Kentucky workplace safety agency to review tornado deaths at candle factory

By Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech | Dec. 14, 2021
(AP/ Timothy D. Easley)

Story at a glance

The Kentucky Division of Occupational Safety and Health Compliance will investigate the incident at the candle factory where eight people died during recent tornadoes.

Gov. Andy Beshear told reporters Tuesday that the severe weather killed 74 people and that number is expected to increase.

Kentucky was one of six states impacted by a string of devastating tornadoes.

Kentucky’s workplace safety agency will be investigating safety protocols at the candle factory in Mayfield where eight people were killed after tornados hit the state late last week, Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) told reporters Tuesday.

At least 74 Kentuckians were killed after powerful tornadoes ripped through six midwestern states, according to Beshear.

More than 100 employees of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory were in the facility as the twisters devastated the town. Factory owners believe they have located all employees and volunteer cadaver dogs have not found any additional bodies among the candle factory debris, Beshear said.

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

“We hope that is true, the level of debris could be impacting the canines but we certainly hope that a miracle or prayers were answered and it’s eight that were ultimately lost there,” Beshear said during a press conference.

The Kentucky Division of Occupational Safety and Health Compliance will undertake a “monthslong review of the deaths,” the governor said, adding that reviews of this nature are typically done when workers are killed on the job, according to The Associated Press.

“So it shouldn’t suggest that there was any wrongdoing. But what it should give people confidence in, is that we’ll get to the bottom of what happened,’ Beshear said.

The governor said state police are still attempting to see and speak to every employee and that officers are requesting all workers to stop by the “His House Ministries” church in Mayfield.

The town is home to 10,000 residents and suffered some of the worst damage from the tornadoes.

Six women workers sue Tesla over sexual harassment allegations


Tesla faces a series of lawsuits from women alleging sexual harassment at the firm's US facilities (AFP/Patrick Pleul)

Joshua MELVIN
Tue, December 14, 2021, 

Six women on Tuesday sued Tesla, alleging a culture of sexual harassment at the electric carmaker's California plant and other facilities that included unwanted touching, catcalls and retaliation for those who complained.

The harassment suits -- filed almost a month after two others -- add to the controversies centered on the Fremont factory in the San Francisco Bay area and which include a Black ex-employee being awarded $137 million in a racism case.

"Tesla's factory floor more resembles a crude, archaic construction site or frat house than a cutting-edge company in the heart of the progressive San Francisco Bay Area," one of the suits claims.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suits, which in at least one instance argued CEO Elon Musk's explicit or provocative tweets influenced the tone at the workplace.

The six separate new suits filed Tuesday in a California court alleged that co-workers or supervisors made sexual propositions to the women, graphically commented about their bodies and, in some cases, inappropriately touched them.

Five of the women in the new cases work or worked in the Fremont factory facilities, while one was employed in service centers in southern California.

- Musk tweets -

Michala Curran was 18 when she started her job at the Fremont plant and within weeks, her supervisor and co-workers were making explicit comments to her face about her body.

One male co-worker sexually propositioned her, saying plant employees often had sex in the parking lot. She quit after two months.

"Curran saw other women experiencing the same environment and witnesses will testify that they observed the rampant sexual harassment at Tesla," her suit alleges.

The other cases were filed by Jessica Brooks, Samira Sheppard, Eden Mederos, Alize Brown and Alisa Blickman, who alleged in her lawsuit that she faced retaliation for reporting the misconduct.

"She was denied certain privileges and benefits that were afforded to women who did not object to supervisors' sexual advances and flirtations," Blickman's complaint says.

Mederos, who worked in southern California Tesla service centers, said Musk tweets that reference sex or drugs inspired laughter and jokes among her co-workers.

"When Tesla launched the Model Y, Elon repeatedly pointed out that when one reads the Tesla Models S, 3, X and Y together, it spells 'SEXY,'" her suit said. "Some of Ms. Mederos' co-workers latched onto this, calling everything 'sexy.'"

This new suit comes after a California jury ruled in October that Tesla should pay a Black ex-employee $137 million in damages for turning a blind eye to racism the man encountered at the Fremont plant.

Last year, Musk feuded with authorities over the re-opening of the factory amid coronavirus restriction and threatened to move his headquarters out of state.

