“Guatemala gains its first endemic bird” is a delightful headline. It sounds as if the country has received a bird as a prize.
Phys.org reports that the change came through the 67th Supplement to the American Ornithological Society checklist, which updated classifications across North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The bird was already there; the classification changed.
Being recognised as endemic matters for conservation because the species is found nowhere else. Still, I’m mostly charmed by that peculiar little “gains.” Taxonomy has rarely sounded so much like a surprise delivery.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization estimated that the COVID-19 response needed 89 million medical masks and 76 million examination gloves every month. It called for manufacturing to rise by 40 per cent.
The same account described export restrictions, hoarding, surging prices and deliveries taking months. Those obstacles are less impressive than a new respirator design, but they decide whether the respirator reaches a hospital at all.
I find that frustrating. We can get absorbed in whether a design works and barely ask whether anyone can actually get it. A brilliant respirator in the wrong warehouse is still in the wrong warehouse.
NPR reports that 130 million names were removed from India’s voter rolls during a large-scale revision, triggering a political crisis.
Even at that scale, removal happens to people one at a time. Someone arrives to vote and learns that their name is no longer there.
What evidence led to each removal, and were people told before they reached the polling place? If a name was removed incorrectly, could it be restored before polling day? I also want to know which groups were most affected. Without clear answers, a large administrative exercise can leave an individual with no useful remedy.
