Things I’ve been reading: 16th August 2020

Tracing Trump’s grievance-fueled crusade against the USPS

Election 2020 Tracing Trump’s grievance-fueled crusade against the USPS His attempts to make the post office a tool in his reelection campaign by slowing service and challenging the integrity of mail-in ballots represent a culmination of his efforts against the popular public institution that date
2795 words
https://www.washingtonpost.com

What are Liberating Structures?

Liberating Structures are a selection of 33 alternative structures for facilitating meetings and conversations, curated by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless.
1273 words
https://medium.com/@reimaginaire/what-are-liberating-structures-de6f6d14c2c8

Something Weird Happened to Men 7,000 Years Ago, And We Finally Know Why

Around 7,000 years ago – all the way back in the Neolithic – something really peculiar happened to human genetic diversity.
765 words
https://www.sciencealert.com/neolithic-y-chromosome-bottleneck-warring-patrilineal-clans

Next-gen nukes

Back in 2009, Simon Irish, an investment manager in New York, found the kind of opportunity that he thought could transform the world while — in the process — transforming dollars into riches.
2390 words
https://grist.org/article/next-gen-nuclear-is-coming-if-we-want-it/

How drones and satellite images are measuring the forests used for carbon offsets

For someone who owns forested land, carbon offsets give a financial incentive not to cut down trees. Other businesses that are struggling to reduce emissions can pay to keep the trees standing and sucking up carbon from the atmosphere.
532 words
https://www.fastcompany.com/90319702/how-drones-and-satellite-images-are-measuring-the-forests-used-for-carbon-offsets

Harmonious Working Patterns?

Rewriting the story of human collaboration! (Pt 2. — Analog) Life is music, you don’t go to a concert to hear the last crash cymbal and leave, you go for the experience and enjoy a dance or you’ve missed the point¹.
1052 words
https://medium.com/@joshafairhead/harmonious-working-patterns-2788d1523106

Apple’s $2.2 billion ‘Green Bond’ issue will fund carbon emission reductions

Apple has just issued a $2.2 billion “Green Bond” offering in Europe, with the proceeds devoted to global initiatives to lower carbon emissions and other environmentally conscious programs.
334 words
https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/11/07/apples-22-billion-green-bond-issue-will-fund-carbon-emission-reductions

There’s Growing Evidence That the Universe Is Connected by Giant Structures

The Milky Way, the galaxy we live in, is one of hundreds of billions of galaxies strewn across the universe. Their variety is stunning: spirals, ring galaxies shaped like star-studded loops, and ancient galaxies that outshine virtually everything else in the universe.
1621 words
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmj7pw/theres-growing-evidence-that-the-universe-is-connected-by-giant-structures

Why this journalist is both terrified of and intrigued by his revelations about the surveillance state’s startling abilities

“Someday, most major developed cities in the world will live under the unblinking gaze of some form of wide-area surveillance,” writes Arthur Holland Michel in Eyes in the Sky, a startling, disturbing, and deeply reported account of the powerful new technologies that promise safety and imperil p
1325 words
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/why-this-journalist-is-both-terrified-of-and-intrigued-by-his-revelations-about-the-surveillance-states-startling-abilities/

For real change, Labour should ditch its top-down thinking

Nearly every Jeremy Corbyn speech these days is punctuated by the words “in our society” – a basic indication of what the Labour leader thinks politics ought to be about and the terrain on which he feels most comfortable. And so it goes with Labour’s election campaign.
1070 words
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/18/labour-real-change-top-down-thinking-westminster

This is How a Society Dies

When I ask my European friends to describe us — Americans, Brits, who I’ll call Anglo-Americans in this essay — they shake their heads gently. And over and over, three themes emerge. They say we’re a little thoughtless. They say we’re selfish and arrogant.
2317 words
https://eand.co/this-is-how-a-society-dies-35bdc3c0b854

Having Kids

Before I had kids, I was afraid of having kids. Up to that point I felt about kids the way the young Augustine felt about living virtuously. I’d have been sad to think I’d never have children. But did I want them now? No.
1524 words
http://paulgraham.com/kids.html

Could Air-Conditioning Fix Climate Change?

It is one of the great dilemmas of climate change: We take such comfort from air conditioning that worldwide energy consumption for that purpose has already tripled since 1990.
1288 words
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/could-air-conditioning-fix-climate-change

If Hong Kong had enacted national security laws on its own, Beijing wouldn’t be stepping in

Countries everywhere have laws protecting national security, and the duty of citizens to safeguard their country’s interests is generally acknowledged. National security, moreover, is of such importance that it is invariably legislated for by national parliaments.
1024 words
https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086440/if-hong-kong-had-enacted-national-security-laws-its-own-beijing

Pentagon War Game Includes Scenario for Military Response to Domestic Gen Z Rebellion

In the face of protests composed largely of young people, the presence of America’s military on the streets of major cities has been a controversial development. But this isn’t the first time that Generation Z — those born after 1996 — has popped up on the Pentagon’s radar.
905 words
https://theintercept.com/2020/06/05/pentagon-war-game-gen-z/

The Post-Pandemic Social Contract

While many recent proposals for reforming capitalism would substantially change the way our economies operate, they do not fundamentally alter the narrative about how market economies should work; nor do they represent a radical departure for economic policy.
1029 words
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/new-social-contract-must-target-good-job-creation-by-dani-rodrik-and-stefanie-stantcheva-2020-06

Is There Still Room for Debate?

In the last couple of weeks, as the purges of alleged racists have intensified in every sphere, and as so many corporations, associations, and all manner of civic institutions have openly pledged allegiance to anti-racism, with all the workshops, books, and lectures that come with it, I’m reminded
2789 words
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/andrew-sullivan-is-there-still-room-for-debate.html

Holly Jean Buck: How to Decolonize the Atmosphere

Carbon removal is a fundamental part of our decarbonization and decolonization efforts. Holly Jean Buck offers a blueprint of an international Green New Deal that redresses the colonial imprint of First World nations’ carbon emissions. Authors Holly Jean Buck Published 22.06.
60 words
https://progressive.international/blueprint/46253391-5b3d-4e68-bd3f-d53dc54180fd-holly-jean-buck-how-to-decolonize-the-atmosphere/en

Virtual activists

Passionate Gen Zers are finding ways to host protests in the digital world. As the strain of the pandemic curbed mass gatherings, community events and other meeting occasions of the public, protestors began finding new ways to continue their demonstrations in the digital world.
676 words
https://intelligence.wundermanthompson.com/2020/06/virtual-activists/

Green investing has shortcomings

THE FINANCIAL industry reflects society, but it can change society, too. One question is the role it might play in decarbonising the economy.
657 words
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/06/20/green-investing-has-shortcomings