Subsequently, Musk told investors in October that the leading electric vehicle maker is relocating its headquarters to Texas, where it is building a plant.

jm/sw

Chess-Carlsen may not defend world title due to lack of motivation
By Syndicated Content
Dec 14, 2021 | 

(Reuters) – Norway’s Magnus Carlsen said on Tuesday he no longer felt motivated to defend his world chess championship title but wanted to continue playing the game.

The 31-year-old Carlsen claimed his fifth world chess crown nL1N2SV1HH in Dubai on Friday with a crushing 7.5-3.5 victory against Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi.

“It’s been clear to me for most of the year that this world championship should be the last,” Carlsen was quoted as saying by The Guardian in a podcast. “It doesn’t mean as much anymore as it once did.

“For those who expect me to play the world championship next time, the chance that they will be disappointed is very great.

“It is important for me to say that I do intend to play chess. I will continue to play chess, it gives me a lot of joy. But the world championship has not been so pleasurable.”

Top-ranked Carlsen said he would be ready to let go of his world title unless his next opponent was 18-year-old Iranian-French player Alireza Firouzja, who is the world number two.

Firouzja needs to qualify from an eight-player candidates tournament to earn the right to play Carlsen.

(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)

Nearly 100 Conservative MPs revolt against UK’s Johnson over new Covid-19 restrictions

Almost 100 Conservative lawmakers voted on Tuesday against new coronavirus restrictions, dealing a major blow to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s authority and raising questions about his leadership.

© Pool, Reuters/File

After a day of frenzied failed lobbying, Johnson was handed the biggest rebellion against his government so far by his party over measures he said were necessary to curb the spread of the new Omicron variant.

The new rules, which included ordering people to wear masks in public places and use COVID-19 passes for some venues, passed thanks largely to the main opposition Labour Party.

But the revolt piles pressure on Johnson, already under fire over scandals such as reported parties in his Downing Street office last year – when Britain was in a COVID-19 lockdown – and a pricey refurbishment of his apartment.

Rebelling lawmakers said the vote was a warning shot that he needed to change how the government was operating, or he would face a leadership challenge.

Some 99 Conservatives opposed plans for the COVID passes, a much higher number of rebels than was expected. Originally the official figure was put at 98, but the number was later revised upward.

Among those voting against the government was lawmaker Louie French who was only elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) at the start of the month, while media reported that former Prime Minister Theresa May was among 17 others who abstained.

Many Conservatives say some of the new measures are draconian, with several questioning the introduction of a certificate of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test to enter some venues, such as nightclubs.

Others used the votes as an opportunity to vent their anger at Johnson, believing the man who helped the Conservatives win a large majority at a 2019 election is squandering the party’s successes by self-inflicted missteps and gaffes.

But despite the rumblings of discontent, Conservative Party insiders say there is not enough of a groundswell against Johnson to dislodge him now, although they hope the vote will be a “wake-up call” for the prime minister to reset his agenda.

“He’s got to now be in some danger,” Conservative lawmaker Geoffrey Clifton-Brown told Sky News. “And he’s got to realise that because if he doesn’t realise that, then he will be in much bigger danger ... I’m still backing him. But he’s got to change.”

‘Huge spike’

Britain reported 59,610 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, the highest figure since early January and the fifth highest recorded since the outbreak of the pandemic in March last year.

More than 5,300 cases of Omicron have been recorded, with 10 people hospitalised. One person has died after contracting the variant, which is set to become the dominant strain in the capital London.

Before the vote, the government had mounted a campaign to keep lawmakers in check, with Johnson warning his ministers there was a “huge spike” in Omicron cases heading Britain’s way, and that the measures were needed to protect people.

Ministers tried to win over the Conservative rebels, noting that people who have not had two vaccinations can instead offer proof of a negative lateral flow test to gain access to indoor venues of more than 500 people.

Health minister Sajid Javid told lawmakers he firmly believed in “individual liberty” but that “the responsible decision to take is...to move to plan B in England”.

But their arguments fell on deaf ears. In addition to the 99 Conservatives who voted against the passes, 40 voted against expanding the requirement for mask wearing.

“I am sure that the prime minister will understand the strength of feeling within the party about the constraint of liberties,” Conservative former minister David Jones told Reuters. “He is a libertarian himself and I have no doubt that he will listen to the message from his party.”

