Our first frost of the year this morning. I don't hear the wind machines in the orange orchards across the river, though, so it must be light even by local standards.
Once again the Saturday Quartz has a lead article that cries out to be passed along. Apologies for the length.
Good morning, Quartz readers! A lot went wrong in 2018, so much that it feels necessary to remind people of the quiet, positive advances that were also made. While it may be hard to believe, 2018 was in many ways the best year yet to be a human living on Earth (as we show here in 15 charts). For example, one of the worst pieces of news was that carbon emissions are set to rise this year over last. But the share of global energy that came from renewables finally passed 10%, and, for the first time, in 2017 the number of people without electricity fell below 1 billion. (Throughout, figures were published in 2018 and reflect the latest data available.) Electricity access is essential to health, education, and economic stability, and all of those measures also improved in the past year. One of the simplest ways to assess global poverty is to compare the difference between what the average person makes a day, and a predetermined global poverty line. The difference was about $0.25 in 1990, and is now nearing $0.05; every year the gap closes a little more. Meanwhile, literacy rates have been steadily climbing for decades, and even a small change can make a huge difference: The 0.23 percentage-point increase from 2015 to 2016 means about 11.5 million more people can read. Probably the biggest invisible improvements the world sees year to year are essential indicators of overall global public health, like rates of infant mortality, maternal mortality, childhood stunting, and teen pregnancy. These are important, because they represent access the average person alive has to health-care professionals, facilities, medicine, and more. All of these rates have been falling in the past few decades, in some cases dramatically, and every single one fell again in 2018. Another positive trend that can fly under the radar, especially in wealthier countries, is how the global gender gap in education continues to close. New data published this year show that, in 2016, there were 99.7 girls enrolled in primary and secondary school for every 100 boys. For comparison, in 1986 that number was 85.1. Again, it might seem incremental, but given the size of the global population, those tiny increases have outsized impact. There’s obviously much more to do for women’s equality. There’s also so much to do for the environment, to reduce poverty and conflict, to improve access to clean water and sanitation, to increase food security, and to eradicate preventable diseases and improve public health worldwide. But being worried for our future doesn’t mean we can’t or should not be grateful for the good things we’ve already done. —Elijah Wolfson
We're home from NH, from the memorial service for a beloved friend of 47 years who died unexpectedly of an previously unknown heart ailment. He was a Congregational minister, licensed counselor, spiritual guide, gardener, instigator, protester ... who would not only give you the shirt off his back but the keys to his house on Squam Lake (On Golden Pond) so you could have a retreat. He had a vocal chord issue that caused him to create a support group for others with the malady. He never went to the dump without bringing items for the swap shop and bringing home items from it. When he took walks he picked up trash (I know because I've walked with him). He is the pastor who, when I was a teen, drove me home from the local coffee house as needed. We hadn't seen each other in about 20 years when I became a spiritual guide. We were in the same peer group for 15 years before we discovered we had known each other at the coffee house!! And he is the good soul who, when I very nearly stopped offering spiritual guidance because a seeker I met with broke trust with me, said to me, "Yeah, it really hurts. And you just keep going." He could listen deeply and not say a word during meetings. But! If you went to his house for the weekend he would greet you at the door with a list of possible activities. Ha! When my son ran the Boston Marathon and our meeting was taking place at his house at the same time, he put the TV on and sat and watched it with me. He died with 2,498 Friends on Facebook. Such a life.
RIP Dick. Your vibrant light will ever be missed! ✨
=============================================================== House GOP Must Adjust to Life In the Minority December 29, 2018 By Taegan Goddard New York Times: “About two-thirds of Republicans returning to the House for the 116th Congress this week have never experienced the exquisite pain of being on the outs in an institution where the party in charge is totally in charge. Majority control runs the gamut from determining the floor agenda to determining access to the prime meeting space. It will be a rude awakening for many who have known only their exalted majority status.” ================================================================
Our first frost of the year this morning. I don't hear the wind machines in the orange orchards across the river, though, so it must be light even by local standards.
ReplyDeleteThe halfway point: what have two years of Trump's wrecking ball done to America? [Click] It’s not all bad.
ReplyDeleteA surprisingly potent technique can boost your short and long-term recall – and it appears to help everyone from students to Alzheimer’s patients. [Click] It seems intuitively correct, but I was unaware of the extensive evidence for it.
