Journalist Anabel Hernandez braves threats to document how the Mexican state is tied to the drug cartels.

If they legalize the drug trade, this will become only as bad as the domination of the US by businesses.

The people of endangered islands in the Pacific Ocean are converting to renewable energy, hoping the rest of the world will follow this example before their homes are underwater.

The example of sea otters demonstrates how eliminating one species can have disastrous results on an entire ecosystem.

Humans change ecosystems in many ways. When Europeans first visited what is now Sydney, the forest was sparse — because the aborigines kept burning it. Large trees lived through the fires, but bushes burnt up. The Europeans did not allow fires, and this led to dense forests.

Uri Avnery comments on Obama and Syria.

Avnery's arguments that Assad's men would not have used poison gas at this time seem valid. However, it seems rather unlikely that the rebels have poison gas rockets, and somewhat unlikely they would have been so unscrupulous as to kill lots of civilians on their own side. This leaves me unable to attribute the attack to either side.

I also can't envision what a good outcome in Syria would consist of. Assad is an oppressor and the Islamists would be oppressors; Syria should not be ruled by either of them, but I don't see how any other government could arise. The unending war between them is horrible, but fighting to help one oppressor beat another is horrible too.

Perhaps in time the two camps will divide Syria and the fighting will taper off.

As Roman emperors managed the people with bread and circuses, the modern state distracts people with rooting for sports teams.