Link Blog
- For the iPad fans, in case it’s not obvious, that’s a reference to Apple’s “What’s a computer” ad from several years ago.
- Israel is also given access to the most advanced military equipment in the world, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
- The military arm of Hamas has for more than three decades relied on a guerrilla-warfare-style strategy using rockets, snipers, improvised explosive devices and underground tunnels in attacks against Israel.
- The Israeli military has maintained near total control over the borders and movement of people, goods and security in Gaza since 2007.
I’m not sure what’s more frightening here. The lack of competence displayed by local officials that are obviously unprepared for what’s already happening and what’s coming in the near future. Or the citizens that are expecting unrealistic, magic wand solutions. They just expect that local officials will just conjure up solutions on demand.
It’s magical thinking with statements being made in these stories that defy reality. Local officials, citizens and businesses are all just of the opinion that they can and will push forward and reality will bend to their will because they want it to.
It’s absolutely bonkers.
Local communities face hard questions about housing in the age of climate change : NPR
Today on The Sunday Story, a visit to three communities in America trying to balance the need for housing with the threat of climate-driven disaster.
What's a professional?*
I opened Mastodon this morning to find this fun thread about the iPad. It seems to be a reference to the latest episode of the Talk Show, with John Gruber and Casey Liss.
Gruber continues with his odd, angry fixation on the iPad:
You’re making excuses for a platform that has baby computer limits. It’s a 14-year-old platform and you still can’t make iPad apps on an iPad.
Lol, really? Again, I’ll just say that I find it bizarre that pundits are so frustrated, angry even, about a device that they don’t even use. It’s as though they can’t conceive that not everything is made for them. Guys, use your macs and be happy that you have a computer that works for you.
Not everything in this world is made for you. It’s okay to just move on.
Along with Gruber Casey Liss chimed in calling the iPad a toy but suggesting it’s a matter of perspective.
I engaged with Casey a bit and during that back and forth I shared my observation that many if not most tech/Apple podcasts are casual banter meant to be entertainment rather than journalism. Not meant to be derogatory, just a simple statement. He didn’t think it was fair.
LOL. Wait. Fair?
For context, I mean, really. Listen to any random episode of these guys' podcasts, the Talk Show or Accidental Tech Podcast and it’s immediately obvious that this is not journalism.They’re doing casual banter full of opinion, speculation and hot takes often dramatically expressed with great exasperation. I mean, with ATP that seems to be their schtick, right?
I mean, look, at least some of these guys seem to make a pretty good living from podcasting. Which is to say, it’s their profession. They are, ostensibly, professional podcasters and writers. And it’s fine that what they are offering is punditry but they shouldn’t claim otherwise.
The downside is that, at least in the tech “press”, punditry has largely displaced actual, fact-based journalism. And I suspect that many in the public don’t always discern between the two. So when popular podcasters that are viewed as having some authority are casually sharing misinformation, that’s not great.
I’ve written about it before:
Christina Warren:
NGL, a huge part of me loves this even tho I know I would use it once or twice and then never again.
Exhibit 32,018 as to why we are in a #ClimateEmergency. No care or concern about the reckless use and waste of resources. “If I can buy it and it interests me I will, regardless of the long term environmental costs. Not my problem.” Meanwhile, this same privileged 10% claim to care about climate while pointing fingers of blame at corporations and government.
The 10% refuse to take responsibility for the role that their hyper consumerism plays in furthering the crisis.
I love Warner Crocker’s incredibly detailed post about the various ways the iPad fits into his workflow. He gets into the specifics of when the iPad Mini is the better device, when the larger iPad is better and then how the Mac and iPhone are used. Making the best use of the strengths of each form factor for different parts of the process.
I think this might be my all-time favorite “how I use the iPad” posts. Helpful and entertaining!
The iPad Is My Perfect Theatre Rehearsal Tool…
I own the latest models of an 11-inch iPad Pro and also an iPad mini. Love them both. I use them in similar but different ways, fitting the tool to the job of the moment. I may be a gadget geek, but I’m primarily a theatre professional. Most of my work is directing plays. Both serve me well in my job. Currently, I’m working out of town on staging The Lehman Trilogy. Both the iPad Pro and the iPad mini suitably fill my down hours with entertainment and are reliable work horses for the gig. To be honest, their roles as tools are so familiar that to call my usage “rote” would be accurate.
There’s quite a bit more I’d like to quote but better you just read Warner’s post.
Several years ago Apple did a story highlighting how the iPad was being used by archaeologists. This is exactly that kind of story without the corporate baloney.
