What I've Been Reading, July and August 2021

Links

• Bypass paywalls on popular online publications for free, by 7 Labs.
  There is a lot of important information out there that is behind paywalls, many requiring expensive subscriptions to overcome.

Above the Fold

• We’re On Track For The Global Collapse Predicted By The Club Of Rome In 1972, by Patrick Metzger, Medium--Apocalypse Porn
  This article says it straight up, and the only objection I would have is that the blame is laid on people in general. I disagree with this--the problem is caused by over consumption, and that's caused by the ongoing marketing efforts of the world's capitalists. Stop them, and human behaviour would quickly change for the better.
• To Save Ourselves, We’ll Need This Very Different Economy, by William E. Rees, TheTyee
  "What would ‘getting serious’ about the survival of civilization look like?"
  "The pandemic is a big problem. Climate change is an even bigger problem. But the meta-problem is ecological overshoot."
• Yes, the Climate Crisis May Wipe out Six Billion People, by William E. Rees, TheTyee
  "William E. Rees is professor emeritus of human ecology and ecological economics at the University of British Columbia."
  "Creator of the ‘ecological footprint’ on life and death in a world 4 C hotter."
  "This is an election year in Canada. Ask your candidates — sitting MPs in particular — just how much time they have spent contemplating these issues or debating them in caucus."
• The Predictable Backlash to Critical Race Theory: A Q&A With Kimberlé Crenshaw, by Jon Wiener, The Nation
  “Wherever there is race reform, there’s inevitably retrenchment.”
• Pseudoscience and COVID-19 — we’ve had enough already, by Timothy Caulfield, Nature
  "The scientific community must take up cudgels in the battle against bunk."
• The Real Problem That Caused MAGA: Low Cognitive Ability, by Code Switcher, Medium--Writers' Blokke
  

Miscellaneous

• What Dog Ownership Taught Me About Fear and Anxiety in America, by Anastasia Frugaard, Medium--P.S. I Love You
  "Are Americans scared of dogs, or of one another?"
• Women athletes are pushing back against the uniform status quo, by Jenna Benchetrit, CBC News
  "The decision to wear comfortable competition clothing has been both celebrated and criticized"
  This is the only Olympics related link I'll be posting. Let the women wear whatever they want. Modest or revealing, it should be their choice.
• 5 Period Myths Women Wished Men Would Stop Believing, by Carlyn Beccia, Medium--Fewarless She Wrote
  "I am here to save you from grizzly bears"

Structural Violence

• You Can Help The Ones In Front Of You, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium

Black Lives Matter, Race, Racism

• 5 Misconceptions I Had About White Men Before I Started Dating One, by Andrea Coleman, Medium
• We Tried The White Countryside But Racism Made Us Come Back, by Rebecca Stevens A., Medium--Illumination
  "In some places, black folks are simply not welcome"
• Simply an American, Medium--Black in-White
• I Enjoyed Having White Allies In Antiracism While It Lasted, by Rebecca Stevens A., Medium--An Injustice
  "But now, most of them have gone silent"

Coronavirus

• Call of the Wild, by Jon Cohen, Science
  "Why many scientists say it’s unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 originated from a “lab leak”"
• My father believes that unvaccinated people will create variants of coronavirus and keep the pandemic going. Is there any evidence for this and also, how will the unvaccinated create variants if they don't contract coronavirus? by Dr Jo, Quora
  "The biologists are right. But to understand why—there’s the rub—you may need a slight introduction to viral mutation, natural selection, and the role of the unvaccinated in spreading and breeding plagues. I’ll provide all of this—and then indulge in some speculation about where we might go from here. Perhaps you shouldn’t read this if you are (a) mentally a bit unstable, for example prone to depression; or (b) stuck in a pre-Darwinian mind set."
• Does African herbal medicine cure the coronavirus?, by Dr Jo, Quora
• The New COVID Panic, by Susan Matthews, Slate
  "What vaccinated people should really know about their risk from the delta variant."
• The UK's vaccine rollout has dramatically reduced Covid-19 deaths, by Alison Buttenheim @abuttenheim, Twitter
• Is there a possibility to actually contract the COVID-19 virus by taking the vaccine shots?, by Chris O'Leary, Quora
• Why Is It Taking So Long to Get Vaccines for Kids? by Rachel Gutman, The Atlantic
  "A few things still need to happen before the shots can be authorized for Americans younger than 12."
• Does it make sense for a fully vaccinated person to wear a mask in public indoor settings like supermarkets (I don't ask for an answer from a legal standpoint)? by Michael Barnard, Quora
  What this guy has to say makes complete sense to me. A short answer and well worth the time to read.
• What do COVID-19 pro-vaxxers have to say after seeing vaccine side effects? by Glenn R. Anderson, Quora
  "Do you understand that even though no medication comes without risks, that the possibility of death from COVID-19 far outweighs any miniscule threat associated with vaccines?
  Then grow up, stop your whining, and get the damn shot."
• Is it likely everyone, vaccinated or not, has breathed the COVID-19 virus into their lungs to whatever amount since the early months of 2020? Why haven’t we all been infected? by C Stuart Hardwick, Quora

