Rob Ford: Serially Scandalous

The Economist has such a way with words.   In their article on How harmful is crack cocaine?, The Economist describes Rob Ford as "Toronto's serially scandalous major". Sigh. What a way for Toronto to be (in)famous.  The article includes a reference to a study* comparing the relative harm caused by different drugs.

So, Rob Ford hits both #1 and #3 on the list.  I love this photo from cbc.ca.

One third of Torontonians still support this moron.  Wonder what drug they're consuming?

* "Drug harms in the UK: a multi-criteria decision analysis", by David Nutt, Leslie King and Lawrence Phillips, on behalf of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs. The Lancet.

The Pen Over the Sword??

Are we going to see drones delivering books instead of bombs?

Amazon has announced that they are investigating using drones to deliver goods to consumers.  In the future.  The distant future.

Is this a realistic goal? Or is it an attempt to reinforce Amazon's image of innovation - and deflect growing concern about their online retail power?

The above picture is from some BBC coverage of this announcement.

Toronto Leads Because Toronto Reads

Yup, Toronto leads - and I don't mean in the number of jokes about its mayor. With its 98 branches, Toronto boasts the largest public library system in North America, and the highest per capita circulation in the world. At 19M, Toronto libraries attract more than Toronto's top 10 attractions* combined.

The public library is a source of pride to Toronto folk, and activists have risen up to defend the system against Mayor Ford's agenda for significant cuts. Sort of makes up for the embarrassment of Rob Ford. Well, a bit.

There is a great video celebrating Toronto's library system here.


*CN Tower, CNE, The ROM, TIFF, The Science Centre, Toronto Zoo, Canada's Wonderland, the AGO, Skydome and Air Canada Centre

Fertility Rates

We all know that fertility rates have dropped in the developed world to the replacement fertility rate (2.1 children per woman) or less.  A mind-blowing animated infographic from The Economist shows just how dramatically fertility rates have fallen in Asia.   (The Economist calls this a gentle decline, but I find it more dramatic than that). From a fertility rate of 5.8 in 1980, Asia will hit the magic 2.1 in 2014, bringing the population to equilibrium, a pattern mirrored almost exactly in Latin America.

The drop in fertility is more widespread than just in China where the one-child policy has obviously caused their fertility rate to plunge.Bangladesh's fertility rate, for instance, went from 6.9 to 2.9 in just 30 years from 1970, while Iran's dropped from 6.5 in 1980 to 1.9 in 2005.  The World Fact Book published by the CIA shows under half the countries in the world with a fertility rate above 2.1, but those rates are also expected to fall where economic security and women's rights and education increase. The UN predicts that world population will peak at 9.22B in 2075 and then drop slightly to stabilize at just under 9B in 2300.

But you should just go and look at this wonderful infographic.  The Economist has taken a page from Hans Rosling's book - take some dry numbers and show the trends by animating them.  Wonderful.