Views as of 2018

The Pew Research Center is a major producer of polls. The following are what they consider their most interesting findings of 2018. 

1. Post-Millennials – today’s 6- to 21-year-olds, also known as Generation Z – are on track to be the most racially and ethnically diverse generation yet.

2. There were 10.7 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in 2016, down from a peak of 12.2 million in 2007.

3. Younger Americans are better than their elders at separating factual from opinion statements in the news.

4. Americans generally agree on the democratic ideals and values they see as important for the U.S. – but they say the country is falling short in living up to them.

5. About six-in-ten women in the U.S. (59%) say they have been sexually harassed.

6.Young adults who use Facebook are particularly likely to have deleted the Facebook app from their phone at some point in the past year.

7. A declining share of U.S. Catholics say Pope Francis  is doing a good or excellent job addressing the church’s sex abuse scandal.

8. The number of refugees resettled in the U.S. decreased more than in any other country in 2017.

9. A majority of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 (57%) fear a shooting could happen at their school, and most parents of teens share their concern.

10. A majority of U.S. teens (59%) have experienced some form of cyberbullying.

11. Most people around the globe say China plays a more important role in the world today than it did a decade ago – but most also say it’s better for the U.S. to lead the way.

12. Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to favor making it easy for every citizen to vote.

13. Almost seven-in-ten Americans (68%) feel worn out by the amount of news there is these days.

14. Income inequality in the U.S. is greatest among Asians.

15. Nine-in-ten Americans believe in a higher power, but just a slim majority (56%) believes in God as described in the Bible.

16. Most Americans (59%) say climate change is affecting their local community at least some, especially those who live near a coast.

17. Most Central and Eastern Europeans oppose same-sex marriage, while most Western Europeans favor it.

18. “Bots” on Twitter may be behind more link sharing than human beings.

Meet John Carter

Who are the big users of carbon?

This is not a painting

It's the actual sky. It became blue when a Con Edison transformer exploded.

Moving to an Apocalypse

Dahr Jamail thinks so. Here are ten things he's worried about.

1. Arctic Sea Ice. The Arctic sea ice is close to historic lows in both extent, volume, and mass. The annual minimum Arctic ice volume, based on observations (not projections), is following a trend that shows we should expect periods of an ice-free Arctic Ocean in the summer by 2023, and possibly sooner.

2. Increasingly Warm Oceans. Earth’s oceans have already absorbed 93 percent of the warmth humans have generated since just the 1970s.

3. Methane. One extremely worrying development in the Arctic came in the form of bubbling lakes. A report showed that large numbers of lakes across the region were leaking methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.

4. Wildfires. Wildfires, amped up by climate change, ravaged many regions of the world in 2018.

5. Insect Apocalypse. Insects, and hence the global food web, are in crisis, according to several studies, one of which was published earlier this year.

6. A Broken Global Food System. The global food system is already broken, according to the 130 of the world’s science and medicine academies.

7. Uninhabitable and Permanently Altered Regions. Still suffering from the impacts of a devastating Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico was officially left to its own devices to recover.

8. Great Barrier Reef. A record heat wave in Queensland, Australia, in November shattered the previous high temperature record by a stunning 5.4°C. The heat wave alarmed scientists, raising fears of another bleaching event that could further weaken the already beleaguered Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef in the world.

9. UN Report: Only 12 Years Left to Limit Warming. A landmark UN report released in October served as an imminent warning that if governments fail to act swiftly and dramatically (and within the next dozen years), droughts, flooding, and increasingly extreme heat waves will increase drastically.

10. Nowhere Near Meeting Climate Change Goals. While many world leaders met in Poland for the COP24 climate talks in December, it was already clear that we are nowhere near on track to attain the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

One look at U.S. demographics

These are Aviva Rutkin's conclusions: 

1. Americans aren’t living as long This was the third year in a row with falling U.S. life expectancy.

2. Americans aren’t having as many kids It’s a baby bust: This year, the national fertility rate fell by 2 percent, to just 1.76 children per women. That’s the lowest the rate has been in 30 years.

3. Americans are getting older The declining birth rate and the rising death rate go hand in hand. Some counties are experiencing “natural decrease,” a demographic phenomenon where the number of deaths actually outweigh the number of births. Meanwhile, the country’s average age has shot up, from 28.1 years old in 1970 to 37.9 in 2016.

4. Americans are struggling with new racial dynamics

5. Americans are moving to the suburbs Over the last 50 years, Americans have gradually moved away from rural regions, drawn largely by urban economic opportunity. Today, more than 80 percent of Americans live in an urban or suburban area.

The first person to cross the Antarctic alone and unassisted

That's what Colin O'Brady just did. He walked 921 miles in 53 days. And he was dragging a 375-pound sled all the way as well as all of his food. This is not his first extreme adventure. He has also skied to both the north and south pole and hiked to the highest point in every US state.

Antarctica is the coldest, highest and driest continent on Earth. The cold freezes all moisture, technically making the landscape a desert.

Disappearing Rings

Our president talking to a 7-year-old

The Daily Beast ✔ 
@thedailybeast Donald Trump, answering phone call from 7-year-old on Christmas Eve: "Are you still a believer in Santa? Because at seven it's marginal, right?" 31.5K 8:26 PM - Dec 24, 2018 

Coal is decreasing in generating electricity

Don't "Buy one, Get one free"

He must have drugs in his body

Syracuse police found a bag of marijuana and cocaine residue in Torrence Jackson's car. They were convinced that he had more drugs in his rectum. They arrested him and took him to the hospital for a detailed body search. X-rays found nothing. So, the police obtained a court warrant to perform a sigmoidoscopy, which is defined as examination of the sigmoid colon by means of a flexible tube inserted through the anus. This procedure found nothing as well. Jackson was set free. 

But the hospital wanted to get paid for its services. It billed Jackson $4,595.12 although he was forced to take the examination. He refused to pay and eventually the hospital relented and did not charge him.

A Republican Senator speaks

Charles Grassley in today's NY Times writes, "Over the past few months alone, the Defense Department has had to explain why it’s been paying $14,000 for individual 3-D printed toilet seat lids and purchasing cups for $1,280 each. These are just the latest examples on a long list of unacceptable purchases made by the department, including $436 for hammers in the 1980s, and $117 soap dish covers and $999 pliers in the 1990s".

Cashing a check could put you in jail

We need more midwives

Where do we stand in time

From Visual Capitalist

Is this good for the economy?

A unique sentence

David Berry, of Missouri was sentenced to a year in jail for a poaching operation believed to have killed hundreds of deer. The judge added a slight fillip to the sentence. Berry must watch the movie "Bambi" every day in jail. Then, the judge said, "I hope when you get to the part where Bambi’s mother dies, it makes you think."

The jail is going to have a hard time executing the sentence. The Lawrence County jail has only one dayroom for 52 inmates. “The problem is we only have the one room,” the jailer said. “We have to run everybody out except for one person.”

Fighting ISIS from the sky

Return of the Great Recession?