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Daily Digest 10/18 - The Arabian Game of Thrones Heats Up, Medical Care When The Lights Go Out
by Daily Digest
Thursday, October 18, 2018, 1:15 PM
Economy
The Arabian Game of Thrones Heats Up (Time2Help)
MBS had bragged to close advisers that he also had Jared Kushner “in his pocket.” Lebanese President Michel Aoun demanded Hariri’s immediate release by the Saudi regime and his return to Beirut. Just as Riyadh denied it had murdered Khashoggi, it refused to admit that it was holding Hariri against his will. MBS ordered Hariri flown to Abu Dhabi to meet with MBS’s on-and-off-again ally, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), the heir apparent to the presidency of the United Arab Emirates. At the age of 57, MBZ is not as brash as the young and impetuous MBS.
Who’s On Call: Medical Care When The Lights Go Out (Thomas R.)
Medical care under austere conditions has been debated and extensively discussed by many experts and authors, with countless texts and even novels outlining the challenges to be faced and countered. The biggest problem with an efficient search for information regarding the care of ailment and injury in a grid-down environment or in times of economic or political collapse or violent conflict is made difficult because there is no universal scenario or single solution. No one can completely prepare for every eventuality, or be in possession of inexhaustible resources.
Nearly half the world lives on less than $5.50 a day: World Bank (Adam)
"Particularly distressing findings are that extreme poverty is becoming entrenched in a handful of countries and that the pace of poverty reduction will soon decelerate significantly," the report said.
At the $5.50-a-day threshold, global poverty fell to 46 percent from 67 percent between 1990 and 2015. The bank reported last month that extreme poverty had fallen to 10 percent in 2015.
New Samizdat: RT brings you a new censorship buster (Afridev)
New Samizdat will post the most interesting links, across all spectrums, with the intention of stimulating debate and providing access to information. And we hope it can play a small part in fighting modern censorship by giving you a trusted page where the most interesting news and views can be found.
Lifespan 2040: US down, China up, Spain on top (Adam)
The researchers found other nations set to lose ground in the race towards longevity include Canada (from 17th to 27th), Norway (12th to 20th), Australia (5th to 10th), Mexico (69th to 87th), Taiwan (35th to 42nd) and North Korea 125th to 153rd).
They Got Saudi Arabia Wrong Too (Paul D.)
Jamal Khashoggi’s state-sanctioned murder is a despicable act of depravity. But there is a lesson to be learned that is bigger than Khashoggi, Mohammed bin Salman, and even the U.S.-Saudi relationship: the elites who have been influencing public opinion for decades should no longer get a pass. They need to be called out and made to answer.
Armed looters target homes devastated by Hurricane Michael in Florida (thc0655)
"Most of our officers lost their homes, have been working 16- to 18-hour shifts with no sleep, no shower, and now they're encountering armed individuals," he said. "It's a stressful time for everyone in Bay County."
Some Words About Marshall McLuhan (Jesper A.)
Folklore is what McLuhan looks for, a folklore of the advanced society. This is akin to being critical of criticism, and on one front of being tradition-seeking in a world that changes rapidly. Proposing that modernity is traditional is an opposition in and of itself — to take this as your FUNDALMENTAL start is dualistic, McLuhan never accepted that which is in some sense good news, because by means of epi-cycles he escaped even this notion, how? By turning his back on history (quite literally), he walks backwards. Much like Charles S. Pierce he is looking for the exception not the rule, the exception proves the rule. This by the way is a jesuit practice, an inheritence from Augustine (or so I hear).
U.S. Shale’s Glory Days Are Numbered (Paul D.)
The investment bank still expects U.S. shale to add around 1 million barrels per day each year through 2021 at least. But with early signs of strain, limits on productivity and steeper decline rates, it is clear that the industry’s glory days are numbered.
Why scientists are so worried by the huge, sudden loss of insects (Paul D.)
Here’s one more sobering example of just how many species around the world are threatened.
The past few decades have seen a massive die-off of amphibians, which scientists fear are some of the most vulnerable animals to losses in a rapidly changing world. That may be because amphibians need both healthy aquatic and terrestrial environments to thrive. Change just one enough, and species suffer.
The UN's Devastating Climate Change Report Was Too Optimistic (Paul D.)
That worst-case outcome is not inevitable—but certain catastrophic outcomes are already locked in. According to a study inClimatic Change in 2016, parts of the Middle East and North Africa will become uninhabitable by 2050 due to intense summer heatwaves, even if we stay within 1.5°C.
UN Climate Change Report: A Choice between “Mad Max and Hunger Games” (thc0655)
The report’s glum findings were announced at a press conference by a United Nations panel in Incheon, South Korea. Panelists tried to sound optimistic, but there was no sugar-coating the report’s key finding.
“If you would like to stabilize global warming to 1.5°C, the key message is that net CO2 emissions at the global scale must reach zero by 2050,” said panelist Valerie Masson-Delmotte, a French climate scientist and research director at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission. “That’s the most important finding of the report.”
Gold & Silver
Click to read the PM Daily Market Commentary: 10/16/18
Provided daily by the Peak Prosperity Gold & Silver Group
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