...in the former states of the Confederacy.

(This will do nothing for my sentiment analysis.)

Are people "basically good"?

I don't know. I know that some people seem genuinely good, like Sir Nicholas Winton.

But far too many of us seem readily capable of committing genuine evil, or tolerating it.

It seems that centuries of enslaving people has saturated the soil of the Confederacy with hatred. And some people grow up with it as a part of their nature, like fish in water. They float in it, it bears them up, and they are utterly oblivious to it.

The thing about the Legacy Museum in Montgomery is that you're looking at centuries of history, and that the terrible beliefs that sustained that evil across those centuries extend right up to the present.

Slavery may not exist, Jim Crow may be down (but not out, apparently), but the hatred is still present.

The current propaganda slogan is "Heritage, not hate."

Hate is their heritage.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:03 Friday, 10 May 2024

Ordinarily, I'd say that it's pretty shocking that a research neuroscientist doesn't understand the fundamentals of probability, but given, well, everything about our present circumstances, I guess it makes sense that Dr. Andrew Huberman doesn't.

I guess the only thing you can do is laugh. (I'm trying to get my sentiment analysis out of the red!) This isn't exactly on point, but it did come to mind. Also the trap that expertise in one area seems to fool many people into believing it extends to areas they know nothing about. Still, a "research" scientist ought to have a fairly keen appreciation of probability math, shouldn't they?

Well, it's not rocket science, is it?

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:48 Friday, 10 May 2024

I think Apple got this part right.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 22:26 Thursday, 9 May 2024

I'm up to a score of 125. 25 out of 28 possible words. I suppose I'll find out what the missing three are tomorrow.

They'll probably be obvious.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 22:04 Thursday, 9 May 2024

Watched One Life tonight. Very moving. A remarkable story.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 21:55 Thursday, 9 May 2024

Played the new puzzle game in Apple News, Quartiles.

Got all of them for a perfect score. (Link only works if you're running the MacOS 14.5 or iOS 17.5 betas. Sorry.)

Whoops! Spoke too soon! I didn't understand the interface. I got all the 4-tile words, and a score of 100, which I thought was perfect. But there's a little arrow that discloses the details of your score. There are supposedly 15 words remaining!

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 16:43 Thursday, 9 May 2024

Jack's playing with software, I bought an elgato Neo Stream Deck.

I think it's a kind of "retail therapy." I buy stuff and I feel better, temporarily. I heard about the Neo line of elgato products on one of Dave Sparks' podcasts, Mac Power Users, I think. Maybe?

It's a pretty cool device, though it's dumb that I bought one.

First, it's kind of redundant. I've got the 6-button Stream Deck (mini?), which I seldom use. This has eight launch buttons, two capacitive touch page buttons and a little "system" display, which I've configured for the time, as if I need to be any more aware of it.

But I'm spending some of that time figuring it out and setting it up. I created a button for the marmot that takes me to the web site. It has a picture of a cute Himalayan marmot for the icon. I configured the YouTube button to go to my Premium account. (So I can waste time more efficiently, with less mousing around!)

I think I'll make some launch scripts for Captain's Log entries.

Second, I have no real need for one. So it's inconsistent with my wish to "do my best," and do the least amount of harm possible. But, I'm human and I fuck up. Not an excuse, just a reality.

Anyway, for the moment it's entertaining.

I noticed some more people bought Nebo 100W solar panels on Woot, and Florida seems well-represented. Amazon has a Bluetti promotion for the EB70S, $399 for 716WH of LiFePo storage and 800W of total AC output. Not a bad deal, I think. The EB70S has been replaced by the AC70, which is what I bought for about $80 more. The AC70 has an updated display and 1KW of total AC output, a different handle and no wireless charging pad.

I probably mentioned it before, but what these "solar generators" offer is an integrated battery and inverter solution in a convenient package. You can almost certainly create your own solution buying batteries, charge management system and inverter separately and save some money.

Like any consumer-grade electronic device, there are lemons. But, in general, the Bluetti systems seem well designed and constructed. I can't speak to customer service. It's also important to pay attention to the documentation regarding use and storage.

I may look into more of a DIY solution at some point, but for now I'm content.

