May is a high risk month to have a baby in Michigan and Uganda. Why? Ramadan. Some parts of Michigan and parts of Uganda have a large Muslim population that fasts during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which runs
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French researcher Bertran Auvert discovered a way to dramatically reduce the risk of AIDS infection in heterosexual males after trials in South Africa. The results were confirmed in studies in Kenya and Uganda. For reasons not clearly understood circumcision reduced
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Cows are wicked polluters. They emit methane through belching and flatulence, which is by one common measurement 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than the carbon dioxide emitted by cars. “Shifting less than one day per week’s worth
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Boris Johnson, a classically educated journalist and previous mayor of London, responded to the catastrophic climate predictions of James Lovelock: “Like all the best religions, fear of climate change satisfies our need for guilt, and self disgust, and that human
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A repeated point in Superfreakonomics is that big expensive problems do not require big expensive solutions. Seatbelts, for example, are one of the most costs effective lifesaving devices ever. At $25 per installation it costs about $500 million to put
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In 1940 55% of college educated female workers in their thirties were employed as teachers. As opportunities for women broadened the best and the brightest left teaching and went into other higher paying fields. The school teaching profession experienced a
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In the three months after 9/11 there were 1,000 extra traffic deaths in the U.S. We would surmise that the threat of flying caused more people to drive and that driving is much more dangerous than flying. But the additional
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