I found this article just now.
Ken Auletta, "Citizens Jain: Why India's Newspaper Industry is Thriving." The New Yorker, 8 October 2012.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Peak Oil News
"We Could Be Witnessing the Death of the Fossil Fuel Industry: Will It Take the Rest of the Economy Down With It?"
April 28: Peak Oil Review: A Midweek Update.
It’s not looking good for the global fossil fuel industry. Although the world remains heavily dependent on oil, coal and natural gas—which today supply around 80 percent of our primary energy needs—the industry is rapidly crumbling.
This is not merely a temporary blip, but a symptom of a deeper, long-term process related to global capitalism’s escalating overconsumption of planetary resources and raw materials.
New scientific research shows that the growing crisis of profitability facing fossil fuel industries is part of an inevitable period of transition to a post-carbon era.
April 28: Peak Oil Review: A Midweek Update.
The woes of the US oil industry continue to grow with Exxon losing its AAA investment rating and numerous oil companies reporting sharply reduced profits or larger losses. The oil services industry which largely supports new drilling has been badly hit by capital spending by oil companies now some 50 percent of 2014 levels.
Over in Iraq, the political situation continues to deteriorate with Prime Minister al-Abadi unable to confirm a new cabinet amongst much turmoil. The situation in Iraqi Kurdistan is not much better with oil exports in 2016 lower than last year. The Kurds are negotiating to build an export pipeline through Iran thereby bypassing the never-ending conflict between the Kurds and the Turkish government. It is becoming apparent to the Kurds that dependence on the one oil export pipeline through Turkey will not be a solution to their troubles.
In Venezuela, the government announced that the public sector, which provides about 30 percent of the country’s jobs, will only work two days a week to save electricity. The situation in the country is becoming critical. The government will no longer announce the water level behind the dam, which could be only a week or so away from shutting down depriving the country of some 65-70 percent of its power production. Much of the future depends on when the rainy season begins, and how quickly it brings water levels up to operating levels. Some are saying that the thermal electric plants that used to provide about a third of the country’s power are breaking down for lack of maintenance leaving the Guri dam as the only source for much of the country’s electricity. It seems increasingly likely that the social fabric of the country could collapse soon endangering the country’s oil exports and eliminating much of the world’s oil surplus at one stroke.
Kawate Seed Shop
I went to Kawate Seed Shop early yesterday afternoon. There was a long line but not excessively so. As I stood in the line, a man approached me and asked if I wanted his bagged lunch. It had an apple, an orange, and a peanut butter sandwich. He said it was "professionally" packaged at Hale Nani, where he must have come from, I figured later. I decided to take it off his hands, and stood holding it for a while, before putting it in the car and getting back in the line.
Most of the people coming out had ice shaves, which I wasn't there for. A woman in line said school let out every other Friday at one-fifteen, so another said now she had to deal with the school crowds. There was a local kid with his hair dyed berry-red. As the line moved forward every time people left the shop, I looked up at the sky and at the bench with people's names carved in the wood.
Finally I got in, and looked at the jars of crack seed, most of which were empty. The first jars I saw held licorice olives. There was candied ginger too. No. I knew I'd get li hing mui or at least lemon. The shop was narrow and crowded, more so because of all the customers. I went to the end of the room and looked at the li hing mui, choosing a quarter-pound of baby seed. The lady scooped some out and weighed the bag, just over the amount I ordered. I paid and left, just after one-fifty. I don't know how long I was in line, maybe twenty or thirty minutes. But that was the last time I went to Kawate. The store closes permanently this afternoon.
Most of the people coming out had ice shaves, which I wasn't there for. A woman in line said school let out every other Friday at one-fifteen, so another said now she had to deal with the school crowds. There was a local kid with his hair dyed berry-red. As the line moved forward every time people left the shop, I looked up at the sky and at the bench with people's names carved in the wood.
Finally I got in, and looked at the jars of crack seed, most of which were empty. The first jars I saw held licorice olives. There was candied ginger too. No. I knew I'd get li hing mui or at least lemon. The shop was narrow and crowded, more so because of all the customers. I went to the end of the room and looked at the li hing mui, choosing a quarter-pound of baby seed. The lady scooped some out and weighed the bag, just over the amount I ordered. I paid and left, just after one-fifty. I don't know how long I was in line, maybe twenty or thirty minutes. But that was the last time I went to Kawate. The store closes permanently this afternoon.
