“New Cold War Heats Up with Game of Drones”

Both the Americans and the Chinese are testing swarming mini-drones that share one distributed brain.  Experts fear the Chinese may be ahead of the curve given their dominance in today’s commercial drone markets, but drone sell American ingenuity short when it comes to small mindedness.

Sleeper Story of the Year:  “Warm-up for Global Warming?”

The Crystal Serenity became the first cruise ship to ever navigate the Northwest Passage. More than 1000 passengers paid as much as $155,000US to participate in the historic 32 day voyage over 7,297 nautical miles.  A second cruise is being scheduled to depart in 2017.

 “Serious Global Water Shortages by 2030”

According to one shocking US government report that was released last year, the global need for water will exceed the global supply of water by 40 percent by the year 2030.  Even Chinese authorities, not known for their candor on any subject, are warning that they are becoming, “perilously close to the internationally recognized benchmark for water shortages.”

Ref: http://realitieswatch.com/30-facts-about-the-coming-water-crisis-that-will-change-the-lives-of-every-person-on-the-planet/

Oil not be Moved

Neither an alien invasion of the Ukraine, separatism on the North Sea, medieval terrorists in the Middle East, nor Ebola in Nigeria and Texas seem able to fuel price hikes at the gas pumps.

• Ukraine sits on 1/4 of the world’s entire proven reserves.
• Almost 90% of British North Sea oil output is found in Scottish waters.
• Over 1/2 of the world’s oil reserves are in the Middle East
• Nigeria is the world’s 10^th most petroleum-rich nation.
• Texas accounts for close to 1/3 of all U.S. reserves.

Has big oil lost it’s edge or were they just fracking with us?

Related Story:  “By burning through coal and oil deposits, humans are putting carbon back into the air that has been sequestered for tens—in most cases hundreds—of millions of years. In the process, we are running geologic history not only in reverse but at warp speed.”

― Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Communisn’t  (what it used to be)

There are at least 83 billionaires in China’s parliament. Not bad for the world’s largest communist country where approximately 800 million (of 1.35 billion) Chinese live on less than $15 a day and where the average per capita income is approximately $9,100.  Meanwhile in America,  the world’s largest capitalist economy with an average per capita income of roughly $49,800, there are no billionaires in Congress. (Ref: How Communist Can China Be With All Those Billionaires? )

Runner Up:   Disabled America: where work is for suckers

Almost 10% of working-age Americans are on disability.  One reporter located a county in Alabama (pop. 15,388) where nearly 1 in 4 working-age adults are on disability.

Holy 1984 Mr. Orwell, where’s my telephone?

Oops! Stop the celebration!  Humanity is in fact doomed. A U.K. poll learns that 66% (up from 53% last year) of it’s citizens are afraid of losing or being without their cell phones.  It’s called nomophobia (but don’t worry I’m sure there will soon be an app for that).