2 December 2016
Motherboard: Pigeons in Spain Can Now Get Birth Control More Easily Than Most American Women
As the population of birds has swelled to an estimated 85,000, the waste pigeons produce in public spaces has become an increasing burden. To curb the number of birds, and pigeon droppings, the city had been mulling over a plan to collect and kill hundreds of the birds. But after push back from animal rights groups, the local government decided to try a different tactic: give the pigeons birth control pills.
First, a detailed census of the pigeon population will take place to determine the size of the population, according to El Mundo. Then, in the spring, the city will install 40 feeders dispensing pellets spiked with the birth control medication around the city, concentrating on areas of most complaint. One Barcelona city councillor reportedly estimated the pills could curb the population by 20 percent in the first year and up to 80 percent over time. [...]
It could set an example for other cities like New York, where pigeons cause perennial debate and where traditional culling methods—like simply shooting the pigeons—aren’t practical. New York City recently launched a program to capture, sterilize, and release deer on Staten Island, where the population of white-tail deer has exploded, so maybe pigeons on the pill aren’t far behind.
Politico: Why Portugal has become an oasis of stability
A poll published Friday gave Costa an 81 percent approval rating, up from 47 percent in December 2015. Not bad compared to fellow center-left leaders such as Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who’s slipped to around 30 percent, and French President François Hollande, languishing around 4 percent.
“We’ve been able to keep all our promises to the Portuguese people,” Costa said Tuesday after parliament approved his budget for 2017. “We’ve turned the page on austerity … we’ve shown an alternative is possible and we’ll keep building that alternative.”
Far-right populism, surging across Europe, is largely absent in Portugal, and the government has been stealing support from the two far-left parties who back the minority government in parliament. Both the Portuguese Communist Party on 6 percent and the Left Bloc on 8 percent have dropped a couple of points since the election. [...]
Portugal’s aversion to far-right politics can be explained in part by the lasting legacy of dictator António Oliveira Salazar, whose harsh regime lasted for over four decades until toppled by a 1974 revolution. Portugal has also not experienced a recent influx of refugees or a sudden surge of immigrants, like those that fueled the growth of the far-right elsewhere. Its immigrant communities, mainly from Brazil, Portuguese-speaking Africa and Eastern European countries such as Ukraine and Romania, are comparatively well integrated.
Jakub Marian: Number of foreign languages studied per pupil in Europe
Learning foreign languages is an important part of secondary education in Europe. One could argue that it should be enough to just learn English (which is the language most Europeans resort to when communicating with someone from another country), but this couldn’t be further from the truth. [...]
The following map shows the average number of languages learned per pupil in lower secondary education (based on data by Eurostat from 2013). This phase of secondary education usually lasts around 4 years and is compulsory. Note that the average is calculated with respect to all students in lower secondary education, so, for example, if students in a certain country learned 1 language in the first 2 years and 2 languages in the following two years of lower secondary education, the average would be 1.5. [...]
Many of the figures change quite drastically after the transition to general upper secondary education (excluding vocational schools), which is usually not compulsory, as the map below shows: [...]
There are some surprising differences between the two maps. The figures tend to be relatively similar in most cases, but there is a significant drop in the case of Italy and Portugal and a large increase in the case of Belgium. The situation in Portugal is especially worrying, as it is the only non-English-speaking EU country where less than 1 foreign language per pupil is studied at this level.
Business Insider: What fruits and vegetables looked like before we domesticated them
The fruits and vegetables we know and love did not always look the way they do now. Here's a look at their ancestors.
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