Friday, April 29, 2016
Various Tweets
me irl pic.twitter.com/JTiHolUgPf
— me irl (@ItMeIRL) April 29, 2016
@_TronVin_ You should be reading this: https://t.co/dHWFa7MzOK pic.twitter.com/ivtJtETzCw
— armond white (@3xchair) April 28, 2016
Armond White on film criticism today pic.twitter.com/dhsvouyW5r
— Super TronVin '94 (@_TronVin_) April 28, 2016
This looks like a photo in the local paper announcing two used car dealership owners merging their lots. pic.twitter.com/o4VLrdYLGi
— Eli Olsberg (@EliOlsberg) April 28, 2016
Nothing is original, esp. in #design. (btw, these are NOT the logos of Medium AirBNB, Flipboard, and Beats)pic.twitter.com/JNDsM0rhod
— Spencer Chen (@spencerchen) April 27, 2016
he forgot why pic.twitter.com/0S7DbSZbgt
— Matt Bors (@MattBors) April 16, 2016
Eduardo Porter: Manufacturing is down, worldwide. The Mirage of a Return to Manufacturing Greatness https://t.co/NxDqM82cAS
— Nell Painter (@PainterNell) April 27, 2016
Work
I finished a big job last night (my column) and though I still have other things to do, I plan to take it easy. Kawate Seed Shop closes tomorrow so I hope to go there later today, depending on the lines.
The big news that broke last night: Peter Boy's parents charged in his death.
A glance at the headlines: I see a weasel has caused a shutdown of the Large Hadron Collider.
"Crazy hack" (Nancy Nall's term) Armond White on Prince here and here.
The big news that broke last night: Peter Boy's parents charged in his death.
A glance at the headlines: I see a weasel has caused a shutdown of the Large Hadron Collider.
"Crazy hack" (Nancy Nall's term) Armond White on Prince here and here.
Prince and the other great pop musicians of the 1980s — Michael Jackson, The Smiths, Public Enemy, Pet Shop Boys, Scritti Politti, Kate Bush, the Au Pairs, sometimes Madonna — were part of the texture of Reagan and Thatcher realities. They responded to the policies of that era in ways that Prince mourners now ignore by trading the thought-provoking complexities of yesterday’s cultural arguments for the non-thinking conformity of today’s politically naïve pop culture. It’s as if personal politics (the only politics a pop artist can honestly proclaim) didn’t matter.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Sweet Briar's Comeback
In the Long Emergency, Kunstler writes, "many colleges and universities may close down, and the scale of those that remain may have to contract severely. College will simply cease to be the mass 'consumer' activity it has become." (Kunstler, James Howard. The Long Emergency. New York: Grove/Atlantic, 2005/2007, p. 274.)
It is interesting that small colleges like Sweet Briar, which almost closed down because of a lack of money, then rallied back, will be the most likely to succeed.
It is interesting that small colleges like Sweet Briar, which almost closed down because of a lack of money, then rallied back, will be the most likely to succeed.
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
On Weeding Books
I don't know how many books I've accumulated over the years, probably hundreds. Eventually I have to go through them and pare down my library. This will be a continuous process. Below is linked the Awful Library Books blog and a PDF of a weeding manual. Taste is subjective so one's "awful" books are another's "wonderful" ones, and vice versa. Librarians try to make the weeding process as objective as possible, e.g., books that haven't been checked out in several years.
CREW Method (weeding manual).
AwfulLibraryBooks.net
CREW Method (weeding manual).
AwfulLibraryBooks.net
An Opening and a Closing
When Island Chevrolet closed in mid-2009 I took some photos of the empty car lot. It didn't stay like that for long, becoming a base for several food trucks, including the famous Gina's. Now WikiFresh is open in the building.
Meanwhile, Kawate Seed Shop will close its doors permanently on 30 April.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Some Political Items
I haven't followed politics deeply for a while now. But I found this analysis by Newt Gingrich on the presidential candidates.
