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<\/a><\/p>\nTooth Fairy inflation, saving the climate by polluting the earth, and Iran claims Antarctica.<\/p>\n
Tooth Fairy Inflation<\/h4>\n
When you were little and lost a tooth, how much did the Tooth Fairy give you?\u00a0 And if you have children, how much did they get?<\/p>\n
I got a quarter.\u00a0 And keeping up that tradition, when our kids started losing teeth, despite rampant inflation, they got a quarter.\u00a0 (Until, that is, the rewards being so small and the tooth-losing becoming so routine, everyone lost interest.)<\/p>\n
But today the Tooth Fairy is leaving in some households $100 bills!\u00a0 And in some households both cash and a present.<\/p>\n
The Wall Street Journal<\/em> is calling it \u201ctooth fairy inflation.<\/a>\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s not only an economic index, it\u2019s a child-raising index.<\/p>\n According to the article on the subject<\/a> [behind a paywall], the Tooth Fairy now collects teeth worldwide and is becoming ever more generous.\u00a0 The average payout per tooth was $5.36 in 2022.\u00a0 In 2023, it jumped to $6.23.\u00a0 And 20% of children get both money and a present.<\/p>\n Families have long celebrated milestones in their children\u2019s lives, like birthdays, confirmation, and weddings.\u00a0 Now many families are also celebrating what Pinterest is calling \u201cinchstones<\/a>,\u201d throwing parties to commemorate things like the first tooth and successful potty training.<\/p>\n The article accounts for Tooth Fairy inflation in part on parents competing with each other as they \u201cshare\u201d what they do on social media.\u00a0 Plus children compare their profits with each other, exerting an upward price pressure.<\/p>\n [Caution:\u00a0 This post is not suitable for children!]<\/p>\n The fear of climate change is prompting some environmental scientists to propose drastic measures.\u00a0 Since the efforts to go carbon-free are facing obstacles and since other attempts to stop global warming are proving insufficient, some activists are turning to \u201cgeoengineering\u201d in an attempt to cool the climate and save the environment by means of technology.<\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal<\/em> reports on three geoengineering efforts currently underway<\/a>.\u00a0 This summer, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will pour 6,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide\u2013a component of lye\u2013into the ocean 10 miles south of Martha\u2019s Vineyard.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have heartburn, you eat a Tums that dissolves and makes the liquid in your stomach less acidic,\u201d said\u00a0Adam Subhas, an associate scientist at WHOI and the project\u2019s principal investigator. \u201cBy analogy, we\u2019re adding this alkaline material to seawater, and it is letting the ocean take up more CO2 without provoking more ocean acidification.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Giving the ocean a Tums, of course, is polluting it, in the hopes of saving it.<\/p>\n An Australian initiative is currently spraying \u201ca briny mixture\u201d (the article doesn\u2019t say of what) into the air, hoping to \u201cbrighten low-altitude clouds\u201d in an effort to reflect sunlight away from the Great Barrier Reef, creating a shade that would cool the waters and prevent the death of coral from too-warm temperatures.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, an even more ambitious plan is in the works:<\/p>\n In Israel, a startup called Stardust Solutions has begun testing a system to disperse a cloud of tiny reflective particles about 60,000 feet in altitude, reflecting sunlight away from Earth to cool the atmosphere in a concept known as solar radiation management, or SRM.\u00a0Yanai Yedvab, Stardust chief executive and a former deputy chief scientist at the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, wouldn\u2019t disclose the composition of the proprietary particles.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Filling the sky with briny substances and particles<\/em>, no less, is an attempt to stop global warming by means of\u00a0 air pollution.<\/p>\n Do these scientists have an algorithm for factoring in unintended consequences?<\/p>\n Iran has claimed Antarctica for its own<\/a>.\u00a0 The Islamic Republic has announced plans to build military bases on the continent, including one at the South Pole.<\/p>\n An article<\/a> on the subject quotes an Iranian military official:\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cWe have property rights in the South Pole. We have plan to raise our flag there and carry out military and scientific work.\u201d<\/p>\n I suppose it\u2019s like the age of European colonialism.\u00a0 England claimed North America, Australia, India, the Middle East, and parts of Africa, to name a few.\u00a0 Spain claimed South America and the Philippines.\u00a0 France claimed Indo-China and parts of Africa.\u00a0 They raised their flag over the land and just considered it theirs.<\/p>\n The advantage of claiming Antarctica is that it has no native inhabitants to conquer or dominate.\u00a0 It\u2019s deadly cold, but it has lots of mineral wealth if anyone could get to them.<\/p>\n Claiming Antarctica<\/a> is more complicated, though, because other countries have also staked their claim.\u00a0 Currently, seven countries<\/a> have claims on at least part of the continent:\u00a0 Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK.\u00a0 Other countries, including the U.S. and Russia, have registered under an international treaty their \u201cright\u201d to make a claim.<\/p>\n Iran would seem to have as good a claim as any other country.\u00a0 \u201cLittle lies between Iran\u2019s coast outside the Persian Gulf and the eastern hemisphere side of Antarctica,\u201d observes Jennifer Dyer<\/a>, former commander of U.S. Naval Intelligence.\u00a0 \u201cIn theory, Iran could claim an interest in Antarctica similar to India\u2019s, Australia\u2019s, New Zealand\u2019s or Chile\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0 And it would have a much better claim than the far northern nations the U.K. and France.<\/p>\nSaving the Climate by Polluting the Earth<\/h4>\n
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Iran Claims Antarctica<\/h4>\n