Asia

Rooftop urban gardeners in Bangkok grow edible algae

"Three times a week, Patsakorn Thaveeuchukorn harvests the green algae in the barrels. 'The algae is growing so fast, normally the doubling time is around 24 hours,' said Patsakorn, whose employer EnerGaia uses Bangkok’s rooftops to grow spirulina. The empty space on top of Bangkok’s many skyscrapers provide suitable growing conditions for spirulina as the constant high temperatures and sunlight are ideal breeding conditions. The algae also helps combat carbon dioxide levels through photosynthesis, its champions say, and growing it in cities means it can reach consumers the same day it is harvested. The company says it is the only producer of fresh spirulina in the world." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRooftop urban gardeners in Bangkok grow edible algae

Thai doctor: “I’m not a slave to insurance companies or regulations…”

"People often presume that the medical care in the developed West is the best in the world. But over the years, it’s become a centralized, bureaucratic mess. In Thailand, private medical care is excellent, efficient, and tremendously cost effective. Many of the international hospitals are more like five-star hotels and luxury shopping malls. And there’s very little waiting. The quality of the care is also first rate. Many of the doctors were trained at western universities and fellowships. One of the physicians I met yesterday received her MD in Singapore, plus a Masters degree and PhD in her field at a top university in California, and then another fellowship at Harvard." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThai doctor: “I’m not a slave to insurance companies or regulations…”

Hong Kong Wrong [2006]

"Though a colony of socialist Britain, Hong Kong followed a laissez-faire capitalist policy, thanks largely to a British civil servant, John Cowperthwaite. Assigned to handle Hong Kong's financial affairs in 1945, Cowperthwaite was so famously laissez-faire that he refused to collect economic statistics for fear this would only give government officials an excuse for more meddling. The results of his policy were remarkable. At the end of World War II, Hong Kong was a dirt-poor island with a per-capita income about one-quarter that of Britain's. By 1997, when sovereignty was transferred to China, its per-capita income was roughly equal to that of the departing colonial power." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHong Kong Wrong [2006]

Dennis Rodman (& Russia) Promoting Global Peace

"Dennis Rodman has a road-map to peace: 'building trust and understanding through sport and cultural exchanges,' as he put it. It’s slow, laborious and precludes lobbing bombs at North Korea or depriving its poor, long-suffering people of contact with the world. Rodman says this about his frequent visits to Pyongyang: 'I know in time Americans will see I’m just trying to help us all get along and see eye to eye through basketball and with my friendship with Kim I know this will happen.' On the other hand, a woman of war has just issued forth in support of Barack Obama’s adventure in Syria. Hillary Clinton or Dennis Rodman for public office? I know what my choice would be." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDennis Rodman (& Russia) Promoting Global Peace

John Kerry, 1971: ‘I Don’t Think U.S. Can Apply Moralism Around The World’

"Taped on Nov 2, 1971. Five months before this show, WFB had taken as his text, for a commencement address at West Point, Mr. Kerry's sensational testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the barbarism of our activities in Vietnam. Neither host nor guest has changed his views since, but there is light as well as heat generated on Vietnam in particular and morality and foreign policy generally." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJohn Kerry, 1971: ‘I Don’t Think U.S. Can Apply Moralism Around The World’

David Stockman: The End of U.S. Imperium—Finally!

"Next week Congress can do far more than stop a feckless Tomahawk barrage on a small country that is already a graveyard of civil war and sectarian slaughter. By voting 'no,' it can trigger the end of the American Imperium—five decades of incessant meddling, bullying, and subversion around the globe that has added precious little to national security but left America fiscally exhausted and morally diminished. Indeed, the tragedy of this vast string of misbegotten interventions is that virtually none of them involved defending the homeland or any tangible, steely-eyed linkages to national security. They were all rooted in ideology." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDavid Stockman: The End of U.S. Imperium—Finally!

Bitcoin in India: Drivers and Barriers to Adoption

"Bitcoin’s growth in 2013 has accelerated tremendously, driven largely by economic concerns which bitcoin is uniquely positioned to solve. This has been evidenced so far this year by conditions in Cyprus, China and Argentina, and has highlighted bitcoin’s potential in less developed nations likeKenya as well. All of the countries listed above are known for high inflation rates, strict capital controls, or a combination of both – a scenario that is beginning to unfold in India. This analysis will address India’s current economic climate and the factors that would affect the population’s propensity to adopt bitcoin on a large scale." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin in India: Drivers and Barriers to Adoption

Bitcoin in India: Drivers and Barriers to Adoption

"Bitcoin’s growth in 2013 has accelerated tremendously, driven largely by economic concerns which bitcoin is uniquely positioned to solve. This has been evidenced so far this year by conditions in Cyprus, China and Argentina, and has highlighted bitcoin’s potential in less developed nations likeKenya as well. All of the countries listed above are known for high inflation rates, strict capital controls, or a combination of both – a scenario that is beginning to unfold in India. This analysis will address India’s current economic climate and the factors that would affect the population’s propensity to adopt bitcoin on a large scale." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin in India: Drivers and Barriers to Adoption

Bitcoin in India: Drivers and Barriers to Adoption

"Bitcoin’s growth in 2013 has accelerated tremendously, driven largely by economic concerns which bitcoin is uniquely positioned to solve. This has been evidenced so far this year by conditions in Cyprus, China and Argentina, and has highlighted bitcoin’s potential in less developed nations likeKenya as well. All of the countries listed above are known for high inflation rates, strict capital controls, or a combination of both – a scenario that is beginning to unfold in India. This analysis will address India’s current economic climate and the factors that would affect the population’s propensity to adopt bitcoin on a large scale." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin in India: Drivers and Barriers to Adoption

India’s Poorest Women Coerced Into Sterilization

"When it comes to family planning, women are on the front lines in India, which has carried out about 37 percent of the world’s female sterilizations. Government-imposed quotas and financial incentives for doctors mean 4.6 million women were sterilized last year, many for cash payments and many in the unsanitary and rudimentary conditions that greeted Devi. In neighboring China, the government has since 1979 used the threat of fines and the loss of social services to enforce rules that bar many urban couples from having more than one child. It now is beginning to ease the policy as the population ages and coastal regions face labor shortages." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia’s Poorest Women Coerced Into Sterilization