What I've Been Reading, February 2022

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.
• Show me a 10ft paywall, I’ll show you a 12ft ladder.
  "Prepend 12ft.io/ to the URL of any paywalled page, and we'll try our best to remove the paywall and get you access to the article."

Above the Fold

• How Ottawa residents took care of each other when no one else did, by Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, AL JAZEERA
  "How Ottawa residents took care of each other when no one else did."
• Is the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau underestimating the power and/or political influence of Canadian truckers? by Rathkeale T., Quora
• In other words, the Emergencies Act will give Trudeau the authority to jail, evict, and confiscate the property of anyone he views as threatening his regime. Really Canada? by Danny Philp, Quora
  In short, no.
• The Limits to Growth at 50: From Scenarios to Unfolding Reality, by Richard Heinberg, Resilience
• Dennis Meadows on the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Limits to Growth, by Richard Heinberg and Dennis Meadows, resilience

Miscellaneous

• SpaceX’s Latest Rocket Engine Will Dominate Space, by Will Lockett, Medium—Predict
  "Elon’s Raptor 2 engine is in another league."
  It is pretty amusing, really, when you get to the end of the article and find out they are having trouble controlling the build up of heat in the rocket engine, and it is a long way from delivering on the promises touted early in the article.

Coronavirus

• So far approximately 777,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the USA. That is about 0.25 percent of the total US population as of 2021 according to census. How does that justify lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations when it is so mild? by Samantha Morrow, Quora

Housing

• Housing Revisited: Part One, Do We Need Citizen Barracks/Dorms? by Bill Hulet, The Guelph Back-Grounder
• Housing Revisited, Part Two: the Housing Crisis—Branch and Root, by Bill Hulet, The Guelph Back-Grounder

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

• ThedaCare Medics Row Shows Worker Clout, by Dawn Allen, Legal Reader
  "Seven ThedaCare medics quit for better jobs. At first, a judge said they couldn’t go, a stunning decision in an economy which should be golden for workers."

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. The following four paragraphs, by Shane Burley, are the best short defintiion of fascism I have yet come across.

There has to be a reliable base point when we are looking at something we think to be fascist, especially when it runs a certain level of subtlety that isn’t apparent on its own terms. I have defined fascism using two key primary points: inequality and essentialized identity.

Inequality: The belief that human beings are not equal for immutable reasons, such as intelligence, capacity, spiritual caste, etc. This inequality is not just fact, but it is a sacrament, meaning that society should be constructed with cleanly defined hierarchies, which are natural, and that society would then be healthier when those hierarchies are made explicit and enforced. This also lends itself to the importance of elitism, that there must be an elite ruler caste, even though they usually reject the existing ruling class.

Essential identity: Our identities are fixed and define us, they are not socially constructed or chosen. The most common of these is racial given white nationalism as the dominant form of Western fascism, but it could also include gender (male tribalism), specific ethnicities (inter-European nationalism), sexual orientation (extreme queer-phobia), or religion (Hindutva). And when I say essentializing identities I mean that it is not just an identity that is true (like being of African heritage), but that the identity defines you in some way as incidence.

There are several points that I consider very important in the definition of fascism, but often put just secondary to the two critical points. This would include a mythology about its tribal group, the sanctity of violence, revolutionary strategy (in some degree), authoritarianism, populism, and the appropriation of the Left. While these almost always exist in relationship to fascism, they are not defining of fascism because they may exist outside of fascism. It is not uncommon to interact with revolutionary left movements that are authoritarian or fetishize violence, and while that may be abhorrent, it does not make them fascist.

What Is Fascism? An Excerpt From “Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It”, by Shane Burley, Truthout

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 sustainable.

• 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.
• Block party: Are activists thwarting GMO innovation?, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
  "GM technology hasn't lived up to its hype. Genetic-engineering proponents blame activists. Here's a deeper look at the GMO blame game."
  I have to say that Mr. Johnson leans pretty heavily to the anti-GMO side in this one, even thought the facts he presents don't support that.

Practical Skills

• 9 Bandsaw Resawing Tips And Tricks You Should Know, by Bright Ochuko, Craftsman Pro Tools
• 8 Ways To Prevent Or Deal With Planer Snipe, by Bright Ochuko, Craftsman Pro Tools

