With the arrival of Peak Oil, the curtain has closed on Act 1 of the drama Petroleum Man. What will happen in Act 2? Chekhov said, "If there's a gun on the wall at the beginning of the play, by the end it must go off." In the world's nuclear arsenal are many guns on the wall. If life copies art, will there be an Act 3 in which the players, having learned their lesson the hard way, live sustainably? To explore these and other questions... FTW's Act 2 Blog. Read, comment, take heart! Orkin
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
The Trump Show Comes to Madison Square Garden
The rally featured Hulk Hogan, Rudy Giuliani, “Y.M.C.A.,” and a thrum of American nativism.
Hezbollah named its new leader, a long-serving deputy, after Israel killed his predecessor
VW Seeks Unprecedented Plant Closings as Auto Crisis Deepens
What to know about Elon Musk’s reported phone calls with Putin and why it matters
Onagawa plant's No.2 reactor to resume operations
Bezos Editorial
Majority of swing-state voters say they fear violence if Trump loses
An examination of 47,282 tree species finds that one in three tree species are at risk of extinction.
Global temperatures through September point to 2024 topping 2023 as the hottest year on record.
How Binyavanga Wainaina Wrote About Africa
Monday, October 28, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
10 countries join BRICS as partners
Xiaomi tapes out China’s first 3nm smartphone SoC and plans to launch Xiaomi 15 series next week
TD Bank pleads guilty in money laundering case, will pay $3 billion in penalties
American creating deepfakes targeting Harris works with Russian intel, documents show
China Enlarging Nuclear Forces With Eye on America: US Intel
Supreme Court ignites wave of lawsuits against federal regulations
China now has the biggest navy in the world
Chinese hackers said to have collected audio of American calls
A new storm may be brewing in the Caribbean. What to know.
According to so-called moral framework theory, which identifies major principles that determine social behavior, people are more likely to align with more conservative ideals during the spring and fall.
Sunday, October 27, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
The U.S. Spies Who Sound the Alarm About Election Interference
Lost Silk Road cities mapped using remote sensing
Researchers screened microbe communities living in wastewater and found four strains of Acetobacterium that could digest "forever chemicals," or PFASs for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
Central Asia Emerges as Epicenter of Rare Earth Mineral Rush
Bezos faces a Washington Post revolt after he reportedly blocked the paper from endorsing Harris
Dollar dominance to end? BRICS launches symbolic banknote; Putin says, ‘They used it as weapon…’
Can the tire industry be sustainable? Guayule farmers say yes.
Israel limited its attack on Iran, hoping to ease tensions for now
Elon Musk, enemy of ‘open borders,’ launched his career working illegally
L.A. Times Editor Quits after Publication’s Owner Strikes Down Kamala Endorsement
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
What Happens to Hamas and Hezbollah Now That Their Leaders Have Been Killed?
Opinion: Sloan Kettering’s hardball negotiation tactics threaten to hurt its patients
Pharma Paid $1.06 Billion to Reviewers at Top Medical Journals
Moldova barely approves its EU referendum amid allegations of Russian interference
Environmentalists long decried the impact of rubber production. This small shrub may offer an alternative.
Bill Gates privately said he donated $50 million to a pro-Harris super PAC, report says
TRUMP: ‘I NEED THE KIND OF GENERALS THAT HITLER HAD’
Wyoming has found a way to mitigate forest fires: Stop blowing up dead horses
Cow-dung Powered Ships
Long-extinct animals could be resurrected as robots to shed light on evolution
Monday, October 21, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
Why some families will pay $500,000 for Ivy League admissions consulting: ‘It’s worth the investment’
A Telegram group posted what it calls 'highly classified' US documents about Israel's attack plans
Attempted Assassination of Netanyahu
Newsom on SpaceX rejection: ‘I’m with Elon’
Maryland detectives nabbed gold bar thief using fake UPS package from Kentucky
India Says It has Resolved Border Dispute with China
Sovereignty for Sale
It goes way beyond tax havens and offshore banking. Enterprising countries have figured out how to put their legal systems at the disposal of corporate interests.
The Tight-Knit World of Kamala Harris’s Sorority
Water Contamination Warning for North Carolina After Hurricane Helene
Experiment Confirms 50-Year-Old Theory on Extracting Energy from a Black Hole
Large Areas of South America Lacking Groundwater
Saturday, October 19, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
African Nations Plan To Launch Their Own 'Energy Bank'
Meloni: Italy imposed full arms embargo on Israel over Gaza ground op
The 20 Countries With the Lowest Fertility Rates (2024)
This tiny country says it will give $500 to every adult as an Exxon oil boom supercharges its economy
South Korea says at least 1,500 North Korean special forces in Russia
Long COVID may be contributing to record low standardized test scores in kids,
What the Closeness of This Election Suggests About the Future of American Politics
What to know about the potential $30 million whale moving betting markets toward Trump
New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella announces that New Hampshire Supreme Court Associate Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi has been indicted by the Merrimack County Grand Jury for two felonies and five misdemeanors relating to her attempts to interfere with a criminal investigation into her husband, Geno Marconi.