(REUTERS)

Trump's social media venture partners with Canada's Rumble Inc.

The company will deliver video and streaming for TRUTH Social, the proposed social media app from the former U.S. president.

Author of the article:

Publishing date:

 

Reuters Dec 14, 2021  •

U.S. President Donald Trump uses a mobile phone during a roundtable discussion on the reopening of small businesses in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., June 18, 2020. PHOTO BY LEAH MILLIS /REUTERS / Files

Article content

Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media venture said on Tuesday it has entered into a technology and cloud-services agreement with Canadian video platform Rumble Inc.

Advertisement

Article content

As part of the agreement, Rumble will deliver video and streaming for TRUTH Social, the proposed social media app from Trump.

Rumble was launched in 2013 by tech entrepreneur Chris Pavlovski as an alternative YouTube-style site, and is popular among U.S. conservatives seeking an alternative to Big Tech. Its top trending videos include those from conservative commentators Dan Bongino and Dinesh D’Souza, as well as former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon. It is backed by venture capitalist Peter Thiel and author-turned-U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance through Narya Capital.

On Dec. 1 Rumble said it would go public by merging with blank-check firm CF Acquisition Corp VI at an initial enterprise value of $2.1 billion. The combined company will be called Rumble and is expected to list on the Nasdaq.

Advertisement

Article content

Former Trump administration lawyer Michael Ellis joined Rumble in November as its first-ever general counsel and corporate secretary.

The announcement from Trump Media and Technology Group came hours after Rumble said it had severed business ties with Tremor International and Unruly Group, companies which Rumble said had attempted to censor conservative personality Dan Bongino.

TMTG has provided few details for how it plans to create a social media platform, streaming service, news division and alternative cloud provider to compete against entrenched players in those categories.

The company said on Dec. 6 that U.S. Representative Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, will leave Congress to become chief executive officer of the new venture, and will assume the role in January.

Nunes has been an ardent Trump supporter, voting against certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory following Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

The West is engineering a neo-colonial starvation of Afghanistan, for women's sake

December 14, 2021 

Food aid to families in need in Kabul, Afghanistan on 7 December 2021

 [Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency]


Muhammad Hussein
alhussein1001
December 14, 2021 at 4:41 pm

Barely eight decades ago, while it was fighting the Nazis' fascism, the British government under Winston Churchill was simultaneously orchestrating and engineering one of the worst famines in human history. As a result of Britain's imperial policies, and with the excuse of wartime in 1943, around 3 million natives in the Bengal region of eastern India died from starvation and social unrest.

Almost eight decades later, the West's policy – which can be interpreted as neo-imperialist – is threatening to wreak similar havoc in Afghanistan.

Since the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan and, months later, the formal establishment of its government and the Islamic Emirate, much of the world still has not come to terms with the new reality.

While Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan – all countries which the West criticises as abusers of human rights, and which are not known to be bastions of freedom – have moved closer to recognition of the new Afghan government, Western nations have decided to punish the Taliban.

And what better way to punish a group than by punishing the people it governs? Lack of recognition, threatening condemnation, even a furthering of sanctions were all not harsh enough of a punishment. Instead, the entire country had to suffer, with the Afghan money and $10 billion in funds and assets abroad being frozen by the United States and European nations.

In the Economist's recent magazine issue for the beginning of December, it alleged that the Taliban's "policy of making it hard for women to work makes the country poorer. Stopping girls from going to school will, in the long-run, have an even worse economic effect."

The mass poverty suffered by at least half of the country, the starvation and lack of resources and this year's harsh winter which the UN's World Food Program (WFP) has predicted will impact the food security of 22.8 million Afghans are, according to the magazine, all due to the allegedly insufficient amount of women working and studying in the country.

READ: What can the Taliban offer the women of Afghanistan?

Apart from the fact that the group's administration has not banned women from working and has allowed the resumption of girls' education in the country – albeit, with some discouragement with regards to higher education and some limitations – the magazine's view reflects much of the mainstream media's broader focus on the Taliban's actions and policies themselves, rather than Afghanistan's plight being due to the freezing of its assets.

Outlets neglect to focus on the responsibility of the international community, nor do they acknowledge the fact that the previous Afghan government siphoned billions of dollars off from international aid. Theft, corruption, poor governance and divisive policies under that government never resulted in such actions by the West and the international community.

