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What’s wrong with capitalism: patio umbrella edition
The patio umbrella’s pulling cord snapped. Just replace it, how hard can that be? Turns out it can be very hard, in fact impossible. Why? The umbrella is put together in a way that I cannot access the place inside the hollow pole where the cord is tied around the bolt connected to the crank…
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My recent post about Global Warming is all wrong
When did you last admit you were wrong, totally and utterly wrong? In my case, that would be right now. Here is the retraction. A a few weeks ago I sat down to try and figure out how Global Warming will affect me personally and my family. I wrote it down in this post. It…
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How Global Warming will affect me and my family — an attempt to reason things out
Update October 21, 2018: The post below is all wrong. Here is the retraction. Global Warming will have a gigantic impact on earth — but how will it affect me, and my children? Should we move further north? Learn how to live off the land? Expect war? Not do anything different? What? It’s been bothering…
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Global Warming and (My) Productivity
Reporting on the results of an unexpected experiment … with unexpectedly global implications. After 20 years in the same house in Northern California, we installed whole-house air conditioning earlier this year. It seems that most of the apartments here have it, but not too many single family homes. Somehow the weather seemed to have gotten…
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Almost half of US households can barely make it
This is incredibly awful and shameful. According to the United Way ALICE project, a research project run by a group of charities, almost half of US households are barely getting by. ALICE stands for: Asset Limited Income Constrained, but Employed. and it means: a “household who cannot always pay the bills, has little or nothing…