As of the filming of this special, as many as 40 million Chinese males were expected to be unable to find mates when they reach marrying age. That is one of the results of China’s so-called one baby rule. With one out of every five people on earth living in China, the government has instituted […]
Over the weekend, I listened to the recent Radiolab episode on the power of words to shape our thoughts, feelings, and abilities (watch the accompanying video below). The most interesting part of the episode is when they examine an experiment conducted by Elizabeth Spelke at Harvard. Spelke’s experiment shows an interesting relationship between language and […]
Chinese officials push back against new formula safety concerns Officials from China’s Ministry of Health denied that there was any connection between formula produced by the Chinese company Synutra International and infant girls whose parents claim they began exhibiting signs of puberty after using the formula. Afghan rights advocates are worried by stoning Afghan human-rights […]
The June issue of Wired Magazine profiles Google founder Sergey Brin’s quest to change health research, and his own future at the same time. At 36 years old, Brin has discovered that he possesses the indicator gene that has a higher risk of Parkinson’s. So, instead of waiting on the sidelines while traditional research may or may not […]
Rick Cook is one of the top green architects around. He and his partner, Bob Fox, designed the truly extraordinary Bank of America Tower, the most sustainable office building in the world today and one of the most aesthetically impressive to boot. (It’s also the second tallest building in New York City now.) The BofA […]
Two stories about important trends in international development at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the the British equivalent, the Department for International Development (DfID): 1. Federal Times article on decreasing reliance on contractors and increasing insourcing at USAID can be found here. An excerpt: USAID is trying to rebuild a work force […]
Pakistan is experiencing epic flooding as a result of monsoon rains. How bad is it? U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke puts it this way: “Floods in Asia” is such a recurrent headline that many people outside Pakistan still do not realize that this is an epic event–the worst monsoon floods in the history of the […]
I had an offhand conversation with a friend the other day about the cost and quality of US healthcare relative to the rest of the world. I then came across this “infographic” republished in Fast Company earlier this year, and originally by National Geographic. The visual is startling: upward sloping lines indicate value for $$ […]
In an article I wrote for Grist on biochar systems, I noted its virtues: * (potentially) store billions of tons of carbon in soil for centuries; * dramatically reduce agricultural waste, forest debris and some municipal solid waste, thus eliminating the production of greenhouse gases that result from their decomposition; * generate energy to both […]
Last week Newsweek published an article entitled “The Death of Generosity.” The article outlines a decline in the West’s commitment to the aid goals set in the 1990s and makes ominous predictions for the future of the developing world: the Millennium Development Goals will not be met, corruption will run rampant in over-bureaucratized governments, and […]
Patrick Frost pointed my way to a Foreign Affairs article published earlier this year, The Best Defense? Preventive Force and International Security, by Abraham Sofaer (downloadable here if you have access). Sofaer argues that unilateral uses of preventive military force are illegal but can be legitimate, and thus states should feel free to eschew international […]
I get pretty irritated with the CyberWar Hysteria sometimes. The logic of alamists goes something like this: 1) “Oh Noes there are Bad Haxors out there who break into computers!!” 2) “Computers are buggy and have problems and really get hacked!!!” 3) *crickets* 4) “EXPLOSIONS, MASS DESTRUCTION AND DEATH ARE COMING!!!1!11!” It is genuinely hard […]
Yesterday the New York Times published an article titled U.S. Military Seeks Slower Pace to Wrap Up Afghan Role. The opening paragraph stated: “American military officials are building a case to minimize the planned withdrawal of some troops from Afghanistan starting next summer, in an effort to counter growing pressure on President Obama from inside […]
To date, over 1,600 people have died and around 14 million people have been affected by the floods in Pakistan which have followed the country’s worst monsoon rains in 80 years. Sir John Holmes, the Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and the Emergency Relief Coordinator at the UN, has stated that “if we don’t act […]
With Russia’s worst heatwave on record expected to last for the next ten days, experts begin to worry about the potential for devastating economic losses; in this case, a possible $14 billion off economic growth. On August 5th, Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir Putin, announced a ban on grain exports after more than a third of […]