What I've Been Reading, November and December 2018

Links

Miscellaneous

• The Police Don’t Deserve Your Trust, by Samuel Sinyangwem, Medium—Equality,
• Douglas Rushkoff: “Survival of the Richest”, by Douglas Rushkoff, Medium Playback
• Is there life on Mars? By Michael Hanlon, Aeon
  Our curiosity about the Red Planet has always been tinged with fantasy – but wishful thinking needn’t be mistaken
• Colin O’Brady Completes Antarctica Traverse With Final 32-Hour Push, by Adam Skolnick, New York Times

Collapse

• Some Inconvenient Truths About Collapse Economics, by Eddie at the Doomstead Diner
• Eat the rich, save the planet? By Rob Mielcarski, un-Denial

Responding to Collapse,

A Paradise built in Hell, The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster
I'm borrowing the title of Rebecca Solnit's book for this section of links. Human beings feel, in times of crises, a deep need to come together to take care of each other. Contrary to the horrific picture of typical reactions to disaster painted by the "disaster mythology", in fact communities often come together to help themselves in the most extraordinarily positive ways.

• As the fire neared, this 93-year-old knew she had to get out. Then her garbageman showed up. By Eric Levenson, CNN.

Peak Oil

• U.S. Shale Has A Glaring Problem, by Nick Cunningham, OilPrice.com
• The Permian Oil Boom Is Showing Signs of Overheating, by Kevin Crowley, Bloomberg Businessweek
• Shale Drillers May Cut Capex As Oil Falls To $50, by Tsvetana Paraskova, OilPrice.com
• Canada’s province of Alberta to cut crude production nearly 9% for next year, by VipalMonga , Market Watch
• Alberta regulator privately estimates oilpatch's financial liabilities are hundreds of billions more than what it told the public, by Mike De Souza, Carolyn Jarvis, Emma McIntosh & David Bruser, National Observer
• A New Breed of Fracking Quakes Emerges, by David Wethe, Medium—Bloomberg

Climate Change

• Climate Denialism’s Stupidity Is the Point — And Its Weakness, by Liam Denning, Medium—Bloomberg View
  "Opponents of climate-change action depend on the kind of word salads and magical thinking Trump displays"
  Sadly, both taking action against climate change and letting it continue by doing nothing will have serious economic consequences. Consequences that none of us are prepared to accept.
• Americans Will Pay Billions More For Climate Change, and That’s the Best Case, by Eric Roston, Bloomberg
  "A grim U.S. government assessment of global warming’s economic impact gives a whole new meaning to Black Friday."
• Climate Science Special Report—Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4), Volume I
  "This report is an authoritative assessment of the science of climate change, with a focus on the United States. It represents the first of two volumes of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, mandated by the Global Change Research Act of 1990."
  I haven't done more than a quick skim of this, but I include it here for those who may have time to peruse it. No doubt full of important information
• FOURTH NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States
  "The National Climate Assessment (NCA) assesses the science of climate change and variability and its impacts across the United States, now and throughout this century."
  Thus far I have only read the executive summary, but I am impressed by the amount of space it devotes to talking about mitigation and adaptation.
• Trump on own administration's climate report: 'I don't believe it', by Emily Holden, The Guardian
  Idiot!

Economic Contraction

• Britain’s Austerity Has Officially Ended—and Yet It’s Still Going, by Sam Knight, The New Yorker
  This is the sort of thing we can expect as the economy continues to contract. Although, given Conservative governments in the UK for the last while, and a Labour government under Tony Blair that was essentially conservative, one can't help wonder if the British govenrment couldn't have been taxing it's capitalist corporation more aggressively and not has this situation arise at all.;
• GM poised to close plants in Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, will cut 15% of salaried workers, by Nathan Bomey, USA Today
• Ford Prepares for Mass Layoffs After Losing $1 Billion to Trump's Trade Tariffs, Report Says, by Kevin Kelleher, Fortune

Energy

• Why Batteries Die, by Alasdair Wilkins, Medium—Science
  "How Batteries Work & Why They’re So Frustrating"

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 products. Millions of dollars are spent to convince you that non-organic food is dangerous. In fact both conventionally grown and organic foods are about equally safe. Sadly, neither method of agriculture is even remotely sustainable.

• Farm Babe: No, there isn’t glyphosate in your food, by Michelle MIller, AgDaily
• Farm Babe: Glyphosate is a carcinogen? Says who?, by Michelle MIller, AgDaily
• Bananas have died out once before – don’t let it happen again, by Jackie Turner, Aeon
• Are Herbicides Used on GMO Plants, and If So, Are They Dangerous? By Devang Mehta, Medium—Science

Gardening

• 10 Perennial Vegetables For Years Of Garden Freshness, by Andrea Bertoli, Insteading

Food

• Organic produce ‘probably’ isn’t going to kill you, by Stephan Neidenbach, Medium.
• My Sensible Diet Is Boring, But It May Be the Healthiest Way to Eat, by Paul Kita, Men's Health
  Avoiding trendy diets was the healthiest move I ever made.
  The only thing I would add is that I've been watching my weight, what I eat and the exercise I do, and it has become pretty clear to me that when I burn more calories than I eat, I lose weight. It really is as simple as that, despite allt he weasel words you hear from so called weight loss experts.
• What is Fat For?, by Nicola Williams, Sapiens/Aeon
  "Abundance has made fat an enemy, but it’s been a friend to humans for millennia"

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.

• The Less People Understand Science, the More Afraid of GMOs They Are, by Emma Sarappo, Pacific Standard
  A lack of scientific literacy is correlated with undue fears around genetic modification, chemicals, and common food production techniques.

