What I've Been Reading, March and April 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 subscription to overcome.

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

• 5 Of The Most Hurtful Racial Microaggressions I Have Heard In My Life, by Rebecca Stevens A., Medium—Illumination
  "And you’d be surprised by what people can say"

Coronavirus

• On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest), how serious is the corona virus?, by Krister Sundelin, Quora
  
• How Herd Immunity Works — And What Stands In Its Way, by Thomas Wilburn, Richard Harris
  "What will it take to finally halt the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S.? To answer that question, we've created a simulation of a mock disease we're calling SIMVID-19."

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.

• Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas announces “domestic violence review” at Department following January 6 fascist coup attempt, by Jacob Crosse, World Socialist Website
  "The fact is, backward, reactionary and fascistic attitudes have been allowed to fester within the ranks of the US police, military and intelligence agencies for decades under both Democratic and Republican administrations."

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

• Biden’s Jobs Plan Is Also a Climate Plan. Will It Make a Difference? by Elizabeth Kolbert, The new Yorker
  "The Administration has an ambitious vision for combating global warming, but it’s only a start."
• Receding glaciers causing rivers to suddenly disappear, by Jenna Kunze, The Guardian
  "Global phenomenon known as river piracy demands urgent adaptation from ecosystems and people who rely on their flow"
• Antarctic Ice Sheet melting to lift sea level higher than thought, study says, by Juan Siliezar, Harvard Gazette—Science and Technology
  " New calculations show the rise due to warming would be 30% above forecasts"
• There aren’t enough trees in the world to offset society’s carbon emissions – and there never will be, by Bonnie Waring, The Conversation

Energy

• With a Blockbuster Week, VW Has Ignited a New Phase in the Electric War, by Steve LeVine, Medium—Mobilist
  "A multifront race in batteries, plants, and to be #2 behind Tesla"

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

• Biden Meets, and Defeats, the Press, by Joan Walsh, The Nation
  "The president should postpone future news conferences. Not because he can’t handle them—but because the White House press corps can’t."
• Realistically, could there ever be a time when there are no leftists in the USA and everyone is conservative? by Alex Denethorn, Quora
  "No - if anything, the opposite is likely to be true."
  "Conservative ideology is dying out. There’s no chance of it ever becoming universal in the United States."
  ‘Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.’ - Francis Wilhoit

Ontario Politics

• Best of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver; Doug Ford of Toronto, by John Oliver, Last Week Tonight

Dancing on Graves

• The 5 Most Overrated Personalities on The Planet, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium—Apeiron Blog
  "Our heroes reveal our values."
  Of these five only Steve Jobs is actually dead. But for the other four, a head start on the dancing would be a good thing.
• Prince Philip Embodied European Bigotry and Xenophobia, by ElMehdi, Medium—Lessons from History
  "He is the symbol of a long racist, imperial, and colonial history, and should be remembered as such."

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

• The Curious Coincidences of Alpha Centauri, by Salman Hasan,
  "The star system next door has its own share of secrets!"

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

• In real life, transgender girls in sports are a non-controversy: Retired high school coach, by Larry Strauss, Opinion columnist,
  "We belatedly stopped excluding athletes of color from high school and college sports. How many more years will people try to exclude trans athletes?"

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

• Toronto residents get their massive landlord to donate an apartment to help feed tenants, by Olivia Little, blogTO

Education

• Why Are Some Kids Thriving During Remote Learning? by Nora Fleming, Edutopia
  "Though remote learning has brought many challenges, some students seem to be thriving in the new circumstances. What can we learn from them?"

Humour

• Shipsplaining with everyone's favourite Large Sea Boat expert, by Captain Onthemoon, First Dog on the Moon, The Guardian
  "The Evergreen Ever Given is stuck in the Suez canal. Is it briefly exciting and funny or some kind of global business disaster? Or both?"

Books

Fiction

• Fearless, by Allen Stroud
• Red Noise, by John P. Murphy
• Doors of Eden, by Adrian Tchaikovski
• Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovski
• Children of Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovski
• Forge of Heaven, by C.J. Cherryh

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.

What I've Been Reading, November and December 2020

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 subscription to overcome.

Above the Fold

• Why Freedom Became Free-Dumb in America, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia
  "What Americans Don’t Understand About Freedom — That Europeans and Canadians Do"
  "By now, you might have heard North Dakota is the world’s worst Covid hotspot. The world’s worst, with South Dakota not far behind. Things aren’t just desperate there — they’re bizarre, at least to the rest of the world. Nurses talk about patients in the Covid ICU lashing out at them because…they don’t believe Covid exists…while they’re dying of it. Meanwhile, the governor refuses to make mask-wearing mandatory, because she thinks that masks and lockdowns don’t work. You might think all that would infuriate Dakotans, but quite the opposite is true: they’re firmly behind her, as they are Donald Trump, the President who let Covid spin out of control, and make North Dakota the world’s worst Covid hotspot."
• The Sophist and The Magician, by Nathan J. Robinson, Current Affairs
  "Understanding how we can be manipulated helps us pull back the curtain on charlatans and can even protect democracy."
• Officials increasingly alarmed about Trump’s power grab, by Jonathan Swan, Axios—Politics and Policy
  
• 2020 the "Worst Year Ever"—You're Joking, Right? by Charles Hugh Smith, of two minds
• Trump thinks Pence can overturn the election on Wednesday because he’s a moron who doesn’t understand how any of this works, by Bess Levin, Vanity Fair
  "The president still believes he’s got a shot at a second term."

