In a way, I think Facebook has painted itself into a corner. Part of the magic that has made Facebook so successful as a networking tool is the broad connections and the conversations that can start between so many different kinds of people.
Now that so many folks are worried about lack of privacy, there is a contradiction. Getting the word out is kind of the opposite of privacy.
Instead of falsely trying to offer privacy also (trying to be all things to all people), maybe they should have just said Facebook is not about privacy. It's about interconnectedness, sharing and publicity.
This might have mean a few less users and a few less billions in the corporate coffers, but it would be more focused on how this type of networking works best. Maybe it's not for everyone.
Alternatives to Facebook, that try and get off the ground while placing more emphasis on privacy, can't get the ball rolling. It's hard to create the network effect when people are behind privacy walls. Without a bunch of people interacting, other forums can be pretty quite and lonely.
There are various alternatives, though. I hear a lot about Reddit, but haven't used it that much. For photo sharing, I use Flickr a lot. I write long photo descriptions as an outlet for my writing. Flickr gets the pageview hits, but not a lot of feedback.
People, on Facebook, ought to come into it with and understanding of what it is; a networking forum that can make connections far and wide.
A lot of connections are not always what we might expect, but that can create new experiences. I am a fan of diversity in ideas, but I am also a fan of civility. We, as users, need to do our part too.
Monday, September 21, 2020
Sunday, September 20, 2020
Trump rally alluring. The 1970's song YMCA was played. Fun to watch, but like drinking sugary Kool Aid.
I watched part of the Trump Rally in North Carolina. After the speech, they played the song YMCA by the Village People. Folks were dancing with hands in the air.
Bazar.
There is a lot of energy in that song. I've danced to it also, in different circumstances.
As for the speech, I am not bothered by watching. It's kind of alluring. I know it's toxic, but it's like drinking Kool Aid.
Drinking the Kool Aid.
One can learn how so many people think, or its better to say, "how so many people feel." Emotions drive a lot of things.
The speech had promises; like "we are going to hire more police."
I thought who pays for that? Are we going to bail out local governments that pay for the police?
He says, "We are going to protect people with preexisting conditions, take care of the veterans, on and on."
If it were just Trump alone, I think he'd bail out a lot of things. Just call his buddies at Federal Reserve to print up the money. Anything to get votes, but deficit hawks in Congress (the Republican establishment?) have other ideas.
Much of what I heard (I tuned in late) was repeated stories about the deals he's made. There's that new embassy building in Jerusalem that was going to cost over 1 billion dollars till he got on the phone. It's now $500,000; supposedly. There's the new version of Airforce One. He got that down also; supposedly.
The crowd cheers.
A few small stories, but meanwhile things like more police and coverage for preexisting conditions, can cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Hundreds of billions when implemented across this big country. A bigger story than just an embassy or an airplane. Looking at the big picture, things don't add up behind the sales pitch.
Bazar.
There is a lot of energy in that song. I've danced to it also, in different circumstances.
As for the speech, I am not bothered by watching. It's kind of alluring. I know it's toxic, but it's like drinking Kool Aid.
Drinking the Kool Aid.
One can learn how so many people think, or its better to say, "how so many people feel." Emotions drive a lot of things.
The speech had promises; like "we are going to hire more police."
I thought who pays for that? Are we going to bail out local governments that pay for the police?
He says, "We are going to protect people with preexisting conditions, take care of the veterans, on and on."
If it were just Trump alone, I think he'd bail out a lot of things. Just call his buddies at Federal Reserve to print up the money. Anything to get votes, but deficit hawks in Congress (the Republican establishment?) have other ideas.
Much of what I heard (I tuned in late) was repeated stories about the deals he's made. There's that new embassy building in Jerusalem that was going to cost over 1 billion dollars till he got on the phone. It's now $500,000; supposedly. There's the new version of Airforce One. He got that down also; supposedly.
The crowd cheers.
A few small stories, but meanwhile things like more police and coverage for preexisting conditions, can cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Hundreds of billions when implemented across this big country. A bigger story than just an embassy or an airplane. Looking at the big picture, things don't add up behind the sales pitch.
