by Tom Bosschaert
Director

Jan. 19, 2013

Tom Bosschaert

Still fresh into 2013, this edition the Wormfood News Digest covers a wide variety of important news stories, including the stepped-up conflict in Mali, fresh insights into global economic trends, some intriguing science studies from human migration to quantum computing, and a pile of other stories you wont want to miss, all found below!

Global News

  • About That Overpopulation Problem. Research suggests we may actually face a declining world population in the coming years.

  • Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of the prime minister in connection with a corruption case linked to power projects, television channels reported, plunging the country into fresh political turmoil.

  • A leading French judge who specialises in anti-terror investigations says France has no choice but to take the fight to Islamists in Mali– or risk allowing the region to become a training ground for terrorists wanting to attack France itself. Denmark, Canada, Britain, and the African Union have also committed troops to aid in the Liberation effort.

Business & Economy

  • Interactive Map: Job Gains and Losses in the Recovery by Job Type 

  • While the grim effects of the 2008 financial crisis still resonate across the globe, the recession wasn't all bad: it triggered fundamental economic restructuring, and the result is a U.S. economy poised to emerge stronger than it was before. 

  • The French are responding to Europe's stagnant economy by sharing rather than consuming. People have seen that, statistically, most people with a power drill use it for 12 seconds each year, so now they are wondering, why bother buying one?

Energy & Environment

  • Ontario Phases Out Coal-Fired Power. All of the province's coal-burning power plants will be shuttered by 2014, making the Canadian province the first coal-free jurisdiction in North America

  • Scientists are conducting intriguing and counterintuitive experiments at several sites in Germany: Bringing back long-lost herbivores, such as water buffalo, to encourage the spread of native plants that have fared poorly in Europe’s human-dominated landscape.

  • In China's capital, they're calling it the "airpocalypse," with air pollution that's literally off the charts. The air has been classified as hazardous to human health for a fifth consecutive day, at its worst hitting pollution levels 25x that considered safe in the U.S.

Science, Technology, & Design

  • New carbon nanotube fiber acts like textile thread, conducts electricity and heat like a metal wire

  • Yale scientists have found a way to observe quantum information while preserving its integrity, an achievement that offers researchers greater control in the volatile realm of quantum mechanics and greatly improves the prospects of quantum computing.

  • Australia experienced a wave of migration from India about 4,000 years ago, a genetic study suggests.

Urban Environment

  • The First Bookless Public Library: Texas to Have BiblioTech

  • Edible edifice: the office buildings of the future will be intelligent - and tasty too

Unexpected and Intriguing

  • Canadians rush to save 11 trapped killer whales

  • Innovative man founds school for slum children under a bridge in New Delhi

 

This bi-weekly digest is made by assembling items from all of Except’s people. Have questions, comments, or news items to suggest? E-mail matthew.fraser@except.nl. Read past Wormfood global news reports here.

Jan. 19, 2013