Bharat’s Pocket Scraps Nov 24
This shall become a weekly thing again, I decree it so.
Universal Family Care
As millennials have kids and Baby Boomers live longer, we need to create a new, integrated, flexible way of caring that reflects the financial and cultural realities of 21st century families. Our families deserve the care we need to live full and healthy lives, whether we’re caring for an infant or child, a loved one with a disability or an aging parent.
I was blown away by this interview with Ai-Jen Poo . Get used to saying Universal Family Care, start talking about this with your friends, it’s a simple, yet transformational idea. It combines the best of social insurance programs with people-focused solutions for our most challenging issues of the day, how to support children, mothers and old people in an efficient, employee-friendly and sustainable collective enterprise! (Excuse me while I wonkgasm)
Australia’s national broadband network under relentless attack—by cockatoos
The BBC reports that NBN technicians have discovered cockatoos have been damaging the ends of spare fiber cables left in place on communications towers for future network expansion by chomping on them
The birds of Australia would prefer you to watch them rather than Netflix :)
Read Australia’s national broadband network under relentless attack—by cockatoos
Smoke signal: Winter smog is a reminder India and Pakistan need to talk about more than geopolitics
The noxious smog engulfing large parts of upper Punjab is yet another reminder that Pakistan and India have much to talk about beyond geopolitics.
It’s a cliche, but pollution does not respect national boundaries, nor does it need visas, cooperation is the only way to solve this problem
Read Smoke signal: Winter smog is a reminder India and Pakistan need to talk about more than geopolitics
Hacking the vote: Threats keep changing, but election IT sadly stays the same
But while electronic voting systems may make it easier to run elections, they introduce a host of new problems—not just those high-tech headaches from DEFCON, but even the basic issue of trust.
I can’t think of a better system for security and integrity than Canada’s paper ballot. I love computers for so many things, not for elections.
Read Hacking the vote: Threats keep changing, but election IT sadly stays the same
How bad teeth are at the root of income inequality in Canada
When Bernie Sanders took his well-publicized cook’s tour of Canada’s much-vaunted universal public health care system recently, he wouldn’t have seen a cavity being filled or a root canal performed or a missing front tooth replaced.
Why is this not a bigger deal in Canada, I have never understood. Eye care, dental care, it’s just nonsensical for us to not extend universality.
Read How bad teeth are at the root of income inequality in Canada
Farmers must stop antibiotics use in animals due to human health risk, warns WHO
Overuse of antibiotics in animals is contributing to growing drug resistance in humans with serious health implications, says global health body
Sensible and overdue warning, but as the article states, no way to get individual governments to enforce this mandate.
Read Farmers must stop antibiotics use in animals due to human health risk, warns WHO
China Experiences Sharp Drop in Coal-related Emissions, Study Says
Emissions of sulfur dioxide, an air pollutant produced primarily by burning coal, have fallen by 75 percent in China since 2007, while SO2 emissions in India have jumped 50 percent, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland.
While doing my masters, I generated one of the first SO2 inventories in India. We had a problem then, apparently, same now. SO2 emission control is a problem solved in the 80s (remember acid rain, no, you’re too young to, good thing!) The Indian governments are failing here, and causing many deaths.
Read China Experiences Sharp Drop in Coal-related Emissions, Study Says
What explains the rise of militant Buddhism in South-East Asia?
It’s not just in Myanmar that this militant Buddhism is on the rise: it’s also surfacing in the other two leading Theravādin countries: Sri Lanka and Thailand. In all three countries, Buddhists make up the vast majority of the population: 70% in Sri Lanka, 88% in Myanmar, and 93% in Thailand. One could be excused for thinking that there is nothing to worry about: with such towering demographic majorities, Buddhists are surely to some extent safe and secure in their respective countries.
This is not how the militant monks see things.
Hmm, may have mentioned this before, but fundamentalists are exactly the same, regardless of religion, so, white people picking up Buddhism, thing about this.
Read What explains the rise of militant Buddhism in South-East Asia?