My use case is curiosity, convenience and in the event of a genuine, long-term grid outage, continuity. If we had an outage that spanned more than one day, I'd reconfigure the house loads to minimize demand to the Powerwalls, and use the Bluetti devices to provide power to nice-to-have services like the cable modem/router. We're not 100% self-sufficient here (86% overall), but we can approach that; and I'm fairly confident I can keep us comfortable until utility power is restored.

We generated 40.9kWh of power yesterday, compared to 39.4kWh on Tuesday. Looking at the "valleys" in the graphs of each of the days, we had more cloud cover yesterday than on Tuesday, so the cleaning has seemed to increase output as expected. I'll keep looking at the data over the next few days. We're also still getting more daylight each day, but the low-angle stuff isn't very usable. The bigger impact is the more optimal angle-of-incidence as the sun is higher in the sky at the same time from day to day. April and May are our two peak production months, about 1.1MWh each, because we don't face due south.

If your roof is less than five years old, it's probably smart to look at putting solar on it. Maybe you get a battery, maybe you don't. If your roof is between five and ten years old, it's a bit of a trickier question because you may be looking at re-roofing in the next decade, and that'll incur additional cost, removing the panels temporarily. If your roof is more than a decade old, you may want to consider re-roofing early. Wait a year to make sure it doesn't leak, then install an array. That way there should be less finger-pointing if a leak develops after the array is installed. Roofs sometimes leak though, whether you have solar or not. It's a fact of home ownership. So, you really don't have to wait. Just have to figure out who you want to come fix it.

If you're lucky enough not to have an HOA with "design guidelines," you may want to look at a reflective roof as well.

The temp in the top of the post is at the airport. We're showing 95.7°F here, heat index of 109°F. I'd love to get a reflective roof. Maybe things will be bad enough by the time we have to re-roof that they'll have altered those design guidelines.

It seems I have digressed, yet again. Feels like a fairly benign post, but sentiment analysis is still coming in at -.5!

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:53 Thursday, 9 May 2024

Kids and retention ponds. Especially in Florida.

So many of these stories end tragically.

This one didn't. And it's wonderful to read about all the people who came together and had a part in saving a child's life, private citizens, public servants.

Nice to read some good news for once.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:41 Thursday, 9 May 2024

I watched the May 7 event on my iMac. First, I was amazed they used a Sonny and Cher number. (Though I wondered if it had been re-mixed or digitally altered in some fashion. It didn't sound like I remembered it, though I haven't heard it in decades.)

Then I processed all the creative props.

Then I was startled when they started to crush them.

Then I thought it seemed to be going on a bit too long.

Finally I figured out that they were "crushing" them into the new M4 iPad, just before the big reveal.

So I can't claim any cultural revulsion at the spectacle. I just thought it was kind of dumb.

But I am quite happy that others noticed and found it revolting.

And I agree, though I'm kind of ashamed I didn't have that reaction initially. It's a terrible ad.

I still use Apple products because I'm embedded in that ecosystem now. Cognitively, and in the artifacts.

But I have no love for Apple anymore. It's just another mega-corporation.

And I think this colossal misstep and the embarrassment it should bring is a wonderful thing.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:48 Thursday, 9 May 2024

Rick Scott famously barred Florida state employees from using the words "climate change." Ron DeSantis and the Republican Florida legislature have taken that a step farther and codified it into law.

It's insanity, but that's the state we live in.

A hurricane is going to blow through this state one day and maybe, just maybe, a generation of Republican rule will be one of the things it destroys.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:43 Thursday, 9 May 2024

It's difficult to argue with anything put forward in this recent 18-minute TED talk by Scott Galloway.

Just this week, the St Johns County Board of Commissioners disapproved a 288 unit affordable housing project in Florida's highest-median income county. The reason?

Traffic.

Listen to this TED Talk and hear the same thing.

It's the same reason they refuse higher-density zoning.

On the other hand, Florida has enacted a social media ban for children under 14. I support it, but I don't know how it's going to be enforced. I also agree with those that say it ought to be up to age 16.

Frankly, I'd be fine with banning all ad-supported social media. If you want to be "social" online, pay a monthly cover charge. No "free" social media. Comments on web sites? Pay to post. No ads.

Maybe if we just banned advertising online, we could solve a number of society's problems. Advertising limited to "broadcast" media like print, radio and television. No targeting. No direct mail or email. No spam anywhere.