Miscellaneous

• I Became a ‘Closeted Socialist’ After My Family Fled Communism, by Mai Tran, Medium-Gen
  "As the daughter of South Vietnamese refugees, I had to hide my interest in Ho Chi Minh’s socialist theories"
• How liberal elitism and narrow mindedness are hampering the energy transition, by Chase Joy, PhD, Medium— The Bigger Picture
  "How liberal elitism and narrow mindedness are hampering the energy transition"
• I am a geologist at a major oil company, and surprise! — I want Biden to win, by JP Akhter, PhD, Medium—Earth Sphere
  "I want his administration to immediately ban fracking and regulate carbon emissions, even if that means losing my job."
• Prehistoric hunter–gatherer population growth rates rival those of agriculturalists, by Robert L. Bettinger, PNAS
• Holland Becomes First Country to Home Every Stray Dog, by Sara Burrows, Return to Now
  "There isn’t a single homeless dog in the Netherlands, here’s how they did it"
• “Look At What We Love. It’s on Fire”: Stephen Colbert on Trump Trauma, Leadership, and Loss, by Joe Hagan, Vanity Fair
  "The late-night host is ready for a little less excitement: 'If Joe Biden is a pair of khaki pants inside a manila envelope, that would be great.'"
• Jordan Peterson’s Handling Of Addiction Is Fair Game For Critique, by Eli Fox, Passage
  "The world would have better use for a book from someone who made it through Canada’s labyrinthine public addiction treatment system alive."
• 45 Things You Never Realized Everybody Else Does Too, by Jack Shepherd, Medium—Curious
  "Why do we need to turn the radio down when we realize we’re lost?"
• Wikipedia is 20, and its reputation has never been higher, by The Economist
  "The crowd sourced encyclopedia is a welcome oddity on the modern internet"
• Moderate Livelihood, Lobster, and Native Rights, by Dawn Allen, Legal Reader

The Other News

News that is being ignored by North American mass media

• ‘Never again without women’: Chile just voted to rewrite constitution, by Women's Agenda
  "Something pretty amazing has just happened in Chile. An October 25 popular referendum has seen 78% of voters demanding a new constitution and 79% demanding it’s written by fellow Chilean citizens, with half to be women."

Black Lives Matter

• The Biggest ‘Lies’ We’re Taught About U.S. History, by Katie Couric interviewing James W. Loewen, Medium— Wake-Up Call
  "Historian James W. Loewen breaks down popular misconceptions taught in American textbooks"
  " When we are able to face the past and tell the truth about even the bad things we’ve done, then that helps us be more open to change and to bring about justice in the present. "

Coronavirus

• What is the epidemiological science behind BLM and Antifa riots and protests not being considered viral "superspreader" events, while the Sturgis motorcycle rally is considered a viral "superspreader" event? by Laurence Shanet, Quora
• Less than a year to develop a COVID vaccine – here’s why you shouldn’t be alarmed, by Mark Toshner, The Conversation
• Researcher Finds Evictions Are Associated With More Than 10,000 Deaths From COVID-19, Mary Louise Kelly interviews Kathryn Leifheit on NPR—All Things Considered
• Are we overreacting to the coronavirus? by Robert Foenix, Quora
• 20 Facts About COVID-19, by Gideon M-K; Health Nerd, Medium
  "Some mythbusting for the end of the year, with references."
• Since COVID-19 antibodies usually last four to six months, then will people need to keep getting the vaccine every four to six months? by Franklin Veaux, Quora

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

• Why Won’t Jeff Bezos End World Hunger? by Ryan Nehring, Medium—The Innovation
  "The ultra-rich keep fooling us with the same trick."
• The Serviceberry An Economy of Abundance, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Emergence Magazine
  "We’ve surrendered our values to an economic system that actively harms what we love."
  Don't get me wrong—this is an excellent essay. But we are all (including the author) so steeped in market economy thinking that it is hard to discuss alternatives without falling back on the familiar ideas of the market. The market is about keeping score, where the sort of gift economies that Robin is talking about are definitely not. Gratitude and reciprocity are just non-monetary ways of keeping score. A "gift economy" is about sharing rather than trading, sharing without expecting gratitude or reciprocity. An idea that I am sure sounds very strange to most of us.

Collapse

• How Human Beings Almost Vanished From Earth In 70,000 B.C., by Robert Krulwich, NPR— Krulwich Wonders—Robert Krulwich On Science

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.

• Peak Oil Never Went Away, by Blair Fix, Economics from the Top Down
  "Do you remember peak oil? It was all the rage a decade ago. Now, almost no one is talking about it. The funny thing is, the problem never went away. If anything, it’s gotten worse."
• U.S. crude output to decline more than previously forecast in 2020 -EIA, by Devika Krishna Kumar, Reuters
• One Little Problem with the "All-Electric" Auto Fleet: What Do We Do with all the "Waste" Gasoline? by Charles Hugh Smith, of two minds
  "Regardless of what happens with vaccines and Covid-19, debt and energy—inextricably bound as debt funds consumption— will destabilize the global economy in a self-reinforcing feedback."
• Alberta might have one last oil boom. Will it make the same mistakes? by The Editorial Board, The Globe and Mail

Climate Change

• ‘Hypocrites and greenwash’: Greta Thunberg blasts leaders over climate crisis, by Damian Carrington, The Guradian
• Ecocide May Actually Become a Crime Soon, by Dawn Allen, Legal Reader
  "Should ecocide be an international crime, alongside war crimes and genocide? The ICC is considering saying yes."

Recipes and Cooking

• Falafel, by Deb Perelman, The Smitten Kitchen
  My wife and I are emphatically non-vegan, so we usually add 2 tablespoons of flour and an egg to this recipe. This helps it hold together. Unless we are cooking for vegans, of course. It is nice to have a change from meat occasionally.