The war on Palestine and Gaza: Link Roundup
In Gaza, Palestinians Are Running Out of Water and Tears…
The number of Palestinians killed by Israel since October 7is more than 20,000 according to the Gaza Health Ministry, although no one can give an exact number under these circumstances. As I write, in early December, Israel has just bombed a residential bloc in the crowded Shuja’iyya district in Gaza City, destroying 50 more houses on top of their residents. The amount of destruction brought upon the people of Gaza, unseen since 1948, suggests one thing: Israel’s clear intention to depopulate Gaza, a plan that Tel Aviv tried to implement in the past but has never succeeded at.
WHO EMRO | WHO staff member killed in Gaza | News | Media centre
21 November 2023 – With heavy hearts, WHO announces the death of one of our staff in Gaza, in the occupied Palestinian territory. Dima Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj, 29 years old, had been with WHO since December 2019. She worked as a patient administrator at the Limb Reconstruction Centre, a critical part of the WHO Trauma and Emergency Team.
Dima died today when her parents’ house in southern Gaza—where she had evacuated to from Gaza City—was bombed. She was tragically killed alongside her husband, their six-month old baby boy, and her two brothers. Reportedly, over 50 family and community members sheltering in the same house also died.
U.S. condemns Israeli ultranationalist ministers' call to push Palestinians out of Gaza…
The Biden administration on Tuesday issued a strong condemnation of statements made by two senior Israeli ministers who called for pushing Palestinian civilians out of the Gaza Strip. **"**This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible," State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said.
**Why it matters: **It’s the strongest public condemnation the Biden administration has voiced against Israeli government officials since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.
Yeah, too little, too late. Our support of Israel in the current conflict and previous decades of support implicate us in war crimes, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and now, genocide.
The World’s Most Documented Genocide in History…
International law is officially dead
Israel Rebuffs South Africa’s International Court of Justice Case Filing…
South Africa has filed a case at the main judicial body for the United Nations, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. “I believe South Africa will win an order against Israel to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Palestinians,” says Francis Boyle, an international human rights lawyer who won two requests at the ICJ under the Genocide Convention of 1948 for provisional protection on behalf of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Yugoslavia. Boyle says Israel has a history of listening to the United States’ orders to stop its assaults on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “We here in the United States of America have the power to stop this.”
Bread and Circuses: “Sometimes I wonder about justi…” - Climate Justice Social
Sometimes I wonder about justice. People love to talk about it, but in real life how frequently does justice go unmet?
Will adequate reparations ever be made to the millions or billions of people in the Global South who have suffered undeservedly?
And what about the countless plant and animal species who already have been extinguished, gone forever, lost to extinction to feed the greed of man? They have no voice — what could justice mean for them?
#ClimateEmergency #ClimateJustice
Climate Emergency Link Roundup
#ClimateEmergency
The hottest year in recorded history casts doubts on humanity’s ability to deal with a climate crisis of its own making, senior scientists have said.
As historically high temperatures continued to be registered in many parts of the world in late December, the former Nasa scientist James Hansen told the Guardian that 2023 would be remembered as the moment when failures became apparent.
“When our children and grandchildren look back at the history of human-made climate change, this year and next will be seen as the turning point at which the futility of governments in dealing with climate change was finally exposed,” he said.
Amazon drought: ‘We’ve never seen anything like this’
The Amazon rainforest experienced its worst drought on record in 2023. Many villages became unreachable by river, wildfires raged and wildlife died. Some scientists worry events like these are a sign that the world’s biggest forest is fast approaching a point of no return.
Global heating is accelerating, warns scientist who sounded climate alarm in the 80s…
The Earth’s climate is more sensitive to human-caused changes than scientists have realized until now, meaning that a “dangerous” burst of heating will be unleashed that will push the world to be 1.5C hotter than it was, on average, in pre-industrial times within the 2020s and 2C hotter by 2050, the paper published on Thursday predicts … The new research, comprising peer-reviewed work of Hansen and more than a dozen other scientists, argues that this imbalance, the Earth’s greater climate sensitivity and a reduction in pollution from shipping, which has cut the amount of airborne sulphur particles that reflect incoming sunlight, are causing an escalation in global heating.
The Illusions of Fossil Fuels - by Geoffrey Deihl…
We live in an illusion. This illusion has taken place in the blink of an eye. Everything we think of as reality is a mirage, created by the discovery of fossil fuels.
Our minds do a poor job with the concept of time. Consider that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old. Scaled to 46 years, a number we can grasp, human beings have been here for just four hours, and the industrial revolution started one minute ago. In that sliver of time, we have imperiled our survival on this planet.
At this moment, one million species face extinction. Countless others were already consigned to oblivion by our activities. Twenty thousand years ago, humans comprised just one percent of the combined weight of all land vertebrates. Today, we comprise thirty-two percent of that weight and wild animals have been reduced to one percent. The other sixty-seven percent are the domesticated animals we imprison, torture, and eat to sustain our overpopulation. We have outstripped our environment. Any species that does so is destined for collapse.
