Random Notes from a Crank

 

I got this meme from "Eat the Rich" on FB. It's appropriate. We only have so many natural resources and probably way too many unnatural ones.  

In my job I have to work with first-year students, who are usually 18-year-olds. Their inability to use the basic "attach file" function of email is astounding. Yes, I know how that statement makes me sound old as Hell. 

As reported in The New York Times, the enrollment of international students has steeply declined. President Adolf's hurdles have turned us into the United States of Xenophobia. Here's the article: "Trumps Tactics Mean Many International Students Won't Make It to Campus."

I dislike the statement, "It's been a minute." People try to make it sound funny, but it just sounds stupid. 

This political cartoon by Nick Anderson is relevant to how President Adolf is trying to sugar coat the reality of slavery as presented by the Smithsonian. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I haven't chimed in yet about the eventual cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but the fact he's getting his show taken away is ridiculous. 

He has the highest-rated late-night show on TV. 

Two days before he found out he was losing his show he criticized Paramount for caving to bribing Trump so they can get its media merger. 

Here's a comic that was in Saturday's Washington Post from Tom the Dancing Bug. 

I'm surprised Bezos is letting this cartoonist do his thing since he attended President Adolf's inauguration and is trying to limit the coverage of opinions in what was an esteemed paper. 

Meanwhile, Congress passed a budget that adds to the deficit/national debt and simply helps rich people and corporations. 

And Adolf's tariff's are unlikely, as the authors of "Trumps Global Tariffs 'Victory' May Well Come at a High Price," to do what he purports them to do: "But history tells us that his overarching aim - to return production and jobs to America - may meet with very limited success. And America's long-time trading partners, like Canada and the EU, could start looking to form economic and political connections that bypass what they no longer view as a reliable economic ally." 

Jobs aren't going to return to the U.S. because of these stupid tariffs. Our trading partners are going to find more stable countries to trade with. And prices for Americans are going to go up because of tariffs. 

I'm glad I bought a half of cow over a year ago because apparently beef prices are high as hell. 

And eggs haven't gone down.  

Musing of the Moment: Bark Box Adjusting to Tariffs

 

We got my dog's bark box the other day, and this was the message we got because the toys and treats were not in a box. They came in a bag. 

My hope is that more companies make similar moves in regard to Moscow Don's tariffs to expose the stupidity of his economic policies. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Lots of things are going to get more expensive. 

A bunch of idiots are counting on Moscow Don to make some deals that help the U.S. and bring business and industry back to the United States. The New York Times has a good article on this nonsense: "A Flashing Economic Warning and a Sharp Political Jolt." 

The Canadian Prime Minister, who has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oxford, has a more realistic view of what's happening: "Our old relationship with the United States, a relationship based on steadily increasing integration, is over. The system of open global trade anchored but the United States, a system that Canada has relied on since the Second World War, a system that, while not perfect, has helped deliver prosperity for a country for decades, is over."

What's more menacing is how President Adolf tariff nonsense has strengthened China's position in the world economy. China is now importing soybeans from South American and getting its beef and pork from other countries. 

I woke up in a pissed-off mood this morning because I was thinking about how the head coach of high school basketball team basically wasted my son's junior year. And to a certain extent, the head coach of the high school baseball team is doing something similar. 

As I was driving to a baseball game yesterday, I caught the broadcast of the Barcelona-Inter Milan Champions League match, the first tie of two matches. It sounded like it was bananas. 

Based on the highlights, it was. 

I don't have a team I'm rooting for in that competition, but I certainly want PSG to beat Arsenal. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In a FAFO moment, the current administration is denying disaster relief to ruby red Arkansas, which is surely a stinging rebuke to his former press secretary who is the governor of the Natural State. 

If you like this image, I got it from SheTraps. 

Apparently, President Adolf and his goons want to eliminate FEMA and leave relief funding/repairs to states and local governments. I'm not sure how that's going to work. That idea is as illogical as his dumbass tariffs. 

The Guardian has a good article about it: "Trump Denies Aid for Arkansas after Storms That Killed More than 40 People." 

Ah, the result of GOP Complicity...

Some Chinese folks on social media are doing some good work: "For China's Trolls, 'Chairman Trump' and "Eyeliner Man' Are Easy Targets." Check out the video of the "Chinese Trump." 

I've been using a 50/50 white vinegar and water mix for cleaning for years. The BBC has an interesting article about the benefits of using vinegar: "'Its Strength Is Its Simplicity': The Benefits of Cleaning with Vinegar." 

