Conversations on Vietnam Development
Date:April 23, 2019
Source:Washington State University
Summary: Researchers have found a variety of diseases and other health problems in the second- and third-generation offspring of rats exposed to glyphosate, the world’s most popular weed killer. In the first study of its kind, the researchers saw descendants of exposed rats developing prostate, kidney and ovarian diseases, obesity and birth abnormalities.
Washington State University researchers have found a variety of diseases and other health problems in the second- and third-generation offspring of rats exposed to glyphosate, the world’s most popular weed killer. In the first study of its kind, the researchers saw descendants of exposed rats developing prostate, kidney and ovarian diseases, obesity and birth abnormalities.
Michael Skinner, a WSU professor of biological sciences, and his colleagues exposed pregnant rats to the herbicide between their eighth and 14th days of gestation. The dose — half the amount expected to show no adverse effect — produced no apparent ill effects on either the parents or the first generation of offspring. Tiếp tục đọc “Researchers see health effects across generations from popular weed killer – Glyphosate”
China’s top economic planning body has proposed new rules that would see the closure of all local cryptocurrency mining facilities if enacted – a move that would potentially end the country’s dominance in the energy-hungry, yet lucrative industry.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Monday
to its guidance for adjustments to the nation’s industrial structure, including categories that are encouraged, restricted and eliminated. Cryptocurrency mining was included among sectors to be eliminated immediately. The new list is under public consultation until May 7.
The NDRC did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via a message board on its website.
Cryptocurrency mining is the process of validating transactions in digital forms of money like bitcoin and ethereum in exchange for new coins given as a reward. The specialised computers used for the mining activity consume large amounts of electricity.
Gold standard: Deuter’s factory in Vietnam. Deuter is an outdoor wear company that has dealt with excessive overtime (a major trigger for harassment and abuse) and is an example of good practice and how brands can influence change. Photograph: Deute
Female factory workers producing clothing and shoes in Vietnam – many probably for major US and European brands – face systemic sexual harassment and violence at work, the Observer can reveal.
Tiếp tục đọc “Study finds workers in Vietnamese factories have been harassed, groped and even raped”
The next meeting of a United Nations working group debating options for reforming investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) will take place in New York from April 1 to 5.
Two years into the process, it remains unclear whether this work will lead to the desired reforms or what shape these changes may ultimately take.
Meanwhile, countries remain frustrated with the current system, and have extensively voiced their concerns in the ongoing multilateral ISDS reform discussions being held under the Working Group III process within the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Tiếp tục đọc “Investor–State Dispute Settlement Reform Talks Resume at UNCITRAL”
According to the guidelines, trustworthy AI should be:
(1) lawful – respecting all applicable laws and regulations
(2) ethical – respecting ethical principles and values
(3) robust – both from a technical perspective while taking into account its social environment Tiếp tục đọc “Ethics guidelines for trustworthy Artificial Intelligence”
Despite the many benefits of wetlands, their potential is still not fully utilisedEvery day climate-related disasters are happening all around the globe, and this trend will keep increasing. Just between 1998 and 2017, “climate-related and geophysical disasters killed 1.3 million people and left a further 4.4 billion injured, homeless, displaced or in need of emergency assistance”, according to U.N. figures.
On this year’s World Water Day, it is important to highlight the importance of protecting wetlands, so that they can maintain their natural structure and way of functioning. Wetlands such as floodplains, marshes, mangroves and peatlands help decrease flooding by increasing the infiltration of excess water into the soil. Along coastlines, they can also act as a natural buffer and reduce the energy of waves and currents, reducing exposure to storms and surges. Tiếp tục đọc “Wetlands help protect us from floods and purify our water”
Proposals to change recommendations and curb conspiracies were sacrificed for engagement, staff say.
Wojcicki, YouTube’s chief executive officer, is a reluctant public ambassador, but she was in Austin at the South by Southwest conference to unveil a solution that she hoped would help quell conspiracy theories: a tiny text box from websites like Wikipedia that would sit below videos that questioned well-established facts like the moon landing and link viewers to the truth.
Wojcicki’s media behemoth, bent on overtaking television, is estimated to rake in sales of more than $16 billion a year. But on that day, Wojcicki compared her video site to a different kind of institution. “We’re really more like a library,” she said, staking out a familiar position as a defender of free speech. “There have always been controversies, if you look back at libraries.”
Since Wojcicki took the stage, prominent conspiracy theories on the platform—including one on child vaccinations; another tying Hillary Clinton to a Satanic cult—have drawn the ire of lawmakers eager to regulate technology companies. And YouTube is, a year later, even more associated with the darker parts of the web. Tiếp tục đọc “YouTube Executives Ignored Warnings, Letting Toxic Videos Run Rampant”
Although smallholders provide four out of every five plates of food eaten in the region, they remain some of the poorest people due to a lack of information, capital and funding. A new digital platform of mobile agri-tech solutions is out to change this.
Their labourious work supporting the global production of food and other consumer products would be more productive and profitable, and make farming, a waning profession in Asia, more attractive to young people, according to Paul Voutier, director for knowledge and innovation at Grow Asia, a Singapore-based, multi-stakeholder partnership platform that seeks to improve farmer livelihoods.
Tiếp tục đọc “How can digitalisation ease the plight of Southeast Asia’s smallholder farmers?”
Shoppers at Lotte Mart in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 7 were recently surprised to see scallions, okra and other vegetables produce wrapped in banana leaves.
Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnamese supermarkets go back to leaves, leaving plastic bags”
The microscopic particles unleashed by the plant’s explosions are also a potential environmental and health concern
On March 14 and 15, 2011, explosions unleashed invisible radioactive plumes from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, crippled three days earlier when the strongest recorded earthquake in Japan’s history triggered a massive tsunami. As the plumes drifted over the neighboring countryside, their contents—including radioactive cesium, a by-product of the plant’s fission reactions—fell to the ground and over the ocean.
What no one knew or expected was the fallout also contained bacteria-size glassy beads, with concentrations of radioactive cesium that were far higher than those in similar-size motes of tainted dust or dirt. Tiếp tục đọc “Radioactive Glass Beads May Tell the Terrible Tale of How the Fukushima Meltdown Unfolded”
mongabay
Tiếp tục đọc “Glyphosate’s kidney disease link: More science, less politics (commentary)”
Ha Long Bay’s postcard-perfect karst islets have long attracted travellers to its Unesco-approved seascape. In 2017, the destination (population circa 1,500), in northern Vietnam’s Quang Ninh province, welcomed almost 7 million international and domestic visitors, according to website Halong Bay Tourism. The region’s tourism department hopes to receive up to 16 million tourists by the end of next year, “and to rake in VND30-40 trillion (US$1.3-1.7 billion) in revenue”, it states, on its website.
Taking a major step towards achieving that goal, on December 30, Vietnam opened Van Don International Airport, which considerably cuts travel time to Ha Long Bay for overseas visitors. What was once an eight-hour round trip from Hanoi is now just over an hour from an airport that, when fully operational, will connect the bay with 35 cities, including Hong Kong, Macau and 10 in mainland China.
CVD 