What I've Been Reading, February 2019

Links

Collapse

• Why We’re Underestimating the Risks to Human Civilization, by Umair Haque, Medium-- Eudaimonia
  " We’re Not Taking The Challenges of the 21st Century Seriously Yet. We’d Better Begin, Now."
  "I’m suggesting that a world splintered into nations that resemble a collapsed, fascist America — or maybe worse — each one bitterly contesting its share of dwindling resources, ready to do violence and commit atrocities, is going to be an age in which peace, progress, plenitude, and the survival of a whole lot of people grind to a screeching, lethal halt."
  Mr. Haque seems to think that if we just try hard enough and soon enough we can go on progressing and prospering. I disagree--he's missing the "declining surplus energy" problem, for which there is no solution. But I do think that quite a few of us might manage to survive what's coming, if we actually got to work at it.

Responding to Collapse,

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

• C5 Defines The Adapters Movement- In Four Parts. Part I--Introduction, by Category 5, Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre
• C5 Defines The Adapters Movement- In Four Parts. Part II--Acceptance, by Category 5, Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre
• C5 Defines The Adapters Movement- In Four Parts. Part III--Make Food First Again, by Category 5, Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre
• C5 Defines The Adapters Movement- In Four Parts. Part IV--Triage, by Category 5, Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre

Peak Oil

• Trump warns Saudi Arabia on oil prices as focus turns to re-election, by John Kemp, Reuters
• EXXONMOBIL U.S. OIL & GAS FINANCIAL TRAIN-WRECK: Producing Shale Is Destroying Its Bottom Line, by Steve St. Angelo, SRSrocco Report
• Shale Growth Is Nearing An Inflection Point, by Nick Cunningham, oilprice.com

Climate Change

• Florida is drowning. Condos are still being built. Can't humans see the writing on the wall?, by Megan Mayhew Bergman, The Guardian
  "People tend to respond to immediate threats and financial consequences--and Florida’s coastal real estate may be on the cusp of delivering that harsh wake-up call."

Economic Contraction

• We're Overdue for a Sell-Everything/No-Fed-Rescue Recession, by Charles Hugh Smith, of two minds.com

Food

• High fructose corn syrup--don’t be afraid, it’s just sugar, The Skeptical Raptor
  Not only is HFCS "just sugar", it's chemical makeup is very similar to honey.
• There is a simple way to improve the world’s food systems , by Peter A Coclanis, Aeon
  What he's talking about is reducing food waste. OK, but most proposals I hear to do this would means making our food systems even more complex than they already are. Usually not a good thing.
• A scientist on the myth of ugly produce and food waste, by Chavie Lieber, Vox
  "Startups Misfits Market and Imperfect Produce say they’re rescuing food that would otherwise be wasted. Sarah Taber is calling bullshit."
  I don't agree with everything in this article, but there definitely are some good points.

Politics

• This Is How the World’s High-Tax Countries Do It, by Justin Fox, Medium--Bloomberg View
  "They don’t tax wealth much, their income taxes are high but not very progressive, and they rely a lot on consumption taxes"

Dancing on Graves

• Ronald Reagan: Setting the Record Straight, by Bob Burnett, Huffington Post

The Scientific Consensus

• How to make mountains, by Marcia Bjornerud, Aeon
  "In living memory, geologists believed that the Earth was slowly shrivelling, little guessing how vibrantly alive it truly is."

