In this Alternet article, Noam Chomsky describes the business class as Marxists waging a class struggle. They never give up and working class is always on the defensive. So if the working class is less aggressive, which he says they have been since the “centrist Carter administration”, big business will get the upper hand as it has in the U.S. He sees some hope in the movement started by Bernie Sanders.
Will oil companies be forced to cut emissions?
This article from Guardian talks about court cases and shareholder activism that may finally force oil companies to take climate change seriously. Even Exxon which, in my opinion, through its manipulation of the U.S. political system bears significant responsibility for the fact that we have a climate crisis in the first place, or at least for the fact that we have not made a significant attempt to deal with it.
A couple points. When we talk about an oil company “cutting emissions”, I don’t think we are talking about the emissions caused by people and businesses using the product. I think we are talking about emissions used in exploration, production, and transportation of the oil itself. Which is all good, but not the root of the fossil fuel emissions problem which is burning the stuff to liberate energy to do work. The fact that the amoral, possibly psychopathic financial industry is turning on the oil industry means they think we are going to be burning less of it going forward. An oil company that invests in “sustainable investments” other than oil is no longer an oil company. The electric utility industry and nuclear industries are completely different animals with existing players, so Exxon is not just going to take them over. So maybe Exxon will just evolve into some sort of venture capital fund looking for profitable investments for its dollars. And there are already plenty of other companies doing that for it to compete with, so I don’t see why Exxon would be particularly adept at it. If they don’t make it long term, good riddance. See you in hell, guys!
gargoyles of Philadelphia
This post is probably only on local interest, but Billy Penn has an article on all the carvings on Philadelphia’s City Hall, which is also the world’s largest free-standing masonry structure. That is, this is about as big as you could build a building out of stone, before concrete and steel are invented. Like most things in Philadelphia, it is poorly maintained, underperforming and underwhelming. This may have something to do with the gargoyles inside the building.
you (and I) are too stupid to understand quantum computing
The reason you don’t understand quantum computing, according to this article in Wired, is that you are too stupid. Only a person with a Ph.D. in quantum computing is alllowed to try to understand it, and they should not have to take the time to try to explain it to the likes of you.
the U.S. playbook for unsafe streets
Seriously, solutions exist on how to design and build safe streets. NACTO has published a set of line-by-line modifications to the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.
One thing I’ve learned halfway through an engineering career (but I’m not claiming to be a practicing transportation engineer or expert) is that change doesn’t occur at the site or street scale until best practices from elsewhere filter down to what I call the local “playbook” for design. The playbook is the set of codes, ordinances, regulations, design standards, performance criteria, standard plans and drawings, manuals, guidelines, etc. that a local community uses for design. The status quo in these documents usually has some reason for existing, but it also has enormous inertia, to the point where it can take decades for a clear solution to a problem to make its way into actual on-the-ground designs, and today’s designs can represent solutions that were appropriate for conditions as they existed decades ago.
Local professionals and bureaucrats are not always ignorant, but they are harried and operating under pressure that leaves little time for learning. There is a certain cynicism that sets in, at least in the engineering industry, and in my opinion the “STEM” approach to education tends to nudge more literal minded thinkers (who tend to be good at math and logic) into the industry while discouraging more creative thinkers. Revised curricula and continuing education for planners, engineers, architects, the construction industry, and public officials can be part of the answer. Grass roots advocacy can also be part of the answer. But changes to official documents at the federal level can really help get the ball rolling, because states often follow suit (slowly), and then local projects are often required to follow these documents to be eligible for state and federal funding. Just one small example is that in Pennsylvania, there is (or was until recently, I’m not sure of the status) a law that cars had to be parked within a certain number of inches of a curb. Sounds reasonable enough, until you realize that it actually makes modern protected bike lanes illegal! There are lots of little things like that, and then there are big things like safe intersections with different signals for motor vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians.
autonomous death drone
Here’s a video about an armed drone that can track down and kill someone, supposedly in a fully autonomous mode. And here’s an article suggesting this may already have actually happened.
learning curve for lithium ion batteries
Our World in Data has some numbers on the decline in price for lithium ion batteries.
Since 1991, prices have fallen by around 97%. Prices fall by an average of 19% for every doubling of capacity. Even more promising is that this rate of reduction does not yet appear to be slowing down.
Our World in Data
one more Covid-19 dashboard
In the U.S., it feels like we are done with Covid. At least, for those of us who are vaccinated adults. For those of us with children, life is still not back to normal because even as we are being told we can return to the office, we can’t actually do that because the children are still home. And the world is clearly not done with Covid-19, as vaccination is proceeding slowly in many countries outside North America and Europe.
Anyway, here is one more simulation dashboard that shows an ensemble of simulations going forward up to four weeks. This might be useful to see if there are blips on the horizon when (if?) the kids really are allowed to go back to school in the fall. Here’s an article describing the site in MIT technology review.
causes of death during the Covid-19 crisis
CDC has a data table on excess deaths during the March-August 2020 period. Obviously, people died of Covid-19 itself, but they also died of other things indirectly caused by Covid-19.
- 257,000 excess deaths compared to long-term average (I’m rounding numbers to the nearest thousand and nearest percent or so, although when I do math I will round after I do the math)
- 174,000 due to Covid-19 disease itself – this is around 70% of the total, so 30% of the excess deaths were indirect (and/or random bad luck)
- Drug overdoses were 13% higher than normal, but suicides were 6% lower than normal. These two things usually go together so there is a bit of a mystery here.
- Homicides were 6% higher than normal. They don’t break down how much is domestic violence related versus street violence. I would imagine bar fights were down significantly.
- “Unintentional injuries” were higher than normal. I imagine this is things like falls and drowning, but not motor vehicle crashes because those are separate. Maybe people hurt themselves doing things around the house. Unfortunately, we tend to take more risks doing similar activities around the house than if we were doing them at work.
- Motor vehicle crashes were down slightly, but the drop was not statistically significant. Given the very significant drop in traffic last year, this suggests to me that deaths per mile traveled were high. I know pedestrian and bike deaths were disproportionately high last year. I would attribute a lot this to people driving faster and more recklessly on (perceived to be) empty streets and highways. This is unfortunate, but mostly human nature and needs to be solved by better street design. Solutions exist, we just need to reach out and grab them my fellow Americans!
So I think these data support the idea that street designs and a health care system that are at least average compared to modern developed countries would have saved U.S. lives during the pandemic, and would continue to save lives in the future. So can we have nice things or not?
May 2021 in Review
Most frightening and/or depressing story: The Colorado River basin is drying out.
Most hopeful story: An effective vaccine for malaria may be on the way. Malaria kills more children in Africa every year than Covid-19 killed people of all ages in Africa during the worst year of the pandemic. And malaria has been killing children every year for centuries and will continue long after Covid-19 is gone unless something is done.
Most interesting story, that was not particularly frightening or hopeful, or perhaps was a mixture of both: I learned about Lawrence Kohlberg, who had some ideas on the use of moral dilemmas in education.