Tác giả: Đào Thu Hằng

I'm from Hanoi, Viet Nam. I'm an author of Dot Chuoi Non (dotchuoinon.com/author/hangbelu/), a blog on Positive thinking, founded by Dr. Tran Dinh Hoanh, an attorney in Washington DC. I'm a co-founder of Conversations on Vietnam Development - cvdvn.net, a virtual think tank. I am a co-founder of two companies in Viet Nam working on children education services. I advise companies on STEAM education, English language education for children and students in Vietnam. I'm studying the Buddha's teaching and the teaching of Jesus. I practice mindful living including meditation. I hold a PhD on Sustainable Energy Systems from University of Lisbon and Aalto University. I graduated from Hanoi University of Technology on Environmental Engineering. I obtained a Master degree of the same major from Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University. My English-language blog at: hangbelu.wordpress/. I play table tennis as a hobby.

What are the political drivers for GMOs in developing countries?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
By Lisa Cornish // 01 May 2018
Each genetically modified rice plant in the greenhouses at CropDesign has a barcode and transponder, allowing it to be accurately identified at any time. Photo by: BASF / CC BY-NC-ND

CANBERRA — In developing nations across the globe, governments are grappling with questions of what role, if any, genetically modified organisms should play in helping address a range of agriculture, nutrition, and climate challenges.

 

Concerns have been raised over the environmental and health impacts of GMOs, as well as their impact on traditional farming methods and issues around seed patents, and farmers having to be dependent on corporations.

Governments of developing countries are responding to those concerns in a variety of ways with some banning GMOs outright, some embracing them, and others attempting to find balance between the concerns and needs of all sides.

Developing countries are slowly increasing approved legislation and opening the door to research and commercialization of GMO crops. As these countries seek to expand their export markets, improve domestic living conditions, and address food insecurity in the wake of conflict and climate change, some are seeing a solution in genetically engineered crops. Tiếp tục đọc “What are the political drivers for GMOs in developing countries?” →

Nearly two-thirds of global workforce in the ‘informal’ economy – UN study

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

news.un.org

More than 61 per cent of the world’s employed population – two billion people – earn their livelihoods in the informal sector, the United Nations labour agency said on Monday, stressing that a transition to the formal economy is critical to ensure rights’ protection and decent working conditions.

“The high incidence of informality in all its forms has multiple adverse consequences for workers, enterprises and societies and is a major challenge for the realization of decent work for all,” said Rafael Diez de Medina, the Director of the Department of Statistics at the UN International Labour Organization (ILO).

The findings are revealed in ILO’s latest report, Women and men in the informal economy: A statistical picture. The study also provides comparable estimates on the size of the informal economy and a statistical profile of the sector, using criteria from more than 100 countries.

“Having managed to measure this important dimension, now included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators framework, this can be seen as an excellent step towards acting on it, particularly thanks to more available comparable data from countries,” added Mr. Diez de Medina.

The geographic distribution of employment in the informal sector presents a striking picture. Tiếp tục đọc “Nearly two-thirds of global workforce in the ‘informal’ economy – UN study” →

Renewable power could make hydrogen cheaper than gas, study finds

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Sam Morgan | EURACTIV.com

 Apr 27, 2018

A pioneering power plant in northeast Germany that converts renewable energy into hydrogen could be a common sight in the near future.

Hydrogen prices are set to fall dramatically if enough surplus solar and wind energy can be utilised in the gas’s production, according to a new study which says hydrogen could even become cheaper than natural gas.

A major dilemma for European electricity providers and grid operators is how best to integrate intermittent renewables into the current system. Clean power often goes to waste because of inflexibility and insufficient storage options.

Electricity interconnectors are expensive projects that often have a political dimension to them and battery technologies are still not at a point where they can be rolled out on a large scale. Tiếp tục đọc “Renewable power could make hydrogen cheaper than gas, study finds” →

Very few pages devoted to climate change in introductory science textbooks

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
sciencedaily.com
Less than 2 percent of pages discussed climate change in leading biology, chemistry and physics textbooksDate:April 30, 2018

Source:Arizona State University

Summary:In new research researchers examined more than the 15,000 combined pages from current editions of 16 of the leading physics, biology and chemistry undergraduate textbooks published between 2013 and 2015. They found that less than 4 percent of pages were devoted toward discussing climate change, global warming, related environmental issues or renewable energy applications.