‘Insanity’: petrostates planning huge expansion of fossil fuels, says UN report…
The world’s fossil fuel producers are planning expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over, a UN report has found. Experts called the plans “insanity” which “throw humanity’s future into question”.
The energy plans of the petrostates contradicted their climate policies and pledges, the report said. The plans would lead to 460% more coal production, 83% more gas, and 29% more oil in 2030 than it was possible to burn if global temperature rise was to be kept to the internationally agreed 1.5C. The plans would also produce 69% more fossil fuels than is compatible with the riskier 2C target.
Humans v nature: our long and destructive journey to the age of extinction…
Although the debate is far from settled, it appears ancient humans took thousands of years to wipe out species in a way modern humans would do in decades. Fast forward to today and we are not just killing megafauna but destroying whole landscapes, often in just a few years. Farming is the primary driver of destruction and, of all mammals on Earth, 96% are either livestock or humans. The UN estimates as many as one million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction.
Readers have told me they like to build small-scale photovoltaic installations like those that power Low-tech Magazine’s website and office…
This guide brings all the information together: what you need, how to wire everything, what your design choices are, where to put solar panels, how to fix them in place (or not), how to split power and install measuring instruments. It deals with solar energy systems that charge batteries and simpler configurations that provide direct solar power.
For anyone interested in taking personal action on climate change, highly recommend this article. The main point: our understanding of climate solutions are wrong. Let the actual data guide you.
#ClimateEmergency
Your Eco-Friendly Lifestyle Is a Big Lie…
In 2021 the polling firm Ipsos asked 21,000 people in 30 countries to choose from a list of nine actions which ones they thought would most reduce greenhouse gas emissions for individuals living in a richer country. Most people picked recycling, followed by buying renewable energy, switching to an electric/hybrid car, and opting for low-energy light bulbs. When these actions were ranked by their actual impact on emissions, recycling was third-from-bottom and low-energy light bulbs were last. None of the top-three options selected by people appeared in the “real” top three when ranked by greenhouse gas reductions, which were having one fewer child, not having a car, and avoiding one long-distance flight.
The war on Palestine and Gaza: Link Roundup
I’ve fallen a bit behind so some of these are a few weeks old. That said, for the purpose of bearing witness it’s not about the most recent news. I just want to note and share what’s happening.
#Gaza
Dozens of Elderly Gazans ‘Executed’ by Israeli Troops: Monitor
“Alarmingly, however, dozens were targeted in killings and field executions,” the NGO alleged. “These incidents included soldiers shooting elderly people immediately after ordering them to evacuate their homes, and in some cases, executing them just moments after their release from hours or days of arbitrary detention.”
CNN Film Shows Horror of Israel’s War on Gaza… Finally, CNN gets a film crew on the ground in Gaza.
What to know about U.S. aid to Israel…
What the U.S. provides
**Most U.S. assistance comes in the form **of weapons grants, and more than 80% of Israel’s weapons imports came from the U.S. between 1950 and 2020.
What to know about Israel’s military strength…
Israel has for decades established itself as one of the most formidable and technologically advanced military powers in the Middle East.
Why it matters: With an annual military budget exceeding $20 billion and access to some of the most advanced U.S. military hardware, Israel controls the skies and much of the sea around its territory, and it has superior cyber capabilities.
Everything we know about Joe Biden’s 50-year history of supporting and facilitating Israel’s worst crimes leads to one conclusion: He wants Israel’s destruction of Gaza — with more than 7,000 children dead — to unfold as it has. When will it stop? Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill and journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous discuss the U.S. role in Israel’s scorched-earth campaign to annihilate Gaza.
#Gaza #Palestine #WarCrimes #Genocide
A Conversation on the Horrors in Gaza with Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous - YouTube
Still no peace in Palestine.
People are desperately searching for survivors after Monday’s attacks by Israeli forces. One man said five of his family members were trapped under the rubble, including his two-month-old child. He said there had been no ambulances or members of the civil defence present since Sunday so he had resorted to digging with his hands. It smells like blood, we see shattered bodies, and we just saw them remove a baby from under the rubble.
#Gaza #Palestine
Many people under the rubble after Israel’s air attacks on central Gaza - YouTube
The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival.
#Gaza #WarCrimes
Israel: Starvation Used as Weapon of War in Gaza | Human Rights Watch
Republican front-runner Donald Trump is escalating his racist rhetoric, repeatedly saying in recent days that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” drawing comparisons to Hitler. Journalist Jeff Sharlet explains Project 2025, an agency-by-agency plan backed by a coalition of conservative groups for implementing fascism if Trump regains power, and how the former president is giving the far right the national stage they’ve always wanted.
Climate Link Roundup
The flow of articles reporting on the climate emergency is impossible to keep up with at this point. One after the other as one might expect. My one link per post sampling is far too little and even so tends to fill my blog. Going to shift to a less frequent round-up style with many links per post.