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

Books

Fiction

• Light Chaser, by Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell
  "Amahle is a Light Chaser – one of a number of explorers, who travel the universe alone (except for their onboard AI), trading trinkets for life stories. But when she listens to the stories sent down through the ages she hears the same voice talking directly to her from different times and on different worlds. She comes to understand that something terrible is happening, and only she is in a position to do anything about it. nd it will cost everything to put it right."
• A Desolatioin Called Peace, by Arkady Martine
  "A Desolation Called Peace is the spectacular space opera sequel to A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, winner of the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel."
• Bright Morning Star, by Simon Morden
  "Simon Morden has won the Philip K. Dick Award and been a judge on the Arthur C. Clarke Award. He is a bona fide rocket scientist, with degrees in Geology and Planetary Geophysics. In Bright Morning Star he delivers perhaps his finest work to date, a ground-breaking take on first contact. Sent to Earth to explore, survey, collect samples and report back to its makers, an alien probe arrives in the middle of a warzone. Witnessing both the best and worst of humanity, the AI probe faces situations that go far beyond the parameters of its programming, and is forced to improvise, making decisions that have repercussions for the future of our entire world."
• Gallowglass, by Simon Morden
  "Jack Van Der Veerden is on the run. From his billionaire parents' chilling plans, from his brutal bodyguard, from a planet on the brink of climate chaos.
  "Seeking freedom out in space, he gets a job on a mining ship chasing down an asteroid. Crewed by mercenaries and misfits, they all want a cut of the biggest payday in history. A single mistake could cost Jack his life - and that's before they reach their destination. The bounty from the asteroid could change lives and save nations - and corrupt any one of them. Because in space, it's all or nothing: riches beyond measure, or dying alone in the dark."

Non-Fiction

• No Bosses: A New Economy for a Better World, by Michael Albert
  "Providing hope and direction to sustain commitment on the path to change, No Bosses is about winning a new world.
  "Life under capitalism. Rampant debilitating denial for the many next to vile enrichment of the few. Material deprivation, denial, and denigration. Dignity defiled. Michael Albert's book No Bosses advocates for the conception and then organization of a new economy. The vision offered is called participatory economics. It elevates self-management, equity, solidarity, diversity, and sustainability. It eliminates elitist, arrogant, dismissive, authoritarian, exploitation, competition, and homogenization. No Bosses proposes a built and natural productive commons, self-management by all who work, income for how long, how hard, and the onerousness of conditions of socially valued work, jobs that give all economic actors comparable means and inclination to participate in decisions that affect them, and a process called participatory planning in which caring behavior and solidarity are the currency of collective and individual success."

What I've Been Reading, January 2022

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.
• Show me a 10ft paywall, I’ll show you a 12ft ladder.
  "Prepend 12ft.io/ to the URL of any paywalled page, and we'll try our best to remove the paywall and get you access to the article."

Above the Fold

• Good Luck “Learning to Live With the Pandemic” — You’re Going to Need It, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia
  Why “Learning to Live With the Pandemic” is an Intellectual Fraud and a Moral Disgrace
• Why are these Canadian lorry drivers protesting about the Covid vaccine? What are the reasons? If they are vaccinated & catch it, any symptoms are mild, so what is the issue then? Danny Philp, Quora

Miscellaneous

• Living without ‘machines’, by Andrew Curry, Reslience
  A review of Mark Boyle’s book, The Way Home

Coronavirus

• Why does COVID-19 keep mutating to require new vaccines while smallpox, mumps, polio, etc. don't? by Dr Jo, Quora
• Was British prime minister Boris Johnson incorrect when he stated that the covid vaccines "doesn’t protect you from catching the disease and doesn’t protect you against passing it on”? by Gill Bullen, Quora
  I don't know if I agree with the author's unusually positive portrayal of Boris Johnson, but the rest of this is quite good.
• Are mRNA vaccines the main cause of the increasing spread of the COVID-19, because they help the way the SARS-CoV-2 virus replicates? by Richard Smedley, Quora
  In short, no.
• Why are COVID-19 vaccinations politicized with a lot of hesitancy in the United States when there was a national celebration when the polio vaccine came in 1955? by Mike Jones, Quora
  

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.

• What Is Fascism? An Excerpt From “Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It”, by Shane Burley, Truthout
  "There has to be a reliable base point when we are looking at something we think to be fascist, especially when it runs a certain level of subtlety that isn’t apparent on its own terms. I have defined fascism using two key primary points: inequality and essentialized identity.
  Inequality: The belief that human beings are not equal for immutable reasons, such as intelligence, capacity, spiritual caste, etc. This inequality is not just fact, but it is a sacrament, meaning that society should be constructed with cleanly defined hierarchies, which are natural, and that society would then be healthier when those hierarchies are made explicit and enforced. This also lends itself to the importance of elitism, that there must be an elite ruler caste, even though they usually reject the existing ruling class.
  Essential identity: Our identities are fixed and define us, they are not socially constructed or chosen. The most common of these is racial given white nationalism as the dominant form of Western fascism, but it could also include gender (male tribalism), specific ethnicities (inter-European nationalism), sexual orientation (extreme queer-phobia), or religion (Hindutva). And when I say essentializing identities I mean that it is not just an identity that is true (like being of African heritage), but that the identity defines you in some way as incidence.
  There are several points that I consider very important in the definition of fascism, but often put just secondary to the two critical points. This would include a mythology about its tribal group, the sanctity of violence, revolutionary strategy (in some degree), authoritarianism, populism, and the appropriation of the Left. While these almost always exist in relationship to fascism, they are not defining of fascism because they may exist outside of fascism. It is not uncommon to interact with revolutionary left movements that are authoritarian or fetishize violence, and while that may be abhorrent, it does not make them fascist. "
• No, that’s not what fascism is, by Shane Burley, Gods & Radicals Press

Food

• 3 Huge Challenges Crushing Cultured Meat, by Sam Westreich, PhD, Medium—Sharing Science
  "We’ll need to solve these problems if we want “lab-cultured” meat to, well, grow."
• Rice Milk vs. Cow’s Milk, by Abbey, Medium—Food Science Fusion
  "There’s a clear winner here"

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 sustainable.

