tingilinde

stories of progress in 2024

Not everything was bad 

(of course conservatives will view many of these as negatives)

a tip of the hat to Brough

 

 

 

on sky-high healthcare costs in the us

David Epstein talks with a few experts.

 

heat assisted magnetic recording

People have been talking about it for years - now it looks like it's ready.

For people who need huge hard drives..

 

 

 

it's getting unbearable

Polar Bears in Churchill.

snip

...

"Can I give you some polar bear advice?" asks Tee, a confident 13-year-old we meet during a visit to a high school in Churchill, Canada.

"If there's a bear this close to you," she says as she measures a distance of about 30cm with her hands, "make a fist - and punch it in the nose.

"Polar bears have very sensitive noses - it'll just run away."

Tee has not had to put this advice to the test. But growing up here - alongside the planet's largest land predator - means bear safety is part of everyday life.

...

 

 

home insurance and climate change

Fewer people will qualify for mortgages.

snip

...

he insurance crisis spreading across the United States arrived at Richard D. Zimmel’s door last week in the form of a letter.

Mr. Zimmel, who lives in the increasingly fire-prone hills outside Silver City, N.M., had done everything right. He trimmed the trees away from his house, and covered his yard in gravel to stop flames rushing in from the forest near his property. In case that buffer zone failed, he sheathed his house in fire-resistant stucco, and topped it with a noncombustible steel roof.

None of it mattered. His insurance company, Homesite Insurance, dumped him. “Property is located in a brushfire or wildfire area that no longer meets Homesite’s minimum standard for wildfire risk,” the letter read. (Homesite did not respond to a request for comment.)

Mr. Zimmel has company. Since 2018, more than 1.9 million home insurance contracts nationwide have been dropped — “nonrenewed,” in the parlance of the industry. In more than 200 counties, the nonrenewal rate has tripled or more, according to the findings of a congressional investigation released Wednesday.

As a warming planet delivers more wildfires, hurricanes and other threats, America’s once reliably boring home insurance market has become the place where climate shocks collide with everyday life.

...

 

 

trump's attack on the auto industry

By reducing emission standards and adding tariffs the US will fall even further behind on the next generation of cars.

snip

...

Instead, the new regime will be far more friendly to gas guzzling, as it intends to roll back EPA fuel efficiency standards to those in effect in 2019. This would increase the allowable level of emissions from cars by about 25 percent relative to the current rule set. US new vehicle efficiency stalled between 2008 and 2019, and it was only once the Biden administration began in 2021 that the EPA started instituting stricter rules on allowable limits of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from vehicle tailpipes.

...

 

 

medieval pet names

A look into ordinary lives.  Also an Irish poem about a cat and an assortment of odd links like pet care.

 

 

navigating vaccination noise

YLE has some comments.

snip

...

The next four years are going to be a volume problem. Fake controversies and minor concerns will dominate the headlines, while the monumental successes of vaccination will remain largely invisible.

But make no mistake: Vaccines have saved more lives in the past century than any other medical intervention. The data is clear and compelling:

Consider smallpox—once a global scourge, eradicated thanks to vaccination.
Or polio, which paralyzed tens of thousands annually in the U.S. alone before vaccines turned the tide.
Deaths from measles, diphtheria, and tetanus have plummeted to near-zero in most parts of the world with high vaccine uptake.

These successes are so profound that they’ve become invisible—people rarely see the diseases vaccines prevent and, as a result, sometimes fail to appreciate their value.

...

It's important that you get in contact with your Senators - particularly if they're Republican - and let them know Kennedy is a non-starter and Trump's opposition to school vaccination requirements is insane.

 

 

 

there are no replacements for small chinese-made drones

And the US might ban them - a serious disaster for users as American drones are many years behind and cost much more.

And Don Trump Jr is a major advisor/stock holder in an American company that claims to have drone tech, but is really a shell. 

 

 

remembering Rrsetta

APOD looks back at one of the most amazing images ever taken.