Articles of note

Obama could kill fossil fuels overnight with a nuclear dash for thorium, Telegraph, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. Evidently Carlo Rubbia, a Nobel laureate, is working on thorium as a clean, cheap and safe alternative to uranium in reactors.

Are cattle an endangered species?, Rational Optimist, by Matt Ridley. The author finds that one of the plants designated as “at risk” of extinction in a study by Kew Gardens is so plentiful that is available at his local garden centre.

Claims that cancer is only a ‘modern, man-made disease’ are false and misleading, Science Update blog, Cancer Research UK. The increasing incidence of cancer is the result of an ageing population rather than the damaging effects of modernity.

In Mumbai, adviser to Obama extols India’s economic model, New York Times, by Vikas Bajaj. Lawrence Summers prefers India’s development model to China’s.

Bourgeois dignity, Cato Unbound. Debate on the origins of the Industrial Revolution including Deirdre McCloskey, Gregory Clark, Matt Ridley and Jonathan Feinstein.

Primark-hating snobs and a flood of liberal hypocrisy, First Post, by Brendan O’Neill.