Thursday, September 17, 2020
A slow growth economy throws a monkey wrench into the meritocracy
Another interesting interview I heard.
There is a high bar of education, credentials and merit that prevents a lot of workers from having a sense of dignity and in many cases even a livable wage. A meritocracy which could be thought of as an elitism.
One of the factors that could have caused some labor vote to break with Democrats and vote for Trump in 2016.
A point that wasn't mentioned tho, is this thought I have had for a long time.
A slow growth economy makes it harder for people rise in their career paths. I think slow growth is partially the result of environmental limits on growth. Also the problem of increasing income inequality.
When I was a child, I remember thinking that the economy was growing pretty fast and people seemed like their career paths were advancing. Then, sometime in the early 1970's, it seemed like that growth stagnated and never fully recovered. Here in Washington State, that was the time when the famous Boeing layoff hit Seattle.
Before the 1970's, as I was growing up in a college town, the college was growing. Hiring more faculty, constructing more buildings. Seemed like it wouldn't be that hard to rise in a career path.
Then everything slowed down. Budget cuts and so forth. Rising into the professional class became more difficult. More competitive. Even remaining in the middle class became harder.
Part of this relates to slow economic growth, but I think slow growth isn't necessarily all bad given the environmental effects of the types of growth we had in the past.
Without much career advance, one can still have a life of dignity; like what I think I have had, but this has been hard for a lot of people. Especially hard for people trying to raise families.
As income inequality has risen, the cost of basics, such as housing, has risen along with it. Also the cost of professional services, such as medical care as well as the cost of sending kids to college.
There's a gap between the 1% and the rest of society, but there is also a gap between the top (say) 20% professionals and the rest of working society. The higher cost of professional services is pushing up things like the cost of higher education. This ontop of the reduction in state support as a percentage of the cost of college.
As for the perception of elitism, the institution of faculty tenure comes to mind. It was invented to protect professors from the whims of politicians firing someone for unpopular views. This makes sense, but it was started at a time when universities were growing and hiring new faculty. When things stagnated, the number of tenure positions stagnated creating more of a barrier to entry. It became more of a zero sum game. That's when people notice some dead wood among those with tenure while talented people get turned away from teaching due to lack of available positions.
I don't mean to focus just on colleges, but that has been my background growing up in a college town. It's been an issue across the entire economy. An upper middle class harder to enter and upper middle class income becoming more necessary for a stable life. As a culture, we haven't adapted that well to a slow growth economy. Slow growth partially a necessity for protecting the environment.
There is a high bar of education, credentials and merit that prevents a lot of workers from having a sense of dignity and in many cases even a livable wage. A meritocracy which could be thought of as an elitism.
One of the factors that could have caused some labor vote to break with Democrats and vote for Trump in 2016.
A point that wasn't mentioned tho, is this thought I have had for a long time.
A slow growth economy makes it harder for people rise in their career paths. I think slow growth is partially the result of environmental limits on growth. Also the problem of increasing income inequality.
When I was a child, I remember thinking that the economy was growing pretty fast and people seemed like their career paths were advancing. Then, sometime in the early 1970's, it seemed like that growth stagnated and never fully recovered. Here in Washington State, that was the time when the famous Boeing layoff hit Seattle.
Before the 1970's, as I was growing up in a college town, the college was growing. Hiring more faculty, constructing more buildings. Seemed like it wouldn't be that hard to rise in a career path.
Then everything slowed down. Budget cuts and so forth. Rising into the professional class became more difficult. More competitive. Even remaining in the middle class became harder.
Part of this relates to slow economic growth, but I think slow growth isn't necessarily all bad given the environmental effects of the types of growth we had in the past.
Without much career advance, one can still have a life of dignity; like what I think I have had, but this has been hard for a lot of people. Especially hard for people trying to raise families.
As income inequality has risen, the cost of basics, such as housing, has risen along with it. Also the cost of professional services, such as medical care as well as the cost of sending kids to college.