Penguin Random House books now explicitly say ‘no’ to AI training
Thursday, October 17, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
The Sahara Desert flooded for the first time in decades. Here’s what it looks like
Trump Gives Ominous Clue About What May Happen If He Loses
Ghostly white giant worms appear to be reproducing under the seafloor where tectonic plates meet
Will There Be a Second Stone Age?
Kamala Harris’s Hundred-Day Campaign
Tim Cook is having a great week as Apple stock hovers within reach of record high
Orange Juice Climbs as Hurricane Milton Shrinks Florida Crop
India Plans $109 Billion of Grid Investments to Boost Renewables
This Is How Oil Ends
How Alarmed Should We Be If Trump Wins Again?
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
Pakistan’s internet slows to a crawl as suspicion falls on government
How 24-year-old cloud-seeding wunderkind Augustus Doricko plans to save the world
Jeffrey St Clair: Phoenix, AZ, just set their daily high temperature record for Oct 13th–102.5F. This is their 20th consecutive daily record high temperature. Every day since September 24 has set a new daily record.
Biden sends antimissile system and 100 troops to Israel, deepening U.S. role
Trump chips away at Harris’s national advantage, two new polls show
Hurricane recovery officials in N.C. relocated amid report of ‘armed militia,’ email shows
All eyes are on Pennsylvania this election cycle. Erie County demonstrates why
Norway Wants to Strengthen Consumers’ Right to Pay Cash
US election live: Trump refuses to say if he has talked to Putin since leaving office but insists it would have been ‘smart thing’ to do
Migrant deaths in New Mexico have increased tenfold in last two years
Walgreens to shut 1,200 US stores with stock trading near 30-year lows
Sunday, October 13, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
Net Impact
One man’s cyber-crusade against Russian corruption.
Alexei Navalny’s Prison Diaries
The Russian opposition leader’s account of his last years and his admonition to his country and the world.
“The Apprentice,” Reviewed: The Immoral Makings of Donald Trump
Food and drinks containing unwashed poppyseeds can make people test positive for opioids—and can in some cases be fatal.
The Strange Death of Job Price
Navy SEAL Cmdr. Job Price's 2012 death in Afghanistan was ruled a suicide. But an private investigator says it was murder.
Russia’s illicit Starlink terminals help power its advance in Ukraine
How Saudi Arabia could create a crisis for Russia's economy
Social Pressure Index:
Private Opinion in America
“Complete Neglect”: Thousands Were Not Evacuated from Florida Jails & Prisons Ahead of Hurricane Milton
Captured documents reveal Hamas’s broader ambition to wreak havoc on Israel
Friday, October 11, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
Why Hurricane Milton Is a Sign of the New Abnormal
Check Fraud Is RRising
Caroline Giuliani's Plea: Donald J. Trump Took My Father, Don’t Let Him Take Our Country Too
How China is using antisemitic conspiracies to influence down-ballot races
Boris Johnson just published his political memoir. It’s unbelievable.
We're only eight days into a new fiscal year and FEMA has spent nearly half the disaster relief money that Congress has allocated for the next 12 months.
Cases of whooping cough dropped dramatically during the COVID pandemic, but are climbing again, with more than 16,000 reported in the U.S. this year as of the end of September–four times the count at this time last year.
The Texan Doctor and the Disappeared Saudi Princesses
The US Navy is burning through missiles in the Middle East that it would need in a war with China
IEA: The World Is Not on Track to Triple Renewable Capacity by 2030
Wednesday, October 09, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
Trump secretly sent covid tests to Putin during 2020 shortage, new book says
In landmark move, EPA requires removal of all U.S. lead pipes in a decade
Why the Godfather of AI Fears What He's Built
Trump had as many as 7 private calls with Putin since leaving office, Bob Woodward writes in new book
What is making Hurricane Milton so ferocious
City-by-city forecasts as Hurricane Milton closes in on Florida’s west coast
In the pantheon of first lady memoirs, Melania Trump’s is something else
Rwanda is battling its first-ever outbreak of Marburg virus, a deadly illness related to Ebola. They're employing rigorous testing, contact tracing and quarantining measures.
