Society

The Looming Bank Collapse
The Looming Bank Collapse

The Looming Bank Collapse

The U.S. financial system could be on the cusp of calamity. This time, we might not be able to save it. Story by Frank Partnoy After months of living with the coronavirus pandemic, American citizens are well aware of the toll it has taken on the economy: broken supply chains, record unemployment, failing small businesses. All of these factors are serious and could mire the United States in a deep, prolonged recession. But there’s another threat to the economy, too. It lurks on the balance sheets of the big banks, and it could be cataclysmic. Imagine if, in addition to all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, you woke up one morning to find that the financial sector had collapsed. To hear more feature stories, get the Audm iPhone app. You may think that such a crisis is unlikely, with memories of the 2008 crash still so fresh. But banks learned…

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How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
George Floyd

How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change

As millions of people across the country take to the streets and raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing problem of unequal justice, many people have reached out asking how we can sustain momentum to bring about real change. Ultimately, it’s going to be up to a new generation of activists to shape strategies that best fit the times. But I believe there are some basic lessons to draw from past efforts that are worth remembering. First, the waves of protests across the country represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States. The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring. They deserve our respect and support, not condemnation — something that police in cities like Camden and Flint have commendably understood. On the…

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Gavin Newsom Declares California a ‘Nation-State’
Gavin Newsom Declares California a ‘Nation-State’

Gavin Newsom Declares California a ‘Nation-State’

California this week declared its independence from the federal government’s feeble efforts to fight Covid-19 — and perhaps from a bit more. The consequences for the fight against the pandemic are almost certainly positive. The implications for the brewing civil war between Trumpism and America’s budding 21st-century majority, embodied by California’s multiracial liberal electorate, are less clear.

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That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief

That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief by Scott Berinato HBR Staff/d3sign/Getty Images We’ve made our coronavirus coverage free for all readers. To get all of HBR’s content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter. Some of the HBR edit staff met virtually the other day — a screen full of faces in a scene becoming more common everywhere. We talked about the content we’re commissioning in this harrowing time of a pandemic and how we can help people. But we also talked about how we were feeling. One colleague mentioned that what she felt was grief. Heads nodded in all the panes. If we can name it, perhaps we can manage it. We turned to David Kessler for ideas on how to do that. Kessler is the world’s foremost expert on grief. He co-wrote with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief…

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233 Politicians Just Voted to Steal Social Security’s $2.9 Trillion Surplus
233 Politicians Just Voted to Steal Social Security's $2.9 Trillion Surplus

233 Politicians Just Voted to Steal Social Security’s $2.9 Trillion Surplus

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 12, 2018Contact: Linda Benesch, lbenesch@socialsecurityworks.org Legislation That Would Surreptitiously Steal Social Security’s $2.9 Trillion Surplus Has Been Defeated – But 97% of Republicans Voted For It (Washington, DC) — The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, in reaction to nearly every Republican member of the House of Representatives, as well as seven Democrats, voting for a Constitutional amendment requiring that all annual revenue and spending balance every year. The amendment failed to attain the two-thirds majority required to pass it into law: “Every pay period, starting with our first jobs, America’s workers contribute to Social Security. The program uses those funds to pay all benefits and related administrative costs. Social Security does not add even a penny to the deficit, as Republican President Ronald Reagan so clearly stated when he was president. When Social Security runs a surplus, Social Security holds the funds in trust.…

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The Lunatic Farmer – Loneliness
The Lunatic Farmer

The Lunatic Farmer – Loneliness

January 31, 2020             A new study highlighted in the Wall Street Journal says loneliness is up:  61 percent of Americans say they're lonely.              Additionally, the study found a direct relationship between social media and loneliness.  The more social media usage, the higher the loneliness.              But I thought we were better connected through our devices.  These kinds of findings make me shake my head and marvel.  In case you're just tuning in, Teresa and I have no TV in our house.  Neither of us has a smart phone.  We have flip phones.  I don't do texting--at all.  My cell phone does not work in our house.  Even cordless landlines are dicey in our house.              I'm not lonely.  Is it possible to have device addiction?  Or to have interest addiction--like if someone doesn't express interest in me every 30 minutes, then apparently the world doesn't think I'm worth attention?             …

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‘It makes me enjoy playing with the kids’: is microdosing mushrooms going mainstream?
Post Image Mushrooms Going Main Stream

‘It makes me enjoy playing with the kids’: is microdosing mushrooms going mainstream?

Before the school run, or commuting to work, increasing numbers are taking tiny doses of psychedelic drugs in the UK. Why? Rosie has just returned from the school run. She drops a bag of groceries on to her kitchen table, and reaches for a clear plastic cup, covered by a white hanky and sealed with a hairband. Inside is a grey powder; her finely ground homegrown magic mushrooms. “I’ll take a very small dose, every three or four days,” she says, weighing out a thumbnail of powder on digital jewellery scales, purchased for their precision. “People take well over a gram recreationally. I weigh out about 0.12g and then just swallow it, like any food. It gives me an alertness, an assurance. I move from a place of anxiety to a normal state of confidence, not overconfidence.” Over the last 12 months, I have been hearing the same story from…

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High Stress Drives Up Your Risk Of A Heart Attack. Here’s How To Chill Out
High Stress Drives Up Your Risk Of A Heart Attack. Here's How To Chill Out

High Stress Drives Up Your Risk Of A Heart Attack. Here’s How To Chill Out

April 14, 20195:01 PM ET Heard on Morning Edition Allison Aubrey Twitter The trick, of course, is to find moments of deep relaxation wherever you are, not just on vacation. Laughing with friends can be another way to start breaking the cycle of chronic stress and help keep your heart healthy, too. stock_colors/Getty Images Work Stress. Home Stress. Financial Stress. The toll of chronic stress isn't limited to emotional suffering. High stress can set the stage for heart disease. In fact, research shows that those of us who perceive a lot of stress in our lives are at higher risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems over the long term. Shots - Health News This Is Your Stressed-Out Brain On Scarcity The latest evidence comes from a new study of siblings in Sweden. Researchers identified about 137,000 people who had been diagnosed with stress-related disorders; the diagnoses included post-traumatic…