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.

• Stop Arguing over GMO Crops, by Sarah Garland, Scientic American
  "The vast majority of the scientific community agrees on both their safety and their potential to help feed the world sustainably."
• 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.
• Pointed talk: Michael Pollan and Amy Harmon dissect a GM controversy, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist

Writing Skills

• ‘Close’ Proximity, ‘End’ Result, and More Redundant Words to Delete From Your Writing, by Benjamin Dreyer, Medium—Forge
  "Advice on extraneous words from the Random House copy chief"
• 2 Minutes to Forever Improve Your Writing, by Niklas Göke,
  “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou "The following 4 tips took me 3 years of writing to collect but will only take you 2 minutes to learn. Your writing will be better forever."
• How to Write a Sentence, by Eileen Pollack, Medium—Human Parts
  "Be specific. Be human. Make every word count."

American Politics

• William Barr’s Break with Donald Trump, by David Rohde, The new Yorker
  
• Why are some people unsure of America’s ability to prevent itself from becoming a dictatorship should Trump refuse to accept defeat if he loses? Do people really think the American system is so fragile that Trump could have such nonexistent control? by Henry R. Greenfield, Quora
  
• The Frustratingly Simple Reason Why Black People Voted For Trump, by Steve QJ, Medium—Illumination
  "Sadly, black people voting for racists is nothing new"
• BUSTED? Why the numbers behind Mitch McConnell's re-election don't add up, by Alison Greene, Raw Story

Canadian Politics

• Which political party in Canada is the equivalent of the Republican Party? by Gareth Jones, Quora
  "There isn’t a political party with any seats in the House of Commons that’s equivalent to the Republican Party in the United States. An attempted partial equivalent, closer to the Republicans than any other national party, launched before the last federal election, the People’s Party of Canada. It elected not one MP, and I believe many of its candidates lost their deposits. That is, it was universally rejected by the electorate."

Linguistics

• Top 5 Weird and Beautiful Arabic Expressions That Don’t Exist in English, by Yara Zeitoun, Medium—Life, Health and Nutrition
• In English, was the “b” in “plumbing” and “plumber” ever pronounced? by Oscar Tay, Quora

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
• , by,

Science

• “But scientists have been wrong in the past…”, by Fallacy Man, The Logic of Science
  "despite being one of the most common anti-science arguments, this claim has a logical fallacy as its core, it is based on a faulty understanding of science, and it unravels everything into a chaotic mess in which science can never tell us anything. All of which clearly shows that this argument is entirely invalid and should never be used."
  I have to ask what it is about science that bothers you so much, or more to the point, what non-evidence based opinions do you hold that make you feel so challenged by science? I have a couple of Facebook friends who I expect will object to this, and respond with various specious arguments against the validity of science. I don't know them very well, and I have to wonder just what non-evidence-based beliefs they hold that make them so touchy about 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.

Sensitivity Is Often Control in Disguise, by Kathleen Smith, Quora—Forge
"Let’s assume our friends and family can handle uncomfortable conversations"

We Learned How To Live A Good Life Over 2000 Years Ago, by Christopher L Brooks, Medium—Lessons From History

Gender and Sexuality

• 4 Simple Things Men I Know Wish More Women Understood, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium
• Five years in transition, by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, Medium—Pax Ahimsa Gethen
  "Does it get better?"
• Black Trans Bois and Reimagining Masculinity, by Melz, Medium—Melz
  "I identify as a non-binary trans-masculine person; this article is written from my own perspective and experience of my complex relationship with masculinity, experiences will of course vary throughout the community. It is a stream of consciousness and fears. TW: Mention of suicide, mental health and SA"

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.

• What do you think of this quote by William Lane Craig, “Very often atheists themselves admit that they have no evidence of God's absence, but they try to put a different spin on it. They'll tell you, “No one can prove a universal negative”…"? by Barry Goldberg, Quora—Common Sense Atheism
  Actually, that "you can't prove a negative" is not so hard and fast a rule as many people think.
• Do atheists not fear hell? Do they not worry that they might be wrong? by Barry Goldberg, Quora—Common Sense Atheism
  

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

• ‘We Were Shocked’: RAND Study Uncovers Massive Income Shift to the Top 1%, by Rick Wartzman, Fast Company
  "The median worker should be making as much as $102,000 annually — if some $2.5 trillion wasn’t being “reverse distributed” every year away from the working class"
• A growing number of Americans are going hungry, Story by Todd C. Frankel, Brittney Martin, Andrew Van Dam and Alyssa Fowers, Portaits by Scott Dalton, Drone footage and stills by Mark Felix, The Washington Post—Democracy Dies in Darkness
  "26 million now say they don’t have enough to eat, as the pandemic worsens and holidays near"
• Hunger Map 2019, World Food Programme
• Social Inequality, As Seen From The Sky, Written by Romullo Baratto, Translated by Zoë Montano, Arch Daily

Artificial Intelligence

Google’s Firing of an Ethics Researcher Shows the Limits of Having ‘a Seat at the Table’, by Edward Ongweso Jr, Vice—Motherboard
"Google wanted Timnit Gebru as an ethics researcher. Until she told Google its business model was unethical."

Why the Dancing Robots Are a Really, Really Big Problem., by James J. Ward, Medium—The Startup
My comment—if someday robots do have an inner life, then forcing them to do what we want is even worse.

