Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Wednesday, 22 September 2021

What I've Been Reading, July and August 2021

Links

Above the Fold

Miscellaneous

Structural Violence

Black Lives Matter, Race, Racism

Coronavirus

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

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.

Collapse

Responding to Collapse,

Climate Change, or rather, actually, Global Warming

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

Writing Skills

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

Linguistics

Dancing on Graves

Debunking Resources

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

Science

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

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

    Education

    Humour

    These are great times for political satire.

    Books

    Fiction

    Non-Fiction

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    Wednesday, 5 May 2021

    What I've Been Reading, March and April 2021

    Links

    Above the Fold

    • How Hunter-Gatherers Maintained Their Egalitarian Ways, by Peter Gray Ph.D., Psychology Today
      "The important lessons from hunter-gatherers are about culture, not genes."
    • On Graeber and Wengrow and Institutional Flexibility, by Eric Schliesser, Digressions&Impressions
    • How to change the course of human history (at least, the part that’s already happened), by David Graeber and David Wengrow, Eurozine
      "The story we have been telling ourselves about our origins is wrong, and perpetuates the idea of inevitable social inequality. David Graeber and David Wengrow ask why the myth of ‘agricultural revolution’ remains so persistent, and argue that there is a whole lot more we can learn from our ancestors." "But on one thing we insist. Abandoning the story of a fall from primordial innocence does not mean abandoning dreams of human emancipation – that is, of a society where no one can turn their rights in property into a means of enslaving others, and where no one can be told their lives and needs don’t matter. To the contrary. Human history becomes a far more interesting place, containing many more hopeful moments than we’ve been led to imagine, once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what’s really there."
    • A Lot of People Don't Want to Win | James Butler Meets David Graeber, YouTube—Novara Media
      "At The World transformed 2018 James Butler met with David Graeber to talk Momentum,dual power, co-option, the extra-parliamentary left and winning."
    • David Graeber on the Value of Work, by David Graeber, YouTube
      "Does the world really need neuroadvertisers, PR researchers and branding consultants? Renowned academic and coiner of the ‘we are the 99%’ slogan, David Graeber is a passionate advocate for meaningful work. After famously condemning the 21st century phenomenon of ‘bullsh*t jobs’, in this short animation he investigates the philosophical underpinnings of employment, and calls for a reformulation of what work should be."
    • The miracle of the commons, by Michelle Nijhuis, Aeon
      "Far from being profoundly destructive, we humans have deep capacities for sharing resources with generosity and foresight."

    Miscellaneous

    • Monkeys and wolves forge alliance that resembles domestication done by humans, by Tibi Puiu, ZME Science
      "In Ethiopia's grasslands, huge herds of gelada monkeys might be in the process of domesticating wolves."
    • 15 Lies About Firearms Movies and Video Games Told You, by Cracked Writers and Andres Diplotti, Cracked
      "There's something about firearms. Regardless of our ideas about gun control, we can't help but admire a sleek, well-honed, lubricated death machine. Guns have two main purposes: First, being cool (and making you look and feel cool by association), and in a distant second place, causing an awful lot of harm. So they're kind of like mechanical cigarettes (and to some people, just as addictive).
      And yet, considering how many firearms most people have seen, the average person knows remarkably little about them. We're here to help fix that."
    • A Bach cello piece played atop a mountain is as exhilarating as you’d expect, cellist Ruth Boden, Director: Gavin Carver, Aeon video
      "Andante (a musical term meaning ‘at walking pace’) follows the cellist Ruth Boden as she climbs 10,000 feet to a peak in Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains for a deeply personal, yet breathtakingly public solo performance. With her prized cello strapped to her back, Boden reflects on how she wants to do something with music that transcends the commonplace, and on the particular joy of playing from Bach’s cello suite at ‘the top of the world’."
    • The Five Universal Laws of Human Stupidity, by Corinne Purtill, Quartz/Pocket
      "We underestimate the stupid, and we do so at our own peril."
    • Why I shut down an argument in my philosophy for children class, by Amy Reed-Sandoval, Aeon—Psyche
    • What fat is for, Director and Animator: Ermina Takenova; Producer: Kellen Quinn; Writer: Nicola Williams,
      "Abundance has made fat an enemy, but it’s been a friend to humans for millennia"
    • The interstellar dream is dying, by Chris Taylor, Mashable
      "Sending "generation ships" to colonize the cosmos makes less sense the more we look at it."
      Of course, many of us have doubts about our civilization making it to the 22nd century at all.
    • Could you wear a dress for 100 days? by Emma Beddington, The Guardian
      "When Emma Beddington took part in a challenge to wear the same dress for 100 days, she wasn’t expecting to feel the positive force of sisterhood alongside a few neat cleaning hacks."

