Wednesday, December 24, 2025

Omicron Happy Talk in the US v. Toughening Restrictions in UK, Israel

An attempt to pull some signal out of a lot of Omicron noise.

Endowments’ Money Management Destroying Value Demonstrates Economic Drain of Asset Management Business

How endowments, the supposedly best and brightest fiduciaries, are destroying value.

How the Build Back Better Bill Would Save Workers’ Lives

Build Back Better promises to strengthen OHSA. Why is it is in such sorry shape and why has Team Dem said little about workers’ protection?

2:00PM Water Cooler 12/8/2021

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court Throws Ball Back to Biden

Surprise, surprise. Biden’s Supreme Court commission fails to endorse any plan to expand the membership if the Supreme Court.

Links 12/8/2021

Plastics Use in Farming Threatens Food Safety and Human Health, FAO Warns

The UN’s FAO publishes first effort report on how the use of plastics in farming erodes the health of soils, threatening food safety and human health.

How Congress Loots the Treasury for the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex

Sixty years after Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex, the “weight of this combination” of corrupt generals and admirals, the profitable “merchants of death” whose goods they peddle, and the Senators and Representatives who blindly entrust them with trillions of dollars of the public’s money, constitute the full flowering of President Eisenhower’s greatest fears.

Climate Change: Adapt for the Future, Not the Past

Climate adaptation in the global South needs to be addressed through development. Moving from de-risking to diversification requires a developmental state committed to ‘green’ industrial policy – involving investment and technology.

2:00PM Water Cooler 12/7/2021

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

The Romance of Shipping Containers

How international standards enabled containers to be stacked and shipped.

Gravel or Green: What Will Become of Alaska’s Coastal Plain?

Oil companies and regulators must bolster nascent efforts to repair the damage that has already been done.

Links 12/7/2021

Why An Open, Transparent, Informed Debate About Mandatory Vaccination Is All But Impossible in the EU

There’s just too much murkiness for anyone, including MEPs, to reach anything like an informed decision on the issue.

The PR Industry Has Been a ‘Major’ But ‘Overlooked’ Influence in Climate Politics for Decades, Says Study

PR firms have played a key role in obstructing action on climate change over the past 30 years.