The first is more optimistic (as seen from Plenty’s perspective) than the second.
Here is what I’ve learned.
Upstart (or is it startup?) Plenty is a knowledge based enterprise.
Artificial intelligence is its most fundamental tool.
Hiring people is not a high priority.
Plenty has USD 200 million in owner equity.
Investment target, every city with a population over 1 million. (500 farms)
One key technology is LED lighting.
Primary farming method is hydroponics.
Primary investment object is a 10 000 m2 vertical farm.
Each farm will produce 2 000 tons of food, annually.
Each farm will be 350 times more efficient than land based farms, for some products.
Water consumption is 1% of land based farms per kg prodused.
Major savings coming from reduced transportation costs.
It takes 30 days from construction start, until a farm is ready to produce.
Rednecks (Sébastien Thibault, 2018, appearing in The Guardian, 2018-04-14)
I have just added a new item to the shopping list: red bandanna, Its inclusion was prompted by the reading of an article in the Guardian.
I am unaware of any family links to West Virginia, genetic or adoptive, but I do have family links to coal mining, and occupational links to union membership, being a retired member in good standing of norsk lektorlag, sometimes translated as the Norwegian union of master teachers.
My paternal grandfather was secretary of the Nanaimo Local of the United Mine Workers Union of America. Here, coal miners were independent, tough, and proud and became among the most radical and militant labourers in an extremely polarized province. They were the core of the socialist movement; their strikes were frequent, long and bitter. John Hinde (2011). When Coal Was King: Ladysmith and the Coal-Mining Industry on Vancouver Island. UBC Press. p. 4.
The most violent labour clash in B.C. took place in the coalfields of Vancouver Island, 1912–13. The initial cause of the 1912 strike was a gas explosion that killed 32. When two miners reported gas in another mine, they were dismissed. Fellow workers demanded that they be reinstated. The company retaliated by locking out the miners. Miners all over the island downed their tools in solidarity. Management resorted to tactics they had used in the past to break the strike. In Cumberland, Chinese miners were threatened with eviction and even deportation if they didn’t return to work. In that bitter environment, riots, gun battles, burnings, and clashes between strikers and scabs escalated. The government sent in special constables and the 72nd Regiment to aid the company. Over 250 were arrested, including Labour MLAs and the leader of the newly established British Columbia Federation of Labour. The strike continued for over two years . Eventually the United Mine Workers of America, after providing $16,000 a week to a total of more than one million dollars, ran out of money. The workers, faced with this reality, called off the strike. The settlement guaranteed improvements, but the employers reneged on the agreement.
The labour movement in B.C. is famous in Canada for its militant and socialist roots. British Columbia by the 1880s had the highest proportion of unionist to general population. In company mining towns where class differences were easily observable, unsafe working conditions, low wages, easy communication, and the necessity of solidarity led to a labour history that at times verged on class war. Division between workers based on race, industrial unions or craft unions, socialist vs. non-socialist, often divided workers and weakened their common objectives. Nevertheless, many of the great demands of labour were eventually met: eight- hour day, safety conditions, old-age pensions, universal suffrage, minimum wage, and an end to child labour.
Back to the Guardian. In West Virginia, the term “redneck” dates back to the early 1900s. In 1921, black, white and immigrant mineworkers took up arms to battle the coal companies that controlled and exploited every aspect of their lives. United, they wore red bandannas to identify each other in battle. They called themselves the “Redneck Army”.
The West Virginia mine wars were the bloodiest labor conflict in American history. The Battle of Blair Mountain involved 10 000 mine workers against a private army of more than 2,000 mercenaries and multiple airplanes equipped to drop bombs on workers, American federal troops armed with gas and more planes.
By the 1910s, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) was fighting for pay equality, and requiring an oath from every member not to discriminate against any fellow member by “creed, or color, or nationality”. Its first paid organizer in West Virginia was a black man, and an early planning committee consisted of three officers: one white person born in West Virginia, one Italian immigrant and one black person. See, James Green (2015) The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia’s Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom, Atlantic Monthly Press.
Other struggles featuring West Virginia:
In 1774, Point Pleasant. The first battle of the revolutionary war.
In 1863, Western Virginians formed their own state government in Wheeling. It rejected slavery and defended the Union.