Archeologists found a skeleton that provides proof that gladiators had to fight large mammals: "A Roman Gladiator and a Lion Met in Combat. Only One Walked Away." So all those movies about gladiators have some proof about depictions. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In the wake of all kinds of deregulation from the Adolf administration, the U.S. is set be a hell of a lot less safe and more polluted: "Inside Trump's Plan to Halt Hundreds of Regulations." 

I saw a clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart talking to Rahm Emanuel about who will become the next leader of the Democratic Party, who will become the next presidential candidate. 

Emanuel seemed to think that the next leader will be a governor, which got me contemplating which governors would be good choices: 

• Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan)
• Josh Shapiro (Pennsylvania)
• J.B. Pritzker (Illinois)
• Andy Beshear (Kentucky)
• Tim Walz (Minnesota)

I'd be fine with any of those people. Beshear is the only person from a traditionally red state.

The notion that other countries "stole" American jobs is asinine. The ultra wealthy and greedy corporations moved those jobs to other countries because they didn't want to pay U.S. workers what they deserved and didn't want to follow sensible environmental regulations. Instead, they wanted to employ sweatshop cheap workers in foreign countries. 

Moscow Don and his cronies are defying court orders. We are in a constitutional crisis. 

President Adolf has bankrupt this country morally and ethically. And don't forget money. The guy who somehow got a casino to go bankrupt is fleecing Americans because of his stupid tariffs and his dumb economic policies like tax cuts for the wealthy. 

Random Notes from a Crank

The Washington Post has an interesting article up about how the building industry should learn from the work of the ancient Romans: "These Old Roman Buildings Could Unlock How to Build in a Warming World." The basic premise is that you can reuse a lot of building materials rather than destroying everything from a previous building and dumping it in a landfill. 

As the author says, "demolition, today, is a perverse luxury of economies where materials are cheap and labor expensive. It is a ubiquitous part of the architectural cycle -- building, erasing, and rebuilding -- with thought to the reuse of old materials, or the environmental cost of creating ever new supplies of concrete, steel, and gypsum board." 

As I am sure other left-leaning pundits have opined, if you are a Democratic candidate for a competitive House or Senate seat in the midterms, whether for federal or state office, you surely want to Elon Musk to campaign for sychophantic GOP candidate. 

Or at the very least the Democratic candidate needs to show how much Musk donated to the GOP campaign. 

The guy gets people angry and motivated. 

Unfortunately, the actor Val Kilmer died. On one of the SiriusXM stations I listen to regularly, the host recommended the documentary about him simply titled Val. 

I enjoy reading newspapers outside the U.S. to get a good perspective on things: "Trump Goes Full Gameshow Host to Push His Tariff Plan - And Nobody's a Winner."

Random Notes from a Crank

President Adolf and his goons and charlatans are planning even more tariffs to happen on April 2 according to The Washington Post: "Trump Aides Prep More Tariffs for April 2 on Imports Worth Billions."

He's wanting to do something similar to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which helped deepen the Great Depression. History often rhymes. 

Here's a political cartoon from Nick Anderson that shows what's going to happen. 

As expected, Putin is playing Moscow Don like a fiddle: "Trump-Putin Call Seen as a Victory in Russia." 

The only positive I can see from a trade war is that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, among other such entities in Canada, have pulled US products from their shelves. I wonder if these moves could reduce the price of bourbon here in the US. 

The prices of bourbon are ridiculous. I used to be able to get all kinds of different bourbons at decent prices, but the flippin' hipsters have latched on to the liquor, which has driven up prices across the board. There are some YouTube bourbon guys who consider "budget" bourbons to be a bottle under $50. 

WTF?

There are some bourbons I used to be able to get on a regular basis, such Very Old Barton 100, Early Times Bonded, and Eagle Rare, that I can't find anymore. 

So if there's an excess of bourbon (supply), perhaps the demand will start getting met more effectively. Hopefully by me. 

Regardless, the hipsters need to become more interested in a different spirit, such as rum or gin. 

