Tiny Tips (2011)

The Tiny Tips column from the July 2011 issue of the Socialist Standard

The United States plans to export $46.1 billion in weapons this year, nearly doubling its 2010 figures, officials said:

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About 6.2 million Americans, 45.1 percent of all unemployed workers in this country, have been jobless for more than six months – a higher percentage than during the Great Depression:

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Libyan women and girls who become pregnant through rape risk being murdered by their own families in so-called “honour killings”, according to aid workers. Rape is a sensitive topic worldwide, but in this country it is even more of a taboo. “In Libya when rape occurs, it seems to be a whole village or town which is seen to be dishonoured,” says Arafat Jamal of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. Libyan charities say they are getting reports that in the west of the country, which is particularly conservative, Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces have tended to rape women and girls in front of their fathers and brothers. “To be seen naked and violated is worse than death for them,” says Hana Elgadi. “This is a region where women will not go out of the house without covering their face with a veil.”

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Non-battle Scars: US Military Rape Victim’ Shares Her Pain 1 in 3 Female Soldiers are Raped or Sexually Assaulted by Fellow US Servicemen:

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Last time Beisner was on Fischer’s program, Beisner said that the deadly tornadoes in the American South were “little tastes” of God’s judgment. Yesterday, the two discussed how they believe environmentalists are earth-worshippers who are deliberately destroying the economy and that climate change is a myth. Fischer asked Beisner if the environmental movement wanted a return “into dark paganism” and Beisner agreed, saying that the end-game of environmentalism “would require the disappearance of about 95% of the human race.”

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Older adults who say they’ve had a life-changing religious experience are more likely to have a greater decrease in size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain critical to learning and memory, new research finds:

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China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei claim parts or all of the South China Sea, a territory believed to be sitting on rich deposits of oil, gas and minerals, as well as being a major shipping lane:

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Vietnam said on Saturday live-fire naval drills scheduled for Monday were “routine” and said it would welcome efforts by the international community, including the United States, to help resolve disputes in the South China Sea:

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