News Headlines - 02 March 2013

▽The economy: Waiting for the chop | The Economist

WHEN Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress agreed on January 1st to let a payroll tax cut expire and tax rates rise on the rich, they rolled the dice with the economy. They in effect bet that America’s recovery was solid enough to withstand higher taxes and spending cuts, including a “sequester” due to take effect on March 1st. At 1.9% of gross domestic product, that is a contraction second only to that of Greece among rich countries this year

▽Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in warning to British Government - Telegraph

Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President, has warned Britain to keep out of the conflict in Syria, accusing the Government of acting in "a naïve, confused, and unrealistic manner."

▽Breaking Bad and the collapsing taboo around hard drugs – Telegraph Blogs

This week an inquest into the death of the Surrey cricketer Tom Maynard found that he had taken cocaine and Ecstasy. “A great shock,” said the club. But the poor guy was 23, and it’s time we realised that, alas, there is nothing very unusual about a bloke his age combining two stimulant drugs which enhance the effect of each other. The phrase “a cocktail of drugs” has such sinister overtones that we don’t appreciate how normal it is for young people to indulge in a little mixing.

▽The future of telecommuting: Corralling the Yahoos | The Economist

“YOU can’t have everything you want, but you can have the things that really matter to you,” writes Marissa Mayer, the boss of Yahoo, in a blurb for a book called “Rebooting Work”. But not, it seems, if you are a Yahoo employee and working from home is really important to you. As part of her efforts to reboot the ailing internet firm, Ms Mayer has decreed that from June all the company’s staff will be expected to come into its offices to do their jobs. The news of Ms Mayer’s ban on telecommuting surfaced in the form of a memo to employees sent by Yahoo’s head of human resources. It was promptly leaked to All Things D, a technology-industry blog, and unleashed a fevered debate in the blogosphere and on Twitter. Supporters saw it as the brave act of a boss determined to rid the company of slackers. Critics lambasted the firm for an antediluvian attitude towards the workplace.

▽Stem cells cruise to clinic : Nature News & Comment

In the seven years since their discovery, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have transformed basic research and won a Nobel prize. Now, a Japanese study is about to test the medical potential of these cells for the first time. Made by reprogramming adult cells into an embryo-like state that can form any cell type in the body, the cells will be transplanted into patients who have a debilitating eye disease.