Current Affairs Articles

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Samantha Gilmartin @ Sunday, 8th June 2008 @ 11:58 AM

Pistorius first came to the public attention when he competed in the 2004 summer Paralympics. Representing South Africa, the 17 year old from Gauteng came third in the 100m and picked up the gold medal in the 200m. As well as completing very successful turns in Paralympic competitions such as the 2007 World Cup, Pistorious began pushing for inclusion within international able-bodied competitions. In 2005 for example, Pistorius was entered into South African Championships for able-bodied ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Samantha Gilmartin @ Sunday, 8th June 2008 @ 11:39 AM

Australian scientists claim to have found a correlation between heavy cannabis smoking and decreased brain size in a recent study. The study was carried out at the University of Melbourne with help from members of the University of Wollongong. The context of the study cited that "Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in the developed world... there is a paucity of research examining its long-term effect on the human brain." With this in mind, researchers set out to discove... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Catherine Harvey @ Saturday, 7th June 2008 @ 6:45 PM

We can all site incidents where various problems have cropped up in society in the name of health and safety. It used to be that there were accidents, an unavoidable blip to life itself, would occur at public events and then the councils brought in health and safety training to combat this problem. And now it has all gone pear shaped and we are left with virtually no public events in the ridiculous name of health and safety regulations. One woman is very unhappy about the implications of ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Gerald Greene @ Tuesday, 3rd June 2008 @ 7:49 PM

America has been motoring towards disaster ever since its economy was structured around the automobile and cheap energy supplies. Now that energy is no longer at all cheap disaster is imminent. Like the airlines, with oil above $125 a barrel, and probably headed much higher as peak oil soon kicks in with a vengeance, the American business and lifestyle model is broken Gasoline prices at $4.00 a gallon have started to force Americans to cut back on their driving. Even middle class... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Thomas Pretty @ Tuesday, 3rd June 2008 @ 10:55 AM

Fundamentally migrants to New Zealand will fall into four distinct categories. Immigration levels to New Zealand seem to be increasing at an unbelievable rate, the immigration service is predominantly categorising these migrants into four sectors, if you happen to fall into one of the categories you may well be living in New Zealand before you thought is was possible. These categories are broadly labelled as 'skilled migrant', 'wok to residence', 'family member' and... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Thomas Pretty @ Tuesday, 3rd June 2008 @ 7:21 AM

The estate agent is often castigated as being the low life skimming money from the top of people's property sales. But in the current property market, it is our sympathy rather than our hatred that should be levelled towards the estate agent. Times are certainly becoming hard; it is estimated that 150 branches are closing a week and that by next year, 4,000 agencies will have gone down the pan. Similarities between the estate agent and the pub landlord have been drawn as both seem to be fac... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Catherine Harvey @ Saturday, 31st May 2008 @ 11:46 AM

It's not so long ago that protests over the rising cost of fuel saw the streets bare after refineries were blockaded in an attempt to make the government listen to the public and reduce the tax burden on us. They say the rising costs are in aid of the environment but very few people believe this to be true any longer. And it looks as though the blockades will be happening again in the near future. Today saw convoys of lorry's making their way to deliver a petition to number ten ... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Linda Dipman @ Thursday, 29th May 2008 @ 11:08 PM

Mega disasters are a sign of the End Times. Our world has an allotted time and it is almost over. This is the reason why our world is experiencing mega disasters like the cyclone in Myanmar and the quake in China that has lead to hundreds of thousands of people dying. This is also the reason why global warming is a sign of terrible times to come. When our climate warms then the seasons will change and cause devastating weather patterns that will produce earthquakes and tidal waves of all kin... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By chris sullivan @ Thursday, 29th May 2008 @ 6:20 PM

Privacy means a lot to everybody since there are a lot of things they would to keep on for themselves. However, as one of the universal laws that the nature of things have provided us, there are no secrets which are not opened up to the world. One way or another, you would have to let others know what is going in your life and what your past is. Well, sure you could say that a secret is something you could not tell anyone, especially when it is yours, but there are cases that someone wou... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Terry Cartwright @ Monday, 26th May 2008 @ 1:50 PM

The threat of recession and economic disaster facing many areas of business, its effect on employment and income levels, personal debt and security of homes is solvable. If the root cause is not addressed then the financial crisis can only deepen causing financial misery throughout both the developed world and emerging nations. Earlier this century the world largest economy, the US experienced problems and potentially faced moving into a period of economic recession. The Federal governmen... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Charlotte Buelow @ Sunday, 25th May 2008 @ 10:57 PM

