Showing posts with label Peak Oil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peak Oil. Show all posts

Saturday, 24 July 2021

What I've Been Reading, June 2021

Links

Above the Fold

  • Our Civilization is Dying Because It’s Addicted to Fossil Fuels, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia
    "Why We Need to Treat Clean Energy as Our Moonshot, Or Everything Collapses"
    Umair is right that our civilization is dying because it's addicted to fossil fuels. But he's wrong about finding a clean alternative. Even if we could, it would create as many problems as it solved.
  • No, We Can’t Just Leave Assholes Alone Anymore, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium
    “Left unchallenged, assholes took over America—along with most of the world. Now this class of assholes dominates our politics. They steer our economies. They run our media. They dole out promotions to other assholes, and punish anyone for trying to do the right thing. They tell us what to do and how to think. Now they’re even trying to tell us how to vote, and how to love.”
  • The Myth — and Liability — of America’s Obsession with Rugged Individualism, by Scott Galloway, Medium—Marker
    “The Ayn Rand image of the solo entrepreneur — Hank Rearden toiling alone in his laboratory to invent a new kind of steel — is a pernicious deception.”
    Many of my fellow Canadians will feel smug that we suffer much less from toxic individualism than the USA, but being better than the USA is a pretty minor achievement.
  • If You Think Socialism’s Unaffordable, You Don’t Understand Capitalism, by UmairHaque, Medium-Eudaimonia
    “How Hidden Hyperinflation Left Americans Broke, and What to do About It”
  • We Can’t Afford for Everyone to Have Their Own Opinion Anymore, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium
    “It’s getting us killed.”
  • Why the American Right is Having a Meltdown About Race, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia
    “How White Rage Happens, And Why It Still Defines American Life”
  • Lies and honest mistakes, by Richard V Reeves, Aeon—Psyche
    "Our crisis of public knowledge is an ethical crisis. Rewarding ‘truthfulness’ above ‘truth’ is a step towards a solution"
    "Working against this constitution are the forces of what Rauch labels ‘troll epistemology’. Trolls seek not the truth, but the destruction of an enemy, ideological or personal. Trolls not only fail to display the virtues of sincerity and accuracy, they work in precisely the opposite direction, deliberately offering up distorted visions of reality, based on cherry picked information."

Miscellaneous

Coronavirus

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

The New Fascism, the Far-Right and Antifa

I hear a lot of well educated people saying that the people some of us are calling fascists don't meet all the criteria for being "real" fascists. Others have even accused us of calling anyone we disagree with a fascist. I predict that a few decades (maybe just a few years) from now those same people will be saying they wish they hadn't been quite so fussy with their definitions, and had acted sooner to oppose these "new fascists", even if they weren't identical to the fascists of the twentieth century.

Resource Depletion, formerly (and still including) Peak Oil

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

Climate Change, or rather, actually, Global Warming

  • This is Why We Should Stop Calling it Climate Change, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia
    “The Words 'Climate Change' May End Up Being The Biggest Lie Ever Told”
  • This Is What the Earth’s Climate Will Look Like in 2050, by Julia Slingo, Medium—One Zerp
    “The future under climate change can seem frighteningly vague and variable. A top climatologist explains what to expect in 2050.”
  • Debunking 25 arguments against climate change in 5 sentences or less (each), by Fallacy Man, The Logic of Science
    "Climate change is arguably one of the most misunderstood and controversial topics among the general public. Misinformation abounds, and many people are left debating whether or not we are causing it, and even whether or not it is happening at all. Among scientists, however, there is no serious debate, and there hasn’t been for many years. The evidence for climate change is extremely solid, despite what many blogs and politicians will tell you. Therefore, I want to try to correct some of that misinformation. Yesterday, I posted an extremely lengthy article debunking 25 myths and bad arguments about climate change. Today, I am posting the same information, but in a much more condensed form. I have attempted to address each argument in under 5 sentences. Obviously I had to leave out a lot of information, so if you want the more detailed explanations, please see the original post (each short response is accompanied by a link for the full-length explanation)."