There's a gap between the 1% and the rest of society, but there is also a gap between the top (say) 20% professionals and the rest of working society. The higher cost of professional services is pushing up things like the cost of higher education. This ontop of the reduction in state support as a percentage of the cost of college.
As for the perception of elitism, the institution of faculty tenure comes to mind. It was invented to protect professors from the whims of politicians firing someone for unpopular views. This makes sense, but it was started at a time when universities were growing and hiring new faculty. When things stagnated, the number of tenure positions stagnated creating more of a barrier to entry. It became more of a zero sum game. That's when people notice some dead wood among those with tenure while talented people get turned away from teaching due to lack of available positions.
I don't mean to focus just on colleges, but that has been my background growing up in a college town. It's been an issue across the entire economy. An upper middle class harder to enter and upper middle class income becoming more necessary for a stable life. As a culture, we haven't adapted that well to a slow growth economy. Slow growth partially a necessity for protecting the environment.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Recent Goal Keeper's report says world prosperity now in reverse. I wonder if world has reached peak prosperity?
Something called the Goal Keepers Report, from the Gates Foundation, has recently come out with a report saying world poverty is increasing again. Poverty had been in decline for quite a few years. Prosperity and health was on the increase, but most recently, these trends may have reversed. Report cites the corona virus pandemic as the main cause.
My thinking goes beyond to wondering if the world has reached something that could be called "peak prosperity?" Beyond just the virus, global warming brings other threats to the global economy.
Unless there are major changes in our ways of living and doing business, the growth of prosperity could have stalled.
There have been big problems all along, but increasing global prosperity has brought a form of complacency. Dire predictions of global die offs and the ongoing extinction of species has been countered by an overall increase in world prosperity. How long can these contradictions last?
World population growth continues to be a big problem, tho it has been slowing down as much of the world's standard of living has improved. There may be a limit to how much prosperity we can create for how many people. A limit given the way most of the world has been functioning up until now. Continuing dependency on fossil fuels as a case in point.
This report focused on effects of the pandemic, but I'm thinking beyond and questioning whether prosperity, itself, may have stalled.
Some people are critical of Bill Gates for having much wealth, himself. Still, I would guess the foundation does have a lot of knowledge about worldwide trends. Many of the things the foundation is trying to do are beneficial, such as research on vaccines.
Sometimes I do think about the Microsoft fortune in relation to the concept of missed opportunity, however. Much of it's work has focused on improving global health and education. The world is a big place and it seems like just drops in the bucket tho I'm sure it has been beneficial to many lives. Not always visible from our North American vantage point.
Meanwhile, in Seattle Metropolitan area, where Microsoft and the Gates Foundation are headquartered, the area is becoming, in some ways, more dysfunctional. I think lost opportunity.
Investments could have been made for Seattle area to solve it's traffic gridlock problems, lack of affordable housing, carbon footprint, transit and so forth.
One can't necessarily blame Microsoft for all of this as the whole culture, in USA, isn't that conducive to sustainable living. Former Microsoft Billionare Paul Allen comes more to mind with his local investments in sports teams for Seattle and the Experience Music Project.
It would have been neat if Seattle could have been a world leader for making it's city more livable, investing in affordable housing, transit, bike paths and so forth. It has done some, but the problems of population growth and traditional visions of prosperity outpaces the greener visions. At least one thinks dysfunctional looking at the traffic and the cost of living. Remember the CHOP Zone and social unrest. Does that city no longer work?
One way forward, for the world, is to look at things in Europe, I guess. Cities like (from what I've heard) Copenhagen in Denmark as examples of city planning and greener living. Cities that are prosperous. The world ought to aspire to be like those places.
Seattle area isn't that great an example.
My thinking goes beyond to wondering if the world has reached something that could be called "peak prosperity?" Beyond just the virus, global warming brings other threats to the global economy.
Unless there are major changes in our ways of living and doing business, the growth of prosperity could have stalled.
There have been big problems all along, but increasing global prosperity has brought a form of complacency. Dire predictions of global die offs and the ongoing extinction of species has been countered by an overall increase in world prosperity. How long can these contradictions last?
