Nathan

The question is often asked about the environment and what some feel (including this writer) is an emergency upon us even right now: what can we do?  Some of the measures that are being proposed are great stop gaps (e.g. carbon tax) that ideally will lead us in the right direction but perhaps don't totally afford us the true long term vision we need to fully address this problem and in the process hopefully lead to survival of humanity.  The difficult truth that we have to get to, alluded to in this interview recently, is a difficult question of population.  “This is a topic most environmental groups won’t touch,” Weisman said, but of course they need to.  And with that some of my thoughts on solutions:

1.  Humanity needs to break free of old, outdated models of nation-states when it comes to the most pressing problems affecting humanity today.  

I know the libertarian minded among us will hate to hear it, but the plain truth is this: now that we have reached 7 billion people (side note: wow, what a cool google resource) on the planet we act, when it comes to our environment and in many various ways, as one organism.  Don't get me wrong: I would love to close myself off to this point and just worry about my own family or city but unfortunately due to our amount of procreation in the past that simply is not a luxury we are afforded any longer even if, ironically, as things become more populated the natural inclination is one of wanting to wall oneself off.  A commercial fisherman in Japan now affects a shlub like me in San Jose just as in our earlier days as humans the local tribal hunter and gatherer affected the local tribe.  

2.  We need to embrace our shared humanity and establish mechanisms and apparatuses that allow us to make decisions as a people in the most democratic and transparent way possible. 

The time may very well be right for us to create a new inter-governmental apparatus from the ground up that allows all of the worlds people to weigh in on incredibly important questions that know no nation-state bounds including, but not limited to, questions of over-fishing, setting certain emission criteria, setting pollution limits in all their forms and wildlife and habitat preservation targets.  The super set of all these problems however and the biggest challenge this apparatus would have before it is sensible human population limits.  In the interview referenced above the projected target whereby human life would be sustainable on this earth is around 2 billion people.  I can't say that I know the right limits or implementation plan, but it would be a profound question we could all answer together in the most transparent way possible.  

Related to point one above I can expect the usual guffawing to come from some quarters about: 'Yes, just what we need is more bureaucrats and government inefficiencies!'  I would respond with two key points one of which is alluded to already: the real world calls and she is telling us that we are already acting as one whether we would really want to admit it or not. It is silly to continue to deny this reality even if it is somewhat comforting to do so.  Secondarily I would say that with the right minds on this problem this apparatus could be like something we have never seen before where technology allows us voting from any device and instant access to all important meeting notes, decisions and budgets.  Think outside of the government apparatuses set up in the past and realize that the time is right for a whole new paradigm which could transform the very idea of government, democracy, human decision making and accountability.

It will not be easy by any means to get an interconnected web of humanity to break free of very old modes of thought and even frankly to deny or question some of the most fundamental evolutionary aspects of our humanity including the desire to procreate, but the time is now for us to embark upon this vision.  We have the technical tools, we have the common driver before us, we have the science but the last remaining question is: do we have it in us?  Our children and future ancestors wait anxiously for the answer.    

Link Directly to Interview on YouTube

We as a nation are being presented with a very interesting debate in front of us and I am worried we are squandering it.  We should have this debate and find out what we are made of.  I am talking about the Edward Snowden dilemma between constitutional law and federal/national law. Daniel Ellsberg explained this best to me in an interview he did where he essentially said that, yes, Snowden broke the law but he did so in the service of the constitution whose 4th amendment he saw being broken.

Constitution or federal law?

And, can we not only get a debate on this please but have our Supreme Court weigh in on this as well?  This seems very important and has many layers.  Get to work.

I think this post is interesting in a couple respects.  First I find it interesting that people like Aaron are giving LinkedIn free (I think?) content like this now.  Good for LinkedIn.

Second, and most important to me, I find it tough to read through this and not think: 'But what about the other missions?'

What about being a good father, a good son, a good husband, a good friend, about being a good spiritual or religious being, about being a good teacher, or golfer or basket weaver?  What about walking your dog or feeding your cat or buying a hamster for the kids or, or, or?

Don't get me wrong: I respect Aaron's focus on his work he hints at.  I think there are more than enough folks like this in the bay area, but what if your 'mission that doesn't suck' is not one mission at all, but many?  What if the true number one mission you are on is to be the very best, most present father you can possibly be while your other missions may include extreme success at work or at play or at what have you?  Which one loses in the crunch?  Which one takes the back seat?

I have answered for myself and maybe Aaron doesn't have to answer these types of questions for himself now (I don't know) but someday they may come.

'Water cascaded into the gaping, unfinished construction pit at the World Trade Center, and the New York Stock Exchange was closed for a second day, the first time that has happened because of weather since the Blizzard of 1888.'

Need to get back to this one but my thoughts go out to all those affected by this big storm including most especially those who lost their lives.  

It was 1995 and I am not sure why but had to pick 'Environmental Studies' as a major. I not only picked it but stuck with it. Its now the year 2012 and not only do I feel old, but also, 17 years later, I can't believe I am still watching a Bill Maher show where someone is arguing that climate change is a hoax. Really? Been outside?

