Interesting Links for 16-08-2023

[andrewducker]

1. The 16 brutal restrictions imposed on women in Afghanistan during two years of the Taliban

(tags:taliban afghanistan women rights )

2. 'We want a second baby, but can't afford one': The rise of Britain's one-child families

(tags:children money uk )

3. Edinburgh is new Covid hotspot as active cases double during Festival Fringe

(tags:pandemic edinburgh festival fringe )

4. Positive Association between Altitude and Suicide across the USA

(tags:usa suicide oxygen )

5. Council Tax Reform is Necessary — and so is Understanding

(tags:Scotland politics tax )

6. Brains of teenage smokers may be different than non-smokers

(tags:cigarettes neuroscience brain teenagers )

7. Google DeepMind's game-playing AI just found another way to make code faster

(tags:ai coding software )

Comments

Edinburgh is new Covid hotspot as active cases double during Festival Fringe

[anef]

Doom!

link 3

[redbird]

The headline say that Edinburgh is a new Covid hotspot, and then the second paragraph says that the entire rest of Scotland falls under "insufficient data." Given that current government policy is not to share any data they are even bothering to collect, "insufficient data" could mean anything from healthy people not calling the doctor, to a serious outbreak and a lot of people being hospitalized.

On the less worrying side, the mention of "hundreds of thousands" of tourists makes me wonder about the denominator in that "cases per million people" figure. 35,000 case/550,000 people is a much higher rate than 35,000/800,000.

Yes, go back to masking indoors if you ever stopped, even if you're not at the Fringe, or in the Edinburgh area. But how much of this the virus spreading faster at the Fringe, because people are mixing with more strangers, in more crowded conditions? Are people more likely to call a doctor if traveling, who would stay home, eat chicken soup, and take the painkillers they already have if they're at home?

[danieldwilliam]

Item 4 is interesting. I saw the headline and thought to myself - I wonder if they've controlled for the income effect of higher altitudes being more rural and therefore poorer - and they have. I wonder if any studies have been done on the Alps.

#5

[channelpenguin]

We have just had a property tax reassessment here in Germany - not done since 1989.

I do worry about the "nice old lady who bought cheap years ago" problem, because I am not quite old, nor was it quite so cheap, but an area becoming more desirable and / or rising house prices are NOT UNDER MY CONTROL and NOT PREDICTABLE BY ME. So, it seems insanely unfair that any of us could be "priced out" of our home through no fault of our own, or of our own planning, at a time of life with very little room (or energy) to increase income. A bit like the raosing of retirement ages for people already in their 50s and 60s - you simply can't meanihfully adjust investment strategies that late in the day (if you even have enough income for such a luxury).

I am NOT a Tory or anything, Gods forbid - but there is a point that "normal" "higher" income people have already paid higher taxes throughout their working life. I mean people like me, decent earned income but not in the bracket to pay pros to pull clever dodges. I dont like asset taxes, land or property. Service taxes, yeah, progressive income taxes HELL YEAH, even if that means me (which I woudl bloody well hope it does) - but the REAL big "earners" ALWAYS have too much opportunity be "tax-efficient" and wriggle out.

sigh. I dunno what the solution is. I just know I dont like an ever-increasing cost of ownership on stuff I bought decades ago - and I am very much not alone there.

Bugger, if I outlive the cat I will go love on a boat - guaranteed to depreciate mightily!!! :-)

Babies and immigration

[agoodwinsmith]

I can't read all of #2 because paywall, but it did remind me of some factoids I discovered while researching a job interview presentation back in 2007 (oh, longer ago than I thought - well, anyway). Canada relies heavily on immigration for population replacement (never mind growth), and it turns out that is doesn't matter which ethnic/racial/national group has immigrated to Canada: the first families are big crowds, and then by the second and third generation, the families are ones and twos. Our The-Good-Life lifestyle of a nice house and cars all round and good schools and enrichment activities for kids and adequate retirement funds is not sufficiently supported by the wages of many of our professions. Regardless of ethnic/racial/national starting point.

6

[anna_wing]

Instead of intrusive and expensive examination of individual teenagers' brains, perhaps it would be more cost-effective to make it harder for teenagers in general to acquire the habit in the first place. The New Zealand generational smoking ban is an interesting experiment, it will be very instructive to see how it turns out.

4

[anna_wing]

It would be interesting to look at high-altitude populations in other places to see if this particular correlation holds generally (and if so, why. Oxygen issues? Poverty stress?). The Alps, yes, but also the Altiplano, Tibet, the Himalayan countries, the Urals...