• 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.
• Is genetic engineering a doomed effort to reinvent nature’s wheel? by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
  "It’s not very exciting to say that each avenue of research project should be funded on its merits. It would be much more powerful if I could make the case that GE food can just never deliver as much public good as money spent elsewhere. But there’s just not good evidence for that the case.
  Indeed, it’s clear that genetic engineering can provide a huge monetary return on investment. The success of commercial biotech hints that the technology also could provide return on investment for the environment, and for humanity, if we pursued the right avenues. We don’t need GMOs to save the world. But they could probably help."

Practical Skills

• 10 Bushcraft Knife Skills in 10 Minutes, by TA Outdoors, YouTube
  I found this trilogy of videos pretty amazing, in that it has some useful ideas that I hadn't encountered before.
• 10 Bushcraft Axe Skills in 10 Minutes, by TA Outdoors, YouTube
• 10 Bushcraft Saw Skills in 10 Minutes, by TA Outdoors, YouTube

American Politics

• What was the reason why Trump installed Tata in the Pentagon during the closing days of his administration? What role was he supposed to play in Trump's plan to retain power, and why did it fail? by Nelson McKeeby, Quora
  Scary, but not surprising, that people like Brigadier General Tata exist.
• The people who believe that Joseph Biden won fair and square can't base it on numbers, because these numbers were given to us. So, are they essentially basing it on the fact that the news simply declared it? by John Scott, Quora
  

Linguistics

• How the Chinese Language Got Modernized, by Ian Buruma, The New Yorker
  "Faced with technological and political upheaval, reformers decided that Chinese would need to change in order to survive."

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

• Antivaccine hero Andrew Wakefield: Scientific fraud? by David Gorski, Science Based Medicine
• Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses, by Stanley Plotkin, Jeffrey S. Gerber, Paul A. Offit, Oxford Academic—Clinical Infectious Diseases

Gender and Sexuality

• Affirming transgender people’s identities is more than politeness, by David Matthew Doyle, Psyche

Artificial Intelligence

• Why Tesla Cannot Solve Full Self-Driving, by Rebel Science, Medium
  "Deep Learning Is Hopelessly Flawed"
  "The brain can instantly perceive any pattern or object in sharp detail even if it has not seen anything like it before. A deep neural net would be blind to it."

Books

Fiction

• Shards of Earth, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Artifact Space, by Miles Cameron
• Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

What I've Been Reading, November 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

• David Graeber: A Celebration of His Life, hosted by Ash Sarkar, Novar Media
  "David Graeber’s life and work leaves an indelible mark on thinkers and activists from London through New York, from Rojava to Quebec. To celebrate his life and work Novara Media are hosting a live stream with academics, activists, and politicians who have been influenced by, and who were an influence on, his intellectual endeavours and activist pursuits."
• Rogue State Run By Billionaires Biggest Threat to the Human Race, by Glen Hendrix, Medium--Politically Speaking
  "The rest of the world is becoming aware, and that will have consequences"
  And just in case it isn't obvious, that rouge state is the U.S. of A.
• The Considerations Needed to Change Our World, by Tessa Schlesinger, Medium
  "We are so out of time. Why is no one speaking about designing new political and economic systems?"
• ‘The Dawn of Everything’ rewrites 40,000 years of human history, by Bruce Bower, Science News
  "A new book recasts social evolution as surprisingly varied"
  Just finished reading this. I am very nimpressed.

Miscellaneous

• What They Don’t Tell You Before Moving To Scandinavia, by Sandra Michelle, Medium
  "Reporting from Stockholm, truly shocked."
• How Elite Hobbies Let Billionaires Pay No Tax, by Cory Doctorow, Medium-- Gen
  
• Sure Looks Like Donald Trump Is Gonna Lose the Lightbulb War, by Oliver Milman, Mother Jones
  

Supply Chain Trouble/Economic Collapse

• I’m A Twenty Year Truck Driver, I Will Tell You Why America’s “Shipping Crisis” Will Not End, by Ryan Johnson, Medium
  This fellow actually knows what he is talking about, and it isn't good news. Just one more problem that can't be solved by capitalism.
• Why Food Shortages Will Hit America Hard, by Shelly Fagan, Medium
  "Consumers don’t understand how food gets to their table"
• Everywhere You Look, the Global Supply Chain Is a Mess, by Sean McLain in Tokyo, Christopher M. Matthews in Houston and Costas Paris in New York,
  "Winter storms and crammed ports in the U.S. add to disruptions of production and supplies during the pandemic"
• After Supply Chain Capitalism, by Ingrid Burrington, Medium--Point, Data & Society
  The insistence that dignity and life aren’t as essential as efficiency and market performance needs to be undermined with a social safety net that protects all people, including and especially workers most at risk, whether faced with a pandemic or simply faced with run-of-the-mill cruelties of capitalism.
• It’s Not a Supply Chain Crisis — It’s a Failing Economy, by Umair Haque, Medium--Eudaimonia
  "The Age of Consumption is Over — And Now We’re Heading for the Greatest Collapse in Economic History"
  Always good to have a dissenting voice, and we can count on Umair Haque for that. And most of what he's saying is spot on.