Mine wars continued until the 1930s when the laws finally changed, union ranks swelled and mine protections improved.
Today, West Virginia is in the midst of another revolutionary moment. Since 2016, Volunteer-led resistance groups have arisen: RiseUp (Charleston), Mountaineers for Progress (Morgantown), and Huddles and Indivisibles (both State wide) across the state.
In March 2018, teachers in every one of West Virginia’s 55 counties went on strike, at the same time dozens of volunteer feeding and childcare programs cropped up. A citizen-led strike fund raised and distributed US$ 332 000. Thousands of teachers, janitors and bus drivers won 5% raises for all public employees. Then, a week later, West Virginia communications workers went on strike and won their own fight for job security. Now, teachers’ strikes are spreading nationwide.
The Guardian article concludes with: These hills were once home to one of the most powerful and diverse working-class movements in American history. That legacy lives on.
Spring is in the air. I could tell because the common gulls, Laurus canus (L. 1758) were making a lot of noise on their return from Portugal.
The common gull Larus canus, in Stavern (Photo: Arnstein Rønning, 2010)
While noisy, they were unable to compete with a motorcyclist exercizing his right to pollute the landscape with noise as well as fossil fuels, and leaving in his wake unnecessary carbon dioxide, that upcoming generations will have to deal with. I estimate I could hear this one motorcyclist for four minutes as he approached then drove across Skarnsund Bridge, then continued his meaningless journey almost to Mosvik village, where he became inaudible. I dream of a day when fossil-fueled motorcycles will be replaced by silent electrified variants, autonomously driven – for good measure.
Having made yet another unnecessary trip to our own municipal centre yesterday, with a fossil fueled vehicle, I can be perceived as the hypocrite I am. It is at times like these that a quote from the Bible comes in handy, and is so easy. No need to actually read or own a Bible because Google can find anything: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7) https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/John%208%3A7 (Here, 59 different versions of the Bible are provided, so it is just to find the first and the best that suit your needs.)
We are living in stressful times, and it is necessary for everyone to take back control. I may be so addicted to digital media and Duolingo points, that I am unable to keep my hands off a keyboard one day a week. However, I can reduce, if not eliminate, the noise I produce on Sundays.
The choice of Sunday has already been made for me, since I live in a nominally Christian society.
The Unit One workshop is a major source of noise. Rather than just turning off power to the entire shop, I have decided to re-enact my own first industrial job, working cleanup on Saturdays at the Brownlee sawmill in North Surrey, I will use Sundays for workshop cleanup.
Brownlee specialized in making red alder (Alnus rubra) products. These have a unique but attractive odor. It “… comprises 60 percent of the total hardwood volume in the Pacific Northwest, and is by far the most valuable hardwood in term of diversity of products, commercial value, and manufacturing employment.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnus_rubra
Temperate rainforest with Picea sitchensis (tall trees), Alnus rubra and Salix spp., Kitlope, British Columbia. (Photo: Sam Beebe-John, 2009)
Rather than taking my breaks with the stationary engineer providing steam to the mill’s drying kilns, I could take my breaks with my long-suffering wife, Trish, who might have a few milliseconds to spare from baking.
Once the workshop has been cleaned, there are other areas that could benefit from attention. In particular, I think of my desk, that uses magnetic forces to attract clutter.
Tomorrow is Sunday, and I will be able to put these principles into practice. It will be a low-key affair, without brass bands or ribbon cutting ceremonies. Hopefully, nobody will even notice the changes.
I am not reducing my weight so I can put more attractive selfies on Instagram. This should be of no surprise. My motivation is a lot simpler. It is to live actively in my later years, with few(er) medications and other support mechanisms.
My goal for 2017 was a weight reduction from about 110 kg, to 85 kg. I did not succeed. On 2018-01-01 I weighed 87.2 kg after a couple of weeks of excessive feasting associated with Yule. Undeterred, my goal for 2018 is 80 kg. If I end up at 82 kg, only my pride will be hurt.
24 year old Perth, Australia, student Grace Ritter is in a different life situation, recovering from an eating disorder that dominated her life for 10 years. She has started a campaign “Weigh Free May”. As can be seen from a poster from her website, she is targeting other issues. While it may be (politically and otherwise) correct for her to avoid weighing herself in May, I know that would not work for me.