Also, I’m aware that anyone that cares about this is easily able to keep up on their own. And the people that don’t care by now, well, they can go fuck themselves. Nothing I say or share will help them see what is now plain to see. So, at this point my links on the topic are more for my own purposes as a witness to what’s happening.
An international team of climate scientists has recently published a paper warning that the Earth’s vital signs have deteriorated to levels unprecedented in human history, to the point that life on the planet is imperiled.
William Ripple, a distinguished professor in the Oregon State University College of Forestry, and former OSU postdoctoral researcher Christopher Wolf are the lead authors of the report, and 10 other U.S. and global scientists are co-authors.
“Without actions that address the root problem of humanity taking more from the Earth than it can safely give, we’re on our way to the potential collapse of natural and socioeconomic systems and a world with unbearable heat and shortages of food and fresh water,” Wolf said.
Climate tipping points are nearer than you think. Our new report warns of catastrophic risk
It’s now almost inevitable that 2023 will be the warmest year ever recorded by humans, probably the warmest for at least 125,000 years.
Multiple temperature records were smashed with global average temperatures for some periods well above 1.5°C. Antarctic sea ice loss is accelerating at frightening rates along with many other indicators of rapid climate change. Does this mean 2023 is the year parts of the climate tip into a much more dangerous state?
Most people expect that if a system, like someone’s body, an ecosystem, or part of the climate system, becomes stressed, it’ll respond fairly predictably—double the pressure, double the impact, and so on. This holds in many cases, but is not always true. Sometimes a system under stress changes steadily (or “linearly”) up to a point, but beyond that far bigger or abrupt changes can be locked in.
# Earth will soon cross a scary climate change threshold. What happens next?
Month after [record-breaking month](https://www.noaa.gov/news/topping-charts-september-2023-was-earths-warmest-september-in-174-year-record#:~:text=Year%20to%20date%20(YTD%2C%20January,Africa%20seeing%20its%20second%20warmest.), 2023 is on track to be the hottest year measured in human history.
It has been a year of extraordinary drought, deadly rainfall, and searing heat waves. Extreme temperatures even reached underwater. Much of the southern hemisphere basked in summer-like weather through its winter, reaching all the way down to Antarctica.
Particularly notable is that 2023 may mark the first time global average temperatures have risen above a critical line, providing a glimpse into a world where humanity fails to get climate change under control. By the end of the year, some datasets may show the earth’s temperature on average was 1.5 degrees Celsius, 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, warmer than temperatures before the Industrial Revolution.
Despite climate pledges, Canada and other fossil fuel producers set to scale up production: report
Canada is among a group of top fossil fuel-producing countries on pace to extract more oil and gas than would be consistent with agreed-upon international targets designed to limit global warming, according to a new analysis.
The report, released on Wednesday by the United Nations in collaboration with a team of international scientists, found that countries still plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than would be required to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.
Fossil fuel lobbyists pour into COP28
[2°C is too high for the world’s ice #COP28](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yJKdQZJ30Hw)
“We can’t negotiate with the melting point of ice”. A sobering new report shows that warming of 2 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures will spell disaster for the world’s frozen cryosphere. But as the world’s leaders meet in Dubai to discuss climate action, it’s clear there’s a huge gap between what needs to happen, and what countries are committed to delivering. In this video, I meet Dr James Kirkham, Chief Scientific Advisor for the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, who is working hard to translate the science in this report into real-world policy
Winter isn’t coming: climate change hits Greek olive crop
3 climate impacts the U.S. will see if warming goes beyond 1.5 degrees
Brace for a potentially record-breaking winter after sweltering summer and autumn, say researchers
Chris Hayes: The war in Gaza must end - YouTube
Difficult to watch but more of the same of what we’ve been seeing the past 2+ months.
The US and Israel are partners in war crimes, genocide and apartheid.
“Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge… It can tell us when we’re being lied to. It provides a mid-course correction to our mistakes.”Remembering Carl Sagan, who died on this day in 1996.
Over the years, I have enjoyed my share of animated adaptations of Carl Sagan’s iconic Pale Blue Dot monologue, based on the seminal photograph of Earth taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1990.
Now comes a lovely motion graphics adaptation by animation studio ORDER — enjoy, and see if you can hold back the chills.
Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, Animated in Motion Graphics – The Marginalian
Since October 7, Israel has launched a total war on Gaza, indiscriminately bombing the strip and killing over 19,600 Palestinians. This has led some experts to say Israel is guilty of committing genocide in the occupied territory. But what constitutes genocide? Dr. Penny Green and Astha Sharma Pokharel break down the United Nations' definition of genocide, and the stages leading up to it, to explore if it applies to what’s happening in Gaza.
Is Israel Guilty Of Genocide? - YouTube
#Genocide #Gaza