Gardening

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.
  • Soil proprietor: Do GMOs promote dirt conservation? by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
    " Genetically engineered crops are supposed to make it easier for farmers to protect the earth by plowing less. But the record is spotty."

Practical Skills

  • How to Free Up Space in Gmail, by Boone Ashworth and Lorne Goode, Wired
    “Google offers 15 GB of free storage with every account, but many users are hitting the limit. Use these tips to clear some room, and tidy your inbox while you're at it.”
    I've had a gmail account since shortly after gmail cameout, but I only recently switched to using gmail for all my email. Lots to learn.

American Politics

Dancing on Graves

Debunking Resources

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

Gender and Sexuality

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

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

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

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

  • The Rent’s Too Damned High, by Cory Doctorow, Medium—Gen
    “A human right, commodified and rendered zero-sum.”
  • Here’s Why You’re Broke, According to Wealthy Americans Who Skim My Articles, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium
    “The view from the top is judgmental.”
    “These people are straight up bullies, and what they need more than anything is a hard punch in their pocket books. They need to be reminded that all their 'hard won success' was supported by an infrastructure that no longer exists for the vast majority of Americans.”

Humour

These are great times for political satire.

Books

Fiction

Non-Fiction

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Wednesday, 13 January 2021

What I've Been Reading, November and December 2020

Links

Above the Fold

Miscellaneous

The Other News

News that is being ignored by North American mass media

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

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

Resource Depletion, formerly (and still including) Peak Oil

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

Climate Change

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

American Politics

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

Debunking Resources

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

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

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

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

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

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

    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

    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.
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    Monday, 23 November 2020

    What I've Been Reading, October 2020

    Links

    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.

    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

    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.

    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

    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

    Politics

    Linguistics

    Debunking Resources

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

    Science

    Lacking an Owner's Manual

    The human body/mind/spirit doesn't come with an owner's manual, and we continually struggle to figure out how best to operate them.

    Gender and Sexuality

    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.

    Humour

    These are great times for political satire.

    Books

    Fiction

     

    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.
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    Sunday, 12 July 2020

    What I've Been Reading, May and June 2020

    Links

    Above the Fold

    • How Many are Going to Die Because Trump Surrendered to Coronavirus? by Umair Haque, Medium--Eudaimonia
    • Calling overpopulation concern ‘ecofascist’ is absurd and harmful, by Olivia, Empathy Conservation
      "There’s a disturbing new trend of associating concern about human population growth with fascism and racism. Here’s why this is hugely damaging to people and planet."
    • 32 Pictures That Show What White Privilege Looks Like, by Dave Stopera and Matt Stopera, Buzzfeed
    • The Plan Is to Save Capital and Let the People Die, by Hamilton Nolan, Common Dreams
      "Whether Americans know it or not, their government is not working for them. Their government is working on behalf of capital. Humans are now a mere second-order, instrumental factor to be considered based on how it affects capital."
    • How Much Do We Need The Police?, by Leah Donnella, NPR Code Sw!tch
      Almost everything we use the police for could be better dealt with in other ways, ways that would address the underlying problems and solve them.
    • The Surplus Energy Economy—an introduction, by Tim Morgan, Surplus Energy Economics
      How the economy really works.
    • Green economic growth is an article of ‘faith’ devoid of scientific evidence, by Nafeez Ahmed, Medium—Insurge Intelligence
      "Crack team that advised UN Global Sustainable Development Report settle a longstanding debate with hard empirical data"
      "Decoupling is therefore not a truly scientific concept. It is, instead, merely an “abstract possibility that no empirical evidence can disprove but that in the absence of robust empirical evidence or detailed and concrete plans rests, in part, on faith. "Instead of focusing on the mythology that we can continue business-as-usual, we need to find ways to mobilise both technology and fundamental restructuring of our economies and production relations to transition to new forms of prosperity. As Jason Hickel of the London School of Economics has shown: “Over and over again, empirical data shows that it is possible to achieve high levels of human welfare without high levels of GDP with significantly less pressure on the planet. How? By sharing income more fairly and investing in universal health care, education, and other public goods. The evidence is clear: When it comes to delivering long, healthy, flourishing lives for all, this is what counts — this is what progress looks like."
    • Resources for a Better Future—Decoupling, by Timothée Parrique, Un Even Earth
      But the title should have been decoupling debunked. And a good job done of it, too.