World population growth continues to be a big problem, tho it has been slowing down as much of the world's standard of living has improved. There may be a limit to how much prosperity we can create for how many people. A limit given the way most of the world has been functioning up until now. Continuing dependency on fossil fuels as a case in point.
This report focused on effects of the pandemic, but I'm thinking beyond and questioning whether prosperity, itself, may have stalled.
Some people are critical of Bill Gates for having much wealth, himself. Still, I would guess the foundation does have a lot of knowledge about worldwide trends. Many of the things the foundation is trying to do are beneficial, such as research on vaccines.
Sometimes I do think about the Microsoft fortune in relation to the concept of missed opportunity, however. Much of it's work has focused on improving global health and education. The world is a big place and it seems like just drops in the bucket tho I'm sure it has been beneficial to many lives. Not always visible from our North American vantage point.
Meanwhile, in Seattle Metropolitan area, where Microsoft and the Gates Foundation are headquartered, the area is becoming, in some ways, more dysfunctional. I think lost opportunity.
Investments could have been made for Seattle area to solve it's traffic gridlock problems, lack of affordable housing, carbon footprint, transit and so forth.
One can't necessarily blame Microsoft for all of this as the whole culture, in USA, isn't that conducive to sustainable living. Former Microsoft Billionare Paul Allen comes more to mind with his local investments in sports teams for Seattle and the Experience Music Project.
It would have been neat if Seattle could have been a world leader for making it's city more livable, investing in affordable housing, transit, bike paths and so forth. It has done some, but the problems of population growth and traditional visions of prosperity outpaces the greener visions. At least one thinks dysfunctional looking at the traffic and the cost of living. Remember the CHOP Zone and social unrest. Does that city no longer work?
One way forward, for the world, is to look at things in Europe, I guess. Cities like (from what I've heard) Copenhagen in Denmark as examples of city planning and greener living. Cities that are prosperous. The world ought to aspire to be like those places.
Seattle area isn't that great an example.
Friday, September 11, 2020
To save the planet, we need voluntary simplicity in the short run at least
On this 19 year anniversary of the 911 attacks, large parts of America are burning.
I read that over 10% of the residents in the state of Oregon have had to evacuate wildfires. That's over 500,000 people. Fires are bad in California, Oregon and Washington. Climate change is creating a new normal in our drought stricken western forests.
Here in Bellingham, the thick haze of unhealthy smoky air has arrived today. Up until now, we've mostly just experienced the red sunsets from distant fires; deceptively beautiful, but now the heavier smoke, that's closer to the ground, has arrived.
This area has, so far, escaped the fires as we did have some late season rains this year. If fires were to get bad in this region, I live in an urban setting, rather than on the urban rural fringe. Urban settings tend to be safer in wildfire situations.
Seems like the bigger problem with climate change might not be believing that it is happening (except for a minority of people and some very prominent politicians). The big problem is figuring out what to do about it. Voting out those mostly Republican politicians is one thing we can do.
Seems like the traffic is getting worse and worse in Bellingham. Lifestyles still too dependent on automobiles; especially automobiles that run on fossil fuels.
I think a lot of people feel like they can't change because of economics. Bills have to be paid, rents and mortgages have to be paid, families have to be cared for.
The economic system has to keep churning out good and services so these bills can be paid. The virus has slowed this to some extent, but that has left lots of folks without the ability to pay for things like rent.
I think, at least in the short run, voluntary simplicity and a less materialistic society would help, but a lot of folks have to buy into the flow to earn their keep.
In the long run technology can save us. Solar energy, for instance. Even technology does need some short term sacrifices; like carbon taxes, to give it more of a nudge.
These sacrifices can hit low income people harder; especially folks dependent on long commutes for work.
A lot of things from economics to zoning to lifestyles to population growth need to be rethought all at once.
I read that over 10% of the residents in the state of Oregon have had to evacuate wildfires. That's over 500,000 people. Fires are bad in California, Oregon and Washington. Climate change is creating a new normal in our drought stricken western forests.
Here in Bellingham, the thick haze of unhealthy smoky air has arrived today. Up until now, we've mostly just experienced the red sunsets from distant fires; deceptively beautiful, but now the heavier smoke, that's closer to the ground, has arrived.
