Politicalization of Climate Crisis

I listened to the Republican debate last night. This morning I read this article from Scientific American. I would describe this accidental combination as jarring. I don’t remember a comment about climate change in last night’s debate, but lots of support for coal and oil. Then, I read about the past year being the hottest year in history.

Aside from the many other topics on which I disagree with Republican politicians, the failure to address the climate crisis is especially troubling. I have a science background and I read continually on the topic (the middle section of The Parrot and the Igloo would be my most recent recommendation). The science seems settled on the issue with data from multiple techniques converging on the position that human behavior has resulted in a deterioration in the climate that is moving quickly now toward catastophe.

Why is this a political issue? The science has long been established fact and Republican politicians have for some reason chosen to refuse to accept the facts. The comparison to the medical damage resulting from smoking is an easy comparison, but an issue less related to political divisions. Political disagreements (e.g., the U.S.’s responsibility to address issues that are bringing so many displaced people to out borders, universal health care) are important to me and I have strong positions on such issues, but these positions seem different in that the positions are aboue values. If you somehow believe that you have no responsibility to future generations and their well-being, I guess you might see this as a value-based perspective, but I really hope people are not so self-centered that they can take this position. If this seems a reasonable attitude, the science is clear and to ignore this reality in favor of supporting increasing use of fossil fuels is wrong.

I don’t see meaningful action at a level other than a national, government controlled level and I expect politicians to accept this responsibility and not ignore what Gore called an inconvenient truth. Serious people need to take serious action. I expect politicians and the voters who elect them to be serious people.

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Help Expand And Retain Tech Alternatives

I read an opinion piece in Medium that lamented the domination of technology tools and services by fewer and fewer companies. Too many get sucked in by the free or ad-supported services which many companies share and subsidize by other income streams, e.g., Apple, Google, Microsoft. Smaller companies do not have these secondary revenue streams and must sell their tools or services or try to get by in other ways.

The Medium article was written by the CEO of Obsidian which created and continues to improve the note-taking system I use. I use the personal version of Obsidian which is free and I do not need the shared version which the company sells to groups needing such a product. The company has come out with an Early Access program allowing individuals like me to pay $25 for a few additional services I also would probably never use, but I did purchase as a way to support the company.

I find myself making these small contributions more and more simply because I can and I recognize that many companies are struggling. Another example of this for me is the This Week in Tech Club. TWIT offers several podcasts I listen to religiously. The podcast network does embed ads but again is struggling financially as ad revenue for free-standing podcasts has declined. My interests are unique and I want to see the smaller companies serving niche markets survive.

The reality is that there is no such thing as free and there is a legitimate concern that the big actors will squeeze out the little guys. Think of this as a small business issue.

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Dream World

I have not posted in some time. We have been traveling and I focus on my travel blog when I take a trip. I welcome people to read the stories from my trips, but I write about the places we go partly to have a record I can review. Photos without information lose their meaning.

I suppose there are people who focus a blog on their dreams. I remember very few of my dreams and the following may be the first and only dream I ever record for public consideration. I don’t understand exactly where dreams come from. I say this even with a background in cognitive psychology. There are elements of memories dredged up from who knows where and then there is a creative element that seems close to random. No wonder Freud and others thought there must be some useful rationale for the dreams his patients had.

I just returned from a trip as I mentioned above and was likely sleep-deprived which may explain some of the unusualness of this experience.

In my dream, I was a volunteer acting as a trainer in a “Women in the outdoors” program. The idea of such programs is to encourage women to explore outdoor experiences long the interest of men – e.g., camping, fishing, hunting. For some reason unrelated to my own life experiences, I was involved in encouraging hunting experiences. Perhaps my lack of experience has something to do with the creative aspect of the dream.

The first idea for this group was to prepare those interested to hunt upload birds. Provide basic shotgun skills and safety training (e.g., how to cross a fence). Then, the group would visit a pheasant game farm and have a guided experience hunting pheasants.

Things made sense to this point, but then the dream went completely off the rails. Visiting a game farm was too expensive for the group and so a decision was made to shoot chickens. If that were not strange enough and because the group was being hosted by a local church, the idea of releasing several chickens in the church basement and then searching for and shooting these birds seemed a possible solution to the money problem. This is what I mean by creativity. No one could possibly ever have had this thought before.