As an ASU graduate student, Rachel Yoho wanted to push the boundaries of renewable energy research. What she didn’t fully anticipate is that it would also lead her to questioning how climate change is taught in today’s universities.

In the Biodesign Center for Environmental Biotechnology, led by director and ASU Regents’ Professor (and recent Stockholm Water Prize winner) Bruce Rittmann, she found a welcome home to make her research thrive.

There, she focused on microbes that were giving the renewable energy field a literal jolt. For her dissertation work, led under the guidance of mentor César Torres, she published several groundbreaking papers on advances in microbial fuel cells, which turn waste into electricity through a bacterial biofilm that has the ability to grow and thrive on an electrode.

“They breathe the metal, and give us electrons for energy in the process,” said Yoho. Tiếp tục đọc “Very few pages devoted to climate change in introductory science textbooks” →

Inside the Jordan refugee camp that runs on blockchain

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
technologyreview

Syrian refugees could regain legal identities that were lost when they fled their homes.

A few times a month, Bassam pushes a shopping cart through the aisles of a grocery store stocked with bags of rice, a small selection of fresh vegetables, and other staples. Today he’s wearing a black sweater tucked into denim jeans, which are themselves tucked into calf-high boots caked in mud. The Tazweed Supermarket, where he’s shopping, is on the periphery of a 75,000-person refugee camp in the semi-arid Jordanian steppe, six and a half miles from the Syrian border.

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Tiếp tục đọc “Inside the Jordan refugee camp that runs on blockchain” →

Military applications of Artificial Intelligent

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

thebulletin

Advances in artifcial intelligence (AI), deep-learning, and robotics are enabling new military capabilities that will have a disruptive impact on military strategies. The effects of these capabilities will be felt across the spectrum of military requirements – from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to offense/defense balances and even on to nuclear weapons systems themselves.

In this package, five top experts in AI and its potential uses in autonomous weapons and sensing systems weigh in on the moral and practical challenges of managing the explosion of military AI research and development around the world. The goal: to keep fast-paced advances in machine learning from sparking a worldwide AI arms race that poses a new existential risk to humanity.

The promise and peril of military applications of artificial intelligence

Michael C. Horowitz

The promise of AI—including its ability to improve the speed and accuracy of everything from logistics and battlefield planning to human decision making—is driving militaries around the world to accelerate research and development. Here’s why.
Tiếp tục đọc “Military applications of Artificial Intelligent” →

Why it’s so hard for doctors to understand your pain

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

theconversation

We’re all human beings, but we’re not all alike.

Each person experiences pain differently, from an emotional perspective as well as a physical one, and responds to pain differently. That means that physicians like myself need to evaluate patients on an individual basis and find the best way to treat their pain.

Today, however, doctors are under pressure to limit costs and prescribe treatments based on standardized guidelines. A major gap looms between the patient’s experience of pain and the limited “one size fits all” treatment that doctors may offer.

Concerns about the opioid epidemic make the problem worse. Opioids – including heroin and fentanyl – killed more than 42,000 people in the U.S. in 2016. Four in 10 of these deaths involved prescription painkillers such as hydrocodone and oxycodone. Physicians are increasingly reluctant to prescribe opioids for pain, fearing government scrutiny or malpractice lawsuits.

https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/i4IlW/1/

Where does this leave the patient whose experience of pain is outside the norm? How can physicians in all specialties identify these patients and do our best to manage their pain, even when their needs don’t match our expectations or experience?

Pain differences

Tiếp tục đọc “Why it’s so hard for doctors to understand your pain” →

Rethinking tourism – from vulnerability to resilience

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

ec.europa.eu

JRC scientists have mapped tourism hotspots in Europe for all four seasons and created an index on the estimated vulnerability of regions to shocks in the tourism sector.

With travel becoming easier and less expensive, tourism has become an important economic sector in the European Union. In 2016, the EU had an estimated 40.5% market share of global international tourist arrivals.

The total contribution of the travel and tourism sector to the EU’s GDP in 2016 was 10.2%, but with strong variation between countries, ranging from more than 20% in Malta, Croatia and Cyprus to about 5% in Poland, the Netherlands and Romania.