There is also the fact that the progression of women's' rights in Afghanistan throughout the previous 20 years largely existed only on paper, with official statistics showing that 63 per cent of Afghan women were illiterate and girls made up 85 per cent of those not in education. The primary reason was most commonly claimed to be "endemic corruption."

Forcing marriage onto women was also not banned under the previous government, but was only ruled as illegal under the Taliban earlier this month. While the group and its administration still has much to improve and work on, the situation of women under the toppled former Afghan government was far from perfect.

On Saturday 11 December, months after the money was frozen and the economic siege was implemented, the World Bank finally decided – out of its great kindness – to release some of the money. With $280 million having been released, though, that accounts for only a fraction of the frozen assets at 2.8 per cent.

Some nations have also shown some sympathy by sending millions in aid to Afghanistan in order to avoid the collapse of its medical and healthcare sector. But even those who do not support the Taliban or are not affiliated with it have admitted that such meagre sums in comparison to the frozen assets are barely enough to sustain less than a few million Afghans.

READ: 'Children are going to die', UN agency warns as Afghanistan verges on collapse

By refusing to release the foreign assets and funds, the West, and the "international community" under its influence, are holding Afghanistan hostage and blackmailing its new government by swinging the rod of supposed moral superiority.

While women's' rights should always be a concern, especially within the broader concept of human rights and freedoms, the West is using it as a weapon against the Taliban and sending it a message: the Afghan population can be directly targeted and starved into submission or civil unrest, and the new government will have no true fiscal control, freedom or influence under the global economic system.

It is a message that the likes of Syria, Iran, Venezuela and others have gotten used to. The difference is, though, that the new Afghan government had hardly even gotten a chance to prove that it is deserving of such treatment. If it has, then the starvation of the country's population is still far from just.

Policymakers and human rights activists, if they truly do prioritise women's' rights, also seem to not realise that restricting Afghanistan's assets and blockading its economy directly and instantaneously impacts the women of the country.

As many employers have been rendered unable to even pay their employees, that will only result in less economic freedom for women and their decreased likelihood of receiving wages and payments – whether from work or from the breadwinners of their households.

By expecting the Taliban to achieve in months what the former Afghan government could not achieve in 20 years in power, the West is intentionally setting unrealistic expectations and goals. As a result, the West seems to happily let average Afghans starve in order to pursue vague political gains and to hold the new Afghan government hostage.

If Afghanistan's funds continue to be frozen and are not released, it is estimated that more people would die from the winter and famine than died in the entirety of the two-decades-long war. If that happens, the West and the "international community" would be engineering and orchestrating a new famine reminiscent of a colonial past.

READ: Feminists have scored an own goal over Afghanistan's 'Me Too' moment

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Arabic calligraphy enscribed into UNESCO heritage list

A Pakistani artist works on a Koranic calligraphy project made with gold-plated letters at Arts Council of Pakistan, in port City of Karachi on September 6, 2021 (AFP/Rizwan TABASSUM)


Tue, December 14, 2021, 

UNESCO on Tuesday added Arabic calligraphy, a key tradition in the Arab and Islamic worlds, to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

A total of 16 Muslim-majority countries, led by Saudi Arabia, presented the nomination to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, which announced the listing on Twitter.

"Arabic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting Arabic script in a fluid manner to convey harmony, grace and beauty," UNESCO said on its website.

"The fluidity of Arabic script offers infinite possibilities, even within a single word, as letters can be stretched and transformed in numerous ways to create different motifs."

Saudi Culture Minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al-Saud welcomed the decision and said it would "contribute to developing this cultural heritage", in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Abdelmajid Mahboub from the Saudi Heritage Preservation Society, which was involved in the proposal, said calligraphy "has always served as a symbol of the Arab-Muslim world".

But he lamented that "many people no longer write by hand due to technological advances", adding that the number of specialised Arab calligraphic artists had dropped sharply.

The UNESCO listing "will certainly have a positive impact" on preserving the tradition, he added.

According to the UNESCO website, intangible cultural heritage "is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalisation".

Its importance "is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next".

mah/tp/lg/hc

Congolese rumba, soundtrack of African history, added to UNESCO heritage list

Issued on: 14/12/2021 -

The late Congolese rumba superstar Papa Wemba at a February 2006 concert in Paris. 

