Before the pictures of the fate of democratizing technology, for context, let’s remember that humans lived and thrived for hundreds of thousands of years without even the wheel. Despite our erroneous projections of our fears of what life outside society would be like, our best evidence from history, anthropology, and archaeology tell us they lived with comparable of often higher signs of Health Mental health Diet Stability Equality Longevity Resilience[…] Keep reading →

This post is me trying to express the sadness I feel seeing litter everywhere, increasing, imagining the beauty Manhattan island once held before we paved it over; seeing how doof covers over beauty of the human body with disease and excess. My sadness runs deeper than that lost beauty. I lament the abdication and capitulation of responsibility. At least half the people I see walking the streets of this city[…] Keep reading →

Podcast guest Dr. Michael Greger, M.D. FACLM did a video on doof, which he calls ultraprocessed food, junk food, or ultraprocessed junk food. He’s a multiple time number one bestselling author and host of Nutritionfacts.org. Experience shows me that using the word food confuses people into thinking it’s food when it isn’t. Just because something fills your belly when you’re hungry doesn’t mean it’s food. Heroin would make the hunger[…] Keep reading →

As an author who reads a lot, I’ve long posted reviews of books I’ve read and felt deserved five stars on Amazon. I can’t any more because of Amazon’s new policy. They had a problem with fake reviews. They addressed the problem by requiring accounts to spend at least fifty dollars per year to be allowed to post reviews. I don’t think I’ve spent a penny there in ten years.[…] Keep reading →

Today, April 20, in 1964, Nelson Mandela, on trial for sabotage with about a dozen other men, for which they would be found guilty, instead of a defense, spoke for almost four hours, closing with the words entitling this post. Here is the full text he read from. I recommend taking a moment today to review the story. Here is one video among many others and the Rivonia Trial Wikipedia[…] Keep reading →

People used to walk across the country. I recently read that before cities, people used to travel more, and that cities led people to travel less, thousands of years ago (source: The Dawn of Everything, which I’m in the middle of and love so far). In fairness, because of cities’ diversity, people in cities may have experienced more diversity in people without traveling far, but walking, riding horses, and sailing[…] Keep reading →

People and nations are funding Russia’s invading Ukraine, where tens of thousands have died and millions have become refugees. The laws of supply and demand dictate that any use drives up price, so any use helps fund Russia, being such a big supplier. Everyone acts like the only alternative to burning fossil fuels is burning different fossil fuels, as if humans haven’t thrived for hundreds of thousands of years without[…] Keep reading →