Since I picked that major it has become apparent to everyone with 3 of their 5 senses working that something is up and we should probably decrease our pollution. In 1995 it might have only been me and Al Gore to be thinking about this topic, but now everyone is. Unfortunately while everyone is thinking about it so few of our leaders/money owners/job creators are actually doing anything about it. It is time. It is way past time. As the great Bill McKibben communicated during the Bill Maher show (to paraphrase): the radical thing is us allowing a certain contingent of humans to alter our atmosphere. We need to stop it urgently.

Please on all that is holy please let's just #taxcarbon already:

'With distressing images of weather-related disasters saturating the news media, climate change no longer seems such a distant and abstract worry — except, perhaps, in Washington. In 2009, President Obama persuaded House Democrats, then in the majority, to pass a bill aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Facing a Republican filibuster in the Senate, however, the legislation died. And its prospects dimmed further when Republicans took control of the House in 2010. Mr. Obama has remained relatively silent on the issue since then.'

I have no patience for the fight about or against global climate change. I don't give a fuck where you fall on this 'debate'. Carbon is plain and simple pollution. You would not allow your neighbor to just dump trash into the street, but just because you can't feel, see or touch carbon directly doesn't mean it is any better or worse than the trash your neighbor throws into your yard. Tax that shit and stop it. Do it for the kids and the kids' kids. Now.

Well put: The Feds went after two Bear Stearns hedge fund managers for lying and self-dealing at the dawn of the crisis and lost the case. Since then, everything's been a settlement - where everyone gets to write checks from their corporate coffers and deny wrongdoing. This does nothing to appease the throngs of spectators watching from the cheap seats. This week in New York, a jury found a Citigroup drone not guilty of mortgage fraud but rather than send a signal to The Street that they were satisfied, this jury wrote a letter to the government begging them to prosecute bank CEOs. This was a first, and it happened five years later. What does that tell you about the public's desire for closure and for the guilty to be punished? We don't want it, we need it. We cannot move forward until there is a sense that loose ends have been addressed, until then we're simply still in the crisis phase, we will not - as a society - accept that it's over yet.

Hard to say it better: '“Punish wrongdoing. Right the wrong of the age of irresponsibility.”' Thanks Mr. Taibbi, as usual.

His wife, Angie, was in Florida, watching on TV, trying to get Caleb to take a nap. She was trying to figure out what he was going to do to celebrate, “You know he’s gonna put on the green jacket and drive down something in the General Lee,” she told the Golf Channel. And as for next year’s champions dinner, where he’ll pick the menu?


“Might be In-n-Out cheeseburgers,” Angie said.

Superbowl Champions


I think it is great that the winner in the Superbowl this year is getting a lot of press.  Eli deserves it.  Manningham deserves it.  The Giants coaching staff deserves it.  But what strikes me about the Superbowl this year is what it also tells you about the losers.  


"My husband cannot [expletive] throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time,"  Gisele  said. "I can't believe they dropped the ball so many times."


Now granted that it is reading into it, but this comment and the sentiment behind it leads me to believe a rot at the cultural heart of your New England Patriots.  I mean, it is not hard to guess.  Tiquan Underwood was cut the day before the Superbowl (since rejoined which totally ruined a key plank of my argument).  From the top down it is not surprising they have not won one since Spygate.  It is not unlike the Tiger story in so many ways: playing and acting like something they weren't, got caught, lost their competitive edge and showed more of a personal edge (although maybe Tiger is making some progress).  It's sad to see, but I truly enjoy rooting against them.  Oh, and them.  


Do I think my wife would rip into my brothers, players next to me every week, if I was coming home each Sunday or Monday night talking about our brotherhood and our team?  Do I know what Tom Brady and Gisele say to each other each night?  No.  I have a hunch, but all I can say is that you would be hard pressed to find my wife insulting my brothers in that situation.  I don't even think my wife would do that to the people I work with now, in cubes, far away from a football field.  


Anyway, I will say this: I love a good team.  Those Giants - they are a good team.  Congrats to them and enjoy the trip to Disneyland (I have come to love that place).  

I watched the terrible video today of the UC Davis students taking pepper spray in the face. I can't even put into words what emotions this welled up in me. I know you as students don't think this way but you are just kids and to see the robocops do that... Well I am just glad I was not there as I am fairly certain I could not have restrained myself.

Kudos to you for doing so and being the more mature ones. You restraint and principles are stronger than any possible physical response I would have mistakenly done.

Labels: #ows

Taibbi - great as usual.

Above the clouds was nice, but being home is better.

Strange night in the valley with an icon passing: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203476804576613732041665792.html It's obvious I think that things will never be the same without him. The innovation, the forward looking and even the mercucial nature will never be repeated. There is no doubt about that. I type now on an iPad... How long would it have been for me to ever type on something like this without him? A year? More? Ever? Here is to the true hope that his nature and his spirit carries on. Silicon valley won't be the same with just Larry, Sergei, Marc, John. It will miss it's Steve for a long time. The man who loved innovation but loved direction and packaging and vision more... Gosh, I just hope the ones remaining get it. Innovation without vision is nothing. To you Mr. Jobs.