Practical Skills

• How to Weave a Willow Basket, A step by step project for beginners, by Jonathan Ridgeon, jonsbushcraft.com
  I have Jon's book, Willow Basketry: A How-To Guide, and have woven several of the basket projects in it, using "wild" willow that I've harvested locally.
• How to Survive When You’re a Guest in a Cold House, by Andrea Coleman, Medium—Humor

Politics

• What Happens if The Good Guys Don’t Win the Elections, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia
  "This is America’s Great— and Maybe Final — Test. But Will it Pass?"
  I read this on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 6. The results, as it happened, were somewhat unclear.
• Trump’s Rages and the Case for Optimism, by David Remnick, The New Yorker
• The problem with evaluating socialist systems based on notions of efficient markets, by Aaron Medlin, Medium-Economics

Dancing on Graves

It really irritates me when an evil politician dies and even his enemies speak well of him. I think it is important to be honest at this time of visibility. Metaphorically, I danced nthe graves of Margaret Thatcher and Rob Ford. I'll take a moment hereto do the same for George H. W. Bush.

• George H.W. Bush Gave Us Today’s Republican Party, by Harold Meyerson, The Nation
  Only the first half of the first podcast is about this subject. But the rest is probably worth a listen, as well.
• George H.W. Bush, Icon of the WASP Establishment—and of Brutal US Repression in the Third World, by Greg Grandin, The Nation
  Obituaries have transformed the terror that Bush inflicted, depicting it as heroism.
• George H. W. Bush’s Presidency Erased People with AIDS. So Did the Tributes to Him, by Masha Gessen, The New Yorker

Secession

• What the Effects of Brexit Will (Really) Be, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia & Co.
  "Is Brexit the Most Bafflingly Self-Destructive Act in Modern History?"
  I had some doubt as to whether this one should go under Collapse or Secession.

The Scientific Consensus

• Believing without evidence is always morally wrong, by Francisco Mejia Uribe, Aeon
  And of course, the best way to get reliable evidence is to use the scientific method.

Science Based Medicine

• Mobile Phones Still Don’t Cause Cancer, by Gid M-K; Health Nerd, Medium
• 7 Common Cold Home Remedies, by Gid M-K; Health Nerd, Medium
  And why they probably don’t work
• The Link Between August Birthdays and A.D.H.D., by Anupam B. Jena, Michael Barnett and Timothy J. Layton (The authors are health policy researchers), The New York Times
  "A new study raises questions about age, maturity and overdiagnosis."
• Essential Oils Can’t Treat Lyme Disease—Why garlic isn’t better than antibiotics, 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.

• Other People’s Meltdowns, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium
  A major life skill is cooling off hot reactors.
• The Way American Parents Think About Chores Is Bizarre, by Joe Pinsker, The Atlantic
  Children naturally want to help at a very early age—but many families wait to conscript them until that desire has faded.

Gender

• Why be nonbinary? By Robin Dembroff, Aeon
  A world segregated into male and female categories feels suffocating. Nonbinary identity is a radical escape hatch
• Transgender as an 11-Year-Old Middle School Student: ‘I. Am. A. Boy. That’s it.’, by Petula Dvorak, Medium—Washington Post

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 believe 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.

• Christopher Hitchens Creates a Revised List of The 10 Commandments for the 21st Century, by Christopher Hitchens, Open Culture,
• How (Not) To Be An Atheist, by Maarten van Doorn, Medium—The Startup
  I can't say I agree with everything in this article—though I have little use for Sam Harris, I admire many of the other New Atheists—certainly Dennett, Dawkins and Hitchens are/were great men.

Intelligence

• Material intelligence, by,
  "The chasm between producers and consumers leaves many of us estranged from beauty and a vital part of an ethical life"
  The term "material intelligence" is new to me, but at spending most of my life as a tradesman, the concept is not.

Refugees and Migration

• This Expert Debunks 5 Right-Wing Myths About Canadian Immigration, by Geoff Sharpe, The Cable
• Why the Refugee Caravan Is So Big—and What We Need to Do About It, by Laura Carlsen, The Nation

Poverty, Homeless People, Minimum Wage, UBI

• At home with the homeless, by Johannes Lenhard, Aeon
  "Is a home made of bricks and mortar or hopes and dreams? Dispatches from among the rough sleepers on the streets of Paris."
• Save money!!! Live in your car!!!, by K. Fitz, YouTube
• Crystal Vanner Living in a MiniVan, by CheapRVliving, YouTube
• TIMELINE: The Frustrating Political History of Homelessness in San Francisco, by Mathew Green, KQED News—The Lowdown
  A one San Fransico mayor said, "Homelessness is the manifestation of complete abject failure as a society. We'll never solve this crisis at city hall."
• Why Are So Many People Homeless? Coalition for the Homeless.
  Homelessness in New York City.

Autonomous Vehicles and Artificial Intelligence

• The truth about algorithms Cathy O’Neil, Aeon
  Algorithms are opinions, not truth machines, and demand the application of ethics.
• The Deadly Recklessness of the Self-Driving Car Industry, by Brian Merchant, Gizmodo

Books

Fiction

• Persepolis Rising, by James S. A. Corey,
• New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson
• V-S Day, by Allen Steele
• Suicide Run, by Nathan Lowell

Non-Fiction

• Resilient, by Rick Hanson with Forrest Hanson
  How to grow an unshakable core of calm, strength and happiness.
• Food Politics—What Everyone Needs to Know, by Robert Paarlberg
  This book does a good job on presenting the facts and the current scientific consensus on many subjects related to food. As such, many people will be unhappy with some of what it has to say. The only thing I found questionable was the author's skepticism about Malthus and this idea that someday there will be too many people to feed. Seems obvious to me—just because we've scraped by so far doesn't mean we'll always be able to.