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Justin Klawans, The Week US
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'Rice can feed the world β even with fewer farmers'
Javier Blas at Bloomberg
The "collapse in rice prices β now approaching their lowest in 18 years β is evidence that interventions by governments and modern agricultural methods may save the day," says Javier Blas. The "key is productivity: more food from fewer farmers." Farming has "enjoyed a dramatic and often overlooked productivity revolution: Over the last century, crop yields have exploded." But "opposition to modern farming methods keeps increasing, often accompanied by calls for a return to yesteryear's ways."
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'Why does the MAGA elite love conspicuous cosmetic surgery?'
Arwa Mahdawi at The Guardian
We "haven't evolved from apes that much because a similar phenomenon is at play with the billionaire and MAGA set, who are spending enormous sums of money acquiring identical plastic faces," says Arwa Mahdawi. These are "not human faces, they are luxury meat-masks meant to signal wealth and in-group belonging." One "can only surmise that they live in such weird little bubbles, where everyone is addicted to filler, that this sort of conspicuous consumption of cosmetic surgery has become desirable."
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'AI engineers need their own Hippocratic Oath. Here's what it should say.'
Dana Suskind at Time
AI "engineers hold in their hands the power to do extraordinary good β closing gaps in education, unlocking medical breakthroughs, accelerating climate solutions β or, if they lose sight of the people their creations serve, to cause deep harm," says Dana Suskind. But unlike medical students, AI engineers graduate without ever pledging to 'first, do no harm.'" This is "precisely why AI merits a pledge built, like the Hippocratic Oath, around a fundamental principle: Power without conscience is dangerous."
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'Katrina was bigger than a hurricane'
Audrey L. Tanksley at The Progressive
Hurricane Katrina was "not only a climate catastrophe," says Audrey L. Tanksley. It was "also a mental health emergency. In its wake, studies revealed spikes in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and substance use among evacuees." If "we are serious about ending the overdose crisis, we must prepare for trauma the way we prepare for storms." That "means funding long-term, culturally grounded behavioral health services." Let's "not wait for the next disaster to act."
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