Wheat absorbs phosphorus from desert dust
Dec 16th 2020WHEAT WAS among the first plants to be domesticated and is now the most widespread crop in the world. It thus sounds unlikely there would be much left to learn about what makes it thrive. Yet, some 12,000 years after relations between people and wheat began, a wheat plant has been caught doing…
Sound engineers have better ways to trick listeners’ ears
Dec 16th 2020HUMAN BEINGS are good at locating the sources of sounds. Even when blindfolded, most people can point to within ten degrees of the true direction of a sound’s origin. This is a useful knack for evading danger. It is also an extraordinary cerebral feat. Partly, it is a matter of detecting minute differences…
What if a gold standard were still in use?
Dec 16th 2020IN THE AFTERMATH of the first world war, the gold standard inspired nearly religious fervour from central bankers. European officials dutifully re-pegged their war-battered currencies to gold at great cost to their citizens. A hundred years on, it has lost its lustre. Judy Shelton’s past support for it may have derailed her nomination…
What explains investors’ enthusiasm for risky assets?
Dec 16th 2020EVEN IN NORMAL times, there is an element of drama to the markets. The oil price may spike or slump in reaction to a geopolitical wobble; bond yields may leap on strong jobs figures; and shareholders may pump up a stock that posted juicy profits. But 2020 has taken the drama to an…
Western expatriates are leaving Asia
Dec 19th 2020WHEN JAKARTA went into lockdown in April Asian Tigers Group, a moving company, received a flurry of business from wealthy expatriates who had fled overnight. Removal teams were led into deserted homes by maids or colleagues. Without the owners on hand to sort belongings, they found themselves stripping beds and packing dirty sheets…
India’s government is undermining its own agricultural reforms
Dec 16th 2020WHEN IT COMES to voicing demands, India’s 150m farmers are not shy. Recent protests have seen throngs of them descend on the national capital to express desperation by, among other things, stripping naked, being buried alive, displaying skulls (allegedly of fellow farmers who have killed themselves in despair), and even by eating rats…
Israel’s government collapses, triggering yet another election
Binyamin Netanyahu is facing a serious challenge from the rightNINE MONTHS ago Binyamin Netanyahu declared that after three elections in the span of a year, all ending in stalemate, he and his rival, Benny Gantz, would share power. Each would serve 18 months as prime minister, with Mr Netanyahu going first. “I will leave office…
In Congo’s gold rush, the money is in beer and brothels
IT IS NOT yet noon but the streets of Luhihi, a tiny town in eastern Congo, are already full of revellers. Men fall about outside bars filled with prostitutes. Gamblers hover over draughtboards. Music blares from a makeshift club near the river where miners sift through mud for gold.The precious metal was found in Luhihi…
It’s not going well in Florida as they use Eventbrite for COVID-19 vaccine slots
Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to distribute the coronavirus vaccine statewide utilizing partnerships between the government and hospitals— and, evidently, Eventbrite. Indeed, a platform best known for distributing and selling party, meetup, and concert tickets is now being called upon to distribute coronavirus vaccines to some of the most susceptible individuals in society. It is not…
Israel excludes Palestinians in COVID Vaccine Programs
Published on Jan 4, 2021 by Anne News is currently circulating that Palestinians are excluded from COVID vaccine programs in Israel. Currently, Israel is being hailed as one of the most fast-paced in vaccine administration in the world. The Israeli Prime Minister has promised the nation that they will do their best to be the…