What I've Been Reading, July 2020

Links

Above the Fold

• President Trump sending federal police agents into major American cities, by Kevin Reed, World Socialist Website
  "The use of federal forces in major American cities—in some cases at the request of police associations in contradiction to the policy of elected officials—is both a violation of the constitutional rights of protesters and a usurpation of the authority of local and state governments."
• 'I wanted to take action': behind the 'Wall of Moms' protecting Portland's protesters, by Chris McGreal, The Guardian
• US orders closure of Chinese consulate in Houston, by James Griffiths and Nicole Gaouette, CNN
• Portland Is Fining Feds $500 Every 15 Minutes For Fence Surrounding Courthouse, by Jemima McEvoy, Forbes
• Ammonium nitrate: what is the chemical blamed for blast in Lebanese capital? by Helen Sullivan and Tom Phillips, The Guardian
  "The deadly explosion in Beirut has been blamed on thousands of tonnes of the chemical used in fertilisers and explosives"
• We’ve Known How to Combat Dementia For Years — We’re Just Not Listening, by Kylie Fuller, Medium--Illumination
  "The lifestyle of the blue zone people vastly differs from the rat race culture pervasive in Western society. They live simply and emphasize community. In fact, microbiologist and health coach P.D. Mangan points out that “the factor that unites all of these [blue zone people] is either being less touched by modernity, or actively rejecting it.” That is not to say we must reject modernity to live long, but there are elements of our modern culture that are undeniably toxic. As long as we are unwilling to eliminate these stressful components, we will be subject to their effects."
• What is QAnon? A not-so-brief introduction to the conspiracy theory that's eating America, by Robert Guffey, Salon
• 'Green Economic Growth' Is a Myth, by Nafeez Ahmed, Vice
  "If these new studies are accurate, then continuing business-as-usual and saving the planet are mutually exclusive. The idea that we can do both is a persistent mythology, an article of “faith” no less, that needs to be discarded."

Miscellaneous

• The World’s 25 Largest Lakes, Side by Side, Visual Capitalist
• Why do humans prefer to mate in private? by Bob Yirka , Phys.org
• Electricity sources by state, Flowing Data

At the Doomstead Diner

Over the last while I've gotten together on Skype with RE at the Doomstead Diner and made a few videos. Here are links to what we've done so far. There is more to come.

• Ontario Hydroelectric & Nuclear Power, by RE and Irv at The Doomstead Diner
• Community Gardens. Permaculture & Food Distribution during the Coronavirus Catastrophe, by RE and Irv at The Doomstead Diner
• Food in Collapse 2: Cooking, Cheesemaking & Fermentation, by RE and Irv at The Doomstead Diner
• Electrical Resistance, by Irv Mills, K-Dog, Cam, Lucid Dreams & RE at The Doomstead Diner
• Collapse Food Preservation: From Cucumber to Pickle, by RE and Irv at The Doomstead Diner

Defund the Police

• Why are police injecting ketamine into suspects in America? I was watching the Barr testifying today and Rep Bass brought it up. I had never heard of such a thing. Can or do police inject people with ketamine without a doctor? , by Franklin Veaux, Quora

Coronavirus

• Column: I’m in Canada, where the COVID police are watching , by Doyle McManus, LA Times

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

• Was it good or bad for the United States when the highest marginal tax rate was at least 70% from 1936 to 1981?, by Randy Weir, Quora
  

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.

• Trump’s Authoritarian Show Of Force--This is how it begins, The Lincoln Project
• Homeland Security Is Quietly Tying Antifa to Foreign Powers, by Ken Klippenstein, The Nation
  "An intelligence report obtained exclusively by The Nation mentions several Americans, including a left-wing podcast host."
• Why is Antifa so prominent and seemingly strong in the Pacific Northwest? by Nick Malik, Quora

Economic Contraction and Growing Inequality

• The Ides of Autumn--Seeds, Stagflation and Crash Risk , by Tim Morgan, Surplus Energy Economics
  "For anyone involved in economic interpretation, these are hectic times. They’re frustrating times, too, for those of us who understand that the economy is an energy system, but have to watch from the sidelines as huge mistakes are made on the false premise that economics is ‘the study of money’, and that energy is ‘just another input’."