Coronavirus

• Why are mRNA COVID-19 vaccines so controversial? by Chris O'Leary,
  "These vaccines are safe, and they are effective. Stop listening to people who would celebrate your death."
• What are some of the long-term effects of the COVID 19 vaccine that people should know before taking it? by Dr Jo, Quora
• How do 'vaccine passports' violate rights outlined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms? answered by Gareth Jones, Quora
  
• How can the vaccines be working when some people like Andrew Marr who have had both vaccines still get badly infected with covid-19? by C Stuart Hardwick, Quora
  
• How likely will there be annual coronavirus shots for the U.S.? by Dr Jo "Just another physician", Quora
• Why have producers of the covid-19 vaccines not made it with the traditional method of using deactivated virus which is shown to be very effective against stuff like polio? by Franklin Veaux, Quora
  
• To all the people who have taken the COVID-19 vaccine, how is it going?, by Richard Smedley, Quora
  

Collapse

• America Will Be Twelve Countries Very Soon, by Jared A. Brock, Medium--Surviving Tomorrow
  "It’s inevitable and here’s why"

Responding to Collapse

• Life in a ‘degrowth’ economy, and why you might actually enjoy it, by Samuel Alexander, The Conversation
  "What does genuine economic progress look like? The orthodox answer is that a bigger economy is always better, but this idea is increasingly strained by the knowledge that, on a finite planet, the economy can’t grow for ever."
• I Lived Off the Grid—And I’m Still Broke, by Kevin Maimann, Vice
  "After a couple months of cold mornings dumping buckets of composting shit, I’m as broke as ever."

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

• 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.
• Playing the field: Corn likes to sleep around — and that makes it hard to control GMOs, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
  "Pollen spreads, so GMO genes get around. That's everyone's problem -- whether you like your farming organic or industrial."

Practical Skills

• 12 Tips For Making Flatter Panel Glue Ups, by Adam, The Power Tool Webiste
  

Canadian Politics

• Does Erin O’Toole’s popularity as shown in the 2021 Canadian federal election pose a warning sign of a Trump-like Prime Minister in Canada in the future given he possesses many of the same traits as Trump? by Kathy O, Quora
  Some interesting stuff in the comments section, worth having a look at. All I would add is that while O'Toole seems to be smart enough to realize you can't win a Canadian election with Republican policies, many of the members of his party don't agree. A slim majority voted "no" when asked if climate change is real. So I suspect it's only a matter of time before O'Toole is replaced by someone whose politics are farther right, albeit less realistic.

Linguistics

• I Asked Seven Classics Experts How to Say “Omicron.” Come Down the Rabbit Hole With Me, by James West, Mother Jones
  And this guy doesn't mention the way I pronounce omicron: oh-mycron.

Dancing on Graves

A different sort of grave dance today, since the deceased is David Graeber, a man I hold in great esteem.

• David Graeber’s Possible Worlds, by Molly Fischer, Intelligencer
  "The Dawn of Everything author left behind countless fans and a belief society could still change for the better."
  “Since one cannot know a radically better world is not possible, are we not betraying everyone by insisting on continuing to justify and reproduce the mess we have today?”
• David Graeber: A Celebration of His Life, hosted by Ash Sarkar, Novar Media
  "David Graeber’s life and work leaves an indelible mark on thinkers and activists from London through New York, from Rojava to Quebec. To celebrate his life and work Novara Media are hosting a live stream with academics, activists, and politicians who have been influenced by, and who were an influence on, his intellectual endeavours and activist pursuits."

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

• In Jupiter's swirling Great Red Spot, NASA spacecraft finds hidden depths, by Brendan Byrne, NPR
  

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.

• 3 Things No One Ever Told You About Making Friends in Adulthood, by Brett & Kate McKay, Art of Manliness

Humour

These are great times for political satire.

• Former Trump National Security Advisor Warns ‘Deep State’ Putting COVID Vaccine in Salad Dressing, byJohnny Robish, Medium--Rgw Haven
  At least I think this is satire....

Books

Fiction

• Fall; or, Dodge in Hell: A Novel, by Neal Stephenson
• Dune, by Frank Herbert
  I first read this 50 years ago and have re-read it a couple of time since then. Not a bad book, but certainly over rated.

