Morning Ed: World {2017.12.06.W}
[Wo1] This map is very interesting, though I would prefer to see it broken down between say 1933 to 1950 and 1950 to present-day.
[Wo2] Giving up on the west, educated young Africans are heading home.
[Wo3] In their first election ever, Canadians had the United States on their mind. Among other things.
[Wo4] Is there any way we can shift the volcanic pressure away from some place where it will destroy humanity to somewhere in the Pacific where it could create a new continent? (If you didn’t know, science was not my best class in school.)
[Wo5] Even when there’s no river, there’s a chance the settlement was because of a river.
[Wo6] The whole Florida Man phenomenon is based on the fact that Florida has more sunshine laws (no pun intended) than other states, which allows reporters to scope around until they have weird stuff. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Kansas.
[Wo7] Erica Grieder explores five myths about Texas.
[Wo8] Sam Kriss investigates the Aztecs’ whole “World is gonna end in 2012” thing.
Wo1: The Jews that survived the Holocaust naturally wanted out of Europe, especially if they were stuck in the Soviet Bloc. There were pogroms and anti-Jewish riots immediately after the Holocaust when survivors started to return to their homes. The Netherlands charged Jews in hiding or in the camps back property taxes.
Wo8: I didn’t know a Marxist-Ecologist analysis of Aztec human sacrifices was possible but apparently it is.Report
[Wo2] “There’s a genuine sense that if you’re not going back to fix Africa, who is going to do it?” Bingo. Aid doesn’t work, it only enriches the plutocrats. And with more wealth, perhaps the runaway population growth can be curbed.Report
Jeet Herr has a good essay at TNR about how bad faith actors on social media are a threat to free speech. A big part of the problem is that media executives don’t get twitter and social media.
https://newrepublic.com/article/146117/weaponized-outrage-threat-free-speechReport
W02: This is probably going to be long-term damage from the current xenophobic and nationalist rise. Though I suppose Africa will benefit in the long run. My girlfriend and a lot of her friends came here for undergrad and/or grad school and stayed. They were the elite students of their home nations and received scholarships and opportunities to study abroad. But how many people are going to choose not to study in the United States because of Trump or just go home after they are done.Report
I’ve had more than a few (generally excellent) students from Africa who have plans to earn an MD or DDS here and then return to their respective nations to serve their population. I always hope they are successful in that.
Of course, if they want to earn citizenship and stay, that’s great too. I think we need more medical professionals, especially in certain areas of the country (and maybe, of certain demographic groups, IDK. I had an Indian friend in high school who said in India nearly all the gynecologists were women because of cultural things, and she claimed Indian-American women vastly preferred women gynecologists…)Report
Wo8: If the world ends in 2018 because Trump launches an attack against North Korea, are the Aztecs within the margin of error?Report
Only if the Feathered Serpent returns to save us.Report
Wo4: No, we can’t. We’d need some serious tunneling machines (on the order of Big Bertha) that would not only be able to chew through anything they might encounter, but could also withstand the heat of drilling through the deep layers of rock.Report
Wo4: So NASA thinks we should just cool the whole thing down.Report
W06: So Kansas is not completely useless, they are doing an excellent job serving as a bad example.Report
Man, Alabama voters have a lovely choice of candidates.Report
@oscar-gordon
Sigh. I can’t defend that flyer at all. I think the article is a bit too hyperbolic but we live in very angry times and no one is in a charitable mood over anything.Report
It is a bit ranty, but at the same time, people who are feeling taken for granted tend to be a bit ranty.Report
Fair enough.
But it is a problem for the Democratic Party going forward. Our voters are always looking for reasons to hate on the Party. There wasn’t a Democrat in Congress who voted for the tax swindle bill and I still see people blaming the Democratic Party for its passage because they don’t understand math and think magical powers can block anything I guess.Report