EVs: Widely Touted; Narrowly Understood
How “green” are electric vehicles? You may be surprised. Click here to watch a short, informative video from Prager U.
Magical Thinking: Some (Possibly) Surprising Facts About Going Green
I like the idea of safe, renewable energy. So does almost everyone. But I don’t know much about it. (And, be honest. Neither do you.) Because I know so little, I try to refrain from having an opinion about what should be done to solve the global warming issue. But that seems like copping out.
I don’t have time to become knowledgeable on the subject. But I do a bit of reading now and then. No longish scientific pieces. I favor data – specific facts, numbers – that help me at least recognize when some particular thesis or theory makes no sense.
My favorite discoveries are those that surprise me. For example…
Did you know that wind power provides only 2% of the world’s energy needs?
And that solar power provides even less? Like 1%?
Did it ever occur to you that electric cars are made using fossil fuels and use fossil fuels to run?
Fact is, fossil fuels supply about 80% of the world’s energy.
Pop quiz: According to 100% of all environmental scientists, there is a source of energy that produces exactly zero carbon emissions. Do you know what that is?
Answer: Nuclear power.
It turns out that green energy is anything but green. We are consuming energy to produce energy. Click here for a short video that is worth a look.
Wu Wei: the Chinese Philosophy of Doing Nothing
Wu wei , a core concept of Daoism, is older and more subtle than Jenny Odell’s philosophy, but they are connected.
From The School of Life website:
“Wu wei means – in Chinese – non-doing or ‘doing nothing.’ It sounds like a pleasant invitation to relax or worse, fall into laziness or apathy. Yet this concept is key to the noblest kind of action according to the philosophy of Daoism – and is at the heart of what it means to follow Dao or The Way. According to the central text of Daoism, the Dao De Jing: ‘The Way never acts yet nothing is left undone.’ This is the paradox of wu wei. It doesn’t mean not acting, it means ‘effortless action’ or ‘actionless action.’ It means being at peace while engaged in the most frenetic tasks so that one can carry these out with maximum skill and efficiency. Something of the meaning of wu wei is captured when we talk of being ‘in the zone’ – at one with what we are doing, in a state of profound concentration and flow.
“Wu wei involves letting go of ideals that we may otherwise try to force too violently onto things; it invites us instead to respond to the true demands of situations, which tend only to be noticed when we put our own ego-driven plans aside. What can follow is a loss of self-consciousness, a new unity between the self and its environment, which releases an energy that is normally held back by an overly aggressive, willful style of thinking.”
Want to Work for Walmart? How’s Your Driving?
Walmart has a reputation for being very tough with its suppliers. If you want your tools or toys or treats to be sold in its stores, you are going to have to sell them to Walmart cheap.
The company’s reputation for frugality extends to employee salaries, too. The average Walmart employee makes about $24,000 a year, as compared to the national average of $66,000. A notable exception: the people who drive Walmart’s trucks.
$87,500 had been the average that the company’s drivers could make their first year on the job. And now that there’s a national shortage of drivers to keep stores like Walmart supplied, it gets even better. On Apr. 7, to lure potential drivers away from the competition, Walmart increased its yearly pay for new drivers to between $95,000 and $110,000. Click here.
Some interesting numbers:
* $53 billion – the amount of money commercial casinos collected in 2021, their best year on record.
* 10.19 ounces – the weight of the world’s heaviest strawberry (grown in Israel).
* 161,692 – the estimated pounds of Skippy Peanut Butter recalled because some jars may contain stainless steel from a piece of manufacturing equipment.
* 170 – the number of times a Japanese robot jumped rope in a minute. Ricoh, an imaging and electronics company, won the Guinness World Record for the most skips by a robot in 60 seconds.
About Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare took the plot from The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, a long, narrative poem written in 1562 by the English poet Arthur Brooke. The poem, in turn, was based on a French translation of a short story by the amazing Matteo Bandello, an Italian monk, soldier, adventurer, bishop, and writer. His collection of tales not only gave rise to Romeo and Juliet, but also Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing.
About the Gumbo-Limbo Tree
This is a photo of a Gumbo-Limbo tree. It’s one of my favorite deciduous trees that we have at Paradise Palms.
* It is a large semi-evergreen. The leaves are bright green and the flowers are creamy white.