Non-Fiction

• The Dawn of Everything: a new history of humanity, by David Graeber and David Wengrow
  
• What We Don't Talk About Sex and the Mess of Life, by JoAnn Wypijewski

What I've Been Reading, September and October 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

• Reflections about My Rich Friends, by Tessa Schlesinger, Medium
  "They all started with nothing and became very rich…"
• If You Make $34,000, You’re Part Of The One Percent, by Matt Lillywhite,
  "A crash course in western privilege."
• When hope is a hindrance, by Samantha Rose Hill, Aeon
  "For Hannah Arendt, hope is a dangerous barrier to courageous action. In dark times, the miracle that saves the world is to act"
• The first David Graeber Foundation meetup, between Thomas Piketty and Michael Hudson, by Cory Doctorow, Medium
  "Debts that can’t be paid, won’t be paid"

Miscellaneous

• Kim Stanley Robinson on the structure of feeling of this perilous moment, by Cory Doctorow, Medium
  
• What Is Up With American Trucks? by Quinten Dol, Medium
  "We’re all suffering for your masculinity crisis."
  I'd say this is a case of vehicle manufacturers talking advantage of our innate, and often frustrated, drive to dominate. Culture takes advantage of those innate drives and uses them towards its own ends, in this case to make a tidy profit. And make no mistake, selling those trucks is a lot more profitable than selling smaller, more appropriate vehicles.
• Review: A “Dune” Sanded to Dullness, by Richard Brody, The New Yorker
  "Whereas David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation turned Frank Herbert’s fantasy world into a visceral cinematic experience, Denis Villeneuve’s version remains in the realm of worthy principles."
  I read Dune in highschool,around 50 years ago, and have re-read it at least once since then, as well as most of the sequels and prequels, but not recently. Still, it seems this reviewer has got some of his details mixed up and is clearly a fan of Lynch's version.
• Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Is A Future-Shock Masterpiece, by Chris Nashawaty, Esquire
  A more positive review. But I just have to say it, Dune is certainly not the best science fiction book I have ever read, and despite being praised for introducing a generation to ecological ideas, it makes at least one significant mistake, ecology wise. Only in an appendix does it address the question of where all the oxygen is coming from on Arrakis, and even then it doesn't answer the question of where the sandworms are getting the energy to release all that oxygen.
• The Enduring Appeal of “Dune” as an Adolescent Power Fantasy, by Ed Park, The New Yorker
  "When you’re a teen-ager like Paul Atreides, it can seem like authority figures are always forcing you to do pointless, excruciating things."
• Vikings lived in North America by at least the year 1021, by Bruce Bower, Science News
  "Scientists used tree ring data to more precisely date a UNESCO historic site in Newfoundland"

Coronavirus

• I am not an antivaxxer, I took all vacines I ever should according to my doctor, but I feel strange about covid vacines. I feel like they have not been tested enough (takes years for other vacines). Can you debunk my worries about long term effects? by Emily Doyle, Quora
  An excellent answer!
• Could there be more potential health issues with a rushed Covid 19 vaccine (vaccines usually take years of development) than the actual virus? by C Stuart Hardwick, Quora
  "It’s as safe as any medicine ever produced. The mRNA vaccine is safer than any vaccine ever produced because it’s made in a way that is inherently more targeted and less prone to contamination or allegen inclusion, using a technology that is new to the public but that has been successfully used in human cancer treatment for 20 years."

Co-operation, Mutual Aid and Direct Democracy

• Worker Cooperatives Are More Productive Than Normal Companies, by Michelle Chen, The Nation
  "When maximizing profits isn’t the only goal, companies can actually work better."

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

• David Graeber American Anarchist, Brian Rose interviews David Graeber on London Real
  "When I say the word anarchist you probably have an image of a bomb-throwing skinhead shouting slogans and facing down riot police. This week’s London Real guest David Graeber is going to change that image forever. A self-proclaimed anarchist, David is far more the picture of the soft-spoken, thoughtful academic than a combative activist. But David’s credentials as a campaigner and anti-capitalist thinker speak volumes."

Agriculture

• The Myth of Regenerative Ranching, by Jan Dutkiewicz, Gabriel N. Rosenberg, The New Republic
  "The purveyors of “grass-fed” beef want you to believe that it solves meat’s environmental problem. But this is merely a branding exercise, not a climate solution."
• Lab-grown meat is supposed to be inevitable. The science tells a different story, by Joe Fassler, The Counter
  "Splashy headlines have long overshadowed inconvenient truths about biology and economics. Now, extensive new research suggests the industry may be on a billion-dollar crash course with reality."

Recipes and Cooking

• Lost In The Sauce, by Nicholas Hayward, Medium—One table, One World
  "Sauce Hacks, Simple-Delicious"

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.
• GMO labeling: Trick or treat?, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
  "Many of the arguments against Washington state's GMO labeling initiative make sense. Here's why, despite that, it should pass."

Practical Skills

• The Real Secret to Non-Stick Cast Iron, by Paul Thomas Zenki, Medium—One Table, One World
  Sure, this might just as well have gone in the Recipes and Cooking section.

