Saturday, May 20, 2023
The Sparrows..
People of China were mobilized to eradicate the Sparrows. They used beating drums to scare the birds from landing, forcing them to fly until they died of exhaustion.
People tore down sparrow nests and shot sparrows down from the sky. The result of the campaign was to push the birds close to extinction in China. [Gov. Plan]
It was noticed that insect infestation of crop fields had soared. Sparrows ate pests such as locusts, and after the campaign, the locusts lost their major predator.
The sparrows, it seemed, didn’t only eat grain seeds. They also ate insects.
Locust populations boomed and they ate everything in their path. Grain production in most rural areas collapsed and a massive famine began. People ran out of things to eat and millions starved.
The official number of fatalities from the Chinese government was 15 million. However, some scholars' estimats were as high as 45 or even 78 million.
We still take these decisions today but never talk about the side effect.
Just a thought
Interest..
The Central Bank of Argentina raised its key interest rate Monday by six percentage points to 97% in an effort to tackle soaring inflation that has reached 30-year highs.
Central banks across the globe are struggling to rein in inflation, but it's a particular problem in Argentina, where the annual inflation rate soared above 100% last month.
That's the highest level since the early 1990s, and currently, Venezuela and Zimbabwe are the only two countries experiencing higher inflation than Argentina, according to International Monetary Fund data.
(By comparison, inflation hovers below 5% in the US, but earlier was over 9%. The central bank has raised key interest rates by five percentage points over 14 months.)
Don't cry for me Argentina.
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
New-Som..
California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for the country’s broken immigration system as tens of thousands of migrants gather at the Mexico border and cities from New York to San Diego prepare for the arrival of thousands more.
“He’s done nothing fundamentally to address this issue since he’s been speaker, and frankly, since he’s been in Congress,” the Democratic governor said Friday of McCarthy, a Republican who represents a district in California’s Central Valley.
“So forgive me for being so damn pointed, but we’re as dumb as we want to be as a nation on this,” Newsom said.
He made the comments while unveiling California’s revised budget proposal, forecasting a $32 billion deficit partly due to weaker tax revenue from its wealthiest residents. The expected shortfall has grown by $9.3 billion since Newsom’s initial estimate in January, marking a sharp turnaround after years of surpluses.
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