Sorry for tweeting #BaltimoreElection results pic.twitter.com/YJljGOholN
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) April 27, 2016
@Politics1com is the Twitter to follow:
Carly Fiorina acknowledges she is being vetted as potential Ted Cruz VP runningmate: https://t.co/D8n1xryrEM
— Politics1.com (@Politics1com) April 25, 2016
Ex-US Sen Harris Wofford (D-PA), 90, a widower, comes out as gay and is engaged to marry 40-year-old man - https://t.co/K85eHHkphv
— Politics1.com (@Politics1com) April 23, 2016
Chernobyl: Thirty Years Later
Today is the thirtieth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
How Chernobyl shook the USSR.
Chernobyl's Literary Legacy, 30 Years Later.
How Chernobyl shook the USSR.
Chernobyl's Literary Legacy, 30 Years Later.
No literary response to Chernobyl deserves a wider readership than Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster. [Svetlana] Alexievich, the Belarusian journalist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015, represents the broadest range of a society whose alienation makes them “a separate people. A new nation.” In these pages, harrowing stories of lost loved ones sit alongside litanies against technological hubris; the history of ideas—“the era of physics ended at Chernobyl”—contrasts with spots of black humor; science collides with superstition. The cumulative effect is not the absorption of Chernobyl, but rather an unlimited expansion. More than any other work, Alexievich’s provides a direct, vertiginous glimpse of Chernobyl's abyss.
Monday, April 25, 2016
Kunstler: The Awful Lull
In which Kunstler lays on the Hillary hate rather thickly.
Kunstler: The Awful Lull.
Spring unfolds at last in all its loveliness and Hillary sits back in repose like the matriarch of toads with a clear path to her toadstool throne, having swallowed the mouse-king Sanders. (She forgets that there are millions more mice under the thatched grass, including new mouse-kings awaiting.) And Trump with his bullfrog smile now casts his baleful eye on the two remaining gnats circling his lily pad. Yes, this magical week when the world bursts into leaf and flower, the life of our nation seems like a fairy tale.
Weeks from now when we’re used to the mild air and the greened world, going coatless and care-free, is when the storms of summer strike and the life of the nation turns from fairy tale to horror comic. Both Clinton and Trump are perfect representatives of the nascent forces moving towards some kind of civil war in comic book America.
Clinton perfectly embodies the fortress of the status quo, including especially her praetorian guard of black ghetto grandmothers, giving Hillary the false appearance of some sort of righteousness when, really, she has nothing to offer the greater crisis of black manhood, boxed into prison by the ancient crippling rules of federal welfare policy with its extreme penalties on active fathering. Otherwise, the stone wall of her status quo fortress conceals her privy council of Wall Street necromancers, and the fortune they have helped her lay up in the vaults of the Clinton Foundation.
All of which is to say that Hillary represents the forces that want to keep things just as a they are: rackets rampant. What can crush her triumph of fakery is the sudden manifestation of rackets collapsing under their own weight — a set of awful probabilities waiting to happen, ranging from riots at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia to an accident in financial markets jerry-rigged to mis-price everything for the purpose of funneling carry-trade gains into East Hampton. Look how she croaks about the triumph of the Affordable Care Act, as though it’s a great thing that Americans can shell out $10,000 a year for medical coverage that only kicks in after you rack up the first $6,000 in charges. (Forgetting for a moment that the costs are an hallucination of the “ChargeMaster” system designed to lavish six-figure salaries plus bonuses on the maestros in the hospital executive suites.) What a demonic fraud this woman is.
In terms of sheer persona on persona, Trump is not much better, a walking hood ornament on the faltering beater car that America has become. But at least he recognizes that the beater beneath him needs a complete overhaul, even if he can barely cobble up a coherent list of particulars, or name the mechanics who might be able to fix the damn thing. And, of course, a broad swathe of Americans whose lives have also come to resemble beater cars are very sympathetic to the impulses Trump radiates.