Writing Skills

• Comma Queen: To Whom It May Concern, by Mary Norris, 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
• 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

• Astronomers spot first activity on giant megacomet beyond Saturn, by Elizabeth Howell, space.com
  "New Zealand-based astronomers had a time-zone advantage while watching the massive comet."
• The Moon’s South Pole Is Hiding Something Massive and Mysterious, by Neel Patel, Medium—Popular Science
• 5 cool things to know about NASA’s Lucy mission to the Trojan asteroids, by Lisa Grossman, Science News
  "The spacecraft is the first headed to the space rocks that tag along in Jupiter’s orbit"

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 do you handle a situation where someone shows up empty handed to a potluck and then wants to leave with a load of leftovers? by Karlea Morallo, Quora
Chock this up to the concept of mutual aid—one of the most powerful ideas in human culture.

How to maintain a healthy brain, by Kailas Roberts, Aeon-Psyche
"Adopt these lifestyle changes and you will not only sharpen your mind today but also reduce your risk of dementia later on"

Books

Fiction

• Dies the Fire, by S. M. Stirling
• The Protectors War, by S. M. Stirling
• A Meeting at Corvallis, by S. M. Stirling
• Daughter of the Morning Star: A Longmire Mystery, by Craig Johnson
• PROXIMITY: A Gripping Near Future Techno Thriller (iMe Series Book 1), by Jem Tugwell
• Invisible Sun (Empire Games Book 3), by Charles Stross
• Finwell Bay, by Nathan Lowell
• Agency, by William Gibson
• Galactic North, by Alastair Reynolds
• Inhibitor Phase, by Alastair Reynolds

Non-Fiction

• Balancing Two Worlds: Jean-Baptiste Assiginack and the Odawa Nation, 1768-1866, by Cecil King
• The Tragedy of the Worker, Towards the Proletarocene, by The Salvage Collective
  Sadly, this book falls into the typical leftist mistake of discounting the possibility that there actually are too many people on this planet.
• The Complete Manual of Wood Bending: Milled, Laminated, and Steambent Work , by Lon Schleining

What I've Been Reading, June 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

• 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

• Why it took us thousands of years to see the colour violet, by Allen Tager, Aeon—Psyche
• Britney Spears’s Conservatorship Nightmare, by Ronan Farrow and Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker
  “How the pop star’s father and a team of lawyers seized control of her life—and have held on to it for thirteen years.”
• A Deadly Mosquito-Borne Illness Is Brewing in the Northeast, by Oscar Schwartz, Medium—One Zero
  “EEE kills almost half of its victims, and cases are on the rise”
  Fortunately, there are only a few cases.
• Unraveling the Secret Origins of an AmazonBasics Battery, by Sarah Emerson, Medium—One Zero
  “One of Amazon’s smallest and most popular products has a surprisingly large footprint”
• Things My (Danish) Husband Still Doesn’t Get About America, by Anastasia Frugaard, Medium—P.S. I Love You
  “Two polar-opposite people from two polar-opposite countries”
• What Quitters Understand About the Job Market, by Derek Thompson, Medium—The Atlantic
  “More Americans are telling their boss to shove it. Is the workplace undergoing a revolution — or just a post-pandemic spasm?” YOLO=You Only Live Once
• Inside the Revolutionary Treatment That Could Change Psychotherapy Forever, by Ben Blum, Medium—Elemental
  “IFS therapy is upending the thinking around schizophrenia, depression, OCD, and more”
  IFS=internal family systems therapy
• 5 Looming Environmental Crises That Rival Climate Change, by Dustin T. Cox, Medium—Climate Conscious
  "Humans are transgressing planetary boundaries on several fronts"
  "Even if carbon sequestration and other technologies catch up to climate change, we must still learn to live on far less if we hope to survive the coming environmental crises."
• I’m an Environmental Scientist, and I Don’t Care If You Recycle, by Ono Mergen,
  "Here is what you can do instead"

Coronavirus

• The Last–And Only–Foreign Scientist in the Wuhan Lab Speaks Out, by Michelle Cortez, Medium—Bloomberg
  “Virologist Danielle Anderson paints a very different picture of the Wuhan Institute”
• What Parents With Unvaccinated Kids Need to Know About the Delta Variant This Summer, by Alina Dizik, The Wall Street Journal
  "Is summer travel OK? How vulnerable are younger kids? Doctors answer your questions."

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

• Are Mexico’s Zapatista rebels still relevant? by Duncan Tucker, Aljazeera
  “Twenty years after the uprising, activists say Zapatistas have influenced radical movements around the world.”
• The Zapatista Revolution Is Not Over, by Kurt Hackbarth and Colin Mooers, The Nation
  “1994 saw one of the most significant indigenous rebellions of the 20th century. Today, their political experiment continues.”
• How Capitalism Taught Americans Exploitation Was Good For Them, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimnia
  

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.

• What “White Privilege” Really Means is We Live in a Fascist World, by Umair Haque, Medium—Eudaimonia
  “How We Live in a Fascist World — and White People Have No Idea”

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 Phosphorus May Be More Alarming Than Climate Change, by Dustin T. Cox, Medium—Climate Conscious
  “Phosphorus is essential to life and the world is running out of it”

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

• the deep roots of the vegetable that ‘took over the world’, by Gemma Tarlach, Atlas Obscura
  “A study digs up the origin of the single species that gives us turnips, bok choy, broccoli rabe, and more.”