Say goodbye to toxic cleaning habits for good. Read on for 5 quick and easy ways to keep your home cleaner and greener. 1. Read your labels. Be wary of toxic ingredients. Chlorine, bleach, and ammonia are the obvious culprits, but don't forget to check for diethanolamine (DEA), triethanolamine (TEA), and alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs). 2. Make your own cleaners. It can be difficult to find effective non-toxic cleaning products out there. Sometimes it's easier (an... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Ki Gray @ Sunday, 25th May 2008 @ 5:10 PM

You would probably have to have been living on a remote desert island for the better part of two years to not see any signs of the slowdown in the economy of the United States. Since August of 2007, the real estate market has been reeling from plummeting house prices, due primarily to increasing defaults on sub-prime mortgages. While these mortgages were issued to millions of borrowers with patchy or relatively poor credit ratings over the past several years, interest rates remained unusually lo... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Ki Gray @ Sunday, 25th May 2008 @ 9:31 AM

All investments depend on making returns, which in turn are affected by macro cycles such as the Great Depression or the dot-com boom. When a market is receding, it makes more sense for long-term, stability-seeking investors to look elsewhere upon first glance. However, in the case of the housing market of many parts of the US, the likelihood of long-term housing depression are still relatively slim. Furthermore, other factors will continue to influence the stability of housing pricing in the sh... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Thomas Pretty @ Friday, 23rd May 2008 @ 12:25 PM

Emigration to New Zealand has become increasingly popular for Brits as they seek to start a new life in a fabulous country. Added to the willingness of Brits to undergo emigration, the New Zealand Immigration Service has gone through a period of attempting to attract the largest skills base possible to fill deficits in the New Zealand economy. This process can be deemed a success as recent emigration figures clearly show. The last batch of emigration figures illustrated the point that th... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Linda Dipman @ Thursday, 22nd May 2008 @ 5:58 AM

The bills lay piled on my desk. My upholstery job work orders lay in a small stack under the bills. No matter how much I calculated what I was bringing in, it did not cover what money needed to go out to cover my expenses. I just didn't understand what I was doing wrong? I tithed, helped others all the time and yet here was the dismal truth, I didn't have enough when extra expenses like house and car taxes and even insurance came due. I didn't even have enough for my grandchild... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Gerald Greene @ Wednesday, 21st May 2008 @ 5:31 PM

America and the American Empire were built on the back of cheap energy. Now that energy is not at all cheap the empire is running on gas fumes. The growth model has been broken, even if most Americas don't yet realize it. Just think about how American developed as a nation. The concept of manifest destiny meant that we pushed ever westward, until America controlled all of the vast territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from sea to shining sea and beyond as we added Alaska, Hawai... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Ki Gray @ Monday, 19th May 2008 @ 4:25 PM

On April 30th, the Federal Reserve announced a cut in their main interest rate by 25 basis points, to 2% from 2.25%. This is the seventh such cut by the US central bank since the beginning of the credit crunch some eight months ago, totaling 3.25% in cuts to the key rate that banks charge each other for overnight loans. These cuts have been made in an attempt to lower mortgage rates to help bolster the real estate market. As the fragile US economy staggers towards recovery, two major agents ar... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Thomas Pretty @ Friday, 16th May 2008 @ 6:04 PM

Today, with regulations enforcing evermore stringent safety measures concerned with fire, staying abreast of developments can be difficult. Of prime importance is to have a regular fire risk assessment to ensure hazards are kept to a minimum. The duty of a regular fire risk assessment lies firmly in the hands of the 'responsible person'. It is this person's job to ensure and manage any fire risks that may be present, either in a business or residential premises. Part of their work... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Ki Gray @ Friday, 16th May 2008 @ 3:16 PM

When thinking about the economic slowdown now gripping the United States, one might think of the naked emperor of yore, who could not realize his condition until told by a child. By the time analysts and the White House recognize the extent of the credit crisis, its effects will probably not be noticeable. So where are we now? Several times since last August's signs of an imminent drop in growth, markets have rallied due to speculation that problems in the area of sub-prime mortgages have &... more...

Culture and Society » Current Affairs | By Ki Gray @ Friday, 16th May 2008 @ 3:06 PM

The recent sub-prime crisis is unlike any faced by the financial system before in one dubious distinction: Its effects are exacerbated by globalization to an unprecedented degree. Recent developments help illustrate exactly how this credit crunch can be differentiated from others, such as the savings and loan scandals of the 1980's, by its fundamentally larger scale and complexity. To explain the sub-prime crisis adequately, first the causes must be clearly identified. Like the savi... more...