A recent JRC study looks at patterns of tourism in Europe. Scientists combined data from Eurostat, national statistical offices and major online booking systems to map tourist density in Europe. Tiếp tục đọc “Rethinking tourism – from vulnerability to resilience” →

Buổi học cách cài đặt hệ điều hành Mã nguồn mở tại Cần Thơ, FOSSASIA 3/5/2018

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

[Tiếng Việt ở dưới ]

Đăng ký: https://eventyay.com/e/abb7107d/

Join our meetup to learn about open source and useful applications for education. At the meetup, we will learn together how to install Open Source Operating System of your choice and play around with some basic command line. The first five participants successfully installing the OS will receive our FOSSASIA T-shirt.

Tham gia buổi meetup để tìm hiểu về Mã nguồn mở và các ứng dụng hữu ích dành cho giáo dục. Tại đây, chúng ta sẽ cùng học cách cài đặt hệ điều hành mã nguồn mở và làm quen với một số câu lệnh cơ bản. Năm bạn đầu tiên cài đặt thành công hệ điều hành sẽ nhận được áo thun FOSSASIA.

Organized by FOSSASIA

FOSSASIA is an open-source organization registered in Singapore with two offices: one in Vietnam and one in Germany. FOSSASIA develops software applications for social change using a wide-range of technologies. Projects range from Free and Open Source software, to design, graphics and hardware. FOSSASIA runs a network of 25,000 members across the globe, offers technical consultancy services on open source solutions and organize education program and tech events around the world.

We calculated how much money trees save for your city

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

theconversation

Megacities are on the rise. There are currently 47 such areas around the globe, each housing more than 10 million residents.

More than half the global population now lives in urban areas, comprising about 3 percent of the Earth. The ecological footprint of this growth is vast and there’s far more that can be done to improve life for urban residents around the world. Tiếp tục đọc “We calculated how much money trees save for your city” →

Good Morning Vietnam, Energy-wise

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

energyathass

Vietnam, a leading indicator for the rest of the developing world, has seen tremendous growth in per capita energy consumption.

During a recent family vacation in Vietnam, I learned that the country is a microcosm for several major trends in energy consumption in the developing world: (1) there’s a thriving middle class, (2) hot and humid weather is driving air conditioning demand and (3) rural electrification rates are very high. (We also loved the food, culture and beaches, and we were gripped by the poignant remnants of the American War, as it’s known locally. I highly recommend it as a vacation destination if that’s your thing.)

Let’s start with some basic facts: Vietnam has seen extraordinary growth in per capita energy consumption over the past several decades. Since 1990, the earliest year for which data are available for most countries, total per capita energy consumption in Vietnam has more than doubled. (All the country-level data in this post come from the World Bank Development Indicators.) This puts Vietnam in the top 3% of countries in the world in terms of growth in per capita energy consumption. Of the countries with more than 5 million people, only China and Thailand have had more rapid growth. Tiếp tục đọc “Good Morning Vietnam, Energy-wise” →

Du học sinh Việt khởi nghiệp với mã nguồn mở ở Singapore

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

TTO – Đến Singapore du học, Đặng Hồng Phúc chọn đảo quốc này làm nơi khởi nghiệp trong lĩnh vực công nghệ thông tin.

Du học sinh Việt khởi nghiệp với mã nguồn mở ở Singapore - Ảnh 1.

Hồng Phúc (áo dài, ngồi) chủ trì hội nghị mã nguồn mở với sự tham gia của các kỹ sư đến từ Ấn Độ, Singapore, Việt Nam… – Ảnh: NVCC

“Dù khởi nghiệp thất bại hay sản phẩm “chết” đều mang về cho startup những bài học quý giá. Nếu bạn không bắt đầu, không vấp ngã thì sẽ không bao giờ học được gì” – Đặng Hồng Phúc

Cô gái người Cần Thơ 31 tuổi đã mở văn phòng ở Singapore đầu năm 2017 để bắt đầu cho hành trình khởi nghiệp của mình.

Nhiệt huyết với mã nguồn mở (open source), Phúc đã kết nối cộng đồng FOSSASIA hơn 20.000 thành viên – tự nguyện chia sẻ kiến thức công nghệ, hoàn thiện các giải pháp phục vụ nghiên cứu khoa học, giáo dục, thương mại…

Công ty của Phúc cũng là đối tác của Google trong nhiều sự kiện trại hè lập trình tại châu Á. Phúc và cộng sự cũng bắt đầu khởi nghiệp với hai sản phẩm là Trí tuệ nhân tạo mã nguồn mở (không độc quyền) và Phòng thí nghiệm mở (bộ sản phẩm giáo dục cho học sinh THPT).