How would our experience of the internet change without ads and ad-supported platforms? Free speech issue? Is commercial speech unregulated? It isn't.

Anyway, it's not going to happen. I've digressed.

And my sentiment analysis is at -.7!

Sorry to be such a downer.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:47 Thursday, 9 May 2024

We're a thing now.

Woot has another low price on the Nebo 100W portable solar panel, $120. (Limit 2 per customer.) I bought another one.

I figured I'd daisy-chain two in series for the Bluetti AC70, and use a single one for the Bluetti EB3A. The challenge is, I have the two I already have neatly hung up in the garage. The hook won't hold a third. But I'll figure it out.

I'm waiting until sundown to compare yesterday and today's energy production. It's become cloudier today, so I'll look at the peak production numbers at comparable hours. (You can tell when it's cloud shading versus sun angle.)

Mitzi was gone for three weeks in March and April, so I can't really compare energy usage with the new dryer, but we should have some good data at the end of this month. There's a lot of "noise" depending on how much we drove the car, how hot it was out (it's supposed to get to 96°F today), but over time I should be able to discern how much the dryer is saving.

We went to a North Florida Green Chamber event yesterday, and Donna Deegan, mayor of Jacksonville, was the guest speaker. I always enjoy hearing her speak, and I came away feeling good about the efforts her administration is making to address the climate emergency. She gets it. It's impossible to conceive of a Republican going after these grants and pursuing the initiatives she's pursuing, sad to say though it is.

I also spoke to Nathan Ballentine, "the man in overalls." I'd heard him speak a few years ago when I was on the St Johns County Soil and Water Conservation District board. He's like "Dave the plant guy," (though I think Dave prefers "Dave the plant man") who is here in Ponte Vedra. Nathan is more Duval County. They both try to teach people how to grow their own food, and are both very inspiring people. Nathan has a website, overalls.life. Click on the hamburger menu in the upper left for a complete picture of what they do. We chatted a bit about The Limits to Growth, and the crisis beyond the climate crisis. He gets it.

His wife was there with him, and they have a young son. I mentioned that many people say it's "too late" (me being among them), but I told them I thought it's never too late to do your best, and that's what I'm trying to do. They seemed to like that.

I'm trying to write this in a more "positive" tone, and I'm still at -0.4400000095 on the sentiment analysis!

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:30 Wednesday, 8 May 2024

So, the highest Sentiment value post was Sometimes I Love People. Unfortunately, it's probably an outlier, as it only had three words. (Correctly counted.) The lowest value post was The Apocalypse Has Not Been Postponed, 224 words in Table view. (Word Service reports 223, but close enough.)

So, positive values = "positive" sentiment; negative, the opposite. The average for April was -0.401272571, the median was -0.434313734. (Surprisingly, you can't just right-click and copy these summary values at the bottom of a Numbers table. I'm using TextSniper to copy them because that's a lot of digits to remember.)

I also discovered the word count discrepancy is significant in the posts with images, probably because there's html export code included in the $Text, and values inserted into that export code.

To make something like this more useful on a regular basis, I'd probably want to include the permalink as a Displayed Attribute, so I can just click right to the post from Numbers, instead of looking for it in the archive.

Again, all this type of analysis could be rolled up into a live dashboard within the Tinderbox file itself, which could then be exported as a page in the blog. Something I may do.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 10:23 Wednesday, 8 May 2024

This post in the Tinderbox Forum prompted me to look more closely at the new Table View feature. (New to me. It's been out for a little while now.)

Table view works principally on children of a note or container. It also works on siblings, if there are no children of a selected note. It consists of the name of the note and a row of the values of its Displayed Attributes; so if tables are important to you it's probably worth thinking about what you wish to include in Displayed Attributes. (That's a whole other discussion.)

Since every post in the marmot is contained in a Month container, it was easly for me to select the April 2024 container, and then select Table from the View menu. This gave me a table of containing the name of each post and all their displayed attributes.

It wasn't exactly clear how to export this data, but I figured it out. In the Table view, select any row. You can't Select All from the Edit menu without having at least one row selected. With one row selected, then Select All from the Edit menu. Right-click anywhere in the table view and you'll get a contextual menu. Select Copy, and in the sub-menu, select the format you wish the table to be copied into, I picked Comma-separated values.

