Daily-Dose

Contents

• From New Yorker
• From Vox
• From The Hindu: Sports
• From The Hindu: National News
• From BBC: Europe
• From Ars Technica
• From Jokes Subreddit

From New Yorker

• There’s Only One Thing to Call Biden’s New Scandal: Political Malpractice - And that’s assuming things don’t get worse. - link

• Why Is Columbia Kicking Out a Beloved Preschool? - The Red Balloon is part of the university’s progressive history, but it may not have a future. - link

• A Hotter Planet Takes Another Toll on Human Health - A new hypothesis about heat waves, redlining, and kidney stones. - link

• Republican Debt-Ceiling Madness Is About to Begin Again - Holding the debt limit hostage could have dire economic consequences for Americans. - link

• Is Prince Harry’s “Spare” a Political Manifesto? - His own feelings about the value of the monarchy, he writes, are “complicated.” - link

From Vox

• Jacinda Ardern is a global icon — but she’s still a politician -

  

  Ardern led New Zealand through some of its biggest crises, but the country’s political winds are shifting.

  After nearly six years leading New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern’s tenure as prime minister will come to an end February 7, as her Labour Party dips in the polls and the country appears poised for a recession.

  It’s also the end of at least one phase of her international prominence. Ardern didn’t become famous because of New Zealand’s primacy in the international order, but rather because of who she was, and her specific responses to the national and international catastrophes that defined her tenure. She was celebrated for her leadership through a white supremacist mass shooting at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, and through the Covid-19 crisis — two moments that put her in stark contrast to bombastic, autocratic leaders like former US President Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, in addition to making her a symbol for young women in leadership.

  Citing burnout after five and a half years in office, Ardern announced Thursday that she would step down prior to the end of her term and wouldn’t seek reelection. “I know there will be much discussion in the aftermath of this decision as to what the so-called ‘real’ reason was,” she told a news conference Thursday. “The only interesting angle you will find is that after going on six years of some big challenges, that I am human.”

  Ardern was not the first woman prime minister in New Zealand’s history, but was the youngest ever PM and gave birth while in office, pushing her further into the international spotlight as a young, feminist leader at a time — at least in many Western countries and the US in particular — when older men seemed to retain their grip on power despite social progress.

  But domestic politics, not international acclaim, determine a country’s leadership within a democracy, and Ardern’s Labour Party has plummeted in the polls as the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis sets in. New Zealand’s post-Covid economy is pointed toward a recession, and child poverty — one of Ardern’s causes — continues to rise, bringing about dissatisfaction from both the left and the right.

  By every conceivable metric, Ardern met the moment during the two major crises that defined her administration, and her gifts for communication, empathy, and collaboration were well-suited to those crises. She remains popular within the Labour Party and was, until recently, more popular than the overall party in public opinion polling. However, as economic circumstances change and New Zealanders are eager to move on from Covid-19, Ardern’s counterpart in the conservative National Party, Christopher Luxon, has been gaining ground in the polls, indicating that the majority Labour won in 2020 could come to an end in October, when Ardern has called for elections.

  Though Ardern’s announcement caught international observers by surprise, it was perhaps less of a shock to New Zealanders, Kathy Smits, a professor of politics and international relations at the University of Auckland, told Vox. “The historical example that really comes to my mind, and to a lot of people’s minds, is in Britain after the war — [Winston] Churchill was voted out in 1945. He led Britain through the war and was an incredibly popular prime minister, and yet people were ready for a change,” she said. “I think in this environment, there’s something kind of similar going on there.”

  Like many countries around the world, New Zealand is ready for a change

  Ardern rightly won international plaudits for her response to the 2019 shootings at the Al Noor mosque and Linwood Islamic Center in Christchurch, which killed 51 people. The shooter was an avowed neo-Nazi and white nationalist who used semiautomatic weapons to carry out the slaughter. Ardern immediately connected to the Muslim community and committed the government to paying funeral costs for victims. Her decisive but emotional and empathetic response projected her onto the international stage early in her leadership; her proposal shortly after the shooting to ban semiautomatic weapons, too, demonstrated her ability to act boldly in the public interest.

  That was in particularly stark contrast to the US which, despite consistent mass shootings, has largely failed to enact meaningful policy change, barring a bill of tailored reforms passed last year.

  “The thing that Jacinda is really, really great about is communication — kind of the symbolic dimensions of leadership, bringing people together. She’s really good at that,” Smits said.

