Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Korean Leek Pancake

Happy National Virtual Vacation Day!    As spring break season hits (our local public schools will have it next week) some people are busy planning …

Korean Leek Pancake

A 2022 Challenge: Five things to inspire a less-waste lifestyle

Waste is a Failure of Design

— Anh NGUYEN

If you are looking for a meaningful fun challenge for your 2022, and if you are still perplexed with the complexity and grandeur of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradations, this article is designed just for you.

In this article, we will list 5 resources that might help inspire you to lead a less-waste, more fulfilling lifestyle. The challenge is to read/watch/study these five resources in 2022 and for each one of them, write a little note on your biggest takeaways. Any takeaway(a thought, a feeling, an action plan, etc.) is appreciated. You can send them directly to us at waste.failureofdesign@gmail.com.

Let’s get it started!

A bird’s eye view – The Anthropocene Project

The Anthropocene Project by Edward Burtynsky includes a series of museum exhibitions with big-scale aerial photographs, a (crazily well-crafted) documentary film, an art book, an educational program…on “humanity’s…

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What One Million COVID Dead Mean for the U.S.’s Future – Scientific American

These deaths have wide-ranging consequences. The effects on children may be the longest-lasting. In the U.S., an estimated 243,000 children have lost a caregiver to COVID—including 194,000 who lost one or both parents—and the psychological and economic aftershocks can have lifetime negative impacts on their education and career.

Chart compares the proportion of recorded COVID deaths with the proportion of the U.S. population by all age groups.
Credit: Amanda Montañez; Source: COVID Data Tracker, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (data retrieved on March 25, 2022)

Certain communities have been hit especially hard, with older Americans and people of color suffering disproportionately. As of March 25, about three quarters of the dead, or around 730,000, have been people 65 and older. Many of them were otherwise healthy and, statistically, would have lived many more years, says Jennifer Dowd, a demographer at the University of Oxford. Their passing leaves a giant hole, she notes. “We’re probably not accounting for all the ways in which we rely on that age group to contribute to society,” from caring for grandkids to providing stable intergenerational family structures, Dowd says. On average, every death from COVID leaves nine people grieving.

Source: What One Million COVID Dead Mean for the U.S.’s Future – Scientific American

White House launches ‘one-stop’ website for COVID-19 needs | CIDRAP

President Joe Biden today announced the launch of covid.gov, a new one-stop shop for finding COVID-19 vaccines, masks, tests, and treatments by county on an easy-to-use website.

“We are in a new moment in this pandemic, it does not mean it’s over, it means it no longer controls our lives,” Biden said, before announcing he was getting his second booster dose of vaccine later this afternoon. “Thanks to the foundation we have laid, America has the tools to fight the virus.”

Despite the optimistic message, Biden warned that the federal government only has enough money to fund COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatments until the end of May, and he pleaded with Congress to authorize more money for COVID-19 response.

Biden also warned that a lack of funds would mean booster shots may not be free in the fall, when many experts expect all Americans will be eligible for a fourth booster shot. Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved the use of a fourth dose for Americans 50 and older who have seen at least 4 month elapse from their first booster dose.

Source: White House launches ‘one-stop’ website for COVID-19 needs | CIDRAP