Interesting Links for 10-03-2023

[andrewducker]

1. Evolution of tree roots may have driven mass extinctions

(tags:evolution apocalypse extinction trees )

2. Childcare: Full-time nursery for under-twos nearly £15k a year

(tags:childcare money uk )

3. Mice born with two fathers

(tags:mice men children )

4. Inside the Secret Working Group That Helped Push Anti-Trans Laws Across the Country

(tags:LGBT USA bigotry transgender law )

5. Rotating Sandwiches - that's it

(tags:food video wtf )

6. Why It's So Hard To Build a Crochet Machine

(tags:craft automation video viaNancyLebov )

7. Visceral Femininity: A Bloodborne Video Essay

(tags:games menstruation blood horror )

8. Inside the chaos of Elon Musk's Twitter

(tags:ElonMusk EpicStupidity business Twitter doom )

9. ONS Covid infection survey paused after 3 years, leaving no official method for tracking virus

(tags:Pandemic UK )

10. The Fed's Inflation Goal Is Completely Arbitrary

(tags:inflation economics history viaDanielDWilliam )

Comments

[sigmonster]

We’re on the painful side of (2), as well. But if you want a full time qualified adult delivering childcare, and the 1 adult to 3 children ratio then nursery just has to be expensive. Say the living wage is around 21,000, with total cost of employment about twice that. At most 3 kids paying for the cost of employment gives us 21 * 2 / 3, so parent costs of 14,000 a year before any other costs at all (heating, food, water, land and buildings…).

Like social care in old age, it’s expensive because people are expensive (and so they should be, we want and must have decent pay for all!) and there’s no economy of scale, the country having given up on baby farms some time in the late 1800s.

Not that this makes the monthly invoice any nicer to pay!

[andrewducker]

Oh yeah, I don't think they're a rip-off. Just expensive.

[snippy]

Really it's more than that, unless the nursery is only open for 8 hours and the carers don't get lunch or breaks.