  But as important as Ardern’s global profile is, there’s no getting around the hard facts of domestic democratic politics. Inflation continues to batter economies across the globe; in New Zealand, that’s playing out in particular in the housing market. Many New Zealanders make their income through real estate — owning and renting properties. But skyrocketing housing prices, Smits explained, combined with high interest rates, have crippled that sector of New Zealand’s economy and helped push the country toward a recession. It’s also squeezed the housing market, making affordable housing difficult for many New Zealanders to find.

  Ardern also failed to make significant headway on child poverty in New Zealand, which is among the highest in the Western world. “It’s really at quite shocking levels,” Smits said, particularly among Māori and Pacific populations. Though Ardern’s administration managed to decrease the percentage of children in poverty marginally during her tenure, critics argue that the government didn’t go nearly far enough, especially given that it was one of her major policy issues.

  Furthermore, New Zealand has a fairly low tax rate, despite that taxes or some form of income are needed to fund social programs like the kinds that would help alleviate childhood poverty. But Ardern’s party refused to implement capital gains taxes on income — with Ardern saying that such a tax hike would never occur under her leadership.

  Those domestic issues have made Labour vulnerable from both the right and the left; more progressive politicians and voters are disappointed with the party’s inability to make real and significant headway on social issues — in part because the government refused to take necessary measures to raise money that would support social programs, Smits said.

  But perhaps more than a defeat for Labour, the next elections could be more of a return to form for New Zealand’s Parliament, which operates on a mixed member proportional system. That means any one party is unlikely to get a clear, overwhelming majority of seats, requiring coalition government.

  And after several years of crisis within the National Party, opposition leader Christopher Luxon seems to have strengthened his party’s position sufficiently to pull in some Labour defectors, Smits said, although it’s too early to tell what the outcome of the next election will be.

  It’s not just New Zealand that’s ready for a change; Brazil’s Bolsonaro was ousted by former President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva last year. In Italy, the far-right Giorgia Meloni replaced technocratic Prime Minister Mario Draghi last year, and in 2021 longtime German Chancellor Angela Merkel stepped down after 16 years in power.

  Ardern’s impact is significant and will likely outweigh her government’s inadequacies

  Western feminists have embraced Ardern, and rightly so, as a politician who balances power with compassion; a woman who had a baby while also guiding her country through some of the most challenging years in recent memory.

  Leaders like Hillary Clinton, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard tweeted in support of Ardern and the impact of her time in office, with Gillard saying, “Her example has been a shining light to many, especially women.”

  .@jacindaardern showed the world a new style of leadership by deciding to foreground kindness and empathy. Her example has been a shining light to many, especially women. I congratulate her on all she has achieved to date and wish her well in this next phase of her life.

  — Julia Gillard (@JuliaGillard) January 19, 2023

Ardern’s symbolic impact, in addition to her leadership, will likely be a major part of her legacy. Ardern took her child, Neve, to a United Nations General Assembly meeting in 2018, when she was just three months old — making history in the process. She was the first elected leader to give birth in office since Benazir Bhutto did the same in 1990, and only the second ever to do so.

Ardern’s style, too, is a marked shift not only from the machismo of autocratic leaders like Trump and Bolsonaro, but the often-combative nature of politics generally, as Richard Shaw, a politics professor at Massey University in New Zealand, told NBC Thursday.

“I think what she offered to the world actually was a model for doing democratic politics that does not rely upon abusing other people,” Shaw said. “She never uses the term ‘enemy’ to describe anybody.”

Though it’s probably not the driving force behind her resignation, Shaw said, that particular leadership style had also fixated “the political right, and the misogynists in particular, and the anti-vaxxers and the fringe dwellers in our political community” on Ardern.

It’s impossible to know just what Ardern’s legacy will be, but her power as a symbol not just of a successful leader — who is also a woman and a mother — had arguably the same effect as former President Barack Obama’s election as America’s first Black president. Both set a new standard for progress, even if their domestic policies didn’t live up to progressive ideals. But more than just the fact of her being a woman, a mother, and a world leader, she presented a compelling model of how leaders could behave and make decisions, even difficult ones, with clarity and compassion.

• Why we all need subtitles now -

  

  It’s not you — TV dialogue has gotten harder to hear.

  Have you ever been watching a show or movie, and then a character delivers a line so unintelligible you have to scramble to find the remote and rewind? For me, this moment came during the climax of the Pete Davidson film The King of Staten Island, where his most important line was impossible to understand.

  I had to rewind three times — and eventually put subtitles on — to finally pick up what he was saying.