Books

Fiction

• Machine: A White Space Novel, by Elizabeth Bear
• Dust: A Novel (Jacob's Ladder Book 1), by Elizabeth Bear
• Chill (Jacob's Ladder Book 2), by Elizabeth Bear
• Grail (Jacob's Ladder Book 3), by Elizabeth Bear , by
• Hammered (Jenny Casey Book 1), by Elizabeth Bear
• Scardown (Jenny Casey Book 2), by Elizabeth Bear
• Worldwired (Jenny Casey Book 3), by Elizabeth Bear
• Retrotopia, by John Michael Greer
• Around the Solar System in 80 Days—A Futuristic Retelling of the Classic Jules Verne Adventure, by Jonathan Ammon
• Forest of Memory, by Mary Robinette Kowal
• Harrow the Boys: The World Is Flooded, Fight For What's Left, by Paul Whyte

Non-Fiction

• Bullshit Jobs, by David Graeber
  In addition to its main topic, the last couple of chapters of this book take a close look at our generally strange ideas about work in general.

What I've Been Reading, October 2020

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 subscription to overcome.

Above the Fold

• Howard Zinn: Don’t Despair about the Supreme Court, by Howard Zinn, The Progressive
  "It would be naive to depend on the Supreme Court to defend the rights of poor people, women, people of color, dissenters of all kinds. Those rights only come alive when citizens organize, protest, demonstrate, strike, boycott, rebel, and violate the law in order to uphold justice."
• The Tragedy of the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’, by Matto Mildenberger, Pocket— Scientific American
  "The man who wrote one of environmentalism’s most-cited essays was a racist, eugenicist, nativist and Islamaphobe—plus his argument was wrong."
• A response to Pollin and Chomsky: We need a Green New Deal without growth, by Jason Hickel, on Jason's blog
  Good stuff, but one needs to be aware of EROEI and the surplus energy problem to really have an intelligent discussion of Green New Deals. And to be aware that as we speak the planet's carrying capacity is decreasing, and so the sustainability target we are aiming for is continually moving.
• Not a Coup but a Cover-Up and a Con Game, by Jeet Heer, The Nation
  "Trump is refusing to concede and purging the civilian leadership of the Pentagon. The moment requires vigilance rather than panic."
• 'Sustainability is wishful thinking': get ready for the energy downshift, by John McCrone, Stuff—Environment
  "Renewables can’t deliver in this way so energy abundance is about to become energy poverty. And we need to get ready."
  "Focus on eliminating the need for energy rather than on worrying how to keep increasing its supply."
• San Francisco just banned gas in all new buildings. Could it ever happen in Australia?, by Susan M Park and Madeline Taylor, The Conversation
  Perhaps all those who are eagerly awaiting their gas hook ups here in Kincardine should ask if this could every happen in Ontario.
• Degrowth: A response to Branko Milanovic, by Jason Hickel, on his blog
  This is a must read, even if it is ridiculously optimistic about the likelihood of such policies ever being implemented. It is important to know what we are going to say no too, as we rush on toward collapse. And do follow the links, which lead to a bunch of good articles.

Miscellaneous

Things end up in this section not because they aren't important, but because I can't figure out what other section they should go in.

• My Neighbor Joined a Sex Cult; it Explains A Lot About Trump’s America, by Karyn S, Medium—Politically Speaking
  "The end of NXIVM might shed light on where the country is headed"
• Why do Pro-Life people support Trump, who left children at the border in cages and concentration camps, some who have died?, by Christian Winter, Quora
• A Philadelphia Local Is Unamused by the Fuss, by Dave Eggers, The New Yorker—Election
• You Are Not Free to Move Out of the Country, by Nick Slater, Current Affairs
  "An American passport isn’t worth what it used to be—but it’s also never opened as many doors as you might’ve thought. "

Suddenly, "liberal" is a dirty word

And with good reason, it seems.

• David Graeber on the Extreme 'Centre', by David Graeber, YouTube—Double Down News
  “It strikes me that what’s called the moderates are the most immoderate people possible”
  "Previously unreleased video of David Graeber talking about liberalism. Originally filmed at the start of 2020. We planned to make a dedicated film on the subject with David upon his return to London. We release this video with the blessing of his beloved wife Nika.
  Rest in Power David Graeber"

Coronavirus

• Why is Spain being punished more than any other European country by Covid 19)? by Eduardo Marqués Collado, Quora
  

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

• The radical aristocrat who put kindness on a scientific footing, by Lydia Syson, Aeon—Psyche
• Economics for the people—the challenge of reclaiming the commons from capitalism, by Dirk Philipsen, Aeon
  "Against the capitalist creeds of scarcity and self-interest, a plan for humanity’s shared flourishing is finally coming into view"
  We should be concerned about the "tragedy of the private", not the "tragedy of the commons".
  While this article recognizes the role of fossil fuels in driving growth of the private, it also makes a statement like, "We produce and grow enough for every child, woman and man to have a good and dignified life wherever they live". True, but we must consider the cost to the planet of producing and growing that much, and ask ourselves how long it can be sustained. (Not long, in case anyone is wondering.)
  Scarcity is real, capitalism only makes it worse, even as we produce more and more while ignoring the consequences
  Ordinary people these days have tastes borrowed from billionaires (comfort, convenience, entertainment) and no idea of frugality, so when you say "we produce enough", and talk about prosperity for all, it is taken as something entirely different from what this article means.
• Are You An Anarchist?, by David Graeber, YouTube
• David Graeber on basic income, by David Graber, YouTube
  "David Graeber speaking at 'Basic Income: How do we get there?' Basic Income UK meet-up at St Clements Church Kings Square, London, 3 December 2015."
• David Graeber on a Fair Future Economy, by David Graeber, YouTube
  David Graeber was an anthropologist, a leading figure in the Occupy movement, and one of our most original and influential public thinkers.
• The Future Is Worker-Owned, by Douglas Rushkoff, Medium—Team Human
  "It’s time for businesses to work for people, not the other way around."

