Let’s replace the local materials and techniques used for generations with expensive, hideous concrete slabs and corrugated roofs designed in a month by outside builders with no experience of local conditions and no concern for how things fit in with the local environment or whether local people can afford them or build them, making them dependent on outside support, all for some dubious gains in mosquito protection that could be achieved just as well by adding some cheap screens to the existing houses. Groundbreaking.
The local materials and techniques which the locals happily cast aside? The hideous concrete slabs and corrugated roofs which poorer families were almost ostracized for accepting? Your aesthetic preference for thatched huts does not override the desires of the people who actually have to live in them, nor the proven health impact. Cost is the real problem here; I don't see these houses competing with bed nets anytime soon in practical terms.
a lot of these NGO people have done so much damage to vulnerable African populations.
a lot of rural African homesteads are usually spaced out - made out of sustainable materials - reed & thatch for roofing, then earth brick - which is cooling.
the latrines are always at least 30m from the sleeping quarters. but of course - some NGOs will come telling the local people that you've been doing it all wrong.
> the latrines are always at least 30m from the sleeping quarters
Toilet facilities are lacking in many parts of the world, and "open defecation" – e.g. toileting in a field without the benefit of a dedicated hole / long-drop / pit – is still in use.
The study did show positive health outcomes with the new housing over a traditional mud + thatch dwelling.
Given that the new housing incorporated dedicated latrines, harvesting of clean water, and insect-exclusion techniques, it's unsurprising that the new housing outperformed traditional dwellings in health outcomes.
It didn't do a cost-benefit analysis comparing an equivalent investment in e.g. provision of latrines, insect-netting, clean water, or simply providing cash to the participants.
All for the affordable price of nine thousand dollars, which is likely more than what a local person makes working for an entire year. It seems to me that the concept of "housing" needs a serious re-think.
Median income in Tanzania is ≈ $1,800pa, so this property is around 5 times the median annual salary.
That said, housing in first world countries is generally a significant multiple of annual median income. In the UK, banks typically lend at 3–4 × an individuals salary or 3 × a couple's combined salary, so a single median earner on around £40k could borrow £120k – £160k.
The article notes the pricing is out-of-reach for many people in Tanzania, but it's also not wildly disconnected from salary:housing ratios in high-income economies.
Also i doubt Tanzania has the code/zoning insanity of the US. You build your hut for cheap and quickly, then you put your concrete house next to it and build it over 10 years as you get money. Probably shared across a larger family. In places like US this impossible; you can only build 1 house on most plots and permits aren't amenable to slow progress so you need a loan and a gigantic pile of money all at once.
Russians: How is it possible that this missile can track its location anywhere?
Sir, we’ve found it uses GPS.
Wow, we never would have guessed that. Sneaky Americans. Now that we know their secret, we can defeat them!
The missile knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is - whichever is greater - it obtains a difference or deviation. The guidance subsystem uses deviations to generate corrective commands to drive the missile from a position where it is to a position where it isn't, and arriving at a position that it wasn't, it now is. Consequently, the position where it is is now the position that it wasn't, and if follows that the position that it was is now the position that it isn't. In the event that the position that the position that it is in is not the position that it wasn't, the system has acquired a variation. The variation being the difference between where the missile is and where it wasn't. If variation is considered to be a significant factor, it too may be corrected by the GEA. However, the missile must also know where it was. The missile guidance computer scenario works as follows: Because a variation has modified some of the information that the missile has obtained, it is not sure just where it is. However, it is sure where it isn't, within reason, and it know where it was. It now subtracts where it should be from where it wasn't, or vice versa. And by differentiating this from the algebraic sum of where it shouldn't be and where it was, it is able to obtain the deviation and its variation, which is called error.
The selling point will be that it can put another person in the same room with you. That's a massive leap in communication, on par with the introduction of mobile phones. Originally mobile phones cost thousands of dollars and had a limited market. Everyone wanted them but couldn't afford them till the price came down over time. It'll be the same way with VR headsets that are capable of doing teleportation like the Apple headset is rumored to be able to do.
From Mark Gurman: "The headset’s FaceTime software will realistically render a user’s face and full body in virtual reality. Those avatars will allow two people — each with an Apple headset — to communicate and feel like they’re in the same room."
Lots of people here in Germany use Telegram for their purchases of substances (a serious crime here) because they consider it safe. If there's a danger of Telegram sharing their data with the police, the app is no longer safe. If it it's no longer safe for one thing, people won't use it for anything.
Purchases are where the sales at. Strange that these sellers aren’t using more secure messengers.
I believe that illegal activity is a good litmus test for a messenger, much better than forum theories or headlines. If for some reason drug dealers stay away from particular apps, so should you.