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Encourage Mathematical Thinking With These Board Games for Little Kids

Photo: Amazon The best way to help young kids understand math concepts isn’t by standing in front of a white board and rattling off multiplication facts. Rather, it’s by letting them see math in action. Board games are a great way for little learners to get a grasp on skills such as pattern recognition, spatial reasoning, problem solving and visual perception. Here are some of the best board games for kids under 8 that encourage mathematical thinking, according to math educators and parents. Note: The ages listed are from the game creators. Kids can often start playing earlier if they show interest, or you can make modifications to games such as playing on teams, playing cards face up or eliminating the time component. Rush Hour Jr. Rush Hour Jr. presents kids with a true dilemma: The ice cream truck is stuck in traffic. To get it out, they must shift…

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Doctors Explain How Hiking Can Actually Change Our Brains

While it may seem obvious that a good hike through a forest or up a mountain can cleanse your mind, body, and soul, science is now discovering that hiking can actually change your brain… for the better! Hiking In Nature Can Stop Negative, Obsessive Thoughts Aside from the almost instant feeling of calm and contentment that accompanies time outdoors, hiking in nature can reduce rumination. Many of us often find ourselves consumed by negative thoughts, which takes us out of the enjoyment of the moment at best and leads us down a path to depression and anxiety at worst. But a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that spending time in nature decreases these obsessive, negative thoughts by a significant margin. To conduct this study, researchers compared the reported rumination of participants who hiked through either an urban or a natural environment. They found those who walked for 90 minutes in a…

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Canadians! More No-Waste Grocery Stores Are Coming to a City Near You

And the trend doesn’t just apply to grocery stores. And the trend doesn’t just apply to grocery stores. The Soap Dispensary and Kitchen Staples in Vancouver, for instance, sells bulk and packaging-free beauty and household products, as well as food. This is a welcomed trend for environmentally-savvy consumers. “We’ve got a massive plastic packaging problem,” Barb Hetherington, a board member for Zero Waste Canada, told Global Citizen. “We’ve got so much packaging in the world that our recycling systems can’t handle it.” The average person in North America or Western Europe consumes about 100 kilograms of plastic, and the bulk of that is due to packaging, according to Zero Waste Canada. Related Stories June 18, 2018 New Toronto Grocery Store Lets Its Customers Pay What They Can Hetherington argues that the zero-waste shopping experience not only reduces the amount of packaging that has to be manufactured and recycled, but because…

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Doing Dishes Is the Worst

Photo by: Mardis Coers / Getty Every day, they slowly accumulate. Plates covered in sauces and crumbs. Bowls with a fine layer of sticky who-knows-what. Forks, knives, and spoons all gummed with bits of this and that. At the end of a long day of work, cooking, cleaning, and, for many, negotiating with small children, a couple has to face the big question: Who is going to do the dishes? A report from the Council of Contemporary Families (CCF), a nonprofit that studies family dynamics, suggests that the answer to that question can have a significant impact on the health and longevity of a relationship. The study examined a variety of different household tasks—including shopping, laundry, and housecleaning, and found that, for women in heterosexual relationships, it’s more important to share the responsibility of doing the dishes than any other chore. Women who wash the vast majority of the dishes…

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Billionaire Musk releases all Tesla patents to help save the Earth

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Shanghai's Mayor Ying Yong attend the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory groundbreaking ceremony in Shanghai, China Jan. 7, 2019. Aly Song, Reuters SAN FRANCISCO - Elon Musk announced Thursday he had released all of the electric carmaker Tesla's patents, as part of an effort to fight climate change. In a blog post, the colorful billionaire founder of Tesla promised the company "will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology." It was a remarkable move in an industry where the smallest idea or seed of invention is carefully guarded to protect its monetary value.  And it in fact came on the same day US prosecutors charged a Chinese national with stealing secrets from Apple's self-driving vehicle project. "Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport," Musk said. "If we clear a path to the creation of compelling…

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D.C. Council gives final approval to Airbnb regulations

Property owners won’t be able to use secondary homes for short-term rentals under the new rules By Andrew Giambrone Nov 15, 2018, 11:54am EST D.C. residents who use Airbnb or similar booking services to rent out their homes will likely have to abide by new regulations starting next October, when they are set to go into effect. The policies represent the first time the city has charted comprehensive laws for short-term rental units—an effort that has sparked a fierce debate spanning roughly the past two years. District lawmakers on Tuesday unanimously green-lit rules for short-term rentals, after they had delayed a final vote on the rules last month. The legislation bans property owners from renting out any homes other than their primary residences for fewer than 30 days at a time, commonly done through platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO. It also restricts to 90 the total number of days…

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The Yamas & One-Night Stands: A Yogi Perspective on Sex

  I’ve always been the girl who felt uncomfortable with one-night stands. But being a single, adult female, I quickly learned that my standards of needing a relationship before sex were, well, old-school. Not putting out within the first three dates is a guaranteed way to not hear back from a potential mate. Instead of giving into society’s new norm of casual sex, I found another way to feel fulfilled and still play the game of adult dating. Now, sometimes casual sex is great. (Okay, a lot of the time.) But dating in my early 20s is a scary, muddy puddle that I’m supposed to just know how to swim. Naturally. After a few bad fish, I had to ask myself, “How can I get what I want and still make sure I leave the other person better than I found them and without compromising my true feelings?” As a…

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