Noteworthy: Davos, Ebola, media matters

The World Economic Forum, AKA the “annual summit for the one per cent,” kicks off in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, tomorrow. Subjects range from bicycles for African kids to global trade, Ebola to climate change, “honey laundering” to oil markets. Switzerland’s tourism industry is delighted

New Facts, and some Opinions

A spat of major new global reports on health, climate, and inequality contain warnings that can be met only by  joint action, the kind of community response that has fallen out of favour lately in much of the West.  Today Oxfam released, in

Noteworthy: prescriptions on inequality

Worth reading:  A joint American-British report today prescribed new policies aimed at reducing the growing gulf between haves and have-nots in Western democracies, using case studies from several countries. The middle class has not fared well lately in advanced economies roiled by globalization,

Artists call for ban on fracking near national park

Thirty two well known artists sent an open letter to Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper, and  Newfoundland & Labrador Premier Paul Davis, calling on them to establish a permanent buffer zone free of industrial activity around Gros Morn National Park  and UNESCO

New on F&O: From Peak Civilization to Birdman

   Are We at Peak Civilization? By Chris Wood (subscription required) Will 2015 be the end of our capitalist consumer cornucopia world? That world cannot go on. And as some bright person once said (the words are variously attributed to Henry Ford and economist

Saudi Arabia upheaval will soon rock Middle East and beyond

Politics are heating up in Saudi Arabia, a key player in the three-cornered contest in the Middle East between modernity, theocracy and absolutism, a contest waged between warring proxies in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya, and felt in corners of the world from

John Frankenheimer: Emmys, enthusiasm, and energy

Film director John Frankenheimer was often at odds with Hollywood producers because he insisted on making movies for artistic rather than commercial reasons. But, as Arts columnist Brian Brennan reports, he later found his niche in television.  An excerpt of Brennan’s Brief Encounters

New on F&O

  Let the Good Times Roll. By Jim McNiven The American and Canadian economies will do well this next year, especially the American. Their consumers, who represent over 70% of that economy’s GDP, should begin to shed their uncertainties and the Federal

eReaders are the enemies of sleep

If you receive gifts of e-books in your virtual Christmas stocking this year, you might want to avoid reading them before bedtime. Worldwide research shows that exposure to electronic light in the hour before bedtime can impair sleep and alertness the next

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