End of world predictions
You should live every day as if it is your last. That may be easier said than done. But what if you really knew the exact day when will the world end?
There have been and still are many End-of-World predictions:
In the year 70, Rabbi Jose, the Galilean, predicted that the world would end in the year 130.
In 90 CE, Saint Clement 1 predicted that the world would end at any moment. Read more…
Predictions that missed the mark
In 1894, the president of the Royal Society, William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, predicted that radio had no future. The first radio factory was opened five years later. Today, there are more than one billion radio sets in the world, tuned to more than 33 000 radio stations around the world. He also predicted that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible. The Wright Brother’s first flight covered a distance equal to only half the length of the wingspan of a Boeing 747. He also said, “X-rays will prove to be a hoax.”
Read more…Nostradamus predictions
NOSTRADAMUS, the French Christian Jew who lived in France in the 16th century, made many forecasts, including the two World Wars. 18 of his 950 quatrains refer to a third world war.
Some Nostradamus experts had given the date for the start of such a war as mid-1999, referring to the Balkan conflict surrounding Kosovo.
They obviously misinterpreted the quatrains. Their attention then turned to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York, to other conflicts and to predictions of plagues.
Read more…How many babies are born on Christmas day?
A baby is born in the United States every 8 seconds. Worldwide, 3 babies are born every second.
More babies are born on a Tuesday than any other day – except if Tuesday falls on Christmas day because fewer babies are born on Christmas day making a Christmas birthday a very special birthday indeed. Usually, on average about 220 000 babies are born each day but on Christmas day only about 172 000 babies are born. Read more…
Why are some people mosquito magnets and others unbothered?
Why are some people mosquito magnets and others unbothered? A medical entomologist points to metabolism, body odor and mindset.
By Jonathan Day, University of Florida
It’s rare to attend an outdoor party in warm weather without hearing people complain about mosquitoes. They swat away, sit in campfire smoke, cover up with blankets and eventually just give up and go indoors. On the other end of the spectrum, there are plenty of people who don’t seem bothered by mosquitoes in the slightest.
Read more…The most popular fast food brands in America
Hamburgers, chicken, snacks, pizzas, sandwiches, donuts, smoothies. What’s not to like?
That’s why the global fast food market size is $860 billion, with more than a third of that being enjoyed in the United States where the fast food market is $300 billion per year… and growing.
It is estimated that 36%, or 84 million, American adults consume some kind of fast food every day, joined by a similar percentage of American children (persons under 18 years of age), or 26 million.
Read more…How we have been misled about antidepressants
By Joanna Moncrieff is a Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry.
Our umbrella review that revealed no links between serotonin and depression has caused shock waves among the general public, but has been dismissed as old news by psychiatric opinion leaders. This disjunction begs the questions of why the public has been fed this narrative for so long, and what antidepressants are actually doing if they are not reversing a chemical imbalance.
Before I go on, I should stress that I am not against the use of drugs for mental health problems per se. I believe some psychiatric drugs can be useful in some situations, but the way these drugs are presented both to the public and among the psychiatric community is, in my view, fundamentally misleading.
Read more…Weapon Of Last Resort: How The Soviet Union Developed The World’s Most Powerful Bomb
Republished with permission from RFE/RL. See the original article.
On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union tested the largest nuclear device ever created. The “Tsar Bomba,” as it became known, was 10 times more powerful than all the munitions used during World War II.
While its original purpose was to prove to the world, and especially to the United States, that the Soviet Union was capable of producing such devices, it also brought a surprising twist to the future testing of nukes.
Read more…Are We Living Under a Kakistocracy: Government by the Worst?
If so, what should we do about it?
In 1787, as Benjamin Franklin left the final session of the Constitutional Convention, he was asked what form of government the delegates had given America. “A Republic,” he answered, “if you can keep it.”
Spoiler alert: we didn’t.
In 1963, Leonard Read warned Americans that “our once-upon-a-time Republic” was degenerating into something else; “we are headed into a kakistocracy,” he wrote.
Kakistocracy means “government by the worst.” Read particularly liked James Russell Lowell’s definition: “a government… for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools.”
Read more…US foreign‐born share ranks low and is falling among wealthy countries
According to new data from the United Nations, the foreign‐born share of the U.S. population ranked 56th in the world. Among wealthy countries in 2020, its ranking has fallen from the 43rd percentile to the 26th percentile since 2000. Its ranking for per capita growth in foreign‐born population since 2015 was even lower: the 13th percentile. The United States is clearly becoming less competitive for talent internationally.
Read more…The 7 most important factors for getting rich
Some people believe that becoming rich is a question of luck. Historian and sociologist Dr. Rainer Zitelmann disagrees. Whether chance presents you with a good opportunity or not is not the key question. Rather:
- Do you actually recognize the opportunity in front of you? Or do you fail to appreciate it for what it is? As the Swiss author Max Frisch once said, “Chance shows me what I have an eye for.”
- And if you do recognize your lucky break, do you take advantage of it? Do you act? Or are you someone who says: “Maybe now is not the right time. Perhaps it’s something to think about one day…”