More and more statistics tell us people need to lose weight and it turns out that has an important consequence: Feeding the planet. By 2050 the planet will grow to 9 billion people. And it seems people getting larger will pose a challenge to feeding the planet while hopefully not increasing world hunger. The researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology say this greater caloric intake has not been factored into previous calculations and forecasts of the food needed. The scientists say, ”Based on the discovered trends, feeding 9 billion people in 2050 will Continue reading “Feeding The Planet”
Category: Social Issues
Space Travel and Billionaires
Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk are 3 billionaires who are engaged in space research and more specifically space travel. Many think that a good thing. Is it? How good is it to exploit space for profit? If that question makes sense to you, you are not alone. Space exploration and the results it brings ought to be part of a national resource, belonging to the nation, that is to all of its people, and ultimately to humanity. Besides, space may not be conquerable the way some countries Continue reading “Space Travel and Billionaires”
Narrower Career Path For Artists
There’s no doubt that in the recent past commercialization has dominated the art world, and thus the criteria for determining what’s art and who’s an artist has undergone a certain contraction. It turns out how this seems to be accomplished seems even more radical to what ought to go into defining art. A study published in the journal Science looked at data from 127, 208 auctions, 497, 796 exhibitions, 16,002 galleries, 289 677 exhibitions in 7,568 museums in 143 countries over the Continue reading “Narrower Career Path For Artists”
On Selling Kidneys
Shashank Bengali is the Los Angeles Times South Indian correspondent. Some time ago he had written a story about a hospital in Mumbai that was busted because it was doing illegal kidney transplants, which he says was a sort of cautionary tale because a young man has been lured to sell a kidney. Months later Bengali received an email. Someone thought he was in the business of selling kidneys. He did not pay Continue reading “On Selling Kidneys”