Blog - OtherWords

Casino developers have to plunk down a lot of their own chips these days. Few researchers doubt that risk-taking is hard-wired into a slew of human brains, but at what point does over saturation cause the developer to lose his shirt?

The Lineup: Week of November 29-December 5, 2010

by Emily Schwartz Greco

As global climate talks get underway in Cancun, Miriam Pemberton calls for more parity in spending on climate and military security and Diana Bronson warns that “geoengineering” fixes for the world’s climate problems could do far more harm than good.

Spend More on the Climate, Less on the Military

by Miriam Pemberton

As deserts expand and droughts persist, desperate people begin fighting over the water that remains. Elsewhere, rising sea levels create mass migrations. These portraits of human tragedy caused by climate change have become environmental security threats that the U.S. military now worries about.

Geoengineering is a Recipe for Disaster

by Diana Bronson

Think you’ve heard enough about climate change? Chances are you haven’t heard anything about the dangerous and costly sci-fi climate fixes known as geoengineering.

Trojan Malpractice

by Martha Burk

It was just a lone sentence tacked on to the very end of a long New York Times article. The story focused on a recent report from President Obama’s bipartisan commission on reducing the national debt. “Panel Seeks Cuts in Social Security and Higher Taxes” was indeed about cuts in Social Security and proposed tax increases–the things most pundits jump on. But the last sentence caught my eye: “[The commission plan] would limit malpractice awards, long a Republican goal.”

We Must do More about North Korea’s Nukes

by Duyeon Kim

North Korea keeps its word, at least on the nuclear front.

ISO: Obama’s Campaign-Trail Eloquence

by Donald Kaul

What I can’t understand is why so many people of modest means are against taxing the filthy rich. Recent polls show a majority of people favoring the extension of Bush’s tax cuts for the rich. Why?

At Last, Larry’s Going Away

by Jim Hightower

Thank God and Harvard–Larry Summers is going away. But not before doing extraordinary damage to America’s middle class and to the man who hired him. Summers, chief architect of Barack Obama’s squirrelly Wall Street policies, says he’ll move on at the end of the year.