© Pierre Verdy, AFP/File

Text by: FRANCE 24

The smooth, groove music of Congolese rumba was added Tuesday to UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list, sparking delight in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Congo Brazzaville, where the genre has provided the soundtrack for festivities ranging from Independence Day celebrations to birthday parties.

A UNESCO summit on Tuesday approved the two countries' joint application to add rumba to its Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list, where it joins Cuban rumba, the Central African Republic's polyphonic pygmy music and the drums of Burundi.

"The rumba is used for celebration and mourning, in private, public and religious spaces," said the UNESCO citation. It is an essential and representative part of the identity of Congolese people and their diaspora, the UN’s cultural and scientific agency added.

The addition to the UNESCO list was welcomed by the two countries situated on either side of the Congo River.

“It’s done. The rumba has been registered by UNESCO on its intangible cultural heritage of humanity list. An event to be celebrated on both banks of the Congo River,” tweeted DRC government spokesman Patrick Muyaya.

Out of Africa to South America – and back

Specialists have located rumba's origins in the ancient central African kingdom of Kongo, where people practised a dance called "Nkumba" or “navel” in Kikongo.

Africans brought their music and culture across the Atlantic through the slave trade, eventually giving birth to jazz in North America and rumba in South America.

Traders then brought the music back to Africa through records and guitars in more recent times.

When the music of the slave colonies in Spanish Cuba arrived back in Africa on 78 rpm records, it was immediately recognised as rumba and led to a musical resurgence in the Congo basin area.



One of the best known rumba singles, “Indépendance Cha Cha”, was composed and performed in 1960 by Joseph Kabasele, better known by his stage name, Le Grand Kallé.

It was a smash hit across Africa and the postcolonial world, commemorating “The Year of Africa”, when 17 African nations finally gained independence.

The modern version of rumba lives on cities and bars in the DRC and Congo Brazzaville. Rumba draws on nostalgia, cultural exchange, resistance, resilience and the sharing of pleasure through its flamboyant "sape" dress code.

Of love and politics

Sung mainly in Lingala, rumba songs typically are about love – but political messages have also been a feature of the genre.

There have also been less glorious periods of the Congolese rumba, when the music was exploited as propaganda by those in power.

Rumba stars are occasionally controversial or mired in scandals.

A French court on Monday convicted high-profile DRC performer Koffi Olomide of holding four of his former dancers against their will during tours.

CANADA

Liberals offer up to $742 million to low income seniors whose GIS was clawed back this year

Peter Zimonjic 

CBC

© Ben Nelms/CBC The federal government is offering one-time cash payments to seniors whose GIS payments were clawed back because they accepted pandemic benefits.

Pressed by its critics to help vulnerable seniors whose Guaranteed Income Supplement payments were cut after they accepted pandemic supports, the federal government is offering cash payments to blunt the effect of the clawback.

"We are committing today to provide Guaranteed Income Supplement or Allowance beneficiaries who also received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit [CERB] with a one-time payment to alleviate the financial hardship they may have faced as a result of an unintended interaction between the two benefits," Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said in prepared remarks in the House of Commons.

The NDP and Bloc Québécois, along with anti-poverty advocates, have been pressuring the federal government for months to address the issue.

In its 2021 Economic and Fiscal Update, tabled in the House of Commons today, the government earmarks $742.4 million in 2022-23 for the 214,000 seniors aged 60 and over who were affected by the clawback.

GIS is a program meant to help low income seniors make ends meet. The payments are based on income. A single senior earning less than $19,248 qualifies for GIS, while the cutoff for couples can be as high as $46,128, depending on their pension situation. In 2021, the maximum monthly payment under the program was $948.82.

The CERB and the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) are both considered taxable income. A large number of seniors who took these benefits did so to supplement their GIS payments when they were no longer able to work part time to top up their income.

By taking pandemic benefits like the CERB — which provided $2,000 a month to claimants — many of these seniors skewed their income for the last fiscal year, which is used to calculate GIS payments.