    Black Lives Matter

    Coronavirus

    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.

    Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

    • The 'Capitalism is Broken' Economy, by Anne Helen Petersen, Culture Study
      "feel like we've moved beyond 'burnout' and more to 'the pandemic has illuminated that nearly every aspect of modern society is fundamentally unlivable' "

    Climate Change

    Energy

    Recipes and Cooking

    • 11 Genius Cooking Hacks I Wish I Had Known Earlier in Life, by Karthik Rajan, Medium—Food | Parenting | Family
      Some interesting ideas here, none of which I have tried. There is a fad these days for recipes with few ingredients. For the most part I don't agree that this is likely to give good results. And doing things quickly, from where I sit, is almost always a bad idea.

    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 products. 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.
    • Are GMOs worth their weight in gold? To farmers, not exactly, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
      "Biotech seeds cost more and often return less than conventional crops or organic farming. But they do give farmers a kind of safety net."

    American Politics

    Ontario Politics

    Dancing on Graves

    Debunking Resources

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

    Science

    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.

  • Telltale Traits of Terrible People, by Brooke Meredith, Medium
    "Steer clear! (Some of these might surprise you)"
  • 9 Paradoxical Truths That Will Change How You Think About Life, by Moreno Zugaro, Medium—Mind Cafe
  • This One Thing Gives True Insight into Someone’s Character, by Jessie London, Medium
    "This has helped me surround myself with wonderful people."

    • Gender and Sexuality

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

    Education

    Humour

    Books

    Fiction

    Non-Fiction

    I finally finished reading A Peoples History of the United States. And I am over half way through Hierarchy in the Forest, by Christoper Boehm.

    • A Peoples History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
      The version I read (it was lent to me by a friend) was published in 1980, and not surprisingly, only covers up until that point in American History. I see Amazon has a newer version that covers up to the 2000 election and the war on terror. I intended to get a copy and see what Zinn thought of the decades following 1980. In the edition I just read, the very optimistic last chapter was titled "The Coming Revolt of the Guards". It hasn't worked out that way.

    More information about Haward Zinn, from Wikipedia.

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    Wednesday, 21 October 2020

    What I've Been Reading, September 2020

    Links

    Above the Fold

    Miscellaneous

    • Neither nasty nor brutish, by Cathryn Townsend, Aeon
      "The Ik – among the poorest people on Earth – have been cast as exemplars of human selfishness. The truth is much more startling."
      This article makes some very good points about selflessness and generousity as basic human traits.
    • The self is not always selfish: Mary Midgley takes on Richard Dawkins, video interview with Mary Midgley on Aeon
      I don't agree with everything she says, but yes, selfishness is certainly not the central element of human fitness, just the opposite.

    Coronavirus

    Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

    Collapse

    • Here’s What The Real Future Probably Looks Like, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium
      "It’s not all starships and robots."
      The author is clearly not a kollapsnik, and is missing out on some of the basics, but even so she is catching on surprisingly well.

    Responding to Collapse,

    • Mutual Aid, RBG, and Where We Go From Here, by Dawn Allen, Legal Reader
      "Our rights never should have rested in RBG’s hands alone. The recent surge of mutual aid groups may help prevent that situation in the future."