Then paste the table into any app that accepts comma-separated values, in my case Numbers. You get a nice spreadsheet with all your data. You may have to fiddle with cell formats if you want to do any further analysis.

In April 2024, I wrote 81 posts totaling 23,489 words (Word count seems somewhat off per-post, but it's close.) The Sentiment Analysis value varied from a high of 0.300000012, to a low of -0.800000009. What that means, I don't know. But now I can look at those two posts and try and figure it out.

You could write a dashboard agent to keep track of things like that on an ongoing basis, but I haven't done that yet. I may do so soon, just to learn more about Tinderbox.

Pretty cool.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:43 Wednesday, 8 May 2024

Put the drone up this morning to look at the array again. I had it up while they were cleaning yesterday. Judging by their reaction, I'm not sure anyone has ever done that before.

They are cleaner than yesterday, but perhaps not as clean as I might have liked. They used a hose and scrub brushes but no soap. Plus, the water is hard. We'll see how the output goes today, weather looks similar in terms of cloud cover.

If I can figure out a safe way to get on the roof, I may try to do it myself next year, with soap.

We're still making more power than we use and the "problem" is likely more cosmetic than production, but if I can get more from them, I want it.

I put a "before" and "after" example up on Flickr.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:10 Wednesday, 8 May 2024

Well, I guess I'm an artiste now. My first exhibition at the Anastasia Club. Heh.

At the last photography club meeting, they asked if someone wanted to put some of their photos in the community club display. Nobody raised their hand, so I did.

Made a QR code of my Flickr photo stream. So far, no uptick in visits. (Nor do I expect one. Not sure how many of these folks understand or would use a QR code.)

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:42 Wednesday, 8 May 2024

Did a series of "before" pics this morning. Supposed to have a crew out here this afternoon to clean the array. First time I've paid to have it done. Not cheap at $400, but worth it in terms of performance and longevity of the array. I'm going to guess we'll see about a 10% increase in output, but that's just a guess.

"Rain" was supposed to be enough to keep them clean, but the pine pollen is pretty sticky. On the closeups, I can still see where I couldn't reach a couple of years ago when I used an extendable RV washing brush to clean them the last time. Ideally, I'd get on the roof and do it myself, but I'm getting to the point where I feel that discretion is the better part of valor, and I'll let someone else do it.

I'll take another series this evening and see how they did.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:01 Tuesday, 7 May 2024

I looking forward to today's announcement from Apple when the iPad finally gets a calculator.

My brother recently got took his 2017 10.5" iPad Pro in for a "battery replacement." Essentially, Apple sends you a refurb one for $119. I have one of those as well. I'm thinking I should do the same. The only mistake I made in buying that iPad (in 2019), was in not going for more storage, I think I got the base model with 64GB. That's the consistent mistake I make with Apple products, but I make it because Apple charges such a premium for memory and storage.

If you pay the "tax," you've got a machine that will last years and years and years, and I suppose that's not in Apple's interests. That's why I bought the M3 14" M3 MBP with 2TB of storage and the maximum amount of RAM for the basic M3, 24GB. I have 128GB on the iMac and I never have RAM issues. But only 1TB of SSD storage, which is why I moved the Photos library to external storage.

I bought a 9th Gen iPad WiFi with 256GB of storage, because both the 2017 Pro and the 6th Gen mini only have 64GB, and Photos eats most of it. The 9th Gen is showing 65GB used of 256GB, and the bulk of that is Photos.

Anyway, I don't think there's an iPad in my future anytime soon. I am planning on getting a new iPhone this fall, mainly for the improved cameras and a USB-C interface. I think the 2019 iMac is good for a few more years, assuming security updates keep coming. After that, we'll see. I wish I could use this 27" display as an external display, I'd just use the M3 MBP as a desktop. But Apple removed that capability for their own self-interest. Maybe I'll just take it offline, and use it without internet access. Who knows?

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:37 Tuesday, 7 May 2024

I've been a Backblaze subscriber for a little over a decade, beginning on April 13, 2014. In all that time, I don't recall that I've ever tried to recover a file until this morning.

I tried using Apple's versions from the Revert menu, and I don't know if I'm cursed, if there's some flaw in my file system or what, but I couldn't recover the file I wanted last night. Before I went to bed, I figured I'd try to recover a version using Howard Oakley's Revisionist utility.