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

• Republicans Have Dug Their Grave, Biden Can Bury Them, by ED Mathews, Medium
  “3 things Biden can do to ensure progressive wins for years to come”
• Is Trump Crazy Or Just Stupid? by Caren White, Medium—Politics
  “His statements the past few days make very little sense”
• The Democratic Establishment is Panicking About Nina Turner, by Lauren Elizabeth, Medium—Politics: Fast and Slow
  “And it could be too little too late.”

Dancing on Graves

• How Rumsfeld Deserves to Be Remembered, by George Packer, The Atlantic
  “America’s worst secretary of defense never expressed a quiver of regret.”

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

Gender and Sexuality

• Nigella Lawson mobbed by transphobes, by Gemma Stone, Medium

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.

• Scientists: There Is No Life After Death, by Clem Samson, Medium—The Haven
  Yes, I know this is supposed to be humour. As it happens I seriously agree with pretty much all of it.

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.

• Oh, That’s Why The Police Opened the Gates and Let the Trump Rioters in the Capitol! by Simon Black, Medium
  “The Purge was going to begin in two minutes!”
  I've chosen to classify this as humour. I could be wrong.
• The Letter From Donald Trump to Joe Biden Left in the Oval Office, by Jay Sizemore, Medium—Satire

Books

Fiction

• The Dreaming Stars: Book II of the Axiom, by Tim Pratt
• The Forbidden Stars: Book III of the Axiom, by Tim Pratt
• One Day All This Will Be Yours, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• The Expert System's Champion, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Non-Fiction

• What Makes Civilization, by David Wengrow
• A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson
  Not so good. As one of the Amazon reviewers said: "Fast food for the mind."

What I've Been Reading, May 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

• No. This is a Genuine Revolution - Interview with Graeber by Evrensel Newspaper, by David Graeber and Pinar Öğünç, Libcom.org
  This interview is about Graeber's impression of Rojava after visiting there.
• Learning My Left From My Right, by John Halstead, Gods & Radicals Press
  "We have witnessed the creep (and sometimes the sprint) of fascism in recent years into the center of American political life, and yet most people still have no idea what fascism is—much less its opposite, anarchism. (Even some on the left are confused.) Fascism will continue to shape our political future in the coming decades, so we need to educate people, in terms that they can understand, without the jargon or theoretical minutiae, about hierarchy and the state, and the possibility of a world without either. This is the lesson I learned after having my work co-opted by fascists: It is not enough to articulate a critique of capitalism—as I did in my article about distributism; if we do not also clearly distinguish ourselves from the fascists, then we will end up losing the debate to both."
• Divide And Brainwash: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix, by Caitlin Johnstone, Caitlin's Newsletter
  "One of the biggest challenges for a developing anti-imperialist, at least in my experience, is learning to differentiate between those who actually want to end the oligarchic empire and those who just want the empire to act a bit more cosmetically nice than it does. These are two completely different positions, especially because the latter is pure fantasy: you cannot have a globe-dominating unipolar power structure that doesn't use violent force to maintain that world order. Yet the two groups often wind up moving in overlapping circles."
• It’s Time To Ditch The Abundance Mindset — It Paves The Way to Inequality, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium
  "We need collective growth, not just personal."
  "If you’re one of those positivity wranglers, maybe it’s time for you to shut up and listen. Follow some of that advice you give about having an open mind and hearing hard truths."
• What would happen if the world stopped shopping? by J. B. Mackinnon, Fast Company
  "Fast fashion is destructive and exploitative—and yet millions of people rely on it for work. In a new book, J.B. MacKinnon explores these complexities."
• How equality slipped away, by Kim Sterelny, Aeon
  "For 97 per cent of human history, all people had about the same power and access to goods. How did inequality ratchet up?"
• The Poorest in Society are Not Worth Saving, by Adebayo Adeniran, Medium
  "Despite the yawning chasm between the haves and have nots and the perpetual gaslighting of the poorest in our midst, why do the poor keep voting against their interests?"
  "I am sorry that I have to say this, for as long as the poorest continue to vote against their interests, they aren’t worth saving — they should watch as the NHS is being dismantled and privatized to silicon valley, post Brexit or see how much smaller their world is about to become without the ECHR acting as a bulwark against the insatiably rapacious excesses of the tech giants."
  I have remarked many times about poor Americans voting Republican and poor Canadians voting Conservative. Here, at some length is an of similar behaviour in the UK.

Miscellaneous

• The Nenet Choom—Pitching the tent, by Nomadic Architechture, AEON
  "Cultural wisdom begets cozy temporary homes for the Nenets of the Siberian Arctic"
• Lumber Prices Surge, Hemp Blocks Get a Closer Look, by Jean Lotus, HempBuild Magazine
  If this would work on a localized, non-industrial scale then it would really have a future.
• Newly Excavated Viking Dwelling May Be Oldest Found in Iceland, by Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine
• Herr Professor, Sorry, But I am not Your Student. A Quick Rant., by Tessa Schlesinger, Medium
  “I am a professor, and I would like your email so that we can privately discuss your views on Medium.”