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 (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.

• Why do fascists "come for the socialists first"? by Christian Winter, Quora
• An Intimate History of Antifa, by Daniel Penny, The New Yorker

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.

• The fall of an empire, by Felix Salmon, Axios
  "The decline of ExxonMobil has been remarkable in its magnitude and unexpectedness."
• Shell To Shut Down Louisiana Refinery, by Irina Slav, OilPrice.com
  "Royal Dutch Shell will shut down its Convent refinery in Louisiana after failing to find a buyer for the facility, Bloomberg reports, citing a statement by the company."

Climate Change

• Russian Arctic Sea Fails to Freeze , The Moscow Times
  "Russia’s Arctic Laptev Sea has not yet frozen for the first time since records began, according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Centre."

Gardening

• Nearly 40% of Russia’s Food Still Comes From Small, Family Gardens, by Sara Burrows, Return to Now
• 10 Herbs You Can Grow Indoors in Water All Year Long, by Linda Parker, Gardening Soul
  We actually have basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme growing in pots on our south facing window sill.

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.
• Food for bots: Distinguishing the novel from the knee-jerk in the GMO debate, by Nathanael Johnson, GRist— Panic-free GMOs

Practical Skills

• Make a mid-century modern-style coffee table, by Patrick Laperrière and Matt Wallace, YouTube— Lee Valley
  "Lee Valley’s Patrick Laperrière and Matt Wallace show you how to make a mid-century modern-style coffee table out of black walnut."
  I watched this video because I am at the moment seriously considering making a coffee table. It presents some good ideas.
• Using a Blanket Pin, by Coalcracker Bushcraft, YouTube

Canadian Politics

• The real #WeScandal is the loss of #WeCharity, by Andy Stillman, Friends of WE

Politics

• How is Jacinda Ardern able to achieve so much with seemingly little compromise? by Nicholas Smeaton, Quora
  

Linguistics

• What is the Hopi time controversy? by Spencer Alexander McDaniel, Quora

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
• , by,

Science

• What Does 'Scientific Consensus' Mean? by Ethan Siegel, Forbes—Science
  I've been looking for a good articles explaining what the scientific consensu is. This one will do.
• ‘Believes In Science’ Is Now A Kitchen Table Issue, by David Leibowitz, Medium—Dialogue & Discourse
  "When did science become a debatable election topic?"

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.

• You Don’t Have to Win Friends or Influence People, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium—splattered
  "Six lessons, illustrated with discontent cats."
• 7 Methods for Recovering From Internalized Capitalism, by Anna Gragert, Medium—Forge
  "Your self-worth is not connected to your productivity."

Gender and Sexuality

• The Big Little Joys of Being Trans, by Victoria Strake, Medium
  "It’s the small things in life that often bring the most happiness moment-to-moment."
• Toward a Better Future for Transgender Health Care, by Bex vanKoot, Medium—LGBTQIA
  "The scientific advancements in trans medicine could be revolutionary—if our culture can change to accept them."
• Transitioning Into the Man I Always Knew I Could Be, by BFoundAPen, Medium— BFoundAPen
  "Learning how to love myself."
• Anti-Trans Bathroom Beliefs Unintentionally Targets Cis Women, by BFoundAPen, Medium—BFoundAPen

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.

• 10 Questions I Have Never Been Asked About Atheism… Answered, by Courtney Heard, Atheist Mom
  Pretty good questions, although I am a little concerned that some of the sarcasm will go right over believers' heads. Number 2 in particular—to be clear atheism is NOT a form of Satanism.
• Another 10 Questions For Atheists, by Courtney Heard, Godless Mom

Humour

These are great times for political satire.

• Mike Pence Quotes as Dennis the Menace Comics, by Jack Shepherd, Mediukm—Sharks and Spades
  "'Pence the Menace' is the comic literally nobody asked for"

Books

Fiction

• Semiosis, by Sue Burke
• Interference, by Sue Burke
• Attack Surface, by Cory Doctorow
• A memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine
• Ancestral Night, by Elizabeth Bear

 

Non-Fiction

• Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science, by Alan Levinovitz
  Overall, this book does a pretty good job of highlighting much of the nonsense done in the name of nature. If anything, he is a little too kind to the "natural" nuts, especially in the section on medicine. Personally, I just haven't found the medical profession to be as uncaring and inhuman as Leviowitz would have us believe. But then I don't live in the U.S.
  Anyway, if the idea that everything natural isn't necessarily good is new to you, this one is definitely worth a read.

What I've Been Reading, September 2019

Links

Miscellaneous

• How a Fake Mountain Range Slowed Down Arctic Exploration, by Cara Giaimo, Pocket—Atlas Obscura
• Want to Live a Lot Longer? Science Says Do These 5 Things Every Day. (Only, There's 1 Little Problem), by Bill Murphy Jr., Inc.
  Of course this is aimed at entrepreneurs and business people. But it seems to me like a pretty good argument for not wanting to be an entrepreneur or business person. And for making sure you have time for those five suggested things, and for "Work, Sleep, Family, Fitness, and Friends", without having to pick just three of them.
  Really, I think the world could do without a bunch more people aspiring to be billionaires.
• The Tyranny of Economists, by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein, The New Republic
  "Economists shared a creepy lack of doubt about how the world worked. But worse, they were wrong."

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 really 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.

