26 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
MarsOne Response to Muslim Fatwa
And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your languages and your colors: verily in that are Signs for those who know. (Quran 30: 22)
The Muslim world has a rich tradition of exploration. The verse from the Quran above encourages Muslims to go out and see the signs of God’s creation in the ‘heavens and the earth’. The most influential example of this was the Moroccan Muslim traveller, Ibn Battuta, who from 1325 to 1355 travelled 73,000 mile... 1 
notes
notes...against voyaging to Mars because it constitutes "suicide."
04 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The U-Shape of Automation
As we look ahead, we see these three trends not only accelerating but also evolving. For instance, new research by David Autor and David Dorn has put an interesting twist on the SBTC story. They find that the relationship between skills and wages has recently become U-shaped. In the most recent decade, demand has fallen most for those in the middle of the skill distribution. The highest-skilled workers have done well, but interestingly those with the lowest skills have suffered less than thos...Folksonomies: employment automation
Folksonomies: employment automation
1 People in semi-skilled jobs have been the ones most automated out of jobs, while highly-technical and more menial jobs have remained.
29 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
The Adverse Health Effects of Formula Feeding
More significantly, the breast—bottle controversy has moved far away from the question of what is best for babies. The decision for substitute milk is influenced by the pressures of corporations, their advertising, and their lobbies. The money game behind the production of formula has overpowered what might be best for babies here in first-world countries and for babies more at risk in third-world countries. It takes about $1,800 a year to feed an infant some kind of powdered or canned form... 1 notes
notesFormula feeding results in unnecessary expenses for poor people when a free alternative exists as well as having a deleterious effect on infant health that results in many deaths each year.
12 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
What If People Stopped Valuing Money?
Mexico and Chile and Brazil and Argentina were likewise bankrupt--and Indonesia and the Philippines and Pakistan and India and Thailand and Italy and Ireland and Belgium and Turkey. Whole nations were suddenly in the same situation as the San Mateo, unable to buy with their paper money and coins, or their written promises to pay later, even the barest essentials. Persons with anything life sustaining to sell, fellow citizenes as well as foreigners, were refusing to exchange their goods for mo...
1 Vonnegut describes a fictional account of the currencies of numerous countries in the world suddenly being no longer valuable, making them just pretty paper.
