Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 6. Maine voters will go to the polls to choose a new governor, a U.S. Senator, two U.S. Representatives, legislators, and local and county officials. Also on the ballot will be a citizen initiative and four bond issues. How does ranked-choice voting affect my choices? Ranked-choice voting allows voters to […]
Perspective
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
About Saudia Arabia
Area 2,149,690 sq km: All of it land, no water. Thus it’s mostly sandy desert. It’s about 1/5 the size of the United States. It has 2,640 km of coastline. People Population: 28,571,770 (July 2017) 37 percent are immigrants 83.8 percent are in urban areas Arabic is the official language Religion Muslim is the official […]
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The US needs better data on gun violence
Are firearms injuries rising, falling or holding steady in the U.S.? It’s hard to tell, and that’s an enormous obstacle to understanding and preventing them. There is no reliable national database for firearm injuries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collect data from multiple sources. But they rely significantly on a system designed to […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
The myth of the modernizing dictator
Many Americans have an odd fascination with the idea of the reforming autocrat, the strongman who can “modernize” and lead his nation out of its backward and benighted past. This was the hope for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, a hope now somewhat diminished by the hit he appears to have ordered […]
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Maine has a rich history of tweaking its ballots
One of the more durable political figures in Maine’s 20th century is Lewiston mayor and eleven term state senator Jean Charles Boucher. It is unlikely his longevity record for consecutive terms of service in the Maine senate will ever be surpassed. Though not a household name today, this Quebec born general contractor and father of […]
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How the media encourages — and sustains — political warfare
Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has been waging war against the American press by dismissing unfavorable reports as “fake news” and calling the media “the enemy of the American people.” As a countermeasure, The Washington Post has publicly fact-checked every claim that Trump has labeled as fake. In August, The Boston Globe coordinated editorials […]
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Nate Silver will make one firm prediction about the midterms that journalists won't want to hear
After the roller-coaster ride of 2016’s election night, have journalists and political junkies learned not to let conventional wisdom substitute for hard knowledge? Nate Silver — the closest thing there is to a celebrity in the arcane field of statistical journalism — is not wildly optimistic about that. “Media understanding about probability, margin of error […]
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The chances are slim that the world will reverse rising temperatures
An international body of nearly 100 climate scientists convened by the United Nations have issued a stern warning to the rest of the world. Unless governments around the globe undertake “unprecedented” action to reverse it, Earth’s temperatures will soar upwards of 1.5-degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, over preindustrial levels by the end of the […]
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Why we can't reverse climate change with 'negative emissions' technologies
In a much-anticipated report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the world will need to take dramatic and drastic steps to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change. Featured prominently in the report is a discussion of a range of techniques for removing carbon dioxide from the air, called Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) […]
Posted inPerspective, sj-web
Canadian farmers lose under trade deal that opens up dairy market
Canadian farmer Henry Holtmann was so bullish on the dairy market that he hoped to build a new barn to offer more space for his 550 cows. Those plans are now on hold due to a new trade pact with the U.S. that will allow Americans to ship more milk north, cutting into the tightly-managed […]