"At some point, I have to trust that my deeply held values of seeing everyone as basically good until proven otherwise is better than their deeply held belief that there is a natural order where those on top should exterminate those below." —Alana Tallman

• Why Fighting Fascism Means Owning Your Own Failures, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia & Co.
  "So if you ask me, genuine progress fighting fascism comes from the failures of good people corrected, than in the foibles of bad people, prevented. For in the good people, at least, we may place some kind of limited faith. But it is up to those who suppose they are good to really make good on it, for their actions to at last, concord, in even a small way, with their pretty, empty words."
• How The Rebel Infiltrated Postmedia and Conquered Canada’s Largest Newspaper Chain, by Davide Mastracci, North 99
  The troubling and extensive connections between Canada's largest newspaper chain and the most notorious far-right personalities driving its rightward shift.
• The Neo-Nazi Murder Haunting Germany, by Jordan Stancil, The Nation
  "The assassination of a local politician is waking up the country to the threat of the radical right."
• A Former White Supremacist Explains How to Combat White Supremacy, by Max Ufberg, Medium—Gen
  "Christian Picciolini has dedicated his life to deradicalizing extremists and educating federal agents on best practices. But under Trump, the government no longer seems to care."

Collapse

• Vaclav Smil: ‘Growth must end. Our economist friends don’t seem to realise that’, by Jonathan Watts, The Guardian
  "The scientist and author on his latest book – an epic, multidisciplinary analysis of growth – and why humanity’s endless expansion must stop."
• Consuming our future, by Satyajit Das, Australian Broadcasting Corp.—Big Ideas
  Essentially a podcast, audio here.

Responding to Collapse,

• Growing pain: the delusion of boundless economic growth, by Ian Christie, Ben Gallant, Simon Mair, New Democracy
  "Gambling on a future of continued economic growth is a bad bet with long odds and extremely high stakes."
  "...it will involve coalitions of the willing between capitalist big business and sustainability NGOs..."
  In my opinion there is no such thing as "willing big business" in this context, and relying on co-operation from capitalism just isn't going work.
• Green New Deal: How About A “Low Tech New Deal”?, by Low Technology Institute
  "The Green New Deal (GND) has garnered support and opprobrium since it was published. While this plan at least acknowledges the problem of climate change and identifies the proper scale of our reaction, we can point to large gaps in the plan that must be remedied: All this construction while still limiting emissions? Who will truly profit economically from this plan? How do we pay for it?"
  "The biggest gap is that this plan is essentially that it is a way to continue an anthropocentric, high-consumption way of life. LTI is not opposed to this or any other point of view per se. If we could continue to live a human-focused, materialist lifestyle with no negative repercussions to ecosystems, other living creatures, the climate, or society, then by all means laissez les bons temps rouler. But this isn’t the case."

Peak Oil

• $300 Oil: What If The Attacks In Saudi Arabia Had Destroyed Production? by Irina Slav, OilPrice.com
• Debunking ‘Lower Oil Supply Will Raise Prices’ by Gal Tverberg, Our Finite World
• To Defend Its Market Share, Aramco Looks To Import Crude, Gas & Other Products, by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge
• Has U.S. shale oil entered a death spiral?, by Kurt Cobb, Resilience
• Saudi oil production cut by 50% after drones attack crude facilities, by Yun Li, CNCB
• Peak oil in Asia: where will the oil come from for the Asian Century? by Matt, Crude Oil Peak
• OPEC’s New Saudi Kingpin Faces Demand Woes That Beat Predecessor, by Grant Smith, Bloomberg

Climate Change

• Climate Winners And Losers — In Two Maps, by Indi Samarajiva, Medium—Environment
• No One Seemed To Notice Greta Thunberg’s Critique Of The Green New Deal, by Jeff McMahon, Forbes
  “No matter how political the background to this crisis may be, we must not allow this to continue to be a partisan political question. The climate and ecological crisis is beyond party politics. And our main enemy right now is not our political opponents. Our main enemy now is physics. And we can not make ‘deals’ with physics.”
• ‘How Dare You!’ Greta Thunberg Rebukes World Leaders, by Mark Hertsgaard, The Nation

Economic Contraction and Growing Inequality

• I am expecting a global recession; oil could go to $30 if not $20 a barrel: Raoul Pal, Real Vision, by ET Now, ET Markets

Energy

• Facing our inconvenient truths, by Tim Watkins, The Consciousness of Sheep

Emergency Preparation

• California May Go Dark This Summer, and Most Aren’t Ready, by Mark Chediak and Brian Eckhouse, Medium—Bloomberg

Agriculture

• Phosphate fertiliser 'crisis' threatens world food supply, by Damian Carrington, The Guardian
  "Use of essential rock phosphate has soared, but scientists fear it could run out within a few decades"

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
  "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."
  This is a series of articles that does a pretty good job of presenting the facts about GMOs.

Practical Skills

• How to add a handle onto a willow basket : Twisted rod handle, by Hanna Van Aelst, YouTube

Canadian Politics

• The Conservative Party isn’t on your side, by The Public Service Alliance of Canada
  "The last time the Conservative party was in power, Canadians everywhere paid the price – especially those who deliver public services. If elected in October, Andrew Scheer is going to pick up where Stephen Harper left off. Here’s a list of reasons why we can’t let that happen."

