Spy Balloons & The Benefits Of Montessori
February 6, 2023
Pop Goes The Surveillance Balloon
In the most-covered but also most-one-sided air battle in recent years, a U.S. jet shot down a Chinese balloon over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday. China claims the balloon was being used for meteorological purposes, but the Pentagon says it was a surveillance device. The balloon made a coast-to-coast journey across the U.S. before being blown to pieces by a single missile fired from an F-22 Raptor fighter jet.
In response to the balloon’s death, China stated that it would similarly shoot down any U.S. balloons it found floating above its territory. “The U.S. used force to attack our civilian unmanned airship, which is an obvious overreaction. We express solemn protest against this move by the U.S. side,” said a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson. China “reserves the right to use necessary means to deal with similar situations,” he added.
The balloon was launched from the Chinese mainland on January 28, making its way to Alaska and heading south through Canada before floating across the U.S. China actually apologized to the U.S. for its supposed weather balloon straying from its path, but the Pentagon dismissed the apology, claiming the balloon actually had the ability to maneuver. The U.S. claims to have spotted “another PRC surveillance balloon” over Central and South America, with an official noting that both balloons carried “surveillance equipment not usually associated with standard meteorological activities or civilian research.”
The Pentagon is no stranger to spying with balloons. In 2019, the military released 25 surveillance balloons over the midwestern U.S. to test setting up “a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats.” The country has also used drones in Afghanistan and Iraq, with similar technologies also surveilling the U.S.’s southern border.
Some Good News
- NASA Awards Millions to Historically Black Colleges, Universities (NASA)
- A school didn’t have an inclusive playground. Students stepped in to raise $300,000 to build one. (CBS)
Punishing Putin’s Petrol Products
- The European Union has banned the import of Russian diesel fuel and other refined petroleum products as part of a renewed attempt to hit Russia where it hurts – their wallet. Included with the ban is a G7 price cap on Russian diesel for non-E.U. countries, maxing out the price of Russian oil products around the world at $100 per barrel.
- The G7’s global price cap works by barring insurance and shipping services located in member countries from providing their services to companies shipping Russian oil products at a price higher than the cap. The mechanism is the same one the G7 used to cap Russian crude at $60 per barrel late last year.
- The price cap still allows oil products to flow out of Russia into growing economies like China and India without creating a sudden price spike for global consumers. Analysts expect a bump in the prices of petrol products when the European ban hits, but the G7 price cap likely won’t make any waves – it’s set at the current price point for Russian diesel, and is just being implemented to ensure that Russia doesn’t benefit from any random spikes in oil product prices.
Matrimony Moratorium For Minors
- India has arrested over 2,000 men in the northeastern state of Assam as part of a crackdown on illegal marriages involving girls under 18. Indian citizens can be married at 21 for men and 18 for women, but poverty, lack of education, and social norms all contribute to the relatively widespread adoption of underage marriages.
- “We have so far arrested 2,169 men based on 4,074 registered police cases involving a total of about 8,000 men,” said Assam state police chief Gyanendra Pratap Singh. Despite the mass arrests, there is more work to be done – many cases of child marriage go unreported, with Assam registering only 155 cases of child marriages in 2021, and 38 in 2020. India’s parliament is currently legislation to raise women’s age of marriage from 18 to 21. Probably a good idea for a country looking to become a superpower on the world stage.
Additional World News
- Germany has evidence of war crimes in Ukraine ‘in three-digit range,’ prosecutor says (Reuters)
- Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf dies in Dubai (CNN)
- Pope in South Sudan tells clergy to raise voices against injustice (BBC)
- Snow and winter storms cut power, disrupt traffic across the Balkans (Reuters)
- ASEAN vows to conclude pact with China on disputed territory (AP)
- East African regional leaders demand ceasefire in eastern Congo (Reuters)
- Japan PM fires aide over derogatory LGBT remarks (BBC)
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” – Maya Angelou
Is There Another Option?