Recipes and Cooking

• Bouillon Brodo Caldo Dashi, Medium-Anthology of Cooking
  "The broths of several cultures, their preparation and use"
  I find broths freeze quite well. I also tend to cook them quite a bit longer than this piece suggests, like overnight. Very few tings benefit by being turned in a race.

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.
• Genetically modified literature (in which I read books so you don’t have to), by Nathanael Johnson, Grist

Practical Skills

• Clamping Techniques for Oddball Glueups, by Charles Mak, Lee VAlley
  I do a fair bit of woodworking and there are some clever ideas in this article.

American Politics

• What Could Happen If Donald Trump Rejects Electoral Defeat?, by Jabin Botsford, The New Yorker
  "A new book conjures three scenarios in which President Trump could lose the election but not step down."
• Are you a conservative? It’s a trick question., by Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post
  This article makes some good points, but I'd say that conservatism is a force for evil, and still a powerful one.
• Biden’s Big-Tent Strategy Seems to Be Working, by John Cassidy, The New Yorker
  "None of this means that Biden is a lock for the Oval Office. Between now and November 3rd, something could conceivably shift the momentum against him, such as a Vice-Presidential pick that backfires, a major slipup in the debates, or a surprising economic upturn. Right now, though, the challenger’s strategy of keeping the focus on the incumbent and pitching a broad tent that accommodates anyone who wants to see the back of Trump is working well."

Canadian Politics

• What are your thoughts on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitting he “made a mistake” in not recusing himself “immediately” from WE Charity contract discussions? by Steven Haddock, 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

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." Steven Novella

• If vaccines are safe, then why did the federal government exempt vaccine manufacturers from vaccine liability while at the same time setting up a federally funded vaccine injury compensation fund?, by Anthony Zarrella, Quora--Countering Pseudoscience
  A heck of a good answer to this question, a slap down for anti-vaxers.

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.

• Do atheists have new arguments against the existence of God? by Barry Goldberg, Quora--Common Sense Atheism
• What was the one thought/idea/fact that made atheists not believe in God anymore? by Barry Goldberg, Quora--Common Sense Atheism
• If atheists don't believe in God, then why do they blame him for various things and call him evil or immoral? by Barry Goldberg, Quora--Common Sense Atheism
• Why do some people believe they need scientific justification for creationism and intelligent design? Is it due to lack of faith? by Barry Goldberg, Quora--Common Sense Atheism

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

• Why do people own 1,000 dollar smartphones, but don’t have two nickels in their savings account? by Franklin Veaux, Quora--Surviving Homelessness
  
• Taking into account all causes (psychological, political, financial, social etc), how would you try to reduce or eliminate (…if at all) homelessness? by Justin Kurt, Quora
• Could there be any possible reason, why people treat the homeless poorly, even though they are the ones who need help? by Margie Lorenzo Strekal, Quora--Surviving Homelessness
  
• Most Homeless People Aren’t Addicts, by Kayla Robbins, Invisible People

Artificial Intelligence

If You Think GPT-3 Makes Coders Obsolete, You Probably Do Not Write Code, by Chris I., Medium--Data Science
"In rebuttal of data scientists and developers going obsolete"

Books

Fiction

• Selkie Summer, by Ken MacLeod
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate: A Novella, by Becky Chambers
• Auberon: An Expanse Novella , by James S. A. Corey
• Strange Dogs: An Expanse Novella, by James S. A. Corey
• The Vital Abyss: An Expanse Novella, by James S. A. Corey
• Gods of Risk: An Expanse Novella, by James S. A. Corey
• The Churn: An Expanse Novella, by James S. A. Corey
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet: Wayfarers 1, by Becky Chambers

Non-Fiction

• The Democracy Project, by David Graeber
  Highly recommended!