For example, I happen to agree that the nation needs to act on immigration, both on the problem of illegal immigrants and on limiting the quotas of legally admitted newcomers. The Left, sunk in its sentimental sob stories of “dreamers,” and its nostalgia for the Ellis Island romance of 1904, can’t conceive of any reason why the nation might benefit from, at least, a time-out on invitations. The idea undermines their world-saving fantasies. In my little corner of America, the computer chip factory run by Global Foundries (owned by the Emirate of Dubai) has just laid off the majority of its homegrown American technical labor force and replaced them with foreign technicians on H1B visas, thus creating x-number of new Trump voters among the laid-off, and rightfully so, I think.
Really, who says we have to invite every striver from other parts of the world where striving is more difficult? Let them improve the strive-osity of their own nations. Do the citizens already here not have any right to halt the influx and take stock of the nation’s circumstances for a period of time? If only Trump could speak clearly about these issues instead of simply issuing crude and rather dumb threats.
Enjoy this end-of-April lull in the action. Use the moment to gird your loins and perhaps get the hell out of the financial markets while the getting is good. I think you will see things liven up a lot as the heat rises and the seventeen-year locusts emerge from their long sleep underground in frightening storms.
Kunstler: The Awful Lull.
Spring unfolds at last in all its loveliness and Hillary sits back in repose like the matriarch of toads with a clear path to her toadstool throne, having swallowed the mouse-king Sanders. (She forgets that there are millions more mice under the thatched grass, including new mouse-kings awaiting.) And Trump with his bullfrog smile now casts his baleful eye on the two remaining gnats circling his lily pad. Yes, this magical week when the world bursts into leaf and flower, the life of our nation seems like a fairy tale.
Weeks from now when we’re used to the mild air and the greened world, going coatless and care-free, is when the storms of summer strike and the life of the nation turns from fairy tale to horror comic. Both Clinton and Trump are perfect representatives of the nascent forces moving towards some kind of civil war in comic book America.
Clinton perfectly embodies the fortress of the status quo, including especially her praetorian guard of black ghetto grandmothers, giving Hillary the false appearance of some sort of righteousness when, really, she has nothing to offer the greater crisis of black manhood, boxed into prison by the ancient crippling rules of federal welfare policy with its extreme penalties on active fathering. Otherwise, the stone wall of her status quo fortress conceals her privy council of Wall Street necromancers, and the fortune they have helped her lay up in the vaults of the Clinton Foundation.
All of which is to say that Hillary represents the forces that want to keep things just as a they are: rackets rampant. What can crush her triumph of fakery is the sudden manifestation of rackets collapsing under their own weight — a set of awful probabilities waiting to happen, ranging from riots at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia to an accident in financial markets jerry-rigged to mis-price everything for the purpose of funneling carry-trade gains into East Hampton. Look how she croaks about the triumph of the Affordable Care Act, as though it’s a great thing that Americans can shell out $10,000 a year for medical coverage that only kicks in after you rack up the first $6,000 in charges. (Forgetting for a moment that the costs are an hallucination of the “ChargeMaster” system designed to lavish six-figure salaries plus bonuses on the maestros in the hospital executive suites.) What a demonic fraud this woman is.
In terms of sheer persona on persona, Trump is not much better, a walking hood ornament on the faltering beater car that America has become. But at least he recognizes that the beater beneath him needs a complete overhaul, even if he can barely cobble up a coherent list of particulars, or name the mechanics who might be able to fix the damn thing. And, of course, a broad swathe of Americans whose lives have also come to resemble beater cars are very sympathetic to the impulses Trump radiates.
For example, I happen to agree that the nation needs to act on immigration, both on the problem of illegal immigrants and on limiting the quotas of legally admitted newcomers. The Left, sunk in its sentimental sob stories of “dreamers,” and its nostalgia for the Ellis Island romance of 1904, can’t conceive of any reason why the nation might benefit from, at least, a time-out on invitations. The idea undermines their world-saving fantasies. In my little corner of America, the computer chip factory run by Global Foundries (owned by the Emirate of Dubai) has just laid off the majority of its homegrown American technical labor force and replaced them with foreign technicians on H1B visas, thus creating x-number of new Trump voters among the laid-off, and rightfully so, I think.
