pollution
Last week, Singapore's Pollution Standard Index (PSI) peaked at 401 — a point where simply breathing becomes potentially fatal for the sick or elderly, and far higher than the country's previous record of 266, seen in 1997. Schools were closed, deliveries came to a halt, and protective masks were flying off hospital shelves.The smog finally began clearing away from the city earlier this week, when Indonesian emergency workers waterbombed the Sumatran fires that caused this year’s miasma. The most noxious clouds have since drifted northward to Malaysia, and experts warn that the haze could linger throughout the region for weeks, if not months.
been there, etc
The admissions test for the Indian Institutes of Technology, known as the Joint Entrance Examination or JEE, may be the most competitive test in the world. In 2012, half a million Indian high school students sat for the JEE. Over six grueling hours of chemistry, physics, and math questions, the students competed for one of ten thousand spots at India’s most prestigious engineering universities.When the students finish the exam, it is the end of a two plus year process. Nearly every student has spent four hours a day studying advanced science topics not taught at school, often waking up earlier than four in the morning to attend coaching classes before school starts.
friendship
“While friendship has been by far the chief source of my happiness, acquaintance or general society has always meant little to me, and I cannot quite understand why a man should wish to know more people than he can make real friends of.”
cost-effective compassion
Today, thanks to economic globalization and the Internet, those who want to care for the poor overseas enjoy a plethora of attractive options: sponsoring a child, donating a farm animal, making a small loan to a budding entrepreneur, installing a well in a village, getting a morning caffeine jolt with fair-trade (instead of free-trade) coffee—among others.
But what are the best ways to help those living in developing countries? By "best," I mean most effective: things that actually help people rise out of poverty, and that carry with them a sizable "bang for your buck"—programs in which the impact on the poor is significant per donated dollar.
Answering this question proves more difficult than you'd expect.
