cardiology conference in Chicago was based on 200 people with diabetes who had not shown any symptoms of heart disease.
Researchers found that those with larger waist circumferences were more likely than smaller-bellied people to have problems with the heart’s left ventricle, which pumps oxygen-rich blood to the brain and the rest of the body.
“We specifically found that waist circumference appears to be a stronger predictor for left ventricle dysfunction than total body weight or body mass index,” said principal investigator Boaz Rosen, a doctor at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
Previous research has shown that the higher a person’s body mass index (BMI) – a measure of a person’s height and weight – the greater their risk of heart disease.
Having excess belly fat, or having an apple-shaped figure, has already been linked to high blood pressure, high sugar […]
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Saturday, April 2nd, 2016
Stephan: This is a story of national shame brought to us by the Republican Party. We have more than half a trillion dollars to spend on boondoggle projects like the F-35, but hungry children and elders; well, the Republican view is that's not the government's problem. Note that to get an inclusive account I had to go to Russian media which is featuring this story. Why? Because it makes the United States look very bad, which for the Russians is just fine. Meanwhile American corporate media has hardly mentioned this story. I haven't seen a word on it on either MSNBC or CNN, for example.
What I do know is that 17 million American children have hunger issues, and 2.5 million of them are forced to live on the street in a Dickensian world of child prostitution, minor thefts, drug addiction, and begging. We have elders who have to eat dog food because it is all they can afford. All of this thanks to the Theocratic Right. Here is the latest on this basically unremarked scandal.
More than 500,000 Americans receiving food stamp benefits will no longer qualify for them beginning on April 1. This is a result of government requirements linking the assistance to an individual’s ability to find a job and work. (emphasis added)
In order to keep their access to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) for more than three months, able-bodied adults ages 18-49 who don’t have children or other dependents must work, volunteer, or enroll in a job-training program for 20 hours a week or more.
Back in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, the work requirements for SNAP were waived due to cratering job prospects and an unstable global economy. As economic indicators improved, lawmakers began debating whether to reinstate the requirements, with conservatives arguing that the rule encourages people to find work and liberals saying it would harm those still struggling with poverty.
The requirements came back on the […]
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Saturday, April 2nd, 2016
Jay Michaelson, - The Daily Beast
Stephan: The level of corruption in the United States is just gobsmacking. In an oligarchy the game is not to break the law, but to make the law. Here's how it is going. Ultimately I think this is going to backfire on the Republicans. Whether it is Sanders or Clinton the next group of Supreme Court justices, are going to be significantly more wellness oriented than anyone a Republican would nominate. And I think there is a good chance the Senate will have a Democratic majority. It all depends on how many people vote.
“Let the people decide” is the refrain of Republicans opposed to holding hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland, but they’re being bankrolled by an anonymous collection of billionaires—1 percenters so cowardly that they’re hiding behind tax laws to avoid revealing their identities.
Case in point: the “Judicial Crisis Network,” the right-wing front organization doing ad buys across the country to oppose Judge Garland getting a hearing. JCN is one of many 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organizations on the right and the left, and C4s don’t have to disclose their donors.That is the major reason that political spending by C4s increased more than 8,000 percent between 2004 and 2012.
That doesn’t mean we don’t know anything about C4’s like JCN, however. Thanks to a 2015 investigation by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, we do know it was started in 2005 (as the “Judicial Confirmation network” meant to promote Bush’s judicial appointees) by a group of arch-conservatives including Ann Corkery. Corkery […]
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