Katoikos: Aviation after Brexit: Feathers fly, planes stay grounded

Take the case of aviation. There are no WTO rules to govern aviation. Aviation is mostly governed privately, and in the EU it’s a responsibility of the European Single Sky and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Since our old bilateral agreements are so out of date, they do not provide for an adequate coverage of modern aviation technology and safety measures. Airlines and airports alike would simply not risk scheduling flights, without the necessary legal certainty. [...]

Obviously, this would be disastrous primarily for the British economy (and tourists), but it would also hurt Europe. Many of Europe’s regional airports currently direct their flights to or through London airports, like Stansted or Luton. In most cases, these airports already run a deficit. With their primary flight connections cut off, they might need to close down.

Ireland will be affected by this particularly hard. Its economy is still recovering from the harsh austerity that came with the 2008 financial crisis, which makes this situation especially tough for them. Last month, Kevin Toland from Dublin Airport asked members of the European Parliament to support Ireland in the harsh times ahead. 78% of air traffic to and from Ireland happens through the UK. 53.7% of overall EU traffic is between the UK and the EU27. Of that 39.2% is between the UK and Ireland. [...]

It is now also the only English speaking country left in the EU. Routing intercontinental flights through Dublin airport rather than Heathrow might kill two birds with one stone. The EU’s financial support of the necessary expansion of the airport would prop up Ireland’s economy and bring more tourism. And American airlines would have to accept the change if they want to continue flying into the European Union, just like traders will have to accept Paris and Frankfurt as their new destinations for Euro currency trading. It is likely that European airlines like Lufthansa wouldn’t mind more direct flights between other European cities and US cities either.

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IFLScience: Loneliness And Social Isolation Could Be Deadlier Than Obesity

New research says that this widespread social isolation is a major threat to public health, perhaps even deadlier than obesity. The issue is only set to get worse too because of a decreasing number of children per household, declines in marriage, and an aging population.

“Being connected to others socially is widely considered a fundamental human need — crucial to both well-being and survival. Extreme examples show infants in custodial care who lack human contact fail to thrive and often die, and indeed, social isolation or solitary confinement has been used as a form of punishment,” Julianne Holt-Lunstad, professor of psychology at Brigham Young University, said in a statement. [...]

Using both of these studies, they concluded that social isolation, loneliness, or simply living alone had a significant and equal effect on the risk of premature death. They also found that greater social connection is associated with a 50 percent reduced risk of early death.

Everybody has felt lonely at some point in their life. However, chronic loneliness is a very different beast. Numerous other studies have shown a link between loneliness and physical health difficulties, from fragmented sleep and dementia to lower cardiovascular output and a weakened immune system. The mechanism is not exactly crystal clear, however, it is likely to be a combination of psychological factors taking their toll on physical health and the absence of a support network.

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IFLScience: Bees Are The First Insects Found To Understand The Concept Of Zero

For most of us, the idea of zero may seem like a fairly easy and unchallenging thing to get our head around. But in actual fact, the ability to accept the absence of something, which is what zero is after all, as a quantity is a hard fought accomplishment. Children will often learn other numbers before understanding the concept of zero, and even then it has been shown that they can find difficulty in identifying whether or not zero is higher or lower than one.

So it is little wonder that in the animal world, very few species are known to understand the concept of zero. Chimpanzees and some monkeys can be trained to comprehend the concept, but apart from these, very few animals are able to do it, and until now it wasn’t thought that any insect at all was capable of mastering the notion. [...]

To start with, the researchers set up two platforms with varying numbers of shapes on them. They then trained bees to associate the platform with the fewest number of shapes on it with a sweet reward, and the platform with the most number a horrible taste. After being certain the bees were responding to the number of shapes and nothing else, the researchers then tested the insects by offering them one platform with two or three shapes, and another with zero shapes. The insects most frequently chose the latter. [...]

This would imply that the insects’ ability to count is similar to that of humans and some primates, and is strangely advanced for the animal world, not just for insects. The reason why bees should have such highly developed cognitive capability in the realm of mathematics, however, is a little tricky to deduce.

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The Conversation: Don’t listen to the rich: inequality is bad for everyone

Our study of 21 OECD countries over more than a 100 years shows income inequality actually restricts people from earning more, educating themselves and becoming entrepreneurs. That flows on to businesses who in turn invest less in things like plant and equipment.

Inequality makes it harder for economies to benefit from innovation. However, if people have access to credit or the money to move up, it can offset this effect. [...]

From 1870 to 1977, inequality measured by the Gini coefficient fell by about 40%. During this time people actually got more innovative and productivity increased, incomes also increased. [...]

Inequality also means the market for new goods shrinks. One study shows that if incomes are more equal among people, people who are less well off, buy more. Having this larger market for new products, incentivises companies to create new things to sell.

If wealth is concentrated among only a small group of people, it actually increases demand for imported luxuries and handmade products. In contrast to this, distributed incomes means more mass produced goods are manufactured.

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Al Jazeera: Jordan's King Abdullah in rare visit to Palestine

Jordan's King Abdullah II has begun a rare visit to the occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, amid shared tensions with Israel over the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. [...]

The king's West Bank visit, his first in five years, comes two weeks since a surge in violence in Jerusalem after Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound - Islam's third holiest site.

Jordan serves as the custodian of the site, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine. The western wall of the compound is sacred to Jews. [...]

"They say there is a habitual encroachment by Israeli forces on the Al-Aqsa compound. And they want to work closer together to deal with future crises, which they say are inevitable because of the way Israel is dealing with the issue.

"Moving forward, they are going to form a committee. They also said they will better coordinate and come up with a better plan when it comes to communications over the Al-Aqsa compound."

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