The birds were secured and released at the next meeting, but before any hunting could take place the pastor who had given us permission to use the facility got wind of the plan and drove to the church. Realizing we were in trouble we did our best to round up the chickens and secreted the birds, the women, and the guns out the back door.

That was the dream and I woke up and sent myself an email with the rough structure of the dream because I did not want to forget the strangeness of the experience. Any now you too, must trouble yourself trying to understand how such thoughts can emerge from a human mind.

No actual chickens were harmed in experiencing this dream

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The barista knows my name

I spend a lot of time in coffee shops. I read and write there and I am not sure why this environment offers such a comfortable place to do this. I think it is being part of a social setting without having to be social. I have probably written about this before.

I have a system for classifying coffee shops based on the customers. There are college coffee shops populated mostly by students studying and socializing and academics thinking deep thoughts and discussing topics others probably don’t care much about. These are my favorite. After retirement, I moved to the big city (Minneapolis) and discovered coffee shops that mostly seem to host business functions – people being interviewed for jobs, salespeople trying to make sales, and other types of business meetings. Young people looking for jobs are so adorable in their suits and optimism. I just want to make the world a better place too. There are yuppie shops – customers ordering weird drinks they evidently have customized themselves. These folks are annoying if you are in line behind them and just want a cup of coffee. Here is a related thought – should you tip the same % for someone pouring a cup of coffee as for someone who must take 5 minutes to follow the recipe for some concoction that may not even contain any caffeine? There are also tourist coffee shops. You obviously cannot find them in the places where most people actually live, but I visit them as well.

Today is National Coffee Day. According to USA Today, today is National Coffee Day. This one always sneaks up on me, but I try to write a post when I discover the designation in time. I learned an interesting fact from the USA Today article. The U.S. is way down the list when it comes to coffee consumption. I don’t think of us as tea drinkers and I understand the role of personal biases, but I must say this surprised me. We consume less than half of the 9th place country (Netherlands). Lebanon is .

Clipped from USA Today article

I thought I should recognize the barista in what I consider my “home” shop – Caribou in Lunds and Byerlys. This is probably an unusual choice for a coffee connoisseur, but for actual coffee it is not bad. By the way, I am also annoyed by those who dismiss my thing for McDonald’s coffee. The coffee (not the lattes) may cost you $1 for a 20-ounce coffee that I find just fine. The ambiance is not ideal, but when we are on the road McDonald’s can be trusted for a decent cup.

I told the barista who remembers my name (she has entered my phone number so many times to credit my bonus points the name comes up) about National Coffee Day and the poor performance of the U.S. when it comes to coffee consumption. She was surprised by both facts. I took her picture for this blog. She said she wondered what I always did working on my computer.

Anyway, happy Coffee Day even if you are a tea drinker or must have one of those strange and sugary drinks that takes a long time to order and make. Let’s all just get along.

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Isaacson on Musk

I have purchased and am listening to Walter Isaacson’s book about Elon Musk. The book traces Musk’s journey from his childhood in South Africa to his emergence as a Silicon Valley innovator.

Podcasts I listen to have criticized the book claiming Isaacson was too protective of Musk in light of various criticisms of Musk’s behavior. Isaacson is accused of using his own celebrity status to get access to individuals such as Musk (and Steve Jobs) and then going easy on them to encourage future high-profile individuals to allow him to tell their story.

Aside from Musk’s recent Twitter (X) debacle, Musk has been accused of meddling in the Ukraine/Russia war by manipulating Ukraine’s access to the satellites Musk has launched and controls (Ronan Farrow). Musk has been described as being so wealthy he is making decisions that should be reserved for national leaders.

Critics have discouraged the purchase of his book and have directed interested parties to the account of an interview with Isaacson by Kara Swisher in support of this position. I found the interview to be quite informative and decided my purchase was an appropriate decision for the background it provided on Musk’s work, character, and influence.

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Freedom for whom

Freedom is one of those positive ambiguous words political parties attempt to appropriate as a descriptor for their particular parties. This seems an impossibility as an outsider looking at such claims when applied to some situations.