Science Based Medicine

• The Risks And Benefits Of Vaccination, by Gid M-K; Health Nerd, Medium
  And why we vacinate.
• The Science Behind the Roundup Lawsuit, by Steven Novella, Science Based Medicine
  "A jury has awarded a man $289 million for allegedly contracting cancer from exposure to Roundup, but the science is not on their side."
• Glyphosate Isn’t Giving You Cancer, by Gid M-K; Health Nerd, Medium--Science
  "Why RoundUp is probably fine for your health"

Lacking an Owner's Manual

• 5 Things Every Woman Needs From Her Husband, by Michelle Wuesthoff, from her blog"Live Life Beautifully"
  We've been married for 41 (and a half) years and what Michelle is saying in this article and the one below certainly rings true to me. I had a close look around her website and yes, she is a Christian. But, in these two articles at least, she isn't letting that handicap her too much.
• 5 Things Every Man Needs From His Wife, by Michelle Wuesthoff, from her blog"Live Life Beautifully"

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

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

• The Science of Miracles, by Barbara Bradley Hagerty, Medium--Science
  Prayer studies are a "wild goose chase that violate everything we know about the universe," Richard Sloan, professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and author of Blind Faith, told me: "There are no plausible mechanisms that account for how somebody’s thoughts or prayers can influence the health of another person. None."
  "Consciousness is a product of brain function. Period." my comments: wishful thinking
• Why I Won’t Teach My Child to Believe in God, by Mateo Askaripour, Medium--Religion
  "My journey from undoubting faith to disbelief, in four acts."
• Reasonable Dubt-- How I Lost God, by Kiley Bense, Medium--Religion
• Atheism Is Not Faith, It’s Reason, by Thor Benson, Medium
  "Let’s not pretend there’s no reason to question if there’s a God"
• Atheism is not a belief, by Joe Nuxoll, Medium
• Unbeliever, by Joao Nascimento, Medium--Religion
  " The never-ending war between believers and Atheists — the evildoers — must stop. I am nothing more than an unbeliever, but I am an Atheist. You are no more righteous than me. Believe in that."

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

• We Don’t Need Private Health Insurance, by Adam Gaffney, The Nation " New single-payer plans don’t need to worry about carving out roles for health-care profiteers."
  Sound like at least some people in the U.S. are catching on.
• Finding Home in a Parking Lot, by Sarah Holder, City Lab
  "The number of unsheltered homeless living in their cars is growing. Safe Parking programs from San Diego to King County are here to help them."

Books

Fiction

• With Her Body, by Nicola Griffith
• So Lucky, by Nicola Griffith
• Alliance Rising, by C. J. Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher
• The Rise and Fall of DODO, by Neal Stepenson and Nicole Galland
• By Darkness Forged, by Nathan Lowell

Non-Fiction

February is a short month and while I have a couple of non-fiction books on the go, I didn't finish any of them this month. Maybe I was reading too much fiction... Anyway, here are some gems from my bookshelf, this time from the New Atheist section.

• Breaking the Spell, by Daniel C. Dennett
• The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins
• God in Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens
• Did Man Create God?, by David E. Comings

What I've Been Reading, October 2018

Links

Miscellaneous

• Think everyone died young in ancient societies? Think again, by Christine Cave, Aeon,
• It’s dangerous to think virtual reality is an empathy machine, by Erick Ramirez, Aeon
  Errors in presenting reality are also a problem with virtual reality. The example of experiencing life as a cow is full of errors that are part of the common urbanite's erroneous idea of what life is like for cows.

Collapse

• Technofantasia in action, by Tim Watkins, The Consciousness of Sheep
• Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism’s Imminent Demise, by Nafeez Ahmed, Medium—Insurge Intelligence
  A climate change-fueled switch away from fossil fuels means the worldwide economy will fundamentally need to change
• Is America at Rock Bottom Yet? By Umair Haque, Medium— Eudaimonia
  "If the Rise of Political Violence Doesn’t Make Society Reject Authoritarianism — What Will?"
  Sadly, if all the problems Umair points out were corrected, we'd still face the effects of declining surplus energy, for which there is no solution.

Responding to Collapse,

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

A transcript is included with each of these podcasts.

