04 World Update | Grounded People & Azithromycin

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How high are you right now? I mean physically of course at what altitude? Elevation can influence how likely we are to take risks. Our sensitivity to power increases, as we position ourselves above street level and above others. High physical elevation increases risk‐seeking tendencies when confronted with financial decisions. So should we remove all bankers from their silver towers and lock them underground. Or should we raise our shopping centres high above the ground to increase our consumer spending? A paper named ‘The Influence of Physical Elevation in Buildings on Risk Preferences...’ by Sina Esteky et al details their findings in onlinelibrary.wiley with some very interesting details to consider.

The UK’s PM Theresa May, her husband works for Capital Group, the largest shareholder in missile manufacturer BAE. Since the recent missile strikes in Syria weapons companies like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and General Dynamics etc. the value of said companies have soared. $10bn has been added to the top weapons manufacturers in one week. One trader Stephen Guilfoyle wrote to his readers “The world remains dangerous, and dangerous ‘toys’ are increasingly in demand.” One Tomahawk missile alone costs $1.4 million, not including the infrastructure and deployment cost. Trump has pledged “billions of fully approved dollars” in additional military spending he said “There won’t be anything or anyone even close!”

The Pentagon have just revealed they are currently using 5,500 Contractors to fight the Islamic State. Wikipedia defines a general contractor as “A general contractor is responsible for providing all of the material, labour, equipment (such as engineering vehicles and tools) and services necessary for the construction of the project. The general contractor hires specialized subcontractors to perform all or portions of the construction work.” Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo recently admitted the US and Kurds killed hundreds of Russian contractors opposing them in Syria. Saying “A handful of weeks ago, the Russians met their match. A couple hundred Russians were killed”. This is privatised war defined.

The new Mayor in Tama City, Tokyo may soon be a robot. A pretty Robot named Michihito Matsuda has promised to be "fair and balanced" when considering city conflicts and residential disputes. Posters of a silver robot lady line the streets with slogans of "fair and balanced opportunities for everyone". Can a robot really calculate the best course of action and is this the first of our future AI leaders. The takeover has begun.

70% of our energy is wasted as heat; out the top of your computer, the engine in your car or even the brake pads on your bike. The first law of thermodynamics also known as Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. So what can we do to harvest this much heat loss from everyday activities? Well Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a thin film able to cover said heat emitters and utilize this unintended heat loss with in-built electrical fields. Tapping heat sources with electrical fields is genius. If we really do lose 70% of our energy as a thermal by-product then storing this may be a really revolutionary idea.

95% of humans are breathing polluted air. This has caused an increase of death by 20% from both cardiopulmonary diseases and lung cancer. Two years ago 6.1m people died directly because of the air they breath. This number is increasing every year as we as a species urbanise our environment to unsafe levels. The World Health Organization say fine particulate matter PM2.5 should not exceed 25 micro grams per cubic meter in any 24-hour mean period. India and China alone account for 51% of the total death count due to poor quality air. Bad air quality is known to increase suicide rates and mental health problems. Make sure you get some regular access to some high quality O2.

Drug resistant Typhoid and Super gonorrhoea are rampaging through populations in Pakistan and Australia. Health experts fear these may become untreatable and are now trying to raise the awareness among medical professionals, in order to increase the army of scientists needed to fend off this gross end to humanity. Azithromycin is the last drug available to stop a global Typhoid pandemic. Dr. Eric Mintz an epidemiologist says “Everything suggests this strain will survive well and spread easily—and acquiring resistance to Azithromycin is only a matter of time.”