At the nudging of Mrs. Nasty, I've joined Tik Tok. I'm using my same pseudonym. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Here are some interesting factoids from the Harper's Indexes from March and May: 

• Percentage of Americans who say that the nation's crime rates are getting worse: 77
• Who say that crime is an "extremely serious" or "very serious" problem in their local area: 17
• Percentage decrease in murders in the United States in the past year: 12
• Percentage change since 2009 in the portion of white evangelical Americans who say that gay people face discrimination: -34
• Who say that white evangelicals face discrimination: +43
• Portion of Americans who say they would not vote for a presidential candidate who has been charged with a felony: 2/3
• Percentage of Americans who say that the United States should spend more money on assistance for poor people: 72
• Percentage who say so when this assistance is called "welfare": 29
• Factor by which low-income Americans are more likely than others to identify as vegetarian: 2
• Percentage decrease in the number of Americans who identify as vegetarian since 2018: 20
• Percentage of Americans who believe they will be harmed personally by climate change: 45
• Percentage change in the total net worth of white Americans since 2019: +26
• In the total net worth of black Americans: -4
• In the total net worth of American adults under 40: +76
• Percentage by which employees who work in person are more likely to be promoted than those who work exclusively from home: 45

Steven Pinker's book, Enlightenment Now, connects to the point that people automatically think crime is always getting worse. 

White evangelicals are the worst. 

We'll see if voters follow through on not voting for a felonious, narcissistic, pathological liar. 

The difference in attitudes about "assistance for poor people" and "welfare" is a classic case of framing language. 

I find it odd that there are fewer people identifying as vegetarian. Perhaps those vegetarians are turning vegan? 

It makes sense that people who actually work with others in person are more likely to be promoted. 

Musing of the Moment: Harper's Indexes

Here are some interesting stats and numbers from the November and December Harper's Indexes:

• Percentage by which U.S. women are more likely than men to have a tattoo: 41
• Portion of U.S. adults with tattoos who regret getting at least one of them: 1/4
• Increase since 1984 in the median age of first-time U.S. home buyers: 7
• Portion of prospective U.S. home buyers who say they consider climate change when evaluating where to live: 4/5
• Percentage change this year in sales of Bud Light: -16
• In sales of Modelo Especial: +11
• Factor by which beer imports from Mexico have increased since 2013: 2
• Percentage by which beer imports from other countries have decreased: 29
• Percentage change in the divorce rate between 2008 and 2020: -31
• In the divorce rate between 2020 and 2022: +2
• Percentage of millennials who are not planning to get married: 21
• Of adult Gen-Z-ers who are not: 7
• Percentage of U.S. adults who say the political system is working "very" or "extremely" well: 4
• Who express little confidence in the future of the political system: 63
• Who say there is too little attention paid to the important issues facing the country: 78

I have noticed women tend to have more tattoos than men these days. I had a student write a paper years ago that went against the conventional wisdom that tattoos people get are there to show one's individuality. His take was that getting a tattoo was more of a herd mentality issue with many people getting the same kinds of tattoos (certain trends), especially women. 

The so-called conservative war against Bud Light because of a transgender spokesperson is so stupid. Apparently many of these Bud Light drinkers are switching to Modelo, which is humorous because during the Trump administration that company ran TV ads that were clearly trolling Moscow Don and his hateful speech about Mexicans and immigrants. That's some serious irony. 

The rise in the divorce rate obviously has a number of factors, but it's possible the pandemic was a significant cause--and possibly the support of a certain presidential candidate. But then again, that increase should have happened in 2016. Maybe it was because certain people voted for that charlatan a second time?

With the GOP having an advantage with having two Senators for dinky population states and the stupidity of not giving Puerto Rico and D.C. statehood and an uninformed citizenry voting for candidates for stupid reasons, it's no surprise 78% think the political system is not paying attention to climate change, economic inequality, pollution, the wage gap, educational issues, good jobs in the U.S., and other concerns. 

The House, for example, has done next to nothing for years under GOP leadership. Many members of Congress are more concerned about winning elections and raising campaign funds than actually doing something to make the country better. They just want to do some political hokum to get votes. 

The GOP asserts that the "government" doesn't work. Then they get control of a significant branch of it and show everyone that it doesn't work because of their leadership. A dog chasing its own tail. 

Musing of the Moment: Billionaires in Space

There is a belief among followers of the GOP that trickle-down economics works - that giving tax breaks to the rich will eventually flow downhill to the middle and lower classes.

If you want a prime example of how that belief is total bullshit, consider Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos launching themselves and their buddies to the edge of space. 

When they got back, they celebrated with champagne like they just launched a yacht. 

It doesn't trickle down. They build rockets with it. 