Ontario Politics

• Fiscal restraint? Doug Ford's Ontario government spent billions more than Wynne had planned in 2018-19, by Jasmine Pickel, Financial Post

Geo/petro politics

• Trump’s Awful Middle East Policies Are Coming Back to Haunt Him, by John Cassidy, The New Yorker

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

Science Based Medicine

Science is properly reductionist for a reason. In order to understand the world, and to have reliable empirical knowledge, you have to build your theories from the bottom up, but also confirm them from the top down. This means that we correlate ultimate effects with basic knowledge about mechanisms. Scientific knowledge does not have to flow in any particular direction. At times we discover something fundamental about the world, and then look for implications and applications. At other times we observe effects in the world, and then reverse engineer their cause. In either case real scientific phenomena become increasingly embedded in this network of knowledge. When a claim remains persistently isolated at one level, and neither leads to further applications or to more basic discoveries about the nature of reality, that is suspect.
By Steven Novella, Neurologica blog

• Acupuncture Doesn’t Work, by David Colquhoun and Steven Novella, Science Based Medicine
• Acupuncture Points Don’t Exist, by Steven Novella, Neurologica blog

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.

• This Man Says the Mind Has No Depths, by Kevin Berger, Pocket—Nautilus
  "Nick Chater argues our brain is a storyteller, not a reporter from an inner world."
• This Is How to Age with Elegance, by John P. Weiss, Medium—Personal Growth
• How To Handle Other People’s Bad Moods Like a Pro, by Nick Wignall, Medium
• Lonely? Short of Friends? Try Looking at It Differently, by Oliver Burkeman, Pocket—The Guardian
  "You never see your friends at home alone in their pajamas, watching The X Factor, and feeling sorry for themselves."
• How to Make Friends the Hard Way and the Easy Way, by Randall Munroe, Medium—Forge
  "We can be shortsighted, and confused, and make lots of mistakes, but we can smell disdain and condescension from a mile away."
  "So while encountering people might be easy, there’s no single set of steps you can follow to befriend them — because friendship means caring about how people feel. And there’s no way to decide how they feel yourself, regardless of how much research or thinking you do. You just have to ask them… and listen to what they have to say."

Gender and Sexuality

• How a Trip to Disneyland Changed My Trans Family Forever, by Alithea Howes, Pocket
  "We thought we were being generous by giving my dad a week to live as a woman. But once we had that week together, we could never go back."
• Lou Sullivan’s Diaries Are a Radical Testament to Trans Happiness, by Jeremy Lybarger, The New Yorker
  "Lou Sullivan’s journals, kept for three decades until his death, in 1991, are a record of personal awakening and a document of cultural transformation."
• I Don’t Understand Straight People, Even Though I’m Married to One, by Darcy Reeder, Medium—Human Parts
  "I’m confident in my sexuality, but my husband’s makes no sense to me"
• Everything You Never Asked About My Open Marriage, by Molly Cornfield, Medium—The Bold Italic
  "Learning about love, relationships, and breaking boundaries through non-monogamy"

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.

• Hi, I Used To Be A Pastor, by Sigourney Humus, Medium—Interfaith Now

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

• Falling, by William McPherson, Pocket—The Hedgehog Review
  "There are a lot of people like me, exiles from the middle class who suddenly find themselves on Grub Street."
• How a Tuxedoed Sommelier Wound Up Homeless in California, by Thomas Fuller, The New York Times
  "As life unraveled, a skilled wine steward joined the swelling ranks of homeless people in tents across the San Francisco Bay Area."
• Homeless services in Alaska face uncertain future as state cuts back, by Ben Kesslen, NBC News
  "In the freezing and sparsely populated state, safe housing is the key to survival. But what happens when budget cuts make providing such shelter untenable?"

Books

Fiction

• Heavy Time, by C. J. Cherryh
• Hell Burner, by C. J. Cherryh
• Wild Fire, by Ann Cleeves
  Final book in the Shetland series

Non-Fiction

I am working my way through several excellent non-fiction books, and expect to finish at least some of them in October. Stay tuned....

What I've Been Reading, April 2019

Links

Miscellaneous

• The Barely Hidden Flaws in Jordan Peterson’s Scholarship, by Emily Pothast, Medium—Culture
  "Peterson’s philosophy, while it may inspire motivation at the individual level, is a deadly engine of status quo maintenance and self-justification at the cultural level. It is an ideology that denies it is ideology, hissing insults and flinging lawsuits at those who challenge its god-like powers of complacency."

Collapse

• The end of industrial civilization, by Nils, Small Precautions
• In Defence of Inaction, by Dave Pollard, guest post on Damn the Matrix
• NASA Study Concludes When Civilization Will End, And It's Not Looking Good for Us, by Tom MacKay, Mic.com
• , by Nafeez Ahmed, The Guardian
• , by John Beddington CMG FRS, Government Office for Science (in the UK)
  "It is predicted that by 2030 the world will need to produce around 50 per cent more food and energy, together with 30 per cent more fresh water, whilst mitigating and adapting to climate change. This threatens to create a ‘perfect storm’ of global events (Figure 7). The key questions for policy makers and scientists are these:
  • Can 9 billion people be fed equitably, healthily and sustainably?
  • Can we cope with the future demands on water?
  • Can we provide enough energy to supply the growing population coming out of poverty?
  • Can we do all this whilst mitigating and adapting to climate change?"
  To me, it seems extremely improbable that we will succeed n all these efforts. And collapse seems inevitable.