The Other News

News that is being ignored by North American mass media

• Massive Blaze Engulfs Tehran Refinery Hours After Sinking Of Iranian Warship, by ZeroHedge, OilPrice.com
  

Structural Violence

• Yes, it is all men., by Julie Cohen, Medium
  "Even normal ones."

Suddenly, "liberal" is a dirty word

And with good reason, it seems.

• The Centrist Delusion: ‘Middle Ground’ Politics Aren’t Moderate, They’re Dangerous, by Raoul Martinez, Novara Media
  "In a world of competing narratives serving competing interests, there’s always a temptation to gravitate to the political centre ground, the would-be midpoint between two apparent extremes, with its aura of moderation, reasonableness and realism. After all, isn’t the truth supposed to be ‘somewhere in the middle’, a composite of competing claims? The simple answer is no. Not in science and not in politics. When there are two opposing sides to a debate, sometimes the midway position is empirically false or morally abhorrent. In every civilisation, the centre ground of political opinion has been home to dangerous, inaccurate and oppressive ideas."

Coronavirus

• No, Science Clearly Shows That COVID-19 Wasn’t Leaked From A Wuhan Lab, by Ethan Siegel, Medium
  "It occurred naturally, and scientists know this for certain."

Capitalism, Communism, Anarchy

• Six Myths that Capitalists Believe, by Tessa Schlesinger, Medium
  "We’ve been told some things so often that we think they’re fact. They’re not."

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.

• Is Britain Becoming a Fascist Society?, by Umair Haque, Medium— Eudaimonia & Co
  "Why Brexit Britain is Imploding into Rage, Hate and Stupidity"

Economic Contraction and Growing Inequality

• PODCASTMay 26, 2021 KunstlerCast 344 — Chatting with Dr. Tim Morgan of Surplus Energy Economics, by James Howard Kunstler with Dr. Tim Morgan, kunstler.com

Agriculture

• Viewpoint: The outright lies coming from Impossible Foods’ VP, by Amada Zaluckyj—The Farmers Daughter USA, AgDaily

Recipes and Cooking

• 11 Vegetables You Grow That You Didn’t Know You Could Eat, by Linda Ly, Garden Betty
  "Plant 'scraps' aren't just for the compost bin. Go zero waste in the kitchen (and discover exciting new flavors and textures) simply by learning how to use the whole vegetable from top to tail."

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. (This month it's two closely related articles.)
• In the insecticide wars, GMOs have so far been a force for good, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
  "Plants engineered to produce their own bug-killing toxins really have helped farmers cut the use of nastier chemical insecticides. "
• Roundup-ready, aim, spray: How GM crops lead to herbicide addiction, by Nathanael Johnson, Grist
  "Herbicide-resistant crops make it easy for farmers to rely on hefty quantities of weedkiller. Then the weeds evolve, and we have to up the ante."

Practical Skills

• How to make a kiln, by wildelycreative, Natural pathways

American Politics

• Are you satisfied that the 2020 presidential election was fair and honest? by Lee Thé, 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

• Nova in Cassiopeia brightens suddenly, by Bob King, Sky & Telescope
  "A star in the constellation Cassiopeia that flared into view during mid-March has erupted to naked-eye visibility. Catch it while you can!"
• Practical science at home in a pandemic world, by Daren J. Caruana, Christoph G. Salzmann & Andrea Sella, Nature—Chemistry
  "There are plenty of online resources to ensure that learning can continue for students who cannot access universities during a pandemic, but what options are there for practical aspects of science courses? Daren J. Caruana, Christoph G. Salzmann and Andrea Sella offer a manifesto for home-based experiments."

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.

• The Most Important Factor for Wellness Has Nothing to Do With Food, Exercise, or Time Management, by Jessica Stillman, Medium

Gender and Sexuality

• The Fight for Partial Freedom in Vietnam, by Mèo Mun, libcom.org
  At the start, this piece seems to be about far left politics, but read a little further and you'll see it's really about LGBTQ issues. And of course, the two go together rather well.

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.

• Is Belief in God a Good Thing or a Bad Thing? by Tessa Schlesinger, Medium
  This article raises an interesting question, and ends up justifying belief in God, but not belief in religion. As it happens, I disagree, and see no justification for either.

Books

Fiction

I re-read several books by Steven Gould this month. Books which I find myself coming back to about once a year. Nothing profound, but a good distraction.

• Recursion, A Novel, by Blake Crouch
• Blind Waves, by Steven Gould
• Helm, by Steven Gould
• Wildside, by Steven Gould
• The Expert System's Brother, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• The Wrong Stars, by Tim Pratt

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 Christopher Boehm.

• Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior, by Christopher Boehm
  "Are humans by nature hierarchical or egalitarian? Hierarchy in the Forest addresses this question by examining the evolutionary origins of social and political behavior. Christopher Boehm, an anthropologist whose fieldwork has focused on the political arrangements of human and nonhuman primate groups, postulates that egalitarianism is in effect a hierarchy in which the weak combine forces to dominate the strong."