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

• Most theft is wage theft, by Dave McKenna, Twitter

The New Fascism, the Far-Right and Antifa

I hear a lot of well educated people saying that the people some of us are calling fascists don't meet all the criteria for being "real" fascists. Others have even accused us of calling anyone we disagree with a fascist. I predict that a few decades (maybe just a few years) from now those same people will be saying they wish they hadn't been quite so fussy with their definitions, and had acted sooner to oppose these "new fascists", even if they weren't identical to the fascists of the twentieth century.

• Is It Finally Time to Begin Calling Trumpism Fascist? by Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine--The Intelligencer
  "Perhaps the lurch of Trumpism into something resembling fascism will abate or even reverse itself, particularly as its Republican captive audience comes to believe it can win power by more conventional means. I’m not sure I will believe it until Trump supporters abandon the big lie about 2020, stop pursuing anti-democratic tactics, and demobilize their, well, fascistic rhetoric."
• Antifascists Stopped Proud Boys From Entering Portland’s City Center on Sunday, by Shane Burley, Truthout

Collapse

• Eye-Opening Data That Will Change Your Outlook on Life, by Mia Thompson, Medium
  "You’re totally wrong about almost everything."

Responding to Collapse,

• Greg Abbott Essentials: Tips for another power grid failure, by Diana Gómez, Progress Texas
  "Looking for a quick guide to prepare for another Texas GOP energy grid failure? We’ve got you covered."

Climate Change, or rather, actually, Global Warming

• What are the Real Reasons Nations aren’t Doing Anything About Climate Change? by Tessa Schlesinger, Medium
  "I know that you’re waiting for them to do something…"

Recipes and Cooking

• The Secret to Making your Good Soup Glorious, by Malky McEwan, Medium
  "A top chef let me in on this trick and science agreed with him"
  This is essentially the same trick my wife taught me. Or if you end up frying the soup ingredients in a frying pan, be sure to deglaze the pan and put the resulting liquid into the soup. There is a lot of flavour there you don't want to miss out on.

Genetic Engineering

Before jumping to the erroneous conclusion that this section was paid for by Monsanto, stop for a moment and understand that organic agriculture/food is a multi-billion dollar per year industry that relies on fear to get people to buy its product. Millions of dollars are spent to convince you that non-organic food is dangerous. In fact both conventionally grown and organic foods are equally safe. Sadly neither method of agriculture is even remotely substainable.

• Panic-free GMOs, A Grist Special Series by Nathanael Johnson
  "It’s easy to get information about genetically modified food. There are the dubious anti-GM horror stories that recirculate through social networks. On the other side, there’s the dismissive sighing, eye-rolling, and hand patting of pro-GM partisans. But if you just want a level-headed assessment of the evidence in plain English, that’s in pretty short supply. Fortunately, you’ve found the trove."
  A series of articles that does a pretty good job of presenting the facts about GMOs. I plan to include one article from this series here each month.
• A 16th-century Dutchman can tell us everything we need to know about GMO patents, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
  "Today's agribusiness patent holders have locked out innovation. The annals of maritime exploration offer a way out. Really! "

Practical Skills

• 3 Basic Compass Skills Everyone Should Learn, by Outdoor Life--The Editors
  "Advances in GPS technology are no replacement for basic navigation skills."

