Tornadoes and heat waves has hit $35 billion damage in USA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, launched a campaign on Wednesday to better prepare Americans for violent weather. There have so far been nine separate disasters this year that caused an economic loss of $1 billion or more in the United States, tying the record set in 2008, NOAA said. The most recent was the summer flooding along the Missouri and Souris rivers in the upper Midwest.
The “new reality” is that both the frequency and the cost of extreme weather are rising, making the nation more economically vulnerable and putting more lives and livelihoods at risk
The number of U.S. natural disasters has tripled in the last 20 years and 2010 was a record breaker with about 250, according to property and casualty reinsurer Munich Reinsurance America. Average thunderstorm losses have increased five-fold since 1980. For the first half of 2011 there have been $20 billion in thunderstorm losses, up from the previous three-year average of $10 billion, NOAA said.
TV kills
Prolonged television (TV) viewing time is unfavourably associated with mortality outcomes, particularly for cardiovascular disease, but the impact on life expectancy has not been quantified. Data were from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study, a national population-based observational survey that started in 1999–2000. those who spend a lifetime average of 6 h/day watching TV can expect to live 4.8 years less. In otherwords, If you watch TV for an hour your life will shorten by 21.8 minutes.
Credit Rating Agency Whistleblower Speaks Out
A former executive at Moody’s has come forward to say that the credit agency intimidated and pressured analysts to issue glowing ratings of toxic complex, structured mortgage securities. William Harrington said the credit-rating agencies suffer a “conflict of interest” because they are paid by banks and other big companies but are supposed to rate them without bias.