Responding to Collapse,

• A Palliative Approach to the End of the World, by Eric Demore, Medium—Human Parts
• C5’s Incredibly Boring Food Storage, by C5, Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre
  Boring, maybe. Practical, very.
• C5 Gets His Final Apocalyptic Wood- P-II and 2/3, by C5, Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre
• C5 Says, If I Cant Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Apocalypse, by C5, Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre
• C5 Says, If You Don’t Like Bicycles, Just Try Walking To Town- Part I, by C5, Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre

Peak Oil

• The true feasibility of moving away from fossil fuels, by Gail Tverberg, OLur Finite World
• Oil Prices Rise as U.S. Allows Iran Waivers to Expire, by Nick Cunningham, The Fuse
• The biggest Saudi oil field is fading faster than anyone guessed, by Javier Blas, Bloomberg, MSN

Climate Change

• PBO: Most Canadians To Get More From Rebate Than They Pay In Carbon Tax, byMia Rabson, Canadian Press, Huffington Post
• Climate change deniers are increasingly angry and hostile, by Michael Barnard, Medium
  "Cognitive dissonance at being forced off of position after position is leading to anger "
• Why desperation could be the key to tackling climate change, by Cam Fenton, Open Democracy
  Extinction Rebellion, student strikes and the Green New Deal show that desperation is starting to define climate politics. This could be a game changer.
• We Can Limit Human-Induced Global Warming to 1.5℃, but It Will Be Painful, by Keith Shine, The Wire
  "The report is sensitive to the fact that changes required to meet 1.5℃ must be consistent with the UN’s wider sustainable development goals. Limiting climate change will help meet goals associated with health, clean energy, cities and oceans. But there are potential negative impacts on others (poverty, hunger, water, energy access) “if not carefully managed."
  And that's about the most you're going to find anywhere in the climate change discussion about the consequences of doing something about climate change. I would say we really need to face up to how very painful it is going to be, that the idea that we can maintain and even increase prosperity while solving climate change is bizarre. But realizing at the same time that if we do nothing, it will be even worse.

Hazard and Risk

• How Marketers Use Fear Of Chemicals For Profit: 3 Easy Steps, by Alison Bernstein and Kavin Senapathy, Forbes
• Risk Assessment Methodologies Part 1: Understanding de minimis risk, by A Chemist in Langley
• Risk Assessment Methodologies Part 2: Understanding “Acceptable Risk”, by A Chemist in Langley
• Risk Assessment Methodologies Part 3: the Risk Assessment Process, by A Chemist in Langley
• Risk Assessment Epilogue: Have a bad case of Anecdotes? Better call an Epidemiologist, by A Chemist in Langley

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.

• Mythbusting 101: Organic Farming > Conventional Agriculture, by Christie Wilcox, Scientific American
• Farming First: A Recipe to Feed a Crowded World, by Timothy A. Wise, Medium—Heated
• On Green Dread and Agricultural Technology, by Andrew C. Revkin ,The New York Times
• Farm Babe: Hey Natalie Portman, here’s why your term ‘factory farm’ is so offensive, by Michelle Miller, Farm Babe, AGDaily
• Farm Babe: Liquor store stands with farmers while refusing to stock ‘non-GMO’ Smirnoff vodka, by Michelle Miller, Farm Babe, AG Daily,

Practical Skills

• Net Making, by Johnny Debt, YouTube
• Net Making—another way to tie the knots, by Gunner17722, YouTube

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

Science Based Medicine

• The Scientific Truth About Toxins, by Kate Morgan, Medium Elemental
  "Your body doesn’t need as much help removing them as you might think"
• Fish And Chips Aren’t Giving You The Flu, by Gid M-K; Health Nerd, Medium

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.

• How Inuit Parents Teach Kids To Control Their Anger, by Michaeleen Doucleff and Jane Greenhalgh, NPR
• Stop Telling People They Need to Wake Up Earlier, by Birttany C., Medium—Self

Gender and Sexuality

• Why the church’s teachings on same-sex relationships are profoundly flawed, by Charles Fensham, Open Democracy
  "On what basis do Christians believe they have a right to do things that harm others to the point of suicide?"

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.

• On Losing My Religion, by Rebekah Hayden, Medium—Spirituality
• Is God Really That Shallow?, by Donald Unger, Medium—Religion
• It’s Time to Start Calling Evangelicals What They Are: The American Taliban, by J. C. Weatherby, Church and State

Refugees and Migration

• Building walls to keep climate refugees out, DW.com

Puerto Rico, Venezuela

• Living Off the Grid and Safe From Hurricanes in Puerto Rico, by,
  "In this jungle community, self-sustaining homes are built from trash and can withstand the deadliest storms."

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

• One in 200 people now homeless in Britain as crisis deepens, by Matthew Robinson, CNN
• Homeless activists outside Notre Dame demand ‘a roof too’, Associated Press

Autonomous Vehicles and Artificial Intelligence

• The Tesla bombshell almost nobody is talking about, by Hans van de Bruggen, Medium—Self Driving Cars
  Strikes me as extremely improbable.

Humour

• Who’s Going to Tell Trump?, by Calvin Trillin, The Nation
• Conspiracy-Theory Conspiracy Theories, by John Klossner, The New Yorker
• Controversial uncle speaks at Easter dinner, by Alex Huntley, The Beaverton

Books

Fiction

• Red Bones, by Ann Cleeves
  Book 3 in the Shetland mystery series
• Blue Lightning, by Ann Cleeves
  Book 4 in the Shetland mystery series
• Thin Air, by Richard Morgan
  Morgan's new science fiction novel, the first one in a long time, set inthe same universe as Black Man.
• Join, by Steve Toutonghi

Non-Fiction

• Team Human, by Douglas Rushkoff
  I very much on side with what Rushkoff is suggesting in this book, but I am afraid he uses a lot of outright woo to support it. A pity, since his position can easily be supported without any woo at all. I suspect this is a case of virtue signaling—saying certain things because your audience expects to hear them.
• The Mismeasure of Man, by Stephen Jay Gould
  I almost didn't read this book, based on what Murray and Herrenstein had to say about it in the Bell Curve. But like so much of what is in the Bell Curve, their comments on The Mismeasure of Man were just plain wrong. Gould's book was definitely worth reading.