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It’s been another great year in the war on climate change. With a combination of forceful inaction, concentrated inattention, strenuous ignorance of facts, strategic amnesia and just plain orneriness we have once again succeeded in not losing to this implacable enemy which, in our humble opinion, does not really exist. Consider this year’s milestones in our epic non-struggle: Continue reading
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My name is Chingachgook. I am an editor. I am the last of my people.
Once we were as numerous as the buffalo. We roamed the corridors of every communications company, preventing people who could not spell, or punctuate, or speak the language, or who simply did not know anything, from bothering you.
We editors became endangered when the people who paid us discovered that you didn’t care, you were happy to pay for sloppy writing, speaking and thinking as long as it did not challenge your opinions or trouble your mind. We were further endangered when the social platforms opened up and people realized they could transmit their rantings to the world — for free, where it used to cost thousands if not millions of dollars to build a radio or TV station, or establish a newspaper or magazine. Continue reading
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What we want our parents to have been and our presidents to be — the father/mother who knows best and takes care of everything.
Most of us who grew up in homes with a mother and father in residence remember our childhoods as times of absolute safety. If the slightest thing went awry, Mom or Dad would fix it immediately. In our adult lives, facing existential threats (whether real or imagined, still threats) on a daily basis, we often wax nostalgic about that Golden Age when Mom and Dad, all powerful, provided for our every want and vanquished every threat to our well-being.
Every once in a while, reality intruded into our cocoons and someone suffered an accident or a sudden illness or a crime, sometimes someone died, and we all reeled in shock at this thing that could not happen. But in time we either returned to our cheery confidence or gave ourselves over to permanent nostalgia for the old days, when everybody was safe.
We weren’t safe, of course. We were ignorant. We believed in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and omnipotent parents. Meanwhile our parents were just as scared, insecure, uncertain and self-doubting as we are now. Thinking differently — believing in that Golden Age — warps our thinking about ourselves, for one thing makes us fault ourselves for not being as stalwart as we suppose they were.
But there’s more to it than that. Believing our parents were god-like and our childhoods were inviolate is childlike, perhaps, but it does scant harm, and that only to ourselves. But when you expand that mistaken belief into an entire worldview, the increase in harm is exponential. Continue reading
Facing aging can bring about various challenges, from fine lines and wrinkles to spider veins and sagging skin. However, with the right approach, it’s possible to address these issues effectively and maintain a youthful appearance for longer.
One of the key strategies for combating aging problems is to prioritize skincare. A consistent skincare routine that includes cleansing, moisturizing, and using products with ingredients like retinol and hyaluronic acid can help reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, as well as improve skin texture and hydration.
In addition to skincare, incorporating healthy lifestyle habits can also make a significant difference in addressing aging concerns. Eating a balanced diet rich in antioxidants and vitamins can help support skin health and overall well-being. Regular exercise can improve circulation and skin tone, while staying hydrated helps maintain skin elasticity. This is also the best time to look into supplements like nutritional supplements in Evanston, IL for your overall health.
When it comes to specific aging concerns like spider veins and sagging skin, seeking professional treatment via experts like this medspa in Carlsbad, CA or Chicago Aesthetic Surgery Institute may be necessary. Options such as sclerotherapy such as varicose vein treatment in Greenville, SC, lymphedema management, or laser therapy can effectively reduce the appearance of spider veins, while procedures like radiofrequency skin tightening or dermal fillers can help tighten and rejuvenate sagging skin.
It’s also important to prioritize self-care and mental well-being when facing aging problems. Practicing stress-relief techniques like meditation or yoga can help manage stress, which can contribute to premature aging. Surrounding oneself with supportive relationships and engaging in activities that bring joy and fulfillment can also positively impact overall health and appearance. Visit sites like https://phoenixmedspafl.com/ to consult experts that can help.
Ultimately, facing aging problems requires a multifaceted approach that combines skincare, healthy lifestyle habits, professional treatments, and self-care practices. By taking proactive steps to address aging concerns, individuals can maintain a youthful appearance and feel confident at any age.
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Think now: what motivates a family to leave their home and undertake a journey of thousands of miles on foot to seek a better life? Answer: something really terrible.
Slowly, sleepily, eyes blinking in the unaccustomed light, the mainstream media are awakening to the single most important fact of human life in 2021: the long-expected, long-predicted, long emergency whose name no right-wing politician must ever utter — global climate change — is no longer predicted, no longer expected, no longer in our future. It’s here.