  This experience isn’t unique. Gather enough people together and you can generally separate them into two categories: People who use subtitles, and people who don’t. And according to a not-so-scientific YouTube poll we ran on our Community tab, the latter category is an endangered species — of respondents who are not deaf or hard of hearing, 57 percent said they use subtitles, while just 12 percent said they generally don’t.

  

  But why do so many of us feel that we need subtitles to understand the dialogue in the things we watch?

  The answer to that question is complex — and we get straight to the bottom of it in this explainer, with the help of dialogue editor Austin Olivia Kendrick.

  You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube.

• 5 myths about gas stoves, the latest culture war clash -

  

  Biden isn’t coming for the gas stove.

  The debate over the future of the gas stove has been going on for years, long before last week, when it turned into a full-fledged culture war.

  Public health officials, researchers, and doctors have long been taking note of the abundant research linking pollution from the gas stove to respiratory problems, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced in December it was taking a look at the health risks to determine what regulations would be appropriate for the gas stove.

  But after a member of the CPSC told Bloomberg in an interview last week that “products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” the fervor built quickly. Republicans (and some Democrats) portrayed the commissioner’s remark as a sign that the Biden administration was coming for the gas stove as its next attack on American freedom. And plenty of defenders of the gas stove came out insisting it’s the superior way to cook.

  The fracas generated some new myths about gas stove regulation — and perpetuated other long-held misunderstandings. Here’s how to separate fact from fiction.

  Myth 1: Biden — or federal regulators — want to take your gas stove away

  The hysteria that ensued when the Consumer Product Safety Commission said it would be taking a closer look at gas stoves could be summed up by a tweet from Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX). “I’ll NEVER give up my gas stove. If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!”

  Some confusion comes from remarks from CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr., who told Bloomberg that “any option” is on the table as the independent agency considers the hazards posed by the gas stove: “Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” he said. The CPSC later clarified those remarks: The commission said that there is no ban under consideration, and “the CPSC is looking for ways to reduce related indoor air quality hazards.”

  There are a lot of other options, like requiring range hood ventilation to be sold alongside the gas stove and warning labels, that the commission could consider before an outright ban. And any CPSC regulation for stoves would apply to new products being sold, not those already in people’s homes.

  What’s more, it’s not the White House that’s calling all the shots here. The CPSC commissioners are appointed by the president, but otherwise, its regulations are not vetted through the White House, unlike the Environmental Protection Agency’s process. States and cities are also already taking action to minimize the climate and health risks involved with combusting gas indoors.

  The White House has said it doesn’t support a ban, but it is promoting incentives through the Inflation Reduction Act that help people voluntarily electrify their homes.

  Myth 2: Gas stove hazards are “newfound”

  In a letter to the CPSC’s Trumka, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) calls the gas stove a “newfound ‘hidden hazard’ that rests on limited research.” In another section, Vance says there’s a “lack of compelling evidence.”

  The study that caught national attention estimated that almost 13 percent of childhood asthma cases in the US are linked to gas stove use, similar to the level caused by secondhand smoke. That study is based on a review of the evidence from 2013, which examined 41 studies from multiple countries, dating as far back as 1977, to conclude that children living in households with gas stoves had a 42 percent higher risk of currently being diagnosed with asthma and a 24 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with asthma at some point in their life.

  “Although the effects of gas cooking and indoor NO₂ on asthma and wheeze were found to be relatively small … the public health impact may still be considerable because gas cooking is widespread,” the authors of the 2013 evidence review concluded.

  These studies looked at the impact of gas cooking specifically. But there’s an even longer trail of studies looking at the pollutant nitrogen dioxide, which is emitted by gas stoves, and the damage it does to people exposed to it outdoors. In fact, outdoor NO₂ pollution is regulated by the EPA, which has done its own thorough reviews of NO₂ risks.

  Myth 3: No type of cooking can compare to the gas stove

  The idea that gas is vastly superior to all its alternatives is pervasive and is eagerly pushed by both appliance makers and the natural gas industry. Whirlpool, which manufactures both gas and electric, says matter-of-factly on its website, “If you like to make meals that require rapid temperature changes, gas ranges might be the way to go.”

  The comparisons between gas and electric are usually comparing apples and oranges: the contemporary gas stove against dated electric stoves. The better modern equivalent is induction, which uses electromagnetic energy that makes the pans themselves a heat source, leaving the actual stovetop relatively cool. These new models come with settings that allow you to cook precisely at a certain temperature and hold that heat, with a lower risk of burns. Other positive reviews note that induction stoves are easier to clean and can boil water faster than gas stoves.

