Politics

by Jason Crawford: History teaches us how to be brutally honest about a problem and yet optimistic…

Debates about technology and progress are often framed in terms of “optimism” vs. “pessimism.” For instance, Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley, Johan Norberg, Max Roser, and the late Hans Rosling have been called the “New Optimists” for their focus on the economic, scientific, and social progress of the last two centuries. Their opponents, such as David Runciman and Jason Hickel, accuse them of being blind to real problems in the world, such as poverty, and to risks of catastrophe, such as nuclear war.

 
After a radical pro-abortion bill made it through both chambers of the New Jersey state legislature and was signed Thursday by Governor Phil Murphy, New Jersey is codifying the “right to reproductive freedom.”
“Right now in New Jersey, our right to reproductive freedom is dependent on a set of legal precedents—but it is not state law,” Murphy and state lieutenant governor Sheila Oliver wrote in an op-ed last month.
The legislation would allow abortion up to the point of birth, with no requirement to notify parents if the pregnant mother is a minor. It has been condemned for allowing late-term abortions, which Murphy and Oliver argue is not extreme because “those who need these critical medical services do so overwhelmingly because there is a threat to their health or there are severe fetal anomalies that would result in suffering and death of the infant.”

The Morrison government’s Better Advice Bill threaded the parliamentary needle Thursday, securing the final major reform from the Hayne royal commission and kick-starting a new era in the regulatory oversight of financial advisers.
From January 1 next year ASIC’s Financial Services and Credit Panel (FSCP) will become the single disciplinary body for advisers, and any complaints about advisers adherance to the Code of Ethics will be heard by a panel of industry members appointed by the relevant minister.
Peer review will now become the “primary channel by which misconduct is assessed and sanctioned,” the government stated.
Speaking to Professional Planner Friday morning, financial services minister Jane Hume said she was “pleased” to gain support of the crossbench and get the Bill across the line.
For advisers, Hume continued, having their conduct assessed by peers is a big step towards graduating from an industry to a profession.

Bitcoin appears to meet the definition of an energy-backed currency proposed by the famed American inventor during the interbellum period.
In 1921, American industrialist Henry Ford proposed the creation of an “energy currency” that could form the basis of a new monetary system — offering striking similarities to the peer-to-peer electronic cash system outlined in Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2008 Bitcoin (BTC) whitepaper. 
Front page of the New York Tribune dated Sunday, December 4, 1921. Source: Library of Congress
Bitcoin as an energy currency

In a society where we refer to our homes as our castles, it makes sense that we also want to feel safe and secure in our residences. But as we spend more time inside looking at screens and less time outside making connections with neighbors, it also makes sense that many homeowners today feel less safe and secure than they did a few decades ago.The irony is that violent crime rates have decreased even as our feelings of danger lurking around every corner have increased. So what can you do to help assuage your fears — and actually make your community safer in the bargain?Plenty! Establishing yourself as a community and working together with your neighbors is one of the best ways to increase feelings of safety while actually reducing crime in your area.

Last Monday, following over a month in exile after being dropped from Amazon Web Services, Google’s Play Store, and Apple’s App Store, the social media app Parler returned to life with a new hosting service and new content guidelines. Parler has become popular among the pro-Donald Trump right, as tech companies have increasingly cracked down on far-right content over the last year, and it now boasts 20 million users on what it calls “the world’s premier free speech platform.” Parler is just one part of a mass conservative reaction to increasing social media scrutiny of Republican commentators and politicians, culminating in Twitter’s permanent ban of President Trump. But although legal experts agree the social media bans that have led to the migration to Parler do not violate free speech, the fact that so few companies control the dissemination of speech in America should concern those across the political spectrum. 

Srinagar: On 4th of June 2018, Sunil Sharma the then Minister for Power in the PDP-BJP coalition government announced, “I am hosting (first-ever) global investor meet for harnessing the huge hydro power potential of J&K”.
Two-and-half years down the line no global investor has come and Kashmir “scandalously” remains one of the energy-deprived hotspots in the subcontinent.
Interestingly, the water res of the erstwhile state continue exclusively to be kept open for exploitation by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), a profitable hydropower public sector enterprise of the Government of India.
Instead of following a policy of creating its indigenous hydle power assets, the rulers have religiously followed a “guide book” of endowing the water res of Jammu and Kashmir to the NHPC.

A group of faculty senators charged with overseeing a faculty-wide survey of University President Thomas LeBlanc said they have already received hundreds of responses since its distribution earlier this month.
Senators Susan Kulp, Jamie Cohen-Cole, Shaista Khilji and executive committee chair Arthur Wilson said in a release that 365 faculty have completed the survey as of Monday. The survey will be open until at least Jan. 11 and was developed based on leadership surveys, Association of Governing Boards guidelines and LeBlanc’s job description, the release states.
“This survey comprises questions about the current campus climate and President LeBlanc’s leadership,” the statement reads. “The results of this survey will be communicated with the Board, President LeBlanc and the GW faculty and staff members.”

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Beirut, Lebanon – Walking through the rubble of her neighbourhood last week, Sabine Salameh spotted a car crushed under the yellow sandstone blocks of an old heritage building.
The silver sedan was flattened, caked in dust and was clearly never going to function again.
“I thought, that’s exactly how I feel right now,” Salameh says.
She brought a spray can close to its dented bodywork and wrote “Mood” in black, capital letters. Later, the 27-year-old freelance writer found out that the car belonged to a friend – a testament, she agrees, to how small Beirut is and how inextricably-linked so many of its inhabitants are.
A ferocious explosion tore through the Lebanese capital on August 4, killing more than 170 people, wounding upwards of 6,000 and leaving some 300,000 homeless. It also rippled across the connections that criss-cross the city, shaking even those who were at no immediate risk from the blast wave itself.