Sunday, September 22nd, 2019
Sujata Gupta, - Science News
Stephan: We are profoundly shaped by our culture, and in ways that we are only beginning to understand. I found this story fascinating.
When researchers expand their studies of infant motor development to include children from diverse cultures outside of North America, like this boy from Azerbaijan, they learn that development norms are too narrow.
Credit: Anthony Asael/Alamy
For generations, farther back than anyone can remember, the women in Rano Dodojonova’s family have placed their babies in “gahvoras,” cradles that are part diaper, part restraining device. Dodojonova, a research assistant who lives in Tajikistan, was cradled for the first two or three years of her life. She cradled her three children in the same way.
Ubiquitous throughout Central Asia, the wooden gahvora is often a gift for newlyweds. The mother positions her baby on his back with his bottom firmly over a hole. Underneath is a bucket to capture whatever comes out. She then binds the baby with several long swaths of fabric so that only the baby’s head can move. Next, she connects a funnel, specially designed for either boys or girls, to send urine out to that same bucket under the cradle. Finally, […]
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Saturday, September 21st, 2019
Stephan: Every other developed nation in the world has worked out that it is in the interest and to the advantage of their society as a whole to make health care a human right. But, in the United States, where it is every man or woman for themself, we don't have a healthcare system. All we can manage is an illness profit system because we lack the moral courage as a people to do what is right, and in our own self-interest.
Health care expenses forced 8 million Americans into poverty in 2018, according to the Census Bureau. (emphasis added)
The big picture: That’s actually an improvement from the past several years, when an annual average of 11 million people fell into poverty because of medical costs — a reflection of the country’s expensive system.
How it works: The Census Bureau tracks how various social programs and daily expenses influence poverty rates.
- Social Security, SNAP benefits and housing subsidies are among the most effective anti-poverty programs.
- But year after year, medical expenses remain “the largest contributor to increasing the number of individuals in poverty,” according to the Census Bureau.
- Most people who have insurance and who make less than 150% of the federal poverty level don’t have enough liquid assets to cover a $1,500 deductible.
The bottom line: People who don’t have insurance have the highest risk of falling into poverty, due to the high prices of drugs and procedures.
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Saturday, September 21st, 2019
SEN. BOB CASEY and INDIVAR DUTTA-GUPTA, Democratic Senator for Pennsylvania / Co-executive director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown University - Politico
Stephan: Welcome to Trump's America. Aren't you proud?
Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty
The Trump administration has proposed a change in the way the federal government measures poverty. On the surface, this proposal may appear to be an innocuous, technical adjustment. It’s not. Instead, this change would dramatically reduce the number of people who qualify for vital basic assistance programs, including Medicaid, children’s health care and food assistance. (emphasis added)
To understand what is happening, it helps to remember how the official poverty measure was first created.
The first U.S. poverty measure was a simple calculation. In the mid-1960s, a Social Security Administration researcher took a Department of Agriculture survey of household food consumption and found that a typical family of three or more spent about one-third of its post-tax income on food. The SSA then used USDA’s “economy” meal plan—a diet that would be nutritionally adequate in temporary or emergency situations—and multiplied that cost by three. That back-of-the envelope measure, which wasn’t based on an explicit accounting of costs for housing, health care, or anything other than food, […]
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Saturday, September 21st, 2019
Kim Kelly, - The New Republic
Stephan: It seems to be considered bad form to talk about the American gulag and concentration camp network, certainly few in the Congress of either party seem to have the moral cajones to do so. However, I find it an obscenity so, even though few of my readers seem to look at these articles, I keep posting them because I am appalled that millions of our fellow citizens are warehoused, often for profit, in a system that would be an embarrassment to North Korea. Here is the latest on this abomination.
A Texas state prison that was flooded in 2016.
Credit: AP/David J. Phillip
Global warming far and away is the most pressing issue facing the United States (and the rest of the planet). The fast-approaching climate reckoning is bigger than the presidential election, bigger than our imperialist forever wars, bigger even than the virulent fascist threat that’s taken root in the White House and spread its tendrils across the globe. It is no longer an exaggeration to say that the world is dying. Time is running out to pull back from the point of no return before it swallows us all whole.
For millions of Americans, that point is already here—and unlike the majority of people, they have no way to escape its horrors. When natural disasters hit, incarcerated people are often the first to be abandoned; as the climate crisis worsens, so will their suffering. The specter of climate change is a hazardous fact of life for the prisoners forced to labor in sweltering Texas fields, the ones fighting wildfires […]
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Saturday, September 21st, 2019
Nick Lavars, Editor and Writer - New Atlas
Stephan: Here is some good news. Even while Grifter Trump and Moscow Mitch are doing everything in their power to keep America dependent on fossil fuels, others, smarter and with more moral courage, are making different choices. Here's an example of what I mean.
Amazon expects Rivian’s electric vans to begin delivering packages for customers as early as 2021
Credit: Amazon
Electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian has landed itself a new customer, and a monumental one at that. The world’s largest retailer, Amazon, has signed on to buy 100,000 of Rivian’s zero-emission trucks as part of a wider push to clean up its business operations, which includes a commitment to be completely carbon neutral by 2040.
Rivian has made quite a splash since rolling into 2018’s LA Auto Show to debut a pair of electrified vehicles, its R1T pickup and R1S SUV. These early glimpses of its engineering chops were enough to attract US$700 million of investment in February this year, with Amazon itself leading the charge.
The e-commerce giant is now doubling down on its relationship with the automotive startup, today announcing an order of no less than 100,000 Rivian electric delivery trucks. This, according to Amazon, is the largest order of electric vehicles in […]
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