I was lying away since about 0230, and I finally got up at 0400 and figured I'd see what I could do with recovering this file. I don't know why, but it occurred to me that Backblaze might be an easier way to go. I'd never tried it before, so it'd be interesting if nothing else.

After logging in, the interface is pretty straightforward. I think it's set up to basically restore an entire drive, but you can drill down to specific files. I almost missed the little calendar that lets you pick the date of the backup. I don't know how far back you can go, but a couple of weeks worked fine.

I restored the file I was looking for to a folder on an external drive. It was restored with the path of the original, which can be confusing when you open the file, and then click on the filename in the window and look at the path. It may appear to be in your User/you/Documents/whatever/ folder. I tried to "move" the file from the file menu in the app I was using, and I couldn't. I wasn't able to select a the desired folder in Documents.

I ended up renaming it in Finder, then opening that file and using a "Save as" to change the name back and put it in the "correct" folder. I'm not sure what all the issues are there, but that seems to have worked ok. I've closed the file and re-opened it, and it's saving and opening correctly from the desired folder.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:48 Monday, 6 May 2024

Got home a little after 2000 last night. Learned something new about Maps. Mitzi didn't like any of the proposed routes back home from Pell City. The fastest one took us to Atlanta and she was adamant she didn't want to do that. The other two were each an hour longer, which didn't appeal to me.

She had an idea of how she wanted to go, so she asked for a route to Tifton, Georgia, knowing then she could get onto 75 and then onto 10 for the rest of the ride home.

That route to Tifton was over half the distance, and the total travel time was only a little longer than the Atlanta route, I think it was less than half an hour longer. What we weren't sure about was what kind of roads we'd be on. They were all limited access, divided highways for the most part, with lights at certain towns and junctions, but mostly 65mph with little traffic.

Roads were all in good shape, which is more than can be said for I-10 outside of Jax. Weather was fine, with a few light showers here and there. We stopped at a rest stop on 75 and had a picnic dinner.

So if you're unhappy about a particular route, or if you want to avoid the route that everyone else using CarPlay is probably using, pick an intermediate destination ("Add stop"), and then add subsequent ones to get you where you want to go. Might take a little longer, but it might be a more pleasant drive too.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:37 Monday, 6 May 2024

We made something of a "civil rights tour" yesterday. We visited The Legacy Museum first. It was a powerful experience. It was very much akin to the experience I had when I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

It's very large, very well done, and profoundly affecting.

I think it's going to be a little while before I can write anything about it that makes sense.

I will say that it brought to mind Governor Ron DeSantis' use of police to go to the homes of Black people suspected of having voted "illegally" (despite being registered by their county supervisor of elections), in the middle of the night to arrest them. History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes and that act was clearly, extremely and deliberately resonant with the history of white supremacy in the south. And anger was one of the complex mix of emotions I felt as I toured that museum.

We also visited the Rosa Parks Museum and Library, a more modest museum though it has a very thorough exhibit on the Montgomery bus boycott. That was a more positive experience, because you get to see the courage and the ingenuity of an oppressed minority (who happened to be the majority of the population) frustrate and infuriate their oppressors.

Our final stop was the Greyhound Bus Terminal where we learned about the Freedom Riders. I learned a lot there, and learned that I didn't know nearly enough about that effort and the courage it took for people to make it.

There is little in "southern heritage" to celebrate. It is largely a heritage of hate. I can understand why many people would rather not recall it, but it needs a light shining on it all the brighter to keep the darkness away.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:42 Saturday, 4 May 2024

The title is a bit of a misnomer, because I initially was surprised.

As we were checking in yesterday, I noticed that the guy in front of me had a little "tactical" backpack with MOLLE strips and a patch with an AR-15 against a rainbow background and the words "Defend Equality."

I had to look that up.

Apparently, and I should not have been surprised so shame on me for my unexamined biases, but there is a segment of the LGBTQ community who are also 2A enthusiasts.

Apart from being gay, there's little to distinguish them from the other 2A enthusiasts who believe their firearms and the implicit threat of violence (not to say "desire for") is the only thing that keeps them "free."

I can't help but feel as though we are heading toward a more violent future. Perhaps it's part of the overall cascading effects of the present crisis, but there are people who seem to want it, who would will it into existence if they could.

