I’ve just finished reading this terrific history of the American environmental movement by Phil Shabecoff. He was America’s first environmental reporter and he’s quite the historian too. The title comes from a line from Aldo Leopold’s poignant essay “Thinking Like a Mountain.” He recounts the grand sweep of how Americans have treated their air, lands […]
The research by Spot On Public Relations, a Dubai-based agency, says there are more than 15 million subscribers to the social network. The total number of newspaper copies in Arabic, English and French is just under 14 million. The findings seem to confirm the increasing popularity of the social interaction platforms in the region. The […]
Good news in the health world is a funny thing. For those of us working in the field, it makes us nervous. After nearly a decade working in HIV, I can uncomfortably say that I’m invested in the bad news: when the New York Times says the AIDS war is falling apart, I hope that people will mobilize. When […]
Last week I wrote broadly about the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and how it has caused an ugly collision of private companies, politicians, regulators and lobbyists. One week later, as the oil gushes on, little has improved both in the water and in Washington. To date, over 6 million gallons of […]
This movie is disappointing. Which is too bad, because its premise is intriguing: three American political consultants (i.e., spin doctors) are hired to help Russian President Boris Yeltsin with his campaign in 1996. While the comedy is fictional, it is based on a true story. The team, made up of George Gorton, Dick Dresner, and […]
According to UNICEF, “More than 70 per cent of almost 11 million child deaths every year are attributable to six causes: diarrhoea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth.” Recently there has been a lot of discussion on meeting the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) as the 2015 deadline grows increasingly near […]
This past weekend, President Obama delivered the commencement address to West Point’s graduating class of 2010. In it, he stressed to the cadets the importance of diplomatic engagement in addition to military might as part of U.S. national security, saying, “America’s armed forces are adapting to changing times, but your efforts have to be complemented. […]
Some fascinating things that I’ve read in the last week, related to the social determinants of health and policies to improve public health. Greg Lindsay at Fast Company charts the linkages between public health and urban sprawl, an association that was once deemed radical. He writes about Dr. Richard Jackson, former CDC Chief,’s realization that America’s urban […]
Last Monday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named Costa Rica’s Christiana Figueres to be the organization’s top official on climate change. The appointment comes after the resignation of UN climate chief Yvo de Boer, last February, considered to be a severe blow to the UN and ongoing climate negotiations. Figueres will succeed Yvo de […]
It was an interesting week for intelligence issues. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released the unclassified version of their report on the attempted Christmas day terrorist attack (http://intelligence.senate.gov/100518/1225report.pdf) and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Dennis Blair, stepped down from the post amidst reports he had lost the confidence of President Obama. I’m stating […]
Can anything stop the Euro’s decline and its toxic after-effects? With the single currency facing the biggest crisis of its existence, Market reaction was cool; the Euro sank this week to a four-year low against the Greenback, and European stock markets have taken a battering.
The U.S. Senate had finally, and unexpectedly, passed the much ballyhooed Wall Street Reform legislation. The Senate vote, 59-39, represents a major achievement for the Obama administration despite strong GOP opposition and coming just months after the historic, but substantially watered-down, Healthcare reform package.
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