  Chefs are also more split on induction versus gas than the public realizes. In a Vox interview, Jon Kung, a Detroit-based chef, noted that he prefers induction because it improves his indoor air quality and heat in the home. He also noted you can use woks with it, a common complaint about switching away from gas. Sierra magazine has talked to other chefs who prefer induction. “For me, it was an economic no-brainer,” chef Michael Godlewski said on opening an all-induction restaurant in Pittsburgh in spring 2022 called EYV (Eat Your Veggies). “They asked me where I wanted the gas line, and I said, ‘Nowhere.’”

  An induction range is expensive; it can run you in the thousands of dollars. But the cost is coming down. One program some households may qualify for is the Inflation Reduction Act’s kitchen appliance tax credits and rebates. The 25C tax credits cover a range of energy-efficient products in the home, including an induction range. It allows you to deduct 30 percent of the costs of electrical work on the house (up to $1,200). Later this year, there will be rebates available, too, under the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program. Households making up to 150 percent of the local median income will lower the upfront costs of the appliance and installation. Lower-income households (below 80 percent of the median income) can have all their costs covered under the program.

  In the meantime, households that don’t want to wait or don’t qualify could also opt for a portable plug-in induction stovetop, which costs much less and is renter-friendly.

  Myth 4: Most of America uses gas stoves

  Gas stoves are common but not ubiquitous. Per the Energy Information Administration, on average, 38 percent of the country uses gas for cooking, or about 40 million stoves. But those numbers vary widely depending on where you are. New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California have the highest rates of gas stoves in the country, over 60 percent. Southeastern states have some of the lowest rates in the country, under 20 percent.

  Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) reacted to the CPSC uproar by tweeting, “I can tell you the last thing that would ever leave my house is the gas stove that we cook on.”

  Manchin himself may have a gas stove, but many in his state do not. In fact, a survey from the EIA in 2020 found that a quarter of West Virginia residents have a gas cooking appliance, while 73 percent use electric.

  The consequences of gas appliances aren’t also evenly distributed. Children, who have smaller lungs, are at higher risk of developing complications from NO₂, and so are older adults and people with preexisting health conditions. Another risk factor is if a person is already exposed to other pollution sources in addition to the stove. They might live near a highway, an industrial site, or even in an area with concentrated gas appliances all venting outside, so they are breathing dirty air both outside and indoors.

  Myth 5: As long as you use ventilation, the risks don’t matter

  The American Gas Association’s website emphasizes that with ventilation like a working range hood, the gas stove is not a problem for indoor air quality. The Wall Street Journal editorial board echoed this: “Studies flogged by the climate left don’t account for the effects of ventilation. One even sealed a test kitchen in plastic tarps in an effort to show that gas stoves increase pollution.”

  Ventilating the kitchen is the only solution we have to lessening exposure to pollutants when the stove or oven is on. But in practice, some hoods don’t vent the air outdoors but rather recirculate it inside, or people may be in a small space where pollution builds more quickly. Some issues are behavioral — like people not even using the hood they have, by neglecting to turn it on. Some of the problem is that not all hoods are capable of filtering out NO₂ levels. As journalist Michael Thomas explained, range hoods don’t always perform well in the real world. Studies, like at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) found that code-compliant hoods in California still captured just about half of NO₂ pollution.

  More recent research from LBNL found that a gas stove can also be leaking methane, a greenhouse gas, even when the appliance is shut off. Inside the home, the level of methane is probably low enough that the researchers don’t consider these leaks to be a health threat. But methane is also a larger problem, not just for its climate risks but because it contributes to ground-level ozone that harms human health.

From The Hindu: Sports

• Little Minister and Mighty Wings catch the eye -

• Mirra, Adjustment, Silvarius, Peyo, Alcides Synergy and Polished Girl shine -

• Djokovic battles past Dimitrov to stay on course at Australian Open - Djokovic aggravated his hamstring during his run to a 92nd title at the Adelaide International this month and has been struggling with it since.

• With focus on grassroots, Dilip Tirkey hopes to build players and facilities for the future - The Hockey India president believes taking infrastructure to the youth, instead of the other way round, age-group events and monitoring is key to a strong sporting base

• WFI rejects wrestlers' allegations of sexual harassment by president - Sexual harassment allegations were made by renowned wrestlers like Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Ravi Dahiya against WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh

From The Hindu: National News

• Ignite Kollam investment meet on January 28 -

• Tapioca, fish on Kerala’s Cotton Hill school midday meal menu - Additions to menu served to nearly 1,100 students on Friday

• Exposure tour: Tamil Nadu delegation visits Dalit Bandhu units in Huzurabad constituency -

• WFI rejects wrestlers' allegations of sexual harassment by president - Sexual harassment allegations were made by renowned wrestlers like Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Ravi Dahiya against WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh

• Pyramid-like Ahom burial mounds in Assam to be India’s nomination for UNESCO World Heritage Site tag - Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose Charaideo Maidam from among 52 tentative sites across the country, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said

From BBC: Europe

• Ukraine war: ‘Frank’ talks as Ukraine pushes Germany for tanks - Pressure mounts on Berlin to send Kyiv Leopard tanks, a powerful defence against Russian forces.