- A new poll released on Sunday by the Washington Post and ABC News found that nearly 60% of Democrats and nearly 50% of Republicans want someone other than Joe Biden or Donald Trump to be their party’s nominee for president in 2024. The poll comes just two days before President Biden’s State of the Union address, where many expect a clearer hint as to his plans for 2024.
- A little more than a third of all respondents (36%) said they would be “enthusiastic” or “satisfied but not enthusiastic” if Biden were re-elected. For Trump, that total was 43%. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg appeared on CNN, and was asked about the arguments for generational change. Buttigieg stood by his boss, saying, “Generational arguments can be powerful [but] the most powerful argument of all is results.”
New Hampshire, Old News
- On Saturday, the Democratic National Committee approved a long-discussed overhaul of the primary process, which will start the 2024 Democratic presidential primary circuit on February 3 in South Carolina. New Hampshire and Nevada are scheduled to follow on February 6, Georgia on February 13, and then Michigan on February 27.
- “This is a significant effort to make the presidential primary nominating process more reflective of the diversity of this country, and to have issues that will determine the outcome of the November election part of the early process,” said Representative Debbie Dingell. Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primaries have long been the kickoffs to elections, and the states weren’t exactly thrilled about the changes at first.
- Officials in New Hampshire have said they will hold the primaries on the original schedule. The plan is intended to make the early days of voting more diverse, moving away from Iowa and New Hampshire’s largely white populations. The new schedule also has the added benefit of rewarding many of the states that helped get President Biden elected in 2020.
Additional USA News
- GOP-led panel subpoenas three Biden officials over school board protests (Axios)
- DeSantis ramps up ‘war on woke’ with new attacks on Florida higher education (Guardian)
- Kansas police responding to overdose call shoot, kill man (ABC)
- Democrats’ Ilhan Omar defence weakened by party’s own attacks over Israel (Guardian)
- Arctic chill brings record low temperatures to the Northeast (NPR)
- George Santos accused of sexual harassment by congressional aide (Guardian)
- 50-car train derailment in Ohio causes massive fire, evacuations (CBS)
The Mogul-Making Method
- Julia Child, Taylor Swift, and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are all alumni of one school. Not the school of hard knocks – after all, Swift’s parents were finance bigwigs, and Page’s parents were computer scientists. No, they all graduated from Montessori schools, which teach a famous educational method created by an Italian teacher named Maria Montessori in 1907.
- Montessori schools all draw from a similar set of principles no matter where they’re located. Educators encourage their students – all at the preschool level – to finish school activities with as little adult help as possible. Kids also participate in practical tasks in the classroom, helping serve each other during meals or cleaning up after themselves and their classmates. There are no tests or grades, students are encouraged to collaborate with one another, and classes are taught in three-hour blocks to allow deep immersion in the subject matter.
- While a disproportionate amount of tech leaders and successful artists have attended Montessori schools, researchers are still undecided on whether or not the programs actually help kids. Some research has shown a difference in Montessori students and their non-Montessori peers, with kids attending the programs scoring higher on literacy and numeracy, but those results could just be the result of parents actually investing in their children’s education. It’s hard to draw any conclusions here, as most parents wouldn’t allow their children to be the subject of an actual randomized controlled trial to compare Montessori students to a control group of students.
Additional Reads
- Meet the people safeguarding the sacred forests and lagoons of West Africa (NPR)
- They eat ice cream and read ‘Harry Potter,’ but these North Korean YouTubers aren’t what they seem (CNN)
- Dolphin skull found in luggage at Detroit airport (NBC)
- Jupiter Takes Crown for Most Moons, With New Tally of 92 (CNET)
- Will Hawaii tourists have to pay a ‘green fee’ to go to the beach? There is growing local support. (USA Today)
- Man wanted for leaving dead fish at The Goonies house rescued by coast guard (Guardian)
- In China’s Covid Fog, Deaths of Scholars Offer a Clue (NYT, $)