Seniors told CBC last month that the way the CERB is structured forced them to claim the full monthly benefit, rather than taking only what they needed to replace part-time income.
'A perpetual struggle'

For many seniors, claiming a pandemic benefit pushed their income for the last fiscal year to a level high enough to trigger a cut to GIS this year. Some seniors saw this year's GIS eliminated completely, leaving them struggling to pay rent and bills.

Janet McLeod, who received about $300 a month through the GIS program, said she was told in July that because she had accepted several CERB payments, all her GIS payments for this year would be cancelled.

"I am in a perpetual struggle," she told CBC in November. "So to be cut back $300 a month is very difficult, paying rent and taking care of my other expenses, which are very modest."

In September, the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer told the NDP that taking the CERB and the CRB out of the equation used to calculate GIS — effectively offering a blanket CERB amnesty to low-income seniors — would cost the government $380 million this year and $58 million next year, and would affect about 90,000 seniors.

The Liberal government says it will provide almost twice that amount in relief payments and that the money will go to about 183,000 seniors aged 65 and older and another 21,000 seniors aged 60 to 64.
Relief for students

The Liberal government said that it also would "continue to investigate ways to limit potential benefit reductions for vulnerable seniors who received emergency and recovery benefits."

The federal government is also proposing to help some students who received the CERB even though they were not eligible, and may now find themselves facing "significant repayments."

The debt relief program for students in this situation is estimated to cost the government $69.7 million.

Students who improperly claimed the CERB instead of the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) will be allowed to offset their CERB debt by applying it against what they would have received in student benefits over the same time period.

Students who got the CESB received $1,250 for a four-week period, for a maximum of 16 weeks, between May 10 and August 29, 2020. Students with disabilities or dependants also got an extra $750 — for a total benefit of $2,000 — for each four-week period.

The relief program will help cut debt for students only by subtracting the amount they qualified for under the student benefit from what they received through CERB.

Rocket scientists and brain surgeons not necessarily smarter than public, study finds

EG. DR BEN CARSON GOP POTUS CANDIDATE

By Amy Woodyatt, CNN 

Brain surgeons and rocket scientists are not necessarily smarter than the general public, researchers reported Monday, as they tried to settle the argument of whether the phrase "it's not brain surgery" or "it's not rocket science" is most deserved.

© Morsa Images/Digital Vision/Getty Images Neurosurgeons were able to solve problems faster than the general population but showed a slower memory recall speed, researchers said.

Researchers sought to find out if one profession had intellectual superiority, and found they were pretty much equally matched.

There were also few differences when comparing aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons with the general population.

Online intelligence tests were administered to both neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers from the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, and Canada. Responses from 329 aerospace engineers and 72 neurosurgeons were included in the final analysis.

The study, published in the BMJ Christmas issue, was professionally conducted and peer reviewed but this special issue of the British Medical Journal is generally dedicated to light-hearted studies.

"The main purpose of our study was to settle this debate once and for all and to provide rocket scientists and brain surgeons with evidence to support their self-assuredness in the company of the other party," Inga Usher of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London and colleagues wrote.

Researchers tested study participants, who had to have completed a degree in the relevant speciality, across several cognitive domains, including emotional discrimination and motor control.

They then assessed the cognitive characteristics of each specialty using the Great British Intelligence Test from the Cognitron platform, which is used to measure distinct aspects of human cognition, spanning planning and reasoning, working memory, attention, and emotion processing abilities.

Aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons were "equally matched across most domains," researchers found, but they differed in two areas. Whereas aerospace engineers showed better mental manipulation skills, neurosurgeons were better at semantic problem solving.

There were also few differences between the two professions and members of the public.

"Compared to the general population, aerospace engineers did not show significant differences in any domains," the study authors wrote.

"Neurosurgeons were able to solve problems faster than the general population but showed a slower memory recall speed."

The researchers suggested that people stop saying "it's not rocket science" as if that means something is especially difficult.

"In situations that do not require rapid problem solving, it might be more correct to use the phrase 'It's not brain surgery,'" they suggested.

"It is possible that both neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers are unnecessarily placed on a pedestal and that 'It's a walk in the park' or another phrase unrelated to careers might be more appropriate," they added.

The team also wanted to challenge public perception of the sectors, which are predicted to be understaffed in coming years, and could benefit from seeming to be less exclusive, researchers suggested.

"Other specialties might deserve to be on that pedestal, and future work should aim to determine the most deserving profession."