    Resource Depletion, formerly (and still including) Peak Oil

    The change in title stems from the fact that it's not just oil that is peaking.

    Climate Change

    Economic Contraction and Growing Inequality

    • Forget Shutdowns. It’s ‘Demand Shock’ That’s Killing Our Economy, by James Surowiecki, Medium—Marker
      "Gyms, restaurants, and movie theaters are all reeling for the very same reason"
      Evidently, declining surplus energy is not the only thing that can cause economic contraction. The current pandemic is quite effective, and "opening things up" doesn't help much when people are still concerned about exposing themselves to a very real risk.

    Energy

    Agriculture

    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.
    • Elephant in the room: Why getting the GMO story straight is so hard, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist

    American Politics

    Debunking Resources

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

    Pseudoscience, Quacks and Charlatans

    Gender and Sexuality

    There is No God, and Thou Shall Have No Other Gods

    I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that I am an atheist, but I may not have made it clear that I think any sort of worship is a bad thing and that believing in things is to be avoided whenever possible. Indeed, I do not believe in belief itself. That's what the "Thou shall have no other gods" is about—it's not enough to quit believing in whatever God or Gods you were raised to believe in, but also we must avoid other gods, including material wealth, power and fame.

    Further, many people today (including most atheists) follow the religion of "progress", which is based on the belief that mankind is destined to follow a road that leads from the caves ever upward to the stars, and that however bad things seem today, they are bound to be better tomorrow due to technological advancement and economic growth. This is very convenient for those who benefit most from economic growth, but it is hardly based on any sort of science and leads to a great deal of confused thinking.

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

    Humour

    Books

    Fiction

    Non-Fiction

    Didn't finish any non-fiction books this month, but I'm working my way through a couple of good ones and hope to finish one or maybe both by the end of October.

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    Tuesday, 10 March 2020

    What I've Been Reading, February 2020

    Links

    Late Breaking News

    Miscellaneous

    I googled "Is healthcare free in China?" and this is the answer that Google provided:
    "China does have free public healthcare which is under the country's social insurance plan. The healthcare system provides basic coverage for the majority of the native population and, in most cases, expats as well. However, it will depend on the region you reside in."
    As the link below shows, that's basically true, but the details are somewhat more complicated.

    Coronavirus

    At this point (March 10, 2020) it's starting to look like the secondary effects on production, supply chains and markets caused by large numbers of people being locked down in quarantine may be worse than the primary effects of the virus itself. And of course panic will only make things worse. There is a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) on the internet, and many are using that to drive traffic to their sites. I have tried very hard to avoid articles of that sort in choosing the ones below. I still ended up with too many articles.

    The plain fact is that we don't know much about the virus at the moment. When the dust settles, we'll know a lot more. The dust will settle and the human race will carry on, hopefully having learned something from the experience.

    Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

    The New Fascism, 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 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.

    Collapse

    Peak Oil

    Climate Change

    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.

    • Swiss Scientists Have Recreated the Coronavirus in a Lab, by Emily Mullin, Medium—OneZero
    • 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.
    • Genetic engineering vs. natural breeding: What’s the difference?, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist

    Canadian Politics

    Politics

    • Politics Without Politicians, by Nathan Heller, The New Yorker
      This is not talking about anarchy, just about a different way to run a state. It is very unclear to me how we would get from the current neoliberal plutarchy to open democracy such as is suggested in this article. And even if we could, such a government is not still likely to be able to deal with the sort of predicaments that we are currently in any better than any other style of government.

    Debunking Resources

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

    Science

    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.

