Date archives "November 2017"

“Housing First” – a new approach for addressing long-term homelessness

“How Finland tackled homelessness and why Birmingham might be following in their footsteps”

A revolutionary new scheme under which rough sleepers are given a home straight away could be officially piloted here in Birmingham (UK) after showing success abroad.
The “Housing First” principle gives rough sleepers a permanent stable home and address rather than move them through various shelters, hostels and supported accommodation.
It has proved such a success in the USA, Finland and several other countries that the Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid is looking to pilot the scheme here – and the West Midlands is making a bid to be that test bed.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/how-finland-tackled-homelessness-birmingham-13897678

Strange Visitor From Outer Space

 

For the first time ever astronomers have studied an asteroid “ʻOumuamua” that has entered the Solar System from interstellar space. Observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and other observatories around the world show that this unique object was traveling through space for millions of years before its chance encounter with our star system. It appears to be a dark, reddish, highly-elongated rocky or high-metal-content object.
Header image: Wikipedia

Marketing Utopianism

“The Only Thing Stopping Us From Creating Utopia Is The Fact That We Don’t Truly Want It Yet”

How interesting to such a mind is a world in which there are no problems? All of the major tribulations facing our species today are of our own making: war, poverty, famine, social and economic injustice, cruelty and exploitative toil. What few problems we encounter which aren’t man-made (natural disasters, some diseases) could be vastly minimized if our species was pouring all its mental energy and creativity into creating a better world for everyone instead of into economic competition and warfare. A world without any of those problems is uninteresting and unsexy to the average human mind. We’re not creating it because we’re bored by the very thought of it. If utopia were created tomorrow, humanity would sabotage it almost immediately out of sheer restlessness. https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-only-thing-stopping-us-from-creating-utopia-is-the-fact-that-we-dont-truly-want-it-yet-35fddbfd83d7

Header Image: The Venus Project

Biology Rap Video Goes Viral (in a good way)

Morehouse College student Julien Turner lit up the internet this week when he posted his extra credit video to Twitter. Turner, who is enrolled in a biology class,  got creative when his teacher challenged students to make a video about mitosis and meiosis.His rap over the Lil Uzi song “XO TourLlif3” quickly went viral for catchy lyrics like, “If my genes go left unread, all my cells are dead.”

https://nypost.com/2017/11/03/biology-student-goes-viral-with-extra-credit-rap-video/

“Even The Queen” – Connie Willis

For Menstrual Hygiene Day, we present an award-winning story by Connie Willis.

In a future where menstruation is optional, women debate going back to cramps, mood swings, bleeding. Winner of 1993 ‘Hugo’ Science Fiction prize for ‘Best Short Story’.

Considering how much science fiction there is about longevity, body modification, transformation — it’s surprising that there isn’t more fiction addressing this physical reality practically all women experience.

Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Even_the_Queen
Read online: http://www.e-reading.club/bookreader.php/71143/Willis_-_Even_the_Queen.html
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/209712.Even_the_Queen
Buy Online: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0964853906/