Now we know why people in smoggy Los Angeles act somewhat differently than folks in other cities, notes Grumpy Editor. It’s a metropolis long smothered in air pollution.
Britain’s The Guardian newspaper cites new research indicating air pollution causes a “huge” reduction in intelligence.
The research, conducted in China, is relevant across the world, with 95 percent of the global population breathing unsafe air, continues The Guardian, adding “high pollution levels led to significant drops in test scores in language and arithmetic, with the average impact equivalent to having lost a year of the person’s education.”
Xi Chen at Yale School of Public Health, a member of the research team, says polluted air “can cause everyone to reduce their level of education by one year, which is huge” and the “effect is worse for the elderly, especially those over 64, and for men, and for those with low education.”
The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed language and arithmetic tests conducted as part of the China Family Panel Studies on 20,000 people across the nation between 2010 and 2014.
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE JUMPS. U.S. consumer confidence index last month rises to 133.4, up from 127.9 in July, highest reading since October, 2000. Meanwhile, U.S. consumer spending, fueled by strong job growth and tax cuts, gains a solid 0.4 percent in July, the sixth straight month of healthy increases.
IMPORTED NEWSPRINT TARIFFS NULLIFIED. Good news for newspapers and printing companies, concerned about rising costs and job losses, is that the U.S. International Trade Commission nullified tariffs on imported newsprint.
RUSSIANS-CHINESE LONGTIME MILITARY PARTNERS. Exciting the media last week with major coverage, a report from Russia mentions it is preparing to conduct its largest military exercise in almost four decades and it will include 3,200 Chinese soldiers. Most in media forget Russian and Chinese military in joint operations is nothing new. Their joint effort goes back to prolonging the Korean War, 1950-1953.
VILLAGE VOICE SILENCED. Village Voice, the famed New York City alternate weekly that debuted in 1955, ceased publication because of financial problems. It was founded by a group that included writer Norman Mailer.
YELLOW BALLOON POKES LONDON MAYOR. London protesters, seeking to oust their mayor, launch a giant balloon depicting Sadiq Khan wearing a yellow bikini.
BRITISH PLAN NAVIGATION SYSTEM. The British government is setting aside at least $118 million in planning for a satellite navigation system to rival the U.S.'s GPS and the EU's Galileo, reports the British Broadcasting Corp.
AMAZON PLANS FREE TV SERVICE. Amazon is reportedly preparing to launch a free TV service called Free Dive, to compete with services such as Roku that rely on revenue from video ads, according to Fortune.
TIME TO EYE NEW JOB? Here’s the annual list of the 10 highest-paying jobs in the U.S., compiled by GlassDoor, a job review website.
Physician – $195,800
Pharmacy manager – $146,400
Pharmacist – $127,100
Enterprise architect – $115,900
Corporate counsel – $115,600
Software development manager – $108,900
Physician assistant – $108,800
Software engineering manager – $107,500
Nurse practitioner – $107,000
Software architect – $105,300