It's not trickle down. It's pissing on the middle class and the poor.  

Random Notes from a Crank

If you're someone like me who gives a damn about our planet, read Ben Ehrenreich's "We're Hurtling Toward Global Suicide" in The New Republic. It a solid, sober article about the climate crisis and how one underlying assumption is highly problematic.

Most climate models and climate change purveyors still assume unlimited growth in relation to finite resources works. It doesn't. 

I've been watching the European Championship 2021 so far this summer, and it's been fun. Ronaldo's Portugal won the last one.

Here are the teams I'm rooting for. I like England's squad because they have mainly Premier League players, but I also Denmark since I'm part Dane and Wales because I like Gareth Bale and Joe Rodon because of their affiliation with Tottenham Hotspur. Denmark, unfortunately, had a massive scare with what happened to Christian Eriksen. 

If I'm a betting man, I'd put my money on France. They are the front runner in the competition. 

Random Notes from a Crank

An interesting article in The Washington Post relates that some GOP advisors are worried about losing the Senate: "Republicans Grow Nervous about Losing the Senate Amid Worries of Trump's Handling of the Coronavirus."

I've been watching the polling in Senate races for a while now because I am hopeful of the GOP losing a number of those races. The four most talked about are in North Carolina, Maine, Colorado, and Arizona. I am worried about Jones losing in Alabama because, well, it's Alabama. 

I hadn't heard much about the Kansas race (as the article details a bit), but that factor makes sense since the 2016 flipping of Kansas in a number of elections. As a native Iowan, I would love for Ernst to be booted out of office. And I would be extremely happy if Lindsey Graham and Moscow Mitch have to hit the bricks. But those are long shots.  

I've watched a number of Amazon series during the lockdown. 

The Expanse has been a scary, suspense-filled treat. In a lot of these sci-fi novels and television shows though they depict the world as being run by the United Nations, such as in The Expanse and Altered Carbon, which is a bit odd because in our current reality the UN is fairly ineffectual. Regardless, The Expanse has a number of interesting visual representations of the world after climate change. 

I recently finished Beyond the Loop, which is an eerie yet poignant TV series. 

Here are factoids and stats from May's "Harper's Index," which were compiled as of March 2020:

• Percentage of Americans who operate doors and sinks in public restrooms with paper towels to avoid germs: 65
• Who flush with their feet: 44
• Who hover over the toilet seat: 29
• Number of countries that are carbon-negative: 2
• Estimated number of Americans who spend at least three hours commuting each day: $4,300,000
• Percentage of Democrats who believe that their personal finances will improve over the next year: 60
• Of Republicans who do: 83
• Portion of Trump's 2019 tweets that were live responses to Fox New or Fox Business programs: 1/10
• Factor by which Americans go to the library more often than they go to the movies: 2
• Estimated number of dead-end streets in the world: 17,680,000
• Portion of those dead ends that are in the United States: 1/4

Random Notes from a Crank

I've been trying to catch up on my magazine reading, and the December issue of The Atlantic is quite good, an issue that is chocked full of interesting reads. 

I've thought about reading Tara Westover's memoir, Educated, and her short interview titled "Left Behind" in print is titled "The Places Where the Recession Never Ended" online and is quite illuminating. Since I live in a rural part of the Midwest, I tend to agree with a number of the contentions at the end of the interview, such as these areas tend to be the harbinger of the "old economy" and that the opioid epidemic is hitting rural areas hard. 

As pundits and well-seasoned writers are wont to do when examining the Republican Party, "How America Ends" looks at how the GOP under Moscow Don is targeting a shrinking demographic and how the party might be prone to doing all sorts of heinous crap to keep their hold and sustain their perception as "real Americans." 

Here are some factoids from the last two versions of the Harper's Index:

• Percentage of Uber riders who never tip: 60
• Who always tip: 1
• Estimated number of people who could go unaccounted for in the 2020 census because of an "increased climate of fear": 4,000,000
• Average effective tax rate, as a percentage of income, paid by the richest 400 households in the United States in 2018: 23
• By the poorest half of American households: 24
• Percentage by which owning a dog lowers one's risk of death: 24
• Percentage of American men who say they would not feel "very comfortable" with a woman as president: 51
• Of American women who say so: 41
• Percentage of Americans aged 13 to 38 who would be willing to post sponsored content to their social-media accounts: 86
• Number of pending patent applications for variations of the phrase "OK, Boomer": 6

In the online version of The Atlantic, Cohen penned a good piece about Romney's speech about voting yes for conviction: "In the Long Run, Romney Wins." I think he's right. He was the only GOP with guts to do what's right. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I've been catching up on my magazine reading. 

