The big bang poses a big question: if it was indeed the cataclysm that blasted our universe into existence 13.7 billion years ago, what sparked it? Three Perimeter Institute researchers have a new idea about what might have come before the big bang. It’s a bit perplexing, but it is grounded in sound mathematics and is it testable?
The White House released a video yesterday linking climate change to America’s wildfires. President Obama’s Senior Science Advisor Dr. John Holdren explains—in less than three minutes—how climate change is making wildfires more dangerous and why we must act now.
The earlier you do this before departure, the better your chances of snagging a seat that might be held back for elite status passengers.
The president repeatedly indicated he would prefer to work with Congress to find legislative solutions on a slew of issues including funding for federal infrastructure projects and the border crisis. However, in the face of what he described as “dysfunction” in Congress, Obama said he would “scour our authority to try to make progress” within the bounds of the law.
In the last six years, housing prices in São Paulo have increased by 208 percent, and the cost of rent has increased 97.5 percent in the metro area. According to the website Numbeo, which compiles user-generated data, a 970-square-foot apartment here costs the equivalent of 16 years of an average family’s total income. By comparison, this cost-to-income ratio is eight in New York, 6.9 in Berlin and only three in Chicago. Someone making the minimum wage in Brazil ($325 a month) can afford to rent only a three-room shack in the crime-ridden Favela Paraisópolis ($280), leaving him practically nothing left over to live on.
