In An Experiment, Two Ravens Had To Simultaneously Pull The Two Ends Of One Rope To Slide A Platform

“We are not facing a future without work. We are facing a future without jobs.“

READ MORE: Jobs, Work, and Universal Basic Income

UN to probe the UK's deadly disability cuts

UN investigators to determine if the government committed "grave violations" after disabled people ordered back to work.

The UK has become the first country in the world to be placed under investigation by the United Nations for violating the human rights of people with disabilities amid fears that thousands may have died as a consequence of controversial welfare reforms and austerity-driven cuts to benefits and care budgets.

UN inspectors are expected to arrive in the country within days to begin collecting evidence to determine whether the British government has committed “systematic and grave violations” of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

New interactive map shows how rising seas will swallow US cities

While there’s unarguably greater awareness than ever that man-made climate change is contributing to global warming and rising sea levels, it can be difficult to visualise what that exactly means for the city you live in. How high will sea levels rise? When will it happen? Where will it happen? And, most importantly, what can we do about it?

These are the questions that this stunning new interactive map is designed to get you thinking about. Mapping Choices is part Google Maps, part time machine. It lets you choose any US city or zip code to see what rising seas will do to your nominated address, based on a range of projections about how high sea levels could increase.

 - ScienceAlert

Earth Could Lose a Third of Its Topsoil

You might think that dirt doesn’t matter that much — after all there seems to be so much of it all over the planet.

But researchers warn that the world’s precious supply of topsoil — which we need to grow food crops, absorb excess carbon and supply us with new antibiotics — is being lost faster than it can be replenished through natural processes. And the decreasing supply of soil could have a catastrophic effect on agriculture and the world supply of food.

The UN, which designated 2015 as the International Year of Soils, warns that 33 percent of the planet’s soil resources are being degraded due to erosion, pollution, acidification and nutrient depletion — destructive processes that are caused by bad land management. And unless new approaches are adopted, the amount of productive farmland on Earth per person will only amount to one-fourth of the amount available in 1960.

In December, the UN is set to release a report on the state of the world’s soil, and it’s likely to present an even more grim picture, according to a preview in New Scientist. We’re losing soil at the rate of 30 soccer fields per minute, and if we don’t slow the decline, the planet’s entire supply of soil for farming could be gone by 2075.

The astonishing story of Xavier Plassat, a French friar who has fought slavery for decades in the Brazilian Amazon, via Vanity Fair.

READ the abolitionist’s compelling tale here that brought him to the frontlines of 21st century slavery.

Of the 24 MacArthur genius grant recipients, 11 of them were women. Here’s a look at who they are, what they do and why you should pay attention to them. 

MacArthur’s genius women (The Daily Beast) 

The Scripps CO2 measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory on the big island of Hawaii have shown that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels climbed above the 400 parts per million (ppm). Because CO2 stays in the atmosphere for a very long time, some scientists say for millennia, our global fever has reached the point that no one alive today, and those that follow us, will ever know a world below 400 ppm again.

This week will be the last time anyone alive experiences a CO2 level below 400 ppm. (Saturday Nov 21, 2015)

The CDC has released a first-of-its-kind report detailing the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to our health and food supply. It is not pretty.

Within the report (you can read it here, it’s very layman-accessible) lies threat assessments for a whole range of disease-causing microbes, from famous foes like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) to lesser-known dangers like Clostridium dificile and drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae (yes, that last one does exactly what you think it does).

Thousands of people are killed by such infections every year. They inflict billions of dollars of medical costs and lost wages. The drug-development pipeline for new antibiotics is almost empty. New tools like fecal transplants and phage therapy are hopeful but still experimental, and at least a decade away. So what do we do?

The CDC calls for safer use of antibiotics, both in hospitals and on farms, and increased screening and vaccination efforts. But CDC director Tom Frieden put it plainly:

"If we are not careful, we will soon be in a post-antibiotic era."

Unless we do something to reverse this trend, and fast, it’s high time to tuck your head between your knees. We’re either on a plane that’s going down, or we’re about to get paddled. The choice of metaphors is yours.

For now, educate yourself, make sure your doctors are educated, call for action if you can vote … and if there’s any budding biologists out there, we’ve got plenty of new problems for you to solve. We’re gonna need your help.

Can an army of voluntary "mappers" (like you) help end child slavery on Lake Volta, Ghana?

LEARN MORE about being a “mapper” here. 

Consider a 100% tax-deductible DONATION to free a child from slavery on Lake Volta here: madeinafreeworld.com/ghana