In Harper's there's a solid article by Andrew Cockburn titled "The Military Industrial Virus: How Bloated Budgets Gut Our Defense" that everyone should read. 

Here's a ¶ that you should read now: 
"Yet deep scrutiny indicates that defense contracts are not particularly efficient job generators after all. Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have calculated the number of jobs spawned by an investment of $1 billion in various industries, ranging from defense to health care, renewable energy, and education. Education came in first by a wide margin, producing 26,700 jobs, followed by health care at 17,200. Defense, generating 11,200 jobs, ranked last. 'All economic activity creates some employment,' Pollin told me. "That isn't an issue. The relevant question is how much employment in the U.S. gets created for a given level of spending in one area of the economy as opposed to others.' The fact is that defense spending generates fewer jobs than green energy, education, and other critical industries." 

Nick Hanauer's "Better Schools Won't Fix America" in The Atlantic (titled "Education Isn't Enough" in the magazine) is a worth a read. He lays out the myth of "educationism," the belief that better schools will fix America's problems. Based on his experience and data analysis, the real problem is that we're living in a new Gilded Age. The article reminds me of the adage that my Dad liked to say: "A wise man will change his mind, but a fool never will." 

Parts of what's left of my hair has been turning gray for a few years now, but now I have a single gray hair in one of eyebrows. It looks weird. I don't want to pluck it like I'm some vain person, but I need more gray hair in my eyebrows, so it doesn't stand out so prominently. 

What's really gotten gray is my beard when I grow one. 

Random Notes from a Crank

The past month has featured one disappointing series finale and a movie as a series finale. 

The much talked about Game of Thrones series finale shows what the last two seasons have been, a foray into HBO fan fiction. I was a bit surprised that Jon offed Danerys, but I don't get the logic of Tyrion's claim that Bran the Broken has the "best story." The best story of all is Jon Snow's. 

All in all, the last season was rushed.

And Martin still hasn't published the last two damn books. 

With much anticipation, I watched the Deadwood movie. I enjoyed it. It didn't end with a neatly wrapped ending, but we can assume that Hearst gets off on the murder of Charlie Udder because based on historical accounts, he did just fine for himself. It was nice seeing the bastard get beat up though. 

Regardless, it was a pleasure to watch those Deadwood characters again. 

Pacific Standard has a great article outlining that trickle-down economics is a scam: "The IMF Confirms That 'Trickle-Down' Economics Is, Indeed, A Joke." 

Random Notes from a Crank

In the latest of installment of Moscow Don acting like the moron he is, it's pretty clear the US is going to lose this trade war. As the article "Trump's Nasty Fight with China's Middle Class Could Extend Trade War" notes, "As the trade war between the world's largest economies unfolds on the international stage, analysts say Trump's brash approach to try to win concessions from Beijing has provoked a public fury that could ultimately thwart his efforts." 

Also, as a scholar at the Brookings Institution informs us, "The middle class has been critical of the Chinese government, but now that anger is shifting to the United States. Chinese media has portrayed Trump as greedy and crazy." Emphasis should be placed on the latter adjective because economists think what he's doing is downright stupid.

The other day I was walking down the hall of the building in which I work. I had picked up a free book and was curiously reading through the table of contents of a book, interestingly enough, that is about reading instruction. As one of my colleagues was about to pass me by as I was reading and walking at the same time, he said, "Hey, that's the old school version of someone walking and staring at his phone." 

I like the old fashioned technology better. 

I haven't been in a fantasy football league for over a decade now, but I joined one with some folks this season. I'm enjoying it, but Sunday night's game brought out my rotowhoreness. 

I was up on my opponent by 30some points going into the Giants-Cowboys game, but the guy I was playing had Ezekiel Elliott on his starting roster. Late into the fourth quarter Elliott scored a touchdown to accrue six points. I lost the fantasy matchup 177.9 to 180. 

Damn it. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In Pence's hometown, Moscow Don's tariffs and creating a great deal of uneasiness. Read all about it in "Dependent on Trade, Mike Pence's Hometown Takes a Hit due to Trump's Tariffs." As the author informs, "the president's trade war hits the company in two ways, affecting both its incoming parts, which will be subject to tariffs, and its own products, on which retaliatory penalties will be assessed by countries targeted by Trump."

