Here is My Top 10 News and Articles that I found during June 7th-13th, as the 6th entry for the project of posting my top 10 articles weekly. I was particularly impressed with the article on how we see the world (ranked number 2) which shows that we actually see the world with fear and biases especially on internet and that we need to enhance the way we view the world based on facts. The article’s discussion is in line with the Factfulness approach, I talked about in my past blog entry.
The purpose of my Top 10 Article project is to share articles that I believe convey essential information for parents or anyone who care about the next generation. I ranked the articles subjectively. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it!
10. Farmers are in crisis, and most people don’t pay attention to them
It’s ironic that we don’t pay enough attention to farmers and farming industries despite the fact that feeding the global population later in this century will be one of the biggest challenges human being is facing.
Providing rural farmers with high-speed internet access and cutting-edge technology will be essential not only to enhance their life but also to manage their farm and utilize their resources. Living far away from farms, we, urban dwellers, tend to assume without much thinking that crops and faming products are stably supplied and available at stores anytime. But for farmers, their products, as well as their lives, are not stable at all, due to the increasing number of natural disaster, market turmoil, and sustained low commodity prices. In fact, average farmers’ income dropped in 2018 from 2017. The economy of rural communities in USA has been stagnant. Roughly one in three rural Americans, and one in four farmers, are without broadband access, cutting them off from services like telemedicine and educational tools, according to the article.
(Source: Fortune)
9. Most new fathers experience dad shaming
Fathers often criticized or judged by their co-parents (their own children’s mothers) on how fathers discipline children, what fathers feed, fathers play with children, and how much screen time fathers give to children. That happens partly because fathers and mothers don’t share their parental vision. In any case, criticizing fathers – especially in front of children – does not make anyone happy.
(Source: Psychology Today)
8. The changes and challenges of fatherhood
This article summarize how new fathers have difficult time in their early fatherhood because of biological and hormonal changes, relationship changes, and emotional shifts.
(Source: Psychology Today)
7. The tragedy of unregulated digital world – how driving hate speech into the mainstream
This article focuses too much on the negative aspect of unregulated online practices. Internet has tremendously benefited our lives in many ways. That said, as the article argues, online spaces have been often too much impacted by prankster trolls and true believers alike, driving hate speech into the mainstream.
(Source: Fortune)
6. How technology can improve education and health services in poor countries
Technology can help improve health and education services in developing countries. For example, in India, digital personalized learning software that facilitates tailoring learning to each student’s level—showed 38 percent improvement in math scores after just four and a half months in a pilot, after-school program in Delhi, according to the article. But, just providing hardware does not necessarily improve education. However, not all tech projects have been successful; for instance, One Laptop Per Child initiative in Peru had little effect on children’s math and reading scores, partly because it didn’t relieve other constraints in the education system, such as teachers’ knowledge, stated by the article.
Furthermore, if digital technology can get enough data and evidence of how technology can assist disadvantaged communities, politicians can appeal it during election campaigns and carry it out as actual policies. Currently, this issue seldom make argument for election.
(Source: Brookings Institute)
5. Future of car looks bright to most of us, while automakers might suffer
Autonomous (known as driver-less or self-driving) car will be a mainstream in the foreseeable future, which will a great news for families with young children. So many parents of young children have experienced driving while babies crying. While driving, of course, we cannot soothe crying kids. If robots (instead of parents) drives a car, parents and kids would be better off. In addition, autonomous cars will decrease traffic accidents because it eliminates human errors. As this article discusses, car industry will struggle, because if autonomous cars are mainstream, the benefit of owing cars will decrease, and many people will opt to share or rent cars. Also, car companies have to compete with tech giants such as Google who have already launched self-drive cats.
(Source: BBC)
4. Safety Net for children in poverty
How can the government promote equal opportunities for every child, if it cannot guarantee equal outcomes? Here is one answer: Provide safety net for children whose parents don’t have enough resources, as stated in this article.
In USA, roughly one out of six children are living in poverty, and unfortunately social economic classes at birth has an enormous influence on their later lives. Children from high-income and educated parents live in good neighborhood, attend well-funded schools, and are more likely to finish collage with degrees. On the other hands, children from poor families live in low-income neighborhood, go to inferior schools, and are less likely to earn college degrees.
Besides, children from rich families attend high quality preschools, and get ready to make a good start by the time they go to kindergarten. However, so many children from low-income working parents don’t have opportunity to enhance their kindergarten readiness; as a result, many of them academically fall behind from the beginning.
So, what should the government do exactly? What they can do includes but not limited to subsiding low-income households with children, increasing the funding to public childcare, and supporting parents out of work. Most importantly, voters should be aware of the situation of children with poverty. The responsibility lies with us all, as stated by the article.
(Source: Brookings Institute)
3. Mandatory chemical castration for those convicted of a sex offense against a child under the age of 13 in Alabama, USA
I think this is a very effective way to decline sex crimes. Together with mandatory GPS monitoring of sex offenders, sex crimes would significantly be reduced.
(Source: CNN)
2. We actually see the world with our fear instinct and biases
Instead of worrying about terrorist attacks, mind your own health! There is a huge difference among what Americans die from, what they search on Google, and what the media report on. While death from terrorist attacks is most covered by the media, the number one cause of death in USA is actually heart disease. As widely recognized, heart disease is in many cases predictable and avoidable as long as one takes for health.
We all have fear instinct, and very often see the world through our own perception (or bias), rather than based on facts and data. The authors and their group aim to provide a fact-based overview of the world we live in.
(Source: Our World in Data)
(Source: Our World in Data)
1. Plain package for sugary products!
Sugary products with chemical additives are much more appealing to young children at stores than healthier ones. Why do children have to get used to unhealthy foods from early age?
To halve the child obesity by 2030, introduce plain package for sugarly products and drinks and tax on them. Sugary products with artificial color additives are so appealing to young children that parents with young children often have to fight with kids at supermarkets. Meanwhile, healthier products usually use natural tone of color for their packages, which means they are less appealing to young children. It is not fair that young children are forced to be tempted to pick unhealthy products, because that could health problems for a longer term if eating unhealthy sugary products become habitual for children.
(Source: BBC)
(cover photo by Luke Richardson on Unsplash)