• The Response podcast, Part 1—mutual aid and disaster collectivism, by Robert Raymond, Shareable.
  The first in a podcast documentary series that explores how communities come together in the aftermath of disaster.
• The Response podcast episode 2: How Puerto Ricans are restoring power to the people, by Robert Raymond, Shareable.
• The Response podcast episode 3: The impact of Northern California fires on the undocumented community, by Robert Raymond, Shareable

Peak Oil

• The U.S. is counting on a long-term abundance of oil & natural gas. But what if the boom is just a bubble? shalebubble.org
  "The Reality is that the government’s long-term forecasts — the ones everyone is relying on to guide our energy policy and planning—are extremely optimistic."
• Financial Red Flags for Fracking, by Clark Williams-Derry, Kathy Hipple and Tom Sanzillo, Sightline Institute.
  Despite rising oil prices, the red ink continues to flow for fracking companies
• Welcome to the Age of Crappy Oil, by Nafeez Ahmed, Motherboard
  UK's climate chief says we’re running out of cheap oil, but fossil fuels can still burn the planet.

Climate Change

• Global heatwave is symptom of early stage cycle of civilisational collapse, by Nafeez Ahmed, Medium—Insurge Intelligence
  "Collapse does not arrive in this scenario as a singular point of terminal completion. Rather, collapse occurs as a a series of discrete but consecutive and interconnected amplifying feedback processes by which these dynamics interact and worsen one another."
  "It is not a final process, and it is not set-in-stone. At each point, the possibility of intervening at critical points to mitigate, ameliorate, adapt, or subvert still exists. But it gets harder and harder to do so effectively the deeper into the collapse cycle we go."
• We are heading for a New Cretaceous, not for a new normal, by Peter Forbes, Aeon

Economic Contraction

• Our Bonus Decade , by Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute
  "As a shorthand way of speaking about these four related factors, we at PCI have begun speaking of the “E4 crisis” (energy, environment, economy, and equity). It’s no longer helpful to focus on one factor to the exclusion of the others; it’s far more informative to look for ways in which all four are interacting in real time."

Energy

• ‘Tsunami of data’ could consume one fifth of global electricity by 2025, The Guardian

Emergency Preparation

• Create a Preparedness Binder, by Kathy Harrison, Mother Earth News

Agriculture and Food

• Farm Babe: My story: Why I advocate for agriculture, by Michelle Miller, Farm Babe
  "The reason I share my story with you; the reason I am so passionate about this, is because I want people to know I get it. I was once very misinformed and wasted a lot of money. I see how crazy and confusing it can be to only want what’s best for your family, the planet, and the animals. I want people to understand that farmers are real people who just want to connect with you. Behind the corporate face of “big ag” are real family farmers. Good people who want you to understand what we do and why."
• Is Organic Really Better? 4 Food Myths Debunked By Science, by Victor Tangermann, Futurism

Practical Skills

• How to Escape from Zip Ties, by The ITS Crew, Imminent Threat Solutions

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.

• GMO Facts: 10 Common GMO Claims Debunked, by Brooke Borel, Popular Science

Politics

• A new study reveals the real reason Obama voters switched to Trump, by Zack Beauchamp, Vox
• America’s Collapsing Into Fascism Because Americans Still Don’t Understand Fascism, by umair haque, Medium,—Eudaimonia
  "Fascism Isn’t What Americans Think it Is, and That’s Why Americans Are Losing the Fight Against Fascism"
• Does the Government that Governs Least Really Govern Best? By Ed Dolan, Medium—World
  The actual evidence doesn't seem to support the libertarian idea that "That government is best which governs least."
• A libertarian utopia, by Livia Gershon, Aeon
  As an anarcho-communist, I am on side with the Joseph Déjacque fellow the article mentions. But the libertarianism of Ayn Rand or Charles Koch concerns me deeply, and seems to represent what is worst about humanity. But then I am a Canadian, and content to live in a country where "peace, order and good government" are valued instead of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
• Here's why Ontario PC government’s ‘deceptive’ measures aren’t saving taxpayers money, by Paul Taylor, chair of the Injured Workers of Wellington and Dufferin Counties, in the Orangeville Banner

Free Speech

• Free Speech on Campus: A Battle of Narratives, by Greg Lukianoff , The Hannah Arendt Center, Medium—Education

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 To Make A Relationship Last, by Kris Gage, Medium—Relationships
  As a guy who has been married over 41 years, I'd say this is pretty much spot on. Although after you've done it, the work doesn't seem like such a big deal. It's the work that remains to be done that's the big deal.
• Six science-backed techniques to help you make hard decisions, by Aytekin Tank, Medium—The Startup
  There is a lot of the "business speak" that I find so irritating in this one, but the techniques it presents are solid.