This area has, so far, escaped the fires as we did have some late season rains this year. If fires were to get bad in this region, I live in an urban setting, rather than on the urban rural fringe. Urban settings tend to be safer in wildfire situations.
Seems like the bigger problem with climate change might not be believing that it is happening (except for a minority of people and some very prominent politicians). The big problem is figuring out what to do about it. Voting out those mostly Republican politicians is one thing we can do.
Seems like the traffic is getting worse and worse in Bellingham. Lifestyles still too dependent on automobiles; especially automobiles that run on fossil fuels.
I think a lot of people feel like they can't change because of economics. Bills have to be paid, rents and mortgages have to be paid, families have to be cared for.
The economic system has to keep churning out good and services so these bills can be paid. The virus has slowed this to some extent, but that has left lots of folks without the ability to pay for things like rent.
I think, at least in the short run, voluntary simplicity and a less materialistic society would help, but a lot of folks have to buy into the flow to earn their keep.
In the long run technology can save us. Solar energy, for instance. Even technology does need some short term sacrifices; like carbon taxes, to give it more of a nudge.
These sacrifices can hit low income people harder; especially folks dependent on long commutes for work.
A lot of things from economics to zoning to lifestyles to population growth need to be rethought all at once.
Monday, September 07, 2020
Photos from my 2020 bike tour now online
For various reasons, my 2020 tour was fairly short. More may come before year's end. Touring during the corona virus crisis. Could have done more, but that's what I've done in 2020. From Bellingham to Mount Walker on Olympic Peninsula and then back. 250 biking miles. Two rides on the ferry going to and back and two segments by bus. I took the bus to avoid a bad part of Highway 20. Click on photos for descriptions.
Photos from this and my other most recent trips since 2018.
Thursday, September 03, 2020
Some say that most COVID-19 deaths were among folks with already existing illnesses. That's most Americans. The popular vision of the rugged individualist, self reliant American clashes with the reality of the unhealthy American. A society of compassion is needed.
A few people, especially on the right, are downplaying the severity of COVID-19 since a large percent of the people who have died already had other preexisting conditions; such as obesity and diabetes. People might say that some of the measures to slow the spread of this disease are unnecessary since the problem is more about poor health than the disease itself.
It's true, lots of Americans are in poor health. Possibly the majority of Americans. Obesity is rampant. For that reason alone, we need to take measures to protect people if we are a compassionate society.
The popular vision of the rugged individualist, self reliant American clashes with the reality of the unhealthy American.
Having said that, I also realize that this is a serious disease, in itself and lots of healthy people can die and be made really sick just from the disease by itself.
On the other hand the state of poor health of Americans is a big factor. It contradicts with the image that people on the right like to push related to the rugged individualist and self reliance. That vision of America and the reality of the American population are in conflict.
My own political agenda calls for more bicycling and healthier lifestyles. That isn't the reality where most people are at, but it can help. American culture tends to push people away from healthy lifestyles.
Stress is a problem. Sedentary work, long commutes by car, lots of screen time. Lots of money made selling sugary foods. You get the idea.
Much of American life is a matter of contradictions.
It's true, lots of Americans are in poor health. Possibly the majority of Americans. Obesity is rampant. For that reason alone, we need to take measures to protect people if we are a compassionate society.
The popular vision of the rugged individualist, self reliant American clashes with the reality of the unhealthy American.
Having said that, I also realize that this is a serious disease, in itself and lots of healthy people can die and be made really sick just from the disease by itself.
On the other hand the state of poor health of Americans is a big factor. It contradicts with the image that people on the right like to push related to the rugged individualist and self reliance. That vision of America and the reality of the American population are in conflict.
My own political agenda calls for more bicycling and healthier lifestyles. That isn't the reality where most people are at, but it can help. American culture tends to push people away from healthy lifestyles.
Stress is a problem. Sedentary work, long commutes by car, lots of screen time. Lots of money made selling sugary foods. You get the idea.
Much of American life is a matter of contradictions.
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