* Tại sao Phúc chọn Singapore khởi nghiệp?

1,200 megawatt Vietnam coal plant gets funding, but Standard Chartered pulls out over climate policy conflict

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

The London-headquartered bank withdrew from the US$1.87 billion coal-fired power plant’s financing consortium, but eight other banks, including Singapore’s OCBC and DBS and Malaysia’s Maybank, closed the deal.

coal depot in Vietnam
Railway coal depot with limestone karst background. Viet Nam, Quảng Ninh, Cẩm Phả. Image: garcycles8, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
By Robin Hicks

eco-business_What will be one of Vietnam’s largest coal-fired power stations has secured enough funding to get built, but a key member of the financing syndicate has pulled out following a campaign that highlighted a major conflict with the bank’s climate policy.

Financing closed on the US$1.87 billion, 1,200 megawatt Nghi Son 2 coal-fired power plant last week. But London-headquartered Standard Chartered Bank—which was initially part of a consortium of nine banks that includes Singapore’s Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and DBS, Malaysia’s Maybank and Japan Bank for International Cooperation—was absent from the final list of financiers.

A campaign by green groups Greenpeace and Market Forces pointed out that by financing the coal plant, StanChart was in breach of its own policy on energy and climate change. That policy rules out providing loans for coal plants above a certain emissions intensity.

The coal financing deal also goes against the Equator Principles, a framework for banks to assess the environmental and social risk of the infrastructure projects they finance, that StanChart signed in 2003.

Vietnam is well-placed for clean energy investment, but Singapore’s major banks continue to miss opportunities to fund a clean energy development pathway, instead locking in polluting coal for decades to come.

Julien Vincent, executive director, Market Forces

Tiếp tục đọc “1,200 megawatt Vietnam coal plant gets funding, but Standard Chartered pulls out over climate policy conflict” →

The world’s required reading list: The books that students read in 28 countries

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
By Laura McClure and Daryl Chen on December 8, 2016 in Interviews

reading2

This compilation of reading assigned to students everywhere will expand your horizons — and your bookshelves.

In the US, most students are required to read To Kill a Mockingbird during their school years. This classic novel combines a moving coming-of-age story with big issues like racism and criminal injustice. Reading Mockingbird is such an integral part of the American educational experience that we wondered: What classic books are assigned to students elsewhere?

We posed this question to our TED-Ed Innovative Educators and members of the TED-Ed Community. People all over the globe responded, and we curated our list to focus on local authors. Many respondents made it clear in their countries, as in the US, few books are absolutely mandatory. Below, take a look at what students in countries from Ireland to Iran, Ghana to Germany, are asked to read and why. [Note: To find free, downloadable versions of many of the books listed below, search Project Gutenberg.]

Afghanistan

Quran
What it’s about: The revelations of God as told to the prophet Muhammad, this is the central religious text of Islam and remains one of the major works of Arabic literature.
Why it’s taught: “Overall, there is no culture of reading novels in my country, which is sad,” says Farokh Attah. “The only book that must be read in school is the holy Quran, and everyone is encouraged to read it starting from childhood.” Tiếp tục đọc “The world’s required reading list: The books that students read in 28 countries” →

Remembering Agent Orange this Earth Day

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Vietnam Agent Orange Earthday 2018
U.S. Huey helicopter spraying Agent Orange over Vietnam.
Citizentruth.org
(Guest expert article by Charles R. Bailey) As we mark Earth Day this Sunday, we remember the first Earth Day in 1970. That year saw another landmark event: President Nixon brought to an end to the spraying of Agent Orange in Vietnam. That spraying had gone on for a decade. Its aim was to defoliate forests and destroy food crops in order to deny cover and sustenance to opposition forces. The Agent Orange and some of the other herbicides were contaminated with dioxin, a highly toxic substance.

The legacy of Agent Orange/dioxin continues to impact our veterans and the Vietnamese.  Since 1991, scientists at the United States Institute of Medicine have shown dioxin to be a risk factor in a growing number of illnesses and birth defects, and their research is corroborated by the work of Vietnamese scientists. Tiếp tục đọc “Remembering Agent Orange this Earth Day” →