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 avoid 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.

• 'There is no God,' says Stephen Hawking in final book, by Rob Picheta, CNN
• Why Are Americans Still Uncomfortable with Atheism? By Casey Cep, The New Yorker

Intelligence

• The elephant as a person, by Don Ross, Aeon
  "Elephants might have the necessary capacities for personhood – we just need to help them acquire the cognitive scaffolding"

Refugees and Migration

• What happened when migrants moved into my family’s Sicilian village, by Lorenzo Tondo, The Guardian

Poverty, Homeless People, Minimum Wage, UBI

• Dunkin' Donuts Employees Just Got Involved in Another Disgraceful Incident. This One Could Be the Worst, by Chris Matyszczyk, inc.com
• How to Be a Better Neighbor to Homeless People, by Matthew Gerring, Medium—Better Humans
  "...in my home city of San Francisco, about 70% of people experiencing homelessness were housed residents of San Francisco before becoming homeless. They worked and paid rent just like everybody else before some catastrophic event, like a job loss or an eviction or a natural disaster, led to the loss of their home."
  "It’s one thing to call the police when someone is in danger, or causing danger to others. It’s another thing to call the police (or to vote to give new powers to the police) just because someone is doing something that annoys you."

Autonomous Vehicles and Artificial Intelligence

• Autonomous Cars Make Life and Death Decisions, by Blake Balbirnie, Medium—Predict

Education

• Why it’s so Hard to Help With Your Kid’s Math Homework, by Jessica Lahey, Medium/Washington Post
  This is why parents get frustrated with their kids’ math homework, and why kids may end up thinking they are not “math people”
  This one was almost amusing to read. Apparently, Canada, or at least Ontario, went down another road from the US, and tried to give kids "math sense" while largely eliminating the rote learning of number facts and basic procedures. The results, I can assure you, are just as bad. Somehow, in elementary school in the 1960s, I was forced to do the rote learn and also managed to develop a strong math sense. Both are needed. And a large part of having math sense is having those number facts memorized so well that it feels like intuition when you use them. You'll never get math sense without that foundation to to base it on.
  When discussing these issues with friends I am frequently given examples of supposedly hard math problems that I can do in my head in a matter of seconds. I am no rocket scientist, I just have a pretty good grasp of the basics.
• You Have to Adapt, or Die Trying, by Jessica Wildfire, Medium
  "Nobody succeeds at anything without adapting. In order to adapt, you have to realize what’s missing. In short, identify why you currently suck."
  I could just as easily have put this in the "Lacking a Manual" or "Responding to Collapse" section, but since it's from the viewpoint of a teacher, I'll leave it here.
• Flawed thinking has hijacked early childhood education, by Kendra Bell-Hayes, Medium—Education
  This one got included because the same points could be made in any situation where adversaries try to communicate. That's something we all need help with.

Humour

• :) Canadian Jokes; Funny Canadians and Their Sense of Humour

Books

Fiction

• Tales of the Madman Underground, by John Barnes
• Humans: Volume Two of the Neanderthal Parallax, by Robert Sawyer

Non-Fiction

• Debt - Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years, by David Graeber
  Economics from an anthropologist's viewpoint. And very well done, too. This book would be improved by an awareness of biophysical (surplus energy) economics. But it's treatment of credit and money is worth a lot.
• When Trucks Stop Running—Energy and the Future of Transportation, by Alice J. Friedemann