Archive for February 2018

How your sense of smell may affect your politics

Add Comment
How your sense of smell may affect your politics

HUMANS, like other animals, have evolved to notice and avoid sources of infection, whether that be rotten food or sickly members of their own species. This “behavioural immune system” can have unexpected consequences. Studies have, for instance, shown that those whose noses are more easily offended are also more likely to shun foreigners or disapprove of homosexuals. More broadly, people who live in regions with more to fear from pathogens tend to be less promiscuous and gregarious (such risky behaviour may spread disease). These effects are, by their nature, generally small but evidence has been amassed that they do in fact exist.

This led Marco Liuzza of the Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, in Italy, and his colleagues to wonder whether there might be a link between a person’s sensitivity to malodorousness and the likelihood of them being sympathetic to right-wing authoritarian views. In work published this week in Royal Society Open Science, he shows that there...Continue reading

Source: Science and technology http://ift.tt/2EYOMoH

Theda Skocpol’s new work on anti-Trump activists

Add Comment
Theda Skocpol’s new work on anti-Trump activists

THEDA SKOCPOL produces consistently interesting work that makes many other political scientists (and most journalists, for that matter) look shallow by comparison. In 2011 she co-wrote a book about the Tea Party in which she identified some of the things that would later propel Donald Trump to the Republican nomination. At the time, most people understood the Tea Party to be a libertarian revolt against big government. Employing a radical method, which involved asking a large number of Tea Partiers what they actually thought, Ms Skocpol and her co-author discovered that this was not the case.

The folks who showed up to Tea Party meetings were not acolytes of Ayn Rand or Ron Paul. They were in fact very keen on public spending, so long as it was directed to people they thought had earned it. These Tea Partiers seldom made straightforwardly racist remarks, and probably thought of themselves as without racial prejudice. But their attitudes to government had a racial tinge, because most of the people who they thought deserved government help were...Continue reading

Source: United States http://ift.tt/2FDgMPZ

Pakistan’s army is getting serious about defeating domestic terrorism

Add Comment
Pakistan’s army is getting serious about defeating domestic terrorism

A TRIP around Miranshah with an escort of heavily armed soldiers is a surreal experience. The town is the administrative centre of North Waziristan, a lawless region once controlled by jihadists that Barack Obama called “the most dangerous place in the world”. But Pakistan’s army, which fought a 22-month campaign from 2014 to evict militants from North Waziristan, is trying to transform the town from a byword for extremism to a showcase of the stability to which the generals say the country is returning.

The army lost nearly 500 men in the fighting. About 3,400 militants were killed; many more fled across the border to Afghanistan. Signs of the violence are everywhere. But so too are efforts to provide greater prosperity for traumatised civilians (nearly 1m people living in the region were displaced). New roads fan out from the town. Lots of buildings, including shops, clinics and a sports stadium, are going up. A children’s playground has been laid out next to the river that...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2HSGnF6

A dispute over real estate roils Jerusalem

Add Comment
A dispute over real estate roils Jerusalem

A SMALL wooden ladder stands on a ledge above the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the spot where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. The ladder serves no purpose, but it has been moved only twice in the past two centuries. That is because all six Christian denominations that have a presence in the church must agree to rearrange things. They rarely do.

On February 25th, however, the church’s main occupants—the Catholics, Greek Orthodox and Armenians—showed rare ecumenical unity. They decided to close in protest against an attempt by city hall to tax commercial property owned by the churches, and a draft law in the Knesset that would allow the government to expropriate land sold by churches to private buyers. Church leaders compared the measures to laws “enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe”.

Two days later Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, stepped in. He said that a committee led by...Continue reading

Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2FdNb1C

What can investment companies do for a stocks and shares ISA?

Add Comment
What can investment companies do for a stocks and shares ISA?


With the end of the tax year drawing near, time is running out for investors to make the most of this year’s £20,000 ISA allowance. Investment companies offering strong, long-term performance and income benefits could be a possibility for a stocks and shares ISA.

Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed http://ift.tt/2GQqxcN

Nico Colchester journalism fellowships

Add Comment
Nico Colchester journalism fellowships

The Nico Colchester fellowships were established in memory of Nico Colchester, who died in 1996 after an outstanding career at the Financial Times, The Economist and the Economist Intelligence Unit. Nico had a passion for writing about European politics, economics, and society—and his sharp, witty, authoritative analysis would have been especially precious today.

Between the migration crisis, the threat of terrorism, the rise of populism, the euro zone’s economic struggles and the Brexit vote, the very foundations of European integration have been called into question in recent years. But Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the French election and the prospect of a new grand coalition in Germany have raised hopes that a new European dawn could be in store. Undoubtedly, Nico would have been able to tell this story like few others in his profession: just consider some of his most famous work, from his creation of a Mars Bar index—“a currency for our time”—to his division of the world, and its politicians, into the “soggy” and the “crunchy”.

So in this momentous year for Europe, here is...Continue reading

Souce: Europe http://ift.tt/2CNEmGP

Making a call while driving could be your most expensive mistake

Add Comment
Making a call while driving could be your most expensive mistake


USING your mobile phone while driving could be the most expensive call your ever make, with the total bill nearing four figures. As well as a fixed penalty and points on your licence, you will face higher motor insurance premiums for years into the future.

Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed http://ift.tt/2GQitsR

Pension: New rules to target great annuity rip-off

Add Comment
Pension: New rules to target great annuity rip-off


RETIREES have been throwing money away for years by purchasing annuities without first comparing rates, but a new scheme aims to reduce the number making this costly error.

Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed http://ift.tt/2GSWqSj

Pound V euro: GBP exchange rate steady as Eurozone inflation cools

Add Comment
Pound V euro: GBP exchange rate steady as Eurozone inflation cools


THE pound is holding steady against the euro this morning as Eurozone inflation was shown to have fallen this month. The pound euro exchange rate is currently at around €1.136, holding close to its opening levels this morning.

Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed http://ift.tt/2F2HYqc

Rail companies are profiting from commuter misery – EXPRESS COMMENT

Add Comment
Rail companies are profiting from commuter misery – EXPRESS COMMENT


ARE there any circumstances in which the rail companies in this country will not take advantage of their hard-pressed passengers to feather their own nests? Hardly had the forecast of snow been aired before services were being cancelled and commuters massively inconvenienced yet again.

Source: Daily Express :: Comment Feed http://ift.tt/2HQUlYp

BREAKING: Maplin goes into administration – 2,500 jobs at risk

Add Comment
BREAKING: Maplin goes into administration – 2,500 jobs at risk


ELECTRICAL retailer Maplin has collapsed into administration, putting 2,500 jobs at risk. The firm said that the capital needed to prop up the business – and shield against the tough trading conditions on the high street – had proved "impossible to raise".

Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed http://ift.tt/2EXa0HQ

BREAKING: Prezzo to close 100 restaurants – HUNDREDS of jobs at risk

Add Comment
BREAKING: Prezzo to close 100 restaurants – HUNDREDS of jobs at risk


PREZZO is reportedly braced to close up to one-third of its 300 outlets across Britain, putting hundreds of jobs at risk. The popular Italian-themed chain is planning to launch a Company Voluntary Arrangement in the coming days, according to Sky News.

Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed http://ift.tt/2BVF87I

BREAKING: Toys R Us goes into administration – 3,200 jobs at risk

Add Comment
BREAKING: Toys R Us goes into administration – 3,200 jobs at risk


TOY giant Toys R Us has gone into administration but will continue trading for the moment. The firm which has been on the brink recently has entered administration putting 3,200 jobs across 105 shops at risk. The company has been open in the UK since 1995. It has a £15m VAT bill outstanding.

Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed http://ift.tt/2t9xUKL

Are YOU a pension millionaire? Almost a million couples enjoying golden retirement

1 Comment
Are YOU a pension millionaire? Almost a million couples enjoying golden retirement


A GOLDEN age of generous final salary pensions and above inflation pension rises have turned almost a million couples into 'pension millionaires'. The richest 20 per cent of pensioners, equivalent to 840,000 couples, now have an average weekly income of £936 or an annual income of £48,672.

Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed http://ift.tt/2COt19o

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, will be allowed to reign forever

Add Comment
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, will be allowed to reign forever

 

THE decision announced on February 25th to scrap term limits for China’s president, Xi Jinping, pierces the veil of Chinese politics. It reveals that, at a time when the ruling Communist Party is presenting China to the world as a modern, reliable and responsible state, capable of defending globalisation, the internal political system that the party monopolises is premodern, treacherous, inward-looking and brutal. It also shows that Chinese leaders’ own attempts to make the party otherwise have not got far.

Those attempts began in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping, then the country’s paramount leader. In order to encourage predictability and institutional stability after the chaos of the last years of Mao Zedong, Deng introduced a series of reforms which stressed rules and norms, instead of strongman decision-making. The reforms included mandatory retirement ages and term limits for high-ranking politicians. The constitution of 1982 says the president “shall serve no more...Continue reading

Source: China http://ift.tt/2t0fgVt

Lessons from China’s rust belt

Add Comment
Lessons from China’s rust belt

MAO ZEDONG called China’s three north-eastern provinces—Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning—the country’s “eldest son”. In the Chinese tradition the family’s future rests on that child’s shoulders. But this one is failing in his duties. Debate rages over what has gone wrong and what to do. Many experts conclude that the regional economy needs to be run a different way. Their analysis has lessons for the national economy, too.

Mao made the north-east the centre of heavy industry. It still contains many of China’s largest makers of cars, aircraft and machine tools. In 1978, on the eve of Deng Xiaoping’s economic opening, Liaoning, the most populous of the trio, had the third-largest economy among mainland China’s 31 provinces. Its GDP was 20% bigger than that of Guangdong, the southern province with the biggest population. But 40 years of rapid national growth have left the north-east lagging behind. By 2016 Liaoning had fallen to 14th among provinces by income and had only one third...Continue reading

Source: China http://ift.tt/2F00b7G

China portrays racism as a Western problem

Add Comment
China portrays racism as a Western problem

THE annual “Spring Festival Gala”, broadcast on the eve of the lunar new year, is the most-watched television programme on Earth. It is also one of the most vetted by the authorities, for it is intended not merely to entertain its 800m-odd Chinese viewers. Less-than-subliminal messaging is designed to showcase how contented all Chinese are under a wise Communist leadership—and, in recent years, how gratefully the world welcomes China’s benign activities in it. So what could one make of an excruciatingly crass sketch in this year’s show that put racist stereotypes of Africans at the heart of the supposed jollity?

The skit’s topic was, for sure, a sketch-writer’s nightmare: celebration of a Chinese-built fast train in Kenya. And if the savannah backdrop and tribal dances with which the scene opened were the stuff of cliché, at least real Africans were used in the making of it. But then a Chinese actress appeared in blackface and African dress, with exaggerated fake buttocks and a bowl of...Continue reading

Source: China http://ift.tt/2oprn96

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)