Writing Skills

• What is it About Official Medium Publications That They are So Badly Written and So Boring? by Tessa Schlesinger, Medium
  "In the sixteen months I’ve been on Medium, I’ve never been able to bring myself to read a single article in any of the official Medium Publications."

American Politics

• Biden’s Invisible Ideology, by Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
  "The President has deployed an exasperating but effective strategy to counter Trumpism."

Canadian Politics

• More than leadership or policy, it’s the Conservative temperament that’s putting off voters, by Andrew Coyne, The Globe and Mail
• Why has Canada's Conservative Party faced such a challenge in finding a leader Canadians regard as highly as Stephen Harper was over his 11 years as leader? by Scott Welch, Quora
  

Linguistics

• Why Is English Highly Irregular? (Interview with Arika Okrent), on Words for Granted - An etymology and linguistics podcast, with Lee Delhi

Dancing on Graves

• Rightwing radio host and anti-vaxxer dies of Covid, by Edward Helmore, The Guardian--US News
  "Dick Farrel was a vociferous critic of Dr Anthony Fauci and urged people not to get vaccinated"

Debunking Resources

These are of such importance that I've decide to leave them here on an ongoing basis.

• Debunking, Wikipedia
• Pseudoscience, Wikipedia
• List of topics characterized as pseudoscience, Wikipedia
• Rational Wiki
• Science Based Medecine
• Quackwatch
• Snopes, debunks or validates urban legends
• Bad Astronomy
• The Skeptics Society
• The 8 Best Fact-Checking Sites for Finding Unbiased Truth, by Megan Ellis, MUO--Make Use Of
• Pain Science, by Paul Ingraham
• Techniques of Science Denial

Science

• Astronomers spot first activity on giant megacomet beyond Saturn, by Elizabeth Howell, space.com
  "New Zealand-based astronomers had a time-zone advantage while watching the massive comet."

Lacking an Owner's Manual

The human body/mind/spirit doesn't come with an owner's manual, and we continually struggle to figure out how best to operate them.

The Sexiest Things You Can Ever Do for Her, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium
"Guaranteed to blow her mind, anytime."

The system of mathematics I wish I had known long ago, by Theodorrism, Medium
"Go on. Learn. Do this for yourself."

Gender and Sexuality

• JK Rowling, again…, by Gemma Stone, Medium--An Injustice
  

Poverty, Homeless People, Minimum Wage, UBI, Health Care, Affordable Housing

• Why are homeless prevention steps (such as adding spike where people sleep) used? Do they do anything to curtail the issue?, by Anna Butler, Quora
  "These devices are simply to move homeless people out of sight and out of mind."

Education

• Job ready university degrees may not be the tertiary education solution we are hoping for, by Rosemary Barnes, ABC News
  I always chuckle when I hear arts graduates talk about having been taught critical thinking skills and logic. Remember the nonsense that many of them believe in.

Humour

These are great times for political satire.

• Trudeau: If Canadians keep us in power for thirty more years, we promise to eventually do something about the environment, by Mary Gillis, The Beaverton--Climate Change
  "The environment was unable to be reached for comment because it is currently in the middle of a spiralling crisis that will only get catastrophically worse."

Books

Fiction

• Angel Station, by Walter Jon Williams
• The First Omega, by Megan E. O'Keefe
• Cosmic Fever, by Eric J. Adams
• Adaptation, by Mack Reynolds
• Walking to Aldebaran, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Shade, by Steven Gould
• Initial Fold, by Nick Adams
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot Book 1), by Becky Chambers
• Edges (Inverted Frontier Book 1), by Linda Nagata
• Silver (Inverted Frontier Book 2), by Linda Nagata
• The Red: First Light (The Red Trilogy Book 1), by Linda Nagata

Non-Fiction

• Living at the Edges of Capitalism, by Andrej Grubacic and Denis O'Hearn
• The Battle for the Mountain of the Kurds, by Thomas Schmidinger