* Its scientific name is Bursera simaruba. It is native to tropical regions of the Americas, from South Florida to Mexico and the Caribbean.
* It has a lifespan of 100 years.
* It grows quickly – 6 to 8 feet from a seed in just 18 months – and can reach 40 to 50 feet.
* It is a habitat for many resident and migrant species of birds, as well as monkeys and squirrels that feed on its red berries.
* Its wood is suitable for light construction and firewood, and its resin is used for glue, varnish, and incense.
* It is often referred to as the “tourist tree” because the bark is red and peeling, like the skin of a sunburnt tourist.
Interesting: The Origin of “OK”
The initials “OK” debuted in print 183 years ago, beginning the rise of one of the world’s most recognized words. Charles Gordon Greene, editor of The Boston Morning Post, likely authored the satirical piece that included this newly minted expression. In the late 1830s, writers often entertained themselves by abbreviating misspelled words and adopting them as slang. For example, “no use” became “know yuse,” which was then shortened to “KY.” At the Post, “all correct” was recast as “oll korrect,” hence the acronym “OK.”
Three days after its first appearance, “OK” found its way into the newspaper again. And by the year’s end, several publications had utilized the phrase. But “OK” really gained popularity ahead of the 1840 presidential election. Backers of incumbent Martin Van Buren began calling themselves “the OK Club” and instructing voters to “Vote for OK” – referencing the Kinderhook, New York-born candidate’s nickname, “Old Kinderhook.” Meanwhile, challenger William Henry Harrison got a boost when a newspaper editor insinuated that Van Buren’s mentor and predecessor, Andrew Jackson, struggled with syntax and signed his presidential papers “OK” because he thought “ole kurrek” was the actual spelling of “all correct.” Harrison won the presidency.
Five Causes of The Great Depression
On Black Monday, Oct. 28, 1929, the Dow Jones dropped nearly 13% in one day. That started a period of catastrophic declines that destroyed almost half of the Dow’s value in a single month. By 1932, at the nadir of the financial crisis, the nation’s public companies had lost 89% of their value. And the US economy didn’t fully recover from the damage that had been done until after WWII.
Why did it happen? Experts point to these contributing factors:
- Credit-fueled Consumption: After WWI, consumers went on a spending spree, using credit to buy everything from radios and washing machines to real estate and cars.
- Financial Speculation: The economic boom of the 1920s bred a frenzy of get-rich-quick scams. But the riskiest gambling took place on Wall Street, with more and more investors buying stocks on margin.
- The Federal Reserve: To fuel recovery after WWI, the Fed had lowered interest rates. Spending increased… but so did uncontrolled borrowing and speculation. As a result, in 1929, the Fed slammed on the brakes, jacked up interest rates, and caused a (justified, in my view) panic. The high interest rates made it difficult for businesses to borrow the money they needed to survive, and many ended up closing their doors.
- The Gold Standard: In 1929, the United States – like many other countries at the time – was on the gold standard, a system that directly links the value of a country’s paper currency to the value of a fixed amount of gold. A slowing economy, combined with the stock market crash and subsequent wave of bank failures, had led to crippling levels of deflation. And being on the gold standard made it impossible for the Fed to increase the money supply to stimulate the economy.
- The Smoot-Hawley Act: Signed into law in 1930, the Act raised already-high US import duties by an average of 20%. It was intended to protect the interests of American farmers and other US businesses, but the move backfired when foreign countries retaliated with their own tariffs. International trade plummeted by 65%, with US exports falling from $7 billion in 1929 to $2.5 billion in 1932.
These are the “five” causes that, as I said, “experts” often cite. And for good reason. From a long-distance and retrospective viewpoint, they all played a role in the drama. But the last three “causes” weren’t really causes, but effects.
At bottom, there were really two causes of The Great Depression: irresponsible speculation and irresponsible debt. (I’ll explain more next week.)
Interesting: Russia deploys at least 1,500 warheads on hundreds of missiles based on air, land, and sea platforms that can strike the entire US. Russia also is developing “novel” capabilities that can strike the US, like hypersonic missiles and a nuclear-powered cruise missile and torpedo.
Equally interesting: The United States maintains a nuclear triad that can strike all of Russia, providing a strong deterrent to a Russian attack.
Unsettling: The difference is that while Russia has modernized its nuclear forces about 90% of the way through, the US still relies on platforms built during the Cold War.