    Miscellaneous

    Black Lives Matter

    • Black Lives Matter
    • Violence Never Works? Really? by Tim Wise, Medium—Equality
    • Opinion: Maybe That Police Station Shouldn’t Have Broken the Law, by Kevin Tit, The Hard Times
    • Letter from a Region in My Mind, by James Baldwin, The New Yorker
      "From 1962: 'Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.' "
    • When Gandhi Was Wrong, by Rafia Zakaria, The Baffler
      "There is no universal resistance strategy"
      Much in this that I don't agree with. It is important to realize the MLK eventually came around to the idea that violent protest may be the only way. Throughout history, much has been achieved through violence, and very little through peaceful protest. And I say this as a man who has no great love for violence.
    • Antifa, explained, by Zack Beauchamp, Vox
      "But it’s one thing to say some members are doing this stuff — a “faction of a faction,” as Bray puts it — and another to argue, as O’Brien does, that antifa is behind the overall tumult. The former is a reasonable suspicion based on antifa’s track record, the latter a political move designed exclusively to provide moral justification for a police crackdown on peaceful protesters."
    • This ‘Equity’ picture is actually White Supremacy at work, by Sippin the EquiTEA, Medium—Race
    • Structural Violence, Wikipedia
      A new term that I have just recently become familiar with and which neatly describes much of the oppression going on today.
    • Life and times at the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, by Shane Burley, Roar Magazine
      "Following a long tradition of left revolutionary praxis, protesters in Seattle have declared a cop-free autonomous zone in the heart of the city."

    Defund the Police

    Coronavirus

    Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

    The New Fascism, and Antifa

    I hear a lot of well educated people saying that the people some of us are calling fascists don't meet all the criteria for being "real" fascists. Others have even accused us of calling anyone we disagree with a fascist. I predict that a few decades from now those same people will be saying they wish they hadn't been quite so fussy with their definitions, and had acted sooner to oppose these "new fascists", even if they weren't identical to the fascists of the twentieth century.

    Resource Depletion, formerly (and still including) Peak Oil

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

    Climate Change

    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.

    Recipes and Cooking

    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 seed research: What’s locked and what isn’t, by Nathanael Johnson , Grist—Panic Free GMOs
      "Monsanto gets a lot of pain in the public press, but they are the company that interacts the best with public scientists — they have always been on the forefront of pushing public research forward."

    American Politics

    Debunking Resources

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

    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.

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

    Humour

    These are great times for political satire.

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    Sunday, 17 May 2020

    What I've Been Reading, April 2020

    Links

    Above the Fold

    • 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.
    • Economic growth is an unnecessary evil, Jacinda Ardern is right to deprioritise it, by Jack Peat, The London Economic
      I can't help wondering how far Ms. Ardern can go in this direction before running afoul of some very powerful people.
    • Sam Harris Has a Problem, by Johnathan Rash, Medium —ARC
      "This is what it looks like when a public intellectual doesn’t know what he’s talking about."
    • Universal Basic Income Is Silicon Valley’s Latest Scam, by Douglas Rushkoff, Medium —Basic Income
      "As appealing as it may sound, UBI is nothing more than a way for corporations to increase their power over us, all under the pretense of putting us on the payroll. It’s the candy that a creep offers a kid to get into the car or the raise a sleazy employer gives a staff member who they’ve sexually harassed. It’s hush money."
      "Whether its proponents are cynical or simply naive, UBI is not the patch we need. A weekly handout doesn’t promote economic equality — much less empowerment. The only meaningful change we can make to the economic operating system is to distribute ownership, control, and governance of the real world to the people who live in it."
    • Overpopulation, by Jason Godesky, Medium
      "This is the true response to eco-fascists: not that overpopulation isn’t real, but that they have utterly failed to understand the problem, and they’ve leapt to the most cruel and awful conclusions purely out of their shocking lack of imagination. Overpopulation is the crisis of civilization itself: of agriculture and the hierarchies and elites it allows for, of the connected systems of exploitation that it is made of. Fascism seeks to create even more of those things, the very things that created the problem in the first place. While the food race goes on, mass murder is just another step along the track. Overpopulation is a problem, perhaps even the problem — and fascism makes it worse."
      But read the whole article, the author has a lot of things right, maybe a few wrong, but on the balance it's pretty good stuff.
    • The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months , by Rutger Bregman, The Guardian
      "When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently from William Golding’s bestseller, writes Rutger Bregman"
      I am not surprised. The idea that humans are selfish has been spread to justify the selfish behaviour of the elites, and simply isn't based on reality.
    • Just Because It’s Natural Doesn’t Mean It’s Moral: A Conversation With Alan Levinovitz, by Alex Ronan, The Nation
    • The Best Solution to Capitalism in One Word: Subsistence, by Wyatt Edward Gates, Medium