Really, who says we have to invite every striver from other parts of the world where striving is more difficult? Let them improve the strive-osity of their own nations. Do the citizens already here not have any right to halt the influx and take stock of the nation’s circumstances for a period of time? If only Trump could speak clearly about these issues instead of simply issuing crude and rather dumb threats.
Enjoy this end-of-April lull in the action. Use the moment to gird your loins and perhaps get the hell out of the financial markets while the getting is good. I think you will see things liven up a lot as the heat rises and the seventeen-year locusts emerge from their long sleep underground in frightening storms.
Sunday, April 24, 2016
@JayRosen_NYU
Seder conversation. Adult: "What bands do you listen to?" Fourteen year-old. "I don't listen to 'bands.' I listen to producers."
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) April 23, 2016
Niche journalist @dannysullivan has been covering search engines for 20 years. The biggest changes he has seen: https://t.co/P5VQu4RJul
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) April 21, 2016
Categories aside, 4 of the first 5 Pulitzer Prize winners, announced today, are really investigative reporting. https://t.co/2eugKhSoPN
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) April 18, 2016
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Divedapper.com
This afternoon I just found out about Divedapper.com, an online magazine devoted to interviews with poets. It's somewhat like The Paris Review with its writer interviews, but more specialized.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Prince
Never forget that after Dave Chappelle did his famous Prince sketch, PRINCE PUT HIM ON HIS ACTUAL SINGLE COVER. pic.twitter.com/yxbevRpLrm
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) April 21, 2016
Named after the Prince Roger Trio, a jazz band his father performed with, Prince was signed to WB Records as a teenager. #RIPurple
— The Crisis Magazine (@thecrisismag) April 22, 2016
What could have been.
Madonna's manager Guy Oseary recalls:
I called him a few years back with the idea of @Madonna and Prince going on tour together. I pitched it to Madonna and within a second she said "I like it, we can call it the Royalty Tour... The Queen and The Prince".... I love the way she thinks... When I told Prince the idea he said: "the world isn't ready for this, it's too big".. I always felt like one day I would pull it off..
Michael Jackson didn't like Prince.
Mark Ames swipes at his former colleague Matt Taibbi:
Seriously, if the gonzo gig dries up there's a big future in Hallmark cards. Fucking hell pic.twitter.com/A9xSw39l40
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) April 23, 2016
And Nancy Nall gnashes her teeth (again) at Mitch Albom for his column on Prince.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Various Tweets
As a registered democrat in NY with a land line, this week has been hell. Caller ID is saving me. I'm not answering till after Tuesday.
— Margaret Kimberley (@freedomrideblog) April 15, 2016
There are hundreds of tapes of conversations that are restricted till 2060 but really need to be digitized. #dilemma #popup1 #maracpgh
— Elena Colón-Marrero (@elenArchivist) April 16, 2016
Floppy disks containing Toni Morrison's drafts of Beloved bring home importance of well-planned born digital preservation. #s14 #MARACPgh
— Hilary Barlow (@hilbarchivist) April 15, 2016
Pinterest: Nuggwifee☽ ☼☾ - #architecture https://t.co/aYrHvb5qpg pic.twitter.com/Q4LTlR3heI
— Architecture Zone (@ArchitectureZon) April 20, 2016
The Greatest Typographic Tale:
— Eugene Conlon (@blendedcreative) April 14, 2016
How The World’s Most Beautiful Typeface Was Nearly Lost Forever https://t.co/7lGsnz6clf #Font #Typography
Hydrox, the original Oreo resurrected by Newport Beach man, goes national with Kroger https://t.co/bhErCSaFcs #hydroxareback #madeintheusa
— Hydrox Cookie (@HydroxCookie) April 7, 2016
.@squirrelburrito @gingermarauder Our family considered @HydroxCookie wafers crispier, and its flavor tangier, than treacly impostor, @Oreo.
— Boston Gardenia (@BostonGardenia) March 17, 2016
#peakoil Introducing Turn 21: As part of Launch Turn21, we were recently interviewed for the University of Haw... https://t.co/sx1ddPDT91
— peak oil news (@peaktweat) April 20, 2016
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