Bharat’s Pocket Scraps October 28
This is a biweekly scrap
I would prefer this to be a weekly thing, but I seemed to have skipped another week, oh scrap!
Why Race Is Not a Thing, According to Genetics
But when we look at the full genomes from people all over the world, those differences represent a tiny fraction of the differences between people. There is, for instance, more genetic diversity within Africa than in the rest of the world put together. If you take someone from Ethiopia and someone from the Sudan, they are more likely to be more genetically different from each other than either one of those people is to anyone else on the planet!
I might read this book, sounds interesting
Read Why Race Is Not a Thing, According to Genetics
Ten Years of Bad Policy Deepened Fentanyl Crisis, Says Senator
As the fentanyl epidemic spreads across Canada, a pioneer of supervised injection sites says the country would be better prepared to deal with the opioid crisis if it hadn’t suffered “10 years of darkness” under the Stephen Harper government.
This overdose epidemic is heartbreaking in its scope and reach, and in our governments’ unwillingness to act with the level of intensity and urgency that is needed.
Read Ten Years of Bad Policy Deepened Fentanyl Crisis, Says Senator
Driverless cars bring visions of building boom, suburban sprawl
In the first scenario, cities become more like New York, with walkable streets and fleets of autonomous vehicles for public transit. In the second, they become more like Dallas or Phoenix, which already function as a collection of suburbs.
Again, a reminder that how we move is intricately linked with how we live and in some ways, who we are. Planning around these things needs to be holistic, not piecemeal (which is how it will end up, I’m afraid).
Read Driverless cars bring visions of building boom, suburban sprawl
Study: methane emissions from Alberta oil and gas wells are worse than thought
Alberta’s oil and gas industry – Canada’s largest producer of fossil fuel resources – could be emitting 25 to 50% more methane than previously believed, new research has suggested.
Every time we measure methane around fossil fuel extraction, it’s worse than modelled or assumed, I wonder if there’s a pattern, or lesson to be learned :)
Read Study: methane emissions from Alberta oil and gas wells are worse than thought
How Seattle Bucked a National Trend and Got More People to Ride the Bus
Three experts in three very different positions weigh in on their city’s ridership success. Almost every major U.S. city has seen years of decline in bus ridership, but Seattle has been the exception in recent years. Between 2010 and 2014, Seattle experienced the biggest jump of any major U.S.
See, holistic planning helps!
Read How Seattle Bucked a National Trend and Got More People to Ride the Bus
No Aadhaar, no food rations: 11 stories that show the Jharkhand child death was no aberration
Eleven-year-old Santoshi Kumari died asking for rice on September 28, eight months after her family stopped getting food rations from the government because their ration card was not linked to their Aadhaar
Aadhaar, or India’s grand plan to give everyone a unique ID and link everything to it is causing kids to die, well, to be more accurate, the people implementing the system are making kids die thanks to their inflexibility, disgusting people.
Read No Aadhaar, no food rations: 11 stories that show the Jharkhand child death was no aberration
What songbirds could teach us about constructive tweeting
But as opposed to songbird culture, which evolved over millions of years, we are now communicating via networks of unprecedented scales and complexity, without the shield of evolutional adaptation. The internet enabled an explosive accumulation of public goods through the altruistic sharing of knowledge and arts. But it promotes instability by amplifying disinformation and extremism. The future of our cultures might depend on sustaining a balance between converging and diverging social forces, despite rapid changes in our communication ecologies.
Connecting twitter and bir song, oh my, someone wrote an article designed to appeal to me
Read What songbirds could teach us about constructive tweeting
Warning of ‘ecological Armageddon’ after dramatic plunge in insect numbers
Three-quarters of flying insects in nature reserves across Germany have vanished in 25 years, with serious implications for all life on Earth, scientists say
So, I’ve noticed this when I go back to visit Chennai as well. Our house use to be teeming with ants, cockroaches, flying insects of all kinds, it was scary yet thrilling. I’ve noticed way fewer insects every time I visit..
Read Warning of ‘ecological Armageddon’ after dramatic plunge in insect numbers
Coming to America
ON A SEPTEMBER NIGHT IN 1907, an angry mob of about six hundred white people attacked and destroyed an Asian Indian settlement in Bellingham, in the north-western US state of Washington. Many of the traumatised residents fled to Canada.
Great history lesson.
Read Coming to America
Canada, You’re Like My Favourite One-Day Uncle and I Love You
Canada, Neghǫnıèhtǫ! That’s “I love you” in Tłı̨chǫ Dene. I had to ask my Elder, Tłı̨chǫ Matriarch, Rosa Mantla, for help on how to do this properly for your birthday.
Richard van Camp at his best, he’s the author of one of our favourite children’s books, Little You. Thanks Beth for the article :)
Read Canada, You’re Like My Favourite One-Day Uncle and I Love You
Alphabet Is Trying to Remake the Modern City, Starting With Toronto
Sidewalk Labs promises to embed all sorts of sensors everywhere possible, sucking up a constant stream of information about traffic flow, noise levels, air quality, energy usage, travel patterns, and waste output. Cameras will help the company nail down the more intangible: Are people enjoying this public furniture arrangement in that green space?
Seriously, this doesn’t sound attractive at all. To me, smart means compact, people friendly and affordable, not full of creepy sensors!
Read Alphabet Is Trying to Remake the Modern City, Starting With Toronto