    Miscellaneous

    • A Love Letter to My Curmudgeonly Big Brother, by Steve Friedman, Outdoors
      "A Pessimist and an Optimist Hike 28 Miles in the Woods Together"
    • The Evolution of Grand Parents, by Rachel Caspari, Scientific American
      "Elders play critical roles in human societies around the globe, conveying wisdom and providing social and economic support for the families of their children and larger kin groups.... Research my colleagues and I have been conducting indicates that grandparent-aged individuals became common relatively recently in human prehistory and that this change came at about the same time as cultural shifts toward distinctly modern behaviors—including a dependence on sophisticated symbol-based communication of the kind that underpins art and language. These findings suggest that living to an older age had profound effects on the population sizes, social interactions and genetics of early modern human groups and may explain why they were more successful than archaic humans, such as the Neandertals."
      "...have shown in their studies of several modern-day hunter-gatherer groups, grandparents routinely contribute economic and social resources to their descendants, increasing both the number of offspring their children can have and the survivorship of their grandchildren. Grandparents also reinforce complex social connections..."
      Note: for the purposes of this article, "modern" starts about 30,000 years ago.
    • Grandparents 'give humans evolutionary edge', The Telegraph
      "After examining a large body of evidence from traditional human societies the evidence suggested that the presence of some grandparents can substantially increase the chances of a child surviving during the high risk period of infancy and childhood."

    Coronavirus

    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.

    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.

    Economic Contraction and Growing Inequality

    Energy

    Hazard and Risk

    Gardening

    • The Secret World of Radishes, by Karen Bertelsen, Lee Valley Tools
      I tried this articles recommendation of planting radishes one inch deep, fully expecting to have them not come up. A week and a half later and they are up and doing well.

    Recipes and Cooking

    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 engineered food: Allergic to regulations? , by Nathanael Johnson, Grist

    Practical Skills

    • How To Make Your Own Sugar, by Stephanie Dayle, The Home Front
      This is a pretty crunchy article, as shown by the author's concern about GMO seeds.
      I have actually tried this, and I would say that there is no need to cut the beets so fine, but I would put the cooked mush in a bag and press it to get more of the liquid out. If you boil it too long, it goes from a thick syrup to a burnt mess very quickly. 40 to 45 degrees above boiling sounds way to high to me.
      The article is full of what I have often called "mother Earth News enthusiasm". Actually you will find the syrup is quite bitter and has pretty rustic flavour. It could hardly be called sugar at all, but if you had no other sweetener, you'd still be glad for it. The syrup can be treated to get rid of the compounds causing the bitter flavour, but that would probably be going beyond "kitchen chemistry".

    Linguistics

    • Chomsky, Wolfe and me, by Daniel Everett, Aeon
      "I took on Noam Chomsky’s ideas about language and unleashed a decade of debate and ridicule. But is my argument wrong?"

    Debunking Resources

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

    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.

    Intelligence and Consciousness

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

    Humour

    These are great times for political satire.

    Books

    Fiction

    Non-Fiction

    • Behind the Urals, by John Scott
      "An American worker in Russia's City of Steel"
    • The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, by Benjamin Friedman
      Finally finished this. Written by a conventional economist who doesn't even seem to know what causes economic growth, or what its consequences really are, it is pretty tough going. Important to know how the other side thinks, though, I guess.
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