environment

Solving the world's plastic problem or wishful thinking?

The story behind our infinitely recyclable plastic
By Aliyah Kovner, Berkeley Lab
Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Step one, create infinitely recyclable plastic to replace ordinary plastic DONE
Step two, make it just as cheap ARGUABLE
Step three, get it widely adopted ? ? ?

Dystopian horror for the weekend (1)

Dystopia does not do a lot for us. It does not inspire people to change the world; only the right utopian dream will do that. But for some reason dystopia has become the "default narrative" for this global space and historical time. Only by examining dystopia will we be able to understand its prevalence as a trend. I suppose the resultant literary genre for the prolonged investigation into dystopia would be called "horror."

The coming crash - Is it stupidity, arrogance, or another unwritten, deniable "final solution"?

Its time for me to discuss my pessimism for the future. In various threads, people respond to my pessimism with the classic "so what's your solution?". My answer is that there is no solution that preserves anything like a decent life for the vast majority of Americans. When I am called a "Debbie Downer" for this attitude, its very hard to resist shooting back with "Pollyanna". But I do resist that impulse.

All I'm asking of respondents to this essay is to engage with the pessimism, to follow the big picture logic.

Six impossible things before breakfast

How does a sane person deal with the insanity that is America today? The party line on just about every topic one might mention is the wrong side of stupid. The media zeitgeist is to ignore our falling apart ecology, economy, infrastructure, educational system, political system, and foreign policy. Our duty is to worship the crooks on Wall St. and the warmongers in the Pentagon, both of whom are robbing the citizenry blind while providing negative value to the 99% with their "services".

(UPDATE) Another thing to fight; I'm so tired

(UPDATE: They've already begun tearing down the trees; someone posted photos earlier today on FB. The public hearing wasn't scheduled until Feb. 12. THIS IS NOT DEMOCRACY. I still intend to write angry letters to the city council and mayor. I can still make noise, be a PITA and waste their time!)

Declining Sperm Counts in the West

According to this July 25, 2017,Scientific American article, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sperm-count-dropping-in-weste... ,

Sperm counts in men from America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand have dropped by more than 50 percent in less than 40 years, researchers said on Tuesday.

Repair Cafes and the return of the Repair ethos

When I was young most towns, villages, suburbs and such had "the repair guy"; a little shop with gaskets and parts for most household appliances and gadgets, vacuum tubes and a tube checker, refurbished small appliances for sale, and a Mr. Fixit type guy. When soemthing broke you took it to him to have it fixed unless you could fix it yourself. Even if you could, you might wind up at his place to get the parts that you couldn't get from the dealer, depatment store or hardware sore.

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