• France’s Macron proposes big rise in defence budget - France’s president details plans for a seven-year budget of €413bn to transform its armed forces.

• Andrew Tate: Romania court extends police detention for influencer and brother - The influencer and his brother Tristan will stay in custody until 27 February, a court rules.

• The cycle-mad city in Finland that doesn’t stop for snow - Oulu in northern Finland has snow on the ground for five months - but that doesn’t stop residents using their bikes.

• Australian Open 2023 results: Daniil Medvedev out, Stefanos Tsitsipas through to fourth round - Daniil Medvedev suffers a shock defeat by Sebastian Korda at the Australian Open as top players continue to fall in the men’s draw.

From Ars Technica

• Musk testifies in fraud trial, points out that not everyone believes what he says - Musk denies impact on Tesla stock price in case over false “funding secured” tweet. - link

• US school runs lights 24/7/365: The smart lights have been broken since 2021 - “We’ve been doing everything we can to fix this,” says school official. - link

• 300+ models of MSI motherboards have Secure Boot turned off. Is yours affected? - The shortcoming has left users susceptible to malicious bootloaders for 18 months. - link

• FTC: Shkreli may have violated lifetime pharma ban, should be held in contempt - Shkreli’s latest company, Druglike, may run afoul of his lifetime pharma ban. - link

• Supreme Court allows Reddit mods to anonymously defend Section 230 - Mods tell SCOTUS that Reddit’s special formula depends on Section 230 immunity. - link

From Jokes Subreddit

• Everyone asked a 100-year-old man and his 98-year-old wife for their health secrets. -

  The old man said “I’ll tell you my secret. I’ve been married for 75 years. I promised my wife when we got married that when we quarrel, the loser has to walk for 5 kilometres. So I’ve been walking 5 kilometres every day for past 75 years! Everyone applauded and asked again”But how come your wife is very healthy as well?" The old man answered “That is another secret. For 75 years every single day she has been following me to make sure I really walk the full 5 kilometres!”

  submitted by /u/Gaphumbala
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• A koala bear is smoking a blunt in a tree -

  A lizard comes along and says “what are you doing?”. The koala bear says “I’m getting high man”. The lizard responds “what do you mean?”…. Rather than explain it to the lizard the koala bear convinces him to partake of the blunt.

  Shortly after partaking, the lizard says to the koala “dude my mouth is so dry. I gotta get some water”….so the lizard goes down to the river to get a drink and accidentally falls in. A crocodile sees this happen and goes “what’s going on with you?!”. The lizard tries to explain what he just did to get cottonmouth but instead says “look just go ask that koala in that tree over there.”

  So the crocodile gets out of the river, walks over to the tree, looks up and says “hey you!”

  The koala looks down at the crocodile and says “shittttttt man. How much water did you drink?!?”.

  submitted by /u/bsbeatty
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• I was on a blind date with this girl… -

  And I told her being funny is the second best way to get a girl into bed She asked “What’s the best way?” I said “a big knife”. She laughed and said “you’re funny”. I said “wise choice”.

  submitted by /u/Cute_Boi_UwU
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• Papa Bear and Mama Bear are getting a divorce -

  You know Goldilocks and the 3 bears? Well mama bear and papa bear are getting a divorce. In court they bring in baby bear. The judge puts baby bear on the stand and asks him who he’d like to live with?

  “Well not papa bear he beats me,” says baby bear.

  “So mama bear?” asks the Judge.

  “Oh no she beats me even worse than papa bear,” says baby bear.

  “So who would you like to live with?” the Judge asks curiously.

  “My grandma bear in Chicago.” says baby bear.

  “Your grandma bear doesn’t beat you?” asks the Judge?

  “Oh no the Chicago Bears don’t beat anyone.”

  submitted by /u/Cute_Boi_UwU
  [link] [comments]

• God took only one rib from men to create women -

  Because he knew, if he took a second rib, humanity would die out.

  submitted by /u/fly_over_32
  [link] [comments]