Uruguay is, to me, the most interesting nation in South America. In the midst of the corruption and craziness of most of its neighbors in the region, vouchsafed by the tens of thousands who are fleeing Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and other South American nations, Uruguay has become a strong largely middle-class democracy. It committed to end its dependence on petroleum, and has made it happen as this report describes.
Uruguay wind power
MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY — It was the 2000s, and fossil fuel prices were rising worldwide. After a period of volatility in the 1980s, the crude oil price per barrel had reached one its lowest points – $20 – at the end of 2001 but then, over the course of six years, it tripled before a new oil shock saw prices surpass those of the 1970s, reaching a record $145 a barrel on 3 July 2008.
To escape the trap, Vázquez needed rapid solutions. He turned to an unlikely source: Ramón Méndez Galain, a physicist who would transform the country’s energy grid into one of the cleanest in the world.
Sarah Mervosh, Education Reporter - The New York Times
Stephan:
The United States is one of the least literate developed nations in the world, Americans are also the least capable of doing basic math. This is the latest factual data and it has significant implications for our future. This poor showing is mostly the result of deliberate cultural choices in the public schools in Red states
In math, the U.S. ranked 28th out of 37 participating countries from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group that includes mostly industrialized democracies. Credit: Jim Wilson/The New York Times
The math performance of U.S. teenagers has sharply declined since 2018, with scores lower than 20 years ago, and with American students continuing to trail global competitors, according to the results of a key international exam released on Tuesday.
In the first comparable global results since the coronavirus pandemic, 15-year-olds in the United States scored below students in similar industrialized democracies like the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany, and well behind students in the highest-performing countries such as Singapore, South Korea and Estonia — continuing an underperformance in math that predated the pandemic.
The bleak math results were offset by a stronger performance in reading and science, where the United States scored above average internationally.
About 66 percent of U.S. students performed at least at a basic level in math, compared with about 80 percent in reading and science, according to the exam, the Program for International Student […]
As hard as it may be to believe, given the weather news day-by-day, as this report describes there is still a large group of low IQ low information Americans who read and watch only MAGAt media who don’t believe or understand what climate change is doing, and who have been indoctrinated not to trust scientific research. We are facing an existential crisis, and they are lost in MAGAt misinformation. It is going to be very painful, particularly in Red states because they are not preparing properly for what is coming.
Credit: Adobe
In 1995, a leading group of scientists convened by the United Nations declared that they had detected a “human influence” on global temperatures with “effectively irreversible” consequences. In the coming decades, 99.9 percent of scientists would come to agree that burning fossil fuels had disrupted the Earth’s climate.
Yet almost 30 years after that warning, during the hottest year on Earth in 125,000 years, people are still arguing that the science is unreliable, or that the threat is real but we shouldn’t do anything about climate change. Conspiracies are thriving online, according to a report by the coalition Climate Action Against Disinformation released last month, in time for the U.N. climate conference in Dubai. Over the past year, posts with the hashtag #climatescam have gotten more likes and retweets on the platform known as X than ones with #climatecrisis or #climateemergency.
By now, anyone looking out the window can see flowers blooming earlier and lakes freezing later. Why, after all this time, do Read the Full Article
Iowa is a state controlled my MAGAt Republicans and the quality of life, particularly for lower middle class and poor families, ought to be a matter of embarrassment to anyone in the state who seeks to foster wellbeing. Republican governance throughout the country is always inferior to Democrat governance, but Iowans don’t seem to care enough to do something about it, or even notice the inferiority of their society. I wouldn’t live in Iowa or any of the Red states if you gave me a house for free. They are going to go through a desperate times over the next decade.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds speaks to the press in Davenport, Iowa. Credit:: Scott Olson / Getty
Iowa’s Republican-led government sparked outrage late last week by declining to participate in a federal program that would have provided low-income residents with $40 a month in additional food assistance during the coming summer.
Created by the U.S. Congress late last year, the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) for Children program aims to boost nutrition benefits for families with school-aged children who typically receive free or reduced-price meals during the school year. Starting in summer 2024, eligible families will receive a prepaid debit card with $40 per child for three months.
But in a press release issued Friday, the state’s health and human services department said it had notified the Biden administration that Iowa would be opting out of Summer EBT, claiming the program doesn’t sufficiently restrict the kinds of food that families can purchase.
Kim Reynolds, Iowa’s Republican governor, echoed that assertion in a statement focused more on childhood obesity than food insecurity, which
MEGAN MESSERLY and ROBERT KING, Staff Writers - Politico
Stephan:
Another sad tale of the inferiority of Republican governance. I don’t understand why Democrats don’t deal with this fact-based reality. It is so obvious and so easily objectively verified. Republicans just don’t make wellbeing a priority. Their only priority is to protect the interests of the uber rich who rent them.
Kemp expected 31,000 Georgians to sign up in the first year of the program, which started in July. Through four months, only 1,800 people enrolled. Credit: Elijah Nouvelage / Getty
A GOP experiment forcing low-income people to work to qualify for public health insurance benefits is stumbling in Georgia.
The state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, expected 31,000 Georgians to sign up in the first year of the program, which started in July. Through four months, only 1,800 people enrolled — and critics blame the paltry expansion on an overly complex program with too many hurdles for people to clear.
“With such low enrollment numbers [in Georgia], it does feel a bit like that,” said Chris Pope, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. “It’s a mountain of paperwork, and it’s burdensome for people who are in a tough spot.”
IFAW protects animals and their wild homes, from Africa’s vast savannahs and India’s dynamic jungles to ocean sanctuaries teeming with life. And we hire and train local people […]