The book club I which I spend a couple of hours each Saturday morning has been reading The Big Myth. Freedom plays a central role in this book which seeks to challenge the “magic of the marketplace” compared to government guidelines and regulations. Freedom ends up as a justification for market forces. Employees and workers both just want to be free.

The resistance of employees who worked from home during the pandemic to return to the workplace is an interesting challenge to the assumption that the market knows best (McKinsey study). Evidence seems to indicate that workers are more productive from home and save time commuting they are not compensated for. There does appear to be some loss in mentoring and creativity. The freedom argument is being tested. Whose freedom?

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Writing down a struggle

I have participated in an online book study group led by Dr. Dan Allosso for a year or so. Dan is a history prof at Bemidji State University located in Northern Minnesota. He is a second-career academic coming to the college scene after initially working in the tech industry. History and tech do seem an unusual combination. I happened across Dan’s group because at that time the group was focused on several sources considering PKM (personal knowledge management) and the writing process. PKM was something I had not spent a lot of time exploring, but the idea of collecting and organizing ideas long-term is what many of us do.

Higher ed is under great stress and Dr. Allosso has been caught up in the troubles. He was approaching the tenure decision but BSU has been experiencing financial problems and has decided to retrench many faculty members in response. Dan was caught in this process and is now in his last year at this institution.

What does a tech-oriented person do in this situation? You write about the experience. The series has been quite interesting and covers both personal experiences and comments about the present state of higher education. I include the following video as an example. This item discusses the options for high school students to take college courses and the value of attracting students who might not be considering college through such opportunities.

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Lies as free speech

Everyone needs to consider what this defense implies. It proposes that if you are convinced what you speak as lies and related actions you take are believed to be true and justified, your actions reflect free speech and acceptable behavior. Psychologists would describe this behavior as delusional and lawyers might describe the behaviors associated as caused by temporary insanity. Perhaps. Trump is sufficiently egotistical he might not be capable of differentiating his thoughts from reality.

Some Trump supporters dismiss his behaviors as the typical lies of politicians. I would not argue politicians do not stretch the truth or engage in spreading misinformation, but to think in this way to defend Trump is to fall prey to the bias of false equivalency. All lies do not have equal consequences and putting our democracy at risk of an insurrection or suggesting an election decision does not truly represent the will of the people is exceptionally egregious in a country’s leader. Whether you believe Trump acted out of misguided understanding or more maliciously to knowingly in an attempt to circumvent our method of governance, it is simply inappropriate to support him for a leadership position. You are willing to overlook very dangerous behavior.

[From the Times story. Already, Mr. Trump’s lawyers and allies are setting out the early stages of a legal strategy to counter the accusations, saying that Mr. Trump’s First Amendment rights are under attack. They say Mr. Trump had every right to express views about election fraud that they say he believed, and still believes, to be true, and that the actions he took or proposed after the election were based on legal advice.]

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Inflation for some is a greedflation opportunity for others

I learned a new word for a concept that had occurred to me, but I did not know had a formal label. The word is “greedflation” and it describes circumstances under which companies raise prices beyond what would be necessary to cover the cost of production and provide a reasonable profit margin. With the present concern, mostly fanned by political rhetoric, over inflation, it was puzzling to me why corporate profits in some cases were at record levels. This is greedflation.

There is obviously actual inflation, but the conditions for inflation also provide the opportunity for greedflation. Most people do not recognize greedflation when they are aware legitimate inflation is afoot. Greedflation is also more likely in industries with less competition allowing one or a small number of participants in that sector of the economy not to be undercut by competitors.

The first story covered in this On the Media podcast describes greedflation.

NPR story

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An era ends

I bought a new iMac when I retired. That was eight years ago. It was finally time to retire that machine and invest in something new. I bought a Mac mini and a 30-inch Samsung monitor and now am trying to recreate my collection of tools from scratch. The iMac will reside at our lake place for a while.

I got to the point where a few of the apps I wanted to run required the newest Mac OS. I am also discovering that some of the apps I used to run will not work on the newer machine. I am caught in between and this is the reality of progress. I will have to have to find new options.

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