There are some matters that are easy in the world. One that isn't is a trade war no matter what that pathologically lying nincompoop says. 

American companies are usually part of a globalized economy. 

As one person, a Republican, in the article justly argues, "I feel the current strategy is opinion-based, not data-based." 

That statement is a kind one. 

Random Notes from a Crank

If you're not watching Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, you're missing something. It's too bad the show is only on once a week. 

Here's a greatest hits from the first six weeks of the show posted on sheknows.com: "8 Times Samantha Bee Has Positively Owned Late Night."  

The other day my daughter and I were watching the program, and she said, "I want to be like her," meaning she wants to be someone who does investigative reporting and calls out people on their bullshit. 

This is the same young lady who volunteered to enter a speech contest and won second without any help from her parents. If she does it again next year, I'm going to make sure I consult on the speech. Next time we'll be gunning for first. 

Seth Meyers had a nice piece on the nonsense of trickle-down economics happening in Kansas. Those policies are as dumb as a box of dildos. Literally. 




"Why Donald Trump Is Wrong about Manufacturing Jobs and China" from The New Yorker is an interesting read. I wrote about reshoring in 2012 and 2013. I'd still like to see more jobs come back to the U.S.A. One move both Trump and Sanders have made is tapping into resentment about "free trade." In fact, Trump talks like a protectionist, which among other Trump-based matters, is roiling the GOP establishment.

Unfortunately, Sports Illustrated has predicted that the Cubs will be in the World Series this season. That's bad news because SI is notorious for being horrible at predictions. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Well, at the start of this year, Colorado legalized the recreational use of marijuana. The media outlets have covered this story, but what the whole deal got me thinking about is one of the business ideas one of friends had when we were in college. I remember loyal reader TGD coming up with the idea that in college towns you could create a service industry that caters to the inebriated. Instead of drunks getting a cab or driving drunk, a business could take late-night orders for fast food and distribute that food to the hammered at a healthy profit. The shitfaced are well known for throwing their money around after they've frequented a keg party, imbibed too heavily in tequila, had three too many jello shots, or pounded down a twelve pack of Milwaukee's Best Light. Or at least that's what I've been told...

This idea could easily be adapted for the pot smokers of Colorado (and elsewhere). You could create a business entirely devoted to curbing drunk/high driving while making a healthy profit. I know, I know. Based on empirical studies, those who enjoy ganga are notorious for ordering pizza when they get the munchies, but high people would surely be fine with a 20 to 30 percent markup on late-night food runs, and this service would keep our streets and drive-thru lines safer, less stupid, and less stinky. 

The new law in Colorado also gets me wondering what kind of sales growth pizza franchises will enjoy in 2014 because it's assumed more people will be partaking of cannabis. I want to see some statistical analysis about business growth related to this new law. Lots of people have talked about how this law might spur Colorado's economy, but I doubt they've talked much about economic growth in the way I'm thinking. 

And for a news program's trenchant analysis of the reactions to the Colorado law, I present to you Tuesday's episode of The Daily Show. Watch and enjoy. 

In the Nov-Dec issue of Utne, there's a trio of articles I thought I'd share. 

Staff writers inform us about how the Blest Machine can convert plastic to oil in "Turning Plastic into Oil." 

In a celebratory and satirical essay, G. Robert Ogilvy provides an ode to calorie-laden, old fashioned breakfasts in "Cupcake Shops Don't Serve Breakfast," which is titled "Breakfast: A Manifesto" in the print magazine. As the author says, "As civilization crumbles around us, we must console ourselves by knowing that there remains at least one thing untouched by the ravages of anarchy and decadence, one unchanging constant, one bedrock [a hearty breakfast] which still has rules." 

In "The Democratic Education of Unschoolers," Astra Taylor reflects on her own experience with being pulled out of public schools to be "unschooled." She offers some biting commentary about the drudgery and hoop-jumping of organized (public and private) educational systems: "What I really wanted--what I still want, even now, as an adult--is that intellectual community I was looking for in high school and college but never quite found. I would have loved to commune with other young people and find out what a school of freedom could be like. But for some reason, such a possibility was unthinkable, a wild fantasy--instead, the only option available was to submit to irrational authority six and a half hours a day, five days a week, in a series of cinder-block holding cells. If nothing else, we should pause to wonder why there's so rarely any middle ground."