May was a busy month between stacking up 10 cords of firewood for next winter and getting started on gardening, so I didn't do as much reading, or writing, as I would have liked.
Links
Miscellaneous
- Abortion is an Economic Issue, by Hanna Brooks Olsen, Medium—Economy
- Why I Left the Pro-Life Movement
, by Sarah Olson, Medium—Human Parts
"I protested abortion for years. But when I saw how the movement’s beliefs harm women, I realized I had to get out." - The Debate of the Century or a Waste of Time? by Jackie Thornhill, Medium
"Everything you need to know about today’s debate between Jordan Peterson and Slavoj Žižek"
Well, maybe not everything. But apparently Žižek mopped the floor with Peterson, and that is good news.
"Hopefully Jordan Peterson learned the most important lesson — he may have a devoted fan base and legions of followers, but he’s not the heavyweight public intellectual he pretends to be. Perhaps next time Peterson will think twice before challenging someone like Žižek."
Collapse
- (Why) American Collapse is Extraordinary, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia
Of course some will say that what Mr. Haque calls collapse is just change, albeit for the worse. But slow collapse is made up of many such changes.
Others will say that his use of the word "fascist" is imprecise and inaccurate. Looking back, a few decades from now, I think those same people will have to admit while twenty first century American "fascist" may not have fitted a precise academic definition, they eventually had much the same effect as twentieth century fascists. - Civilisational collapse has a bright past – but a dark future, by Luke Kemp, Aeon
- Civilisation peaked in 1940 and will collapse by 2040: the data-based predictions of 1973, from Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News, via Aeon
Peak Oil
- Oil is the Economy: #FuturesRadio, podcast with Art Berman
Direct link to podcast audio. - Greens call for ban on foreign oil imports, using Alberta oil instead, by Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press—Yahoo News
Something surprising from Elizabeth May, the leader of Canada's Green Party.
Climate Change
- Names and Locations of the Top 100 People Killing the Planet, by Jordan Engel, Portside
- Greenwashing the Climate Catastrophe, by Kenn Orphan, Wrong Kind of Green
Economic Contraction
- The Economy Continues To Deteriorate, by Investment Research Dynamics
This article is right about the state of the economy, but it doesn't go deep enough when it talks about the causes. Why is the economy contracting and why is debt being used to keep it going? Clearly, decreasing surplus energy is the underlying cause.
Energy
- Food or energy? The battle over the future of Australia's prime agricultural land, by Eliza Beck, ABC News
Hazard and Risk
- Odds of Dying: What You Should Really Worry About, by Robert Roy Britt, Medium—Luminate
Agriculture
- Farm Babe: Hey Natalie Portman, here’s why your term ‘factory farm’ is so offensive, by Michelle Miller, Farm Babe, AG DAily
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.
- Do GMO Opponents Have a Problem with Cheese?, by Kevin Bonham, Scientific American
Practical Skills
- Medieval wood riving – An attempt to recreate craftsmanship, Örebro läns museum
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
- Moms Across America sells product linked to cancer and kidney failure, by Stephan Neidenbach, Medium
- Dangerous DIY Sunscreen Recipes Are Spreading on Pinterest, by Angela Lashbrook, Medium—OneZero
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.
- If God Is Dead, Your Time Is Everything, by James Wood, The New Yorker
A lengthy look at various views of what it means to be secular, as opposed to religious. Concentrating in particular on Martin Hägglund’s view, as articulated in his book This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom. - The Cult of the Good Christian Woman, by Sarah Olson, Medium—Human Parts
"The community that raised me is pushing an ideal for women that is repressive and damaging."
Poverty, Homeless People, Minimum Wage, UBI, Health Care, Housing
- 'It’s a miracle': Helsinki's radical solution to homelessness, by Jon Henley, The Guardian
- Why should governments give cash-handouts before providing free, quality public services to all? UBI without quality public services is a neo-liberal paradise., by Rosa Pavanelli , Open Democracy
"What the studies do demonstrate is that giving cash payments to the poorest helps improve their lives and does not increase wasteful spending or laziness as many right wing politicians would have us believe. "
"When we manage to build the political will to raise the substantial extra funds required to fight inequality – then surely funding public health, transport, housing and education would be our key priority?"
Autonomous Vehicles and Artificial Intelligence
- 10 Surprising Things About Riding in a Self-Driving Taxi, by Hope King, Medium—Cheddar
Books
Fiction
- Dead Water, by Ann Cleeves, book 5 in the Shetland Series
- Against A Dark Background, by Iain M. Banks
- The Protectors War, by S. M. Stirling
Non-Fiction
- The Cancer Chronicles, by George Johnson
"Unlocking Medicine's deepest mystery."
An excellent reality based survey of what we know, and can do, about cancer.
4 comments:
Really enjoyed the video about the rafter-making and the expertise in felling the tree and splitting the trunk. Such brilliant axe work! I doubt whether much of this will be done post-collapse. The skills just won't be there. That sort of satisfying craft work just couldn't be achieved with a chainsaw and power tools. How much we've lost!
@ Bev
Many skills have been lost, but as that video shows they can be recovered.
I spent 30 plus years as a tradesman and I'm fairly good with my hands, but I worked with guys who were outright amazing and who could pick up pretty well any skill they put their minds to. There are lots of people like that out there and there is a real movement afoot to relearn lost skills. There are lots of video on you tube about that sort of thing.
I've been learning to weave wicker (willow) baskets the last couple of years. Not entirely a lost craft, but pretty rare hereabouts. Fortunately there are some good books and some very helpful videos on you tube.
Come to think of it, the loss of you tube and the internet in general as collapse progresses is going to make adapting to collapse just that much harder. Best to enjoy and take advantage of such resources while we have them.
@ Bev
I agree with Irv that the traditional hand tool skills are certainly able to be re-learned. When I was in the Peace Corps in the Marshall Islands in the early 1970s, I built a dugout canoe with an outrigger using only an ax and an adze, neither of which I had used for that kind of work before. I found that with a bit of practice I could cut right down the middle of a soot line with an adze (the Marshallese got soot lines from the Japanese) and leave a very flat surface.
On another canoe I cut three outrigger supports from a curved beam using a hand saw. Each cut was about 12 feet long through 4 inch wood. The Marshallese made their own twine from coconut husk fiber, something I observed but never tried to do. I did participate in making a 3/8" halyard from multiple smaller cords, something that I could probably do again if I had to.
Fortunately there will be plenty of scrap steel for post-collapse tools. It will be harder to make the axes and adzes than using them, but still very possible. Even without steel, it is possible to do some amazing work with stone tools, although the number of people who can knap an ax blade from a piece of stone are few and far between. But as the saying goes, "Necessity is the mother of invention".
@ Joe Clarkson
Nice to hear from you again Joe. And those are good points you make.
@ Bev
Hope it doesn't seem like we are ganging up on you on this subject. I have to admit that I do know many people who will be totally lost when it comes to making things for themselves.
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