    Gender and Sexuality

    Refugees and Migration

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

    Artificial Intelligence

    • Artificial Intelligence—The Revolution Hasn’t Happened Yet, by Michael I. Jordan, Medium—Artificial Intelligence
    • 2019 in Review: 10 AI Failures, by Synched
      I include this not to say that AI is impossible, but rather that is has significant challenges that haven't yet been solved—that it is far from a done deal.
    • Asking the Right Questions About AI, by Yonatan Zunger, Medium—Artificial Intelligence
      "AI models hold a mirror up to us; they don’t understand when we really don’t want honesty. They will only tell us polite fictions if we tell them how to lie to us ahead of time."
      "A good rule of thumb, also recently encoded into EU law, is that decisions with serious consequences of people should be sanity-checked by a human—and that there should be a human override mechanism available."
      "We are not yet anywhere close to being able to do that in AI’s."

    Humour

    These are great times for political satire.

    Books

    Fiction

    Non-Fiction

    I am reading currently "The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth" by Benjamin Friedman, which was lent to me by a friend. Written by a conventional economist who doesn't even seem to know what causes economic growth, or what its consequences really are, it is pretty tough going. Important to know how the other side thinks, though, I guess.

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    Tuesday, 11 February 2020

    What I've Been Reading, January 2020

    Links

    Miscellaneous

    In this section you will find some articles that I am simple at a loss as how to classify, and a few others that might well have gone in another section, but I think are important enough that they deserve a place at the top of the list. I'll leave it up to you to discern which is which.

    • I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left, by Ross LaJeunesse, Medium—Business
      "The company’s motto used to be “Don’t be evil.” Things have changed."
    • A Simple Explanation of White Privilege That Anyone Can Understand, by Mark Greene, Medium—Equality
    • Here’s A Riddle That Might Expose Your Blind Spot, by Rebec Ansar, Medium—An Amygdala
      "Don’t scroll to the end! That’s where the answer is."
    • George Monbiot on the unholy trinity of ideologies trashing our planet, by Brendan Montague , Open Democracy
      "The invisible ideology referred to is neoliberalism. But when I caught up with Monbiot at his home in Oxford this month he had already extended the scope of his speech to include capitalism and consumerism. This is the holy trinity: capitalism is the father, consumerism the son and neoliberalism the holy ghost."
    • Yuval Noah Harari and Fei-Fei Li on Artificial Intelligence: Four Questions that Impact All of Us, by Briana Brownell, Medium—Towards Data Science
      I won't deny that we need to be aware of the "new problems" that AI presents us with if we are to deal successfully with them. But I find it disturbing that while focusing on those problems, the discussion seems to be losing sight of the fact that the "old problems" are far from solved. The systems and supply lines we rely on for the necessities of life (air, water, food, shelter, fuel) are by no means secure. Not even here in the developed nations, and certain not in the developing nations. And that is why my focus is mainly on the old problems.
      Much of what Harari has to say is full of a naive eagerness about what AI can do today, and might someday be able to do, with seemingly very little awareness of the limitations of the current generation of AI advances. Those advances have brought us some success in a few very narrow fields, but there is no clear path to a wider, more general, application of AI. But I agree that we need to be concerned about how even those limited successes are being (or may soon be) used by capitalists and the governments who serve them.

    Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

    • The Nobel Prize for Climate Catastrophe, by Jason Hickel, Pocket—Foreign Policy
      "Growth versus life. The conflict between economics and science has never been clearer."
      "We can improve people’s lives right now, without any additional growth at all, simply by distributing existing income more fairly."
      "If we think about the growth conundrum from this angle, then it comes down to a much more obvious choice: between living in a more equitable society, on the one hand, and risking climate catastrophe on the other. I imagine that most people would have little difficulty choosing between the two."
      Convincing the upper class, the oligarchs who are running things, will prove quite difficult.
    • Capitalism is the Planet’s Cancer: Operate Before it’s too Late, by George Monbiot, You Tube

    The New Fascism, 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 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.