'Pouring Salt Into the Wound' Amid Shutdown, Trump Signs Executive Order Freezing Pay of Nearly 2 Million Federal Workers [Click]
ReplyDeleteOnce again the Saturday Quartz has a lead article that cries out to be passed along. Apologies for the length.
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Quartz readers!
A lot went wrong in 2018, so much that it feels necessary to remind people of the quiet, positive advances that were also made. While it may be hard to believe, 2018 was in many ways the best year yet to be a human living on Earth (as we show here in 15 charts).
For example, one of the worst pieces of news was that carbon emissions are set to rise this year over last. But the share of global energy that came from renewables finally passed 10%, and, for the first time, in 2017 the number of people without electricity fell below 1 billion. (Throughout, figures were published in 2018 and reflect the latest data available.)
Electricity access is essential to health, education, and economic stability, and all of those measures also improved in the past year. One of the simplest ways to assess global poverty is to compare the difference between what the average person makes a day, and a predetermined global poverty line. The difference was about $0.25 in 1990, and is now nearing $0.05; every year the gap closes a little more.
Meanwhile, literacy rates have been steadily climbing for decades, and even a small change can make a huge difference: The 0.23 percentage-point increase from 2015 to 2016 means about 11.5 million more people can read.
Probably the biggest invisible improvements the world sees year to year are essential indicators of overall global public health, like rates of infant mortality, maternal mortality, childhood stunting, and teen pregnancy. These are important, because they represent access the average person alive has to health-care professionals, facilities, medicine, and more. All of these rates have been falling in the past few decades, in some cases dramatically, and every single one fell again in 2018.
Another positive trend that can fly under the radar, especially in wealthier countries, is how the global gender gap in education continues to close. New data published this year show that, in 2016, there were 99.7 girls enrolled in primary and secondary school for every 100 boys. For comparison, in 1986 that number was 85.1. Again, it might seem incremental, but given the size of the global population, those tiny increases have outsized impact.
There’s obviously much more to do for women’s equality. There’s also so much to do for the environment, to reduce poverty and conflict, to improve access to clean water and sanitation, to increase food security, and to eradicate preventable diseases and improve public health worldwide. But being worried for our future doesn’t mean we can’t or should not be grateful for the good things we’ve already done. —Elijah Wolfson
What puddle said.
DeleteBill, thank you! Well worth the length!
ReplyDeleteWe're home from NH, from the memorial service for a beloved friend of 47 years who died unexpectedly of an previously unknown heart ailment. He was a Congregational minister, licensed counselor, spiritual guide, gardener, instigator, protester ... who would not only give you the shirt off his back but the keys to his house on Squam Lake (On Golden Pond) so you could have a retreat. He had a vocal chord issue that caused him to create a support group for others with the malady. He never went to the dump without bringing items for the swap shop and bringing home items from it. When he took walks he picked up trash (I know because I've walked with him). He is the pastor who, when I was a teen, drove me home from the local coffee house as needed. We hadn't seen each other in about 20 years when I became a spiritual guide. We were in the same peer group for 15 years before we discovered we had known each other at the coffee house!! And he is the good soul who, when I very nearly stopped offering spiritual guidance because a seeker I met with broke trust with me, said to me, "Yeah, it really hurts. And you just keep going." He could listen deeply and not say a word during meetings. But! If you went to his house for the weekend he would greet you at the door with a list of possible activities. Ha! When my son ran the Boston Marathon and our meeting was taking place at his house at the same time, he put the TV on and sat and watched it with me. He died with 2,498 Friends on Facebook. Such a life.
ReplyDeleteRIP Dick. Your vibrant light will ever be missed! ✨
Out-of-State Money Fueled Blue Wave [Click]
ReplyDelete===============================================================
House GOP Must Adjust to Life In the Minority
December 29, 2018 By Taegan Goddard
New York Times: “About two-thirds of Republicans returning to the House for the 116th Congress this week have never experienced the exquisite pain of being on the outs in an institution where the party in charge is totally in charge. Majority control runs the gamut from determining the floor agenda to determining access to the prime meeting space. It will be a rude awakening for many who have known only their exalted majority status.”
================================================================
Trump stands up the schmucks who paid big bucks to spend New Year’s Eve with him at Mar a Lago [Click]