During Thanksgiving week, two stories appeared at the same time in Politico, one of the pillars these days of Washington DC journalism; one of them was titled, “How ‘Climate Migrants’ are Roiling American Politics,” the other, “Don’t Call It Climate Change: Red States Prepare for ‘Extreme Weather.’” Continue reading
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We don’t organize large rallies to protest hurricanes. No one advocates, and no government funds, attempts to eradicate hurricanes, despite their destructive and deadly nature. (Occasionally some idiot will propose dropping a nuclear bomb on one, but no one that dumb could ever get elected president. Oh, wait…) No one reviles hurricanes, or denies that they exist. No one blames the president for the hurricanes that occur during his term of office. At least not yet. No one campaigns on behalf of hurricanes, trying to persuade us to understand them better, except weather forecasters when one is approaching and they all run out to stand in the rain and the blowing debris to tell us not to do that.
In general, we’re quite sensible about hurricanes, accepting them as a part of the world we inhabit without investing them with any particular political, moral or religious values. (A few exceptions, I know.) Continue reading
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Delegates to COP26 appear to be working on the problem of climate change.
World leaders have given themselves over to the practice of APPEARING to do something about a problem rather than DOING something. They have done so with such enthusiasm, and for so long now, that they no longer seem to be aware that they are doing it. The reasons are obvious: doing something is invariably expensive, and involves choosing between something and something else, which angers all the supporters of something else. USA is Number One in this practice, of course, but we have taught the rest of the world well. Almost everybody is doing it now, as illustrated wonderfully by the just completed COP26 United Nations conference on (not) dealing with climate change.
Appointing a climate czar is not the same thing as fighting climate change. Having all the climate czars from all the countries in the world fly their private jets to Scotland to discuss reducing carbon emissions does nothing to reduce carbon emissions. Continue reading
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As we approach Herd Mentality, as Trump called it, we seem to be lowering our standards for political candidates.
Our relentless drive for Herd Stupidity — the state in which so many of us are so stupid that there’s nothing more we can manage to do together than run off a cliff — is being assisted and accelerated by the homogenization of politics. Every election contest in America right now seems to be about only one thing — are you with Trump, or not.
If they held an election today for City Cat Herder in Omaha, Nebraska, there would be a Trumpist candidate and a progressive socialist Democrat candidate and they would spend the whole campaign arguing over who is really president.
This is a big, unbelievably complicated country, whose governments at every level face daunting, unbelievably complicated problems. Ideology does not fix potholes. Cults do not build sewer systems. Conspiracy theories do not help keep the lights on, or help anyone after the lights have gone out. Loyalty to Trump does not deflect hurricanes. Continue reading
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As many as a hundred of these monsters, fully loaded, are queued up at anchor off the coast of Southern California waiting to offload. The backup is the worst in history and no end is in sight.
Remember the 1990s, when all the smart (i.e. rich) people in the room believed that Japan was eating our lunch and would soon bestride the world? (The movie Rising Sun, which came out in 1993, summed it all up.) The Japanese were buying American real estate, American companies and American debt with wild abandon, and our American oligarchs were swooning with admiration.
One of the techniques they most admired, and immediately began to emulate, was the concept of just-in-time manufacturing and inventory control. The Japanese had discovered that with the computational and communications speed of computers, you could arrange the delivery of raw materials to a factory, or manufactured goods to a retail store, to occur precisely when they were needed. This saved the costs of warehousing and sped up reimbursement.
What industry touches, industry kills, and industry wrapped this concept in an octopus-like embrace. When industry scales something up, it increases profits and concentrates risks, but the profits almost always come first and the risks appear later. The benefits of just-in-time management to industry have been bountiful for 30 years. Now it’s later. Continue reading
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Elon Musk made $36 billion in one day this week. (Monday, October 25, 2021). Well, he didn’t really make it, he sort of won it — the New York Stock Casino bestowed it upon him after learning that Hertz, the rental-car company, had placed an order for 100,000 Teslas, the electric car that Musk’s company developed. Today, Musk is the richest man in America, perhaps the world, with a personal net worth estimated at $255 billion. His company’s market value exceeded a trillion dollars — said to be more than any other company, ever.
Musk developed the market for all-electric cars pretty much by himself, but his obvious success has stimulated such industrial mastodons as General Motors and Ford to say, hey, wait, me too. GM has gone so far as to say it will make nothing but electric cars by 2035, and will introduce 30 new models within four years. Ford launched an all-electric F-150 pickup truck, announced it would invest $22 billion in EVs and that 40% of its vehicles will be all-electric by 2030.
So the burden of powering the nation’s transportation system is about to be transferred to an electric grid that is already failing in the face of rising demand, old age, mismanagement and climate change. Continue reading