Depressing.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:35 Friday, 3 May 2024

I'm not sure what I think about this, very cogent, assessment from Charlie Stross.

On the one hand, I'm inclined to believe that the whole circus that is this present civilization will be circling the drain before we get to that point on anything approaching a routine basis.

On the other hand, it seems like it sure would be cool.

Say what you will about Musk and I probably won't argue with you, but SpaceX is a bright spot in this present moment. One element of my past future that has been realized in a way that hasn't turned into another circle of hell.

Yet.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:16 Friday, 3 May 2024

We're in Montgomery, Alabama this morning. Shot is from yesterday on Florida I-10. Basically, drive west until the time zone changes, then turn right. Our ultimate destination is somewhere north of here for my nephew's wedding. It's a chance to see my youngest brother and do a little sight-seeing.

Staying in a Marriott Springhill Suites near the heart of Montgomery. I should write "stayed," because we check out today. But while we're here we're going to visit some of the civil rights history locations.

Made an entry in Captain's Log to put together a travel bag of cables. I have what is likely not a comprehensive set in my backpack that I use when flying, but since we're driving on this trip, I used my little, much battered, roller-bag. So I put together another bag of cables the night before last. Did pretty well, but forgot one, USB-C to USB-C (alternatively, a USB-A to USB-C), so now I can't charge the iPad mini. It's at 50%, and it's non-essential with the MBP I'm writing this on, but it's annoying. (Why bring it at all? It's nice in the car when I'm not driving.)

Today's modern life, unless I choose to forego all my "devices," requires USB-A to Lightning, USB-C to Lightning, USB-A to Apple Watch, USB-A to micro-USB (thanks OM Digital Systems) and the absent USB-C to USB-C. I expect to get either an iPhone 16 this fall, or perhaps a 15 if that seems preferable, which should eliminate the need for a Lightning cable if I don't bring one of the 10" iPads. Well, check that, just recalled the AirPods. I have the USB-C to MagSafe connector, but I could use USB-C to USB-C and omit the MagSafe cable. The Watch remains an outlier.

One other handy travel device is an Anker Power Bank. This one is new to me, though it may be discontinued by Anker. I didn't see it at the "Anker Store" at Amazon. I also have a preceding model with roughly the same capacity, but one less USB-C port and less output on the PD port. The extra USB-C port is main attraction on the new one. In many of the places we've stayed, power outlets are problematic for one reason or another, as they are in this converted warehouse. The Power Bank solves that problem and I can charge everything wherever it's convenient, often next to the bed. Then recharging the power bank wherever it's convenient when we're out during the day.

All of this complexity suggests something to me that I don't wish to think about too much.

This modern life.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:11 Friday, 3 May 2024

I have a "news" folder that aggregates various news sources that have RSS feeds. I mentioned not long ago that I liked the BBC news feed and that it didn't have many duplicate posts. I don't know what happened, but that's no longer the case. It seems every story is posted to RSS at least twice. I don't know if there are minor updates or not, I've glanced over them and hadn't noticed anything different.

But I'm not going to unsubscribe.

A lot of the BBC coverage includes climate or extreme weather stories from around the world, like the 24 people killed in a highway collapse in China. Or the flooding in Brazil. Or the flooding in Kenya.

I follow a site called The Invading Sea that covers climate stories as they relate to Florida. Like this one regarding the warming waters at abyssal depths. Or this one, which aggregates a long list of stories about Floridians and climate change.

Occasionally there are some "good news" stories, like the new EPA regulations regarding coal-fired power plants.

But you know that's just going to wind up at the Supreme Court where that majority of right-wing ideologues will say the EPA doesn't have the authority to regulate power plants.

It's probably way past "too late" to avoid the "catastrophic effects" climate scientists have been warning about. Maybe we might have bought ourselves some time if we took this stuff seriously in like, 1980. But we'd still be dealing with the effects of "overshoot" in terms of population growth and development, and the concomitant degradation of the natural environment and the ecological systems that underpin all of life on this planet.

The fact that extreme wealth inequality has the world's wealthiest people actively working to undermine and weaken the institutions of government that allow us to make consensus decisions and take collective action is coincident with these twin crises only makes it even worse.

We're not going to make it.

It's just sad to watch it all unfold in RSS.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 13:38 Wednesday, 1 May 2024