Debunking Helene Response Myths
Why Hurricane Milton Is a Sign of the New Abnormal
Tuesday, October 08, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
Large French Alpine ski resort to close in face of shrinking snow season
‘People hold me accountable for a fanatical rightwing government’: Jewish Americans on how their lives have changed since 7 October
Climate warning as world’s rivers dry up at fastest rate for 30 years
• Due to variations in chemicals, colors and composition, plastic is an “inherently unrecyclable material,” writes Judith Enck, a former regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Rise of the Crypto Lobby
From crypto to A.I., the tech sector is pouring millions into super PACS that intimidate politicians into supporting its agenda.
Bird flu has reached Antarctica and could have a devastating effect
Mojitos and an MRI
Meet the "medical tourists" who are getting health screenings on their vacation getaways.
Geoffrey Hinton, the 'Godfather of AI,' wins Nobel Prize for Physics
Kamala Harris hits '60 Minutes' without Donald Trump. Political scientists weigh in on whether the interview matters.
Musk Offering $47 to Recruiters per Voter Registered in Swing State
Monday, October 07, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
JD Vance Funded AcreTrader. Here’s Why That Matters.
A Pair of Billionaire Preachers Built the Most Powerful Political Machine in Texas. That’s Just the Start.
Parts of Antarctica are turning green at an 'astounding' rate
When a massive asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, ants began farming fungi
Democrats are losing their grip on the Latino vote. I visited the Texas border to find out why.
Mushrooms are the darling of sustainability
The government has used Musk's Starlink satellites to help hurricane-affected areas access the internet.
Iran’s Oil Tankers Flee Biggest Export Terminal Fearing Israeli Attack
Trump would add twice as much to national debt as Harris, study finds
Ireland is a ‘playground’ for Russian intelligence, says former army chief
Saturday, October 05, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
The Ministers expressed deep concern over the security situation related to terrorism in Afghanistan, noting that terrorist groups such as ISIL, Al-Qaida, the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Jaish ul-Adl, Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and other similar groups in the region including Majeed Brigade, as well as others, based in Afghanistan, continue to pose a serious threat to regional and global security.
John Kempf | How to speed up the adoption of regenerative farming practices
Iranian missiles hit Israeli military sites, visuals show
The female soldiers who predicted Oct. 7 say they are still being silenced
What’s going on here is that the Supreme Court, by making Donald Trump a “class of one” with its immunity decision – he is the only person in the history of the United States to have been declared immune from prosecution -- even for official acts as president that are criminal in nature – the Supreme Court has effectively made itself the trial court for any cases involving Donald Trump, because the Supreme Court created him as a “class of one” with immunity that only the Supreme Court can rule on, because they created his immunity out of whole cloth.
No, Donald Trump Isn’t Wading Through Hurricane Floodwaters, You Absolute Morons
Hamas built an underground war machine to ensure its own survival
Okla. is buying schools 55,000 Bibles. Specs match the $60 Trump Bible.
Escalating contest over South China Sea disrupts international cable system
What Is Privacy For?
Friday, October 04, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
Rancher sentenced to 6 months in prison for illegally cloning giant sheep
Fact-checking the vice-presidential debate between Vance and Walz
Decommissioned nuclear reactors are turning back on, in part to power AI technology.
POLITICS
Judge unseals crucial special counsel filing in Trump 2020 election case
J. D. Vance Got the Conversation He Wanted at the Vice-Presidential Debate
But the matchup came down to Tim Walz’s record in Minnesota versus his opponent’s unfailing defense of Donald Trump.
Alcohol poisoning kills dozens of people in Iran
A trio of crises threatens to upend the race 5 weeks before Election Day
Port Union Suspends Strike
Can Harris Stop Blue-Collar Workers from Defecting to Donald Trump?
I'm a computer science professor at UC Berkeley. Tech jobs are drying up and graduates are no longer guaranteed a role.
Wednesday, October 02, 2024
From Jenna Orkin
The hard-right Freedom Party comes first in Austria
A win for Herbert Kickl, a would-be Viktor Orban
The Rat Studies that Foretold a Nightmarish Human Future
SpaceX capsule arrives at space station to save NASA astronauts stranded by Boeing's Starliner
When natural disaster strikes, the legacy of Ronald Reagan haunts
I Quit Teaching Because of ChatGPT
A new race for lunar dominance is underway. And at this moment, the U.S. is poised to lose to China, writes former NASA official Thomas Zurbuchen.
Why Donald Trump Picked J. D. Vance for Vice-President
Who won the VP debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz? Here's what a new poll found
Decade-low tariff to boost Indian gold consumption in festive season
Location: Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza
Event: Security Alert
As a result of the current security situation, the U.S. Embassy has directed all U.S. government employees and their family members to shelter in place until further notice.