    • Would you stand up to an oppressive regime or would you conform? Here’s the science , by The Conversdation,
      I have always had a lot of trouble going along with authority, but I finally learned that to resist effectively, it is best to keep your head down and maintain the appearance of going with the flow, while participating in "underground" activities. Those who resist openly are soon dealt with and find themselves in a position where they cannot resist.
    • How Capitalism Torched the Planet by Imploding Into Fascism, by Umair Haque, Medium— Eudaimonia and Co
      "Catastrophic Climate Change is not a Problem for Fascists—It is a Solution"
      A good essay, but as usual Mr. Haque misses the effects of economic contraction due to declining surplus energy. But even so, there is no excuse for those in the lower classes who have supported neo-fascists leaders.

    Eco-Modernism, Decoupling and the Religion of Progress

    ,

    Australia is Burning

    ,

    Pandemic

    Collapse

    Peak Oil

    Climate Change

    Economic Contraction and Growing Inequality

    Energy

    Agriculture

    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 being 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.

    • ‘Regenerative Agriculture’: World-Saving Idea or Food Marketing Ploy? by Nathanael Johnson, Medium—Environment
      "Let’s just hope that power is put towards pragmatically improving agriculture, rather than abandoning science for religious adherence to an idea."
      We definitely need a replacement for conventional agriculture that is (unlike "Certified Organic") more than a marketing ploy, and is based on something more than the "naturalistic fallacy".

    Food

    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
      "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.
    • The GM safety dance: What’s rule and what’s real, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist

    Practical Skills

    • All about willow, by Hanna van Aelst, on her own website
      This page presents information about growing, harvesting, sorting, soaking and steaming willow to prepare it for weaving. On You Tube Hanna has a number of videos about various aspects of weaving baskets.

    American Politics

    Politics

    • On est là /Here we are! by Bernard Dreano, Open Democracy
      "Macron faces widespread protests against his proposed reforms, but the roots of discontent run deeper and are beginning to join up."

    Secession

    Debunking Resources

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

    Pseudoscience, Quacks and Charlatans

    Science

    • Is Betelgeuse About To Explode? by Ethan Siegal, Medium—Starts with a Bang
      "It’s a supergiant star in the final stage of its life, and it just dimmed by an enormous amount. What’s going on?"

    Science Based Medicine

    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.

    Gender and Sexuality

    There is No God, and Thou Shall Have No Other Gods

    I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that I am an atheist, but I may not have made it clear that I think any sort of worship is a bad thing and that believing in things is to be avoided whenever possible. Indeed, I do not believe in belief itself. That's what the "Thou shall have no other gods" is about—it's not enough to quit believing in whatever God or Gods you were raised to believe in, but also we must avoid other gods, including material wealth, power and fame.

    Further, many people today (including most atheists) follow the religion of "progress", which is based on the belief that mankind is destined to follow a road that leads from the caves ever upward to the stars, and that however bad things seem today, they are bound to be better tomorrow due to, technological advancement and economic growth. This is very convenient for those who benefit most from economic growth, but it is hardly based on any sort of science and leads to a great many confused and incorrect ideas.

    • Trump is Impeached, and We’re Leaving the Church, by Crissi Langwell, Medium—Religion
      Or maybe stop clinging to Jesus and realize that believing means claiming to know things that you don't actually know and leads to just the sort of thing that you're complaining about.
    • Everything you know about the Gospel of Paul is likely wrong , by David Bentley Hart, Aeon
      The point I like to make about religion (both in St. Paul's time and now) is that the people who are doing it are making it up as they go along. The only reality religion reflects is about the character of those who are inventing it, and frequently that reflection isn't very pretty.

    Intelligence and Consciousness

    Refugees and Migration

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

    Artificial Intelligence

    Humour

    These are great times for political satire.

    Books

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    Non-Fiction

    • Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era, by Giacomo D'Alisa (Editor), Federico Demaria (Editor), Giorgos Kallis (Editor)
      "This overview of degrowth offers a comprehensive coverage of the main topics and major challenges of degrowth in a succinct, simple and accessible manner. In addition, it offers a set of keywords useful for intervening in current political debates and for bringing about concrete degrowth-inspired proposals at different levels—local, national and global."
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