A poster from Grace Ritter’s Weigh Free May campaign. (Photograph: https://www.weighfreemay.com/ )
While it may appear that I am simply targeting weight, my goal is actually to foster activity: physical and mental. Yes, I am eating smaller portions of desert and meat, and larger portions of fruit and vegetables. Eating is only part of the formula. Exercise is equally important. While I may not be Norway’s most enthusiastic skier, snow does provide an opportunity for me to exercise in the form of shovelling. At other times of the year there are opportunities for walking and hiking. Working in the shop, provides an opportunity to exercise other muscle groups, particularly the arms.
A note about BMI
Note: BMI, Body Mass Index aka Quetelet Index, was devised by Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874), in the period 1830 to 1850. It is useful for comparing sedentary populations, but is not designed for saying anything about individuals. Weightlifters, and others with a large muscle mass, will have a high BMI, despite being fit. At best BMI is a guideline
At yesterday’s weigh in, my BMI = 24.4 This is an acceptable level, but I cannot afford to put on much weight, if I am to stay under the magical 25 boundary that distinguishes normal from overweight.
I note that the restaurant industry association, Center for Consumer Freedom, are critical to the use of BMI. The index is calculated using weight and the square of height. Since mass increases to the 3rd power of linear dimensions, taller individuals with exactly the same body shape and relative composition have a larger BMI. Short people are misled into believing they are thinner than they are, while tall people are misled into thinking they are fatter.
Since, ethnicity and gender factors, such as height, influence how BMI results should be interpreted, I have used my participation in the North-Trøndelag Health Study, and medical check-ups, to see where I stand.
There are people who are skinny, but have high levels of body fat. I do not seem to be one of those. I am less worried about being underweight than overweight. Even if I reduced my weight to 70 kg, I would still have an acceptable BMI = 20.0
It looks like my winter exercise program will continue to consist of moving increasing amounts of fresh snow. Skiing to the local store in Mosvik (7 km) or Straumen (13 km) is another option.
The reason for this prediction is that the Gulf Stream aka Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), carries warm water north-eastwards towards Europe and beyond. In the arctic it cools, becomes denser and sinks, and then flows back southwards, along the Atlantic coast of North America. Now, global warming is reducing the cooling effect, while melting Greenland ice is diluting and weakening the current.
New research (see sources below) shows the current is now 15% weaker than around 400AD, with human-caused global warming being a major contributor to this. Human-caused global warming? That is a polite term for the burning of fossil-fuels, which increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The consequences of more CO2 could be disastrous. During the last ice age, changes in AMOC led to 5-10C winter temperature reductions in as short a time as one to three years. This had major consequences then and could have major consequences now.
Recent (black) and maximum (grey) glaciation of the northern hemisphere during the Quaternary climatic cycles. (Illustration: Hannes Grobes, 2008)
Today’s Guardian offers insight into what to wear when working from home. Anything but pyjamas, appears to be the answer, but you can read the article itself here: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/apr/11/rules-working-from-home-never-wear-pyjamas
This article had such emotional appeal to me, that I felt compelled to offer the following comment:
I have a 20m (60 foot) commute from the house to the workshop (converted garage). This requires that I dress. A few months ago I bought new glasses, with red frames! Now, almost my entire work wardrobe is red from a toque (winter) or baseball cap (summer) down. The last item I put on is my lab-coat complete with embroidered name tag. It is a bit difficult to mention this in front of a bunch of fashionistas, such as yourselves, but I have a couple of areas where colour-coordination has failed me. My safety-shoes are dark blue. Fortunately, they are so old and worn that the metal shows through. The same also applies to my hearing protection which is signal yellow. Yes, I know that this is a bit off topic, but ask forgiveness for mentioning that the workshop itself is OSB, painted white. Most of the stationary machines are signal blue, while more portable machines are signal red. My 60 cm x 40 cm desk is signal yellow.
Has NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, contributed to Canadian obesity? Barlow et al, in a 2017 paper, suggest it has. Before NAFTA, which was adopted in 1994, Canada had a tariff of 5 percent on high-fructose corn syrup. Under NAFTA, Canada agreed to phase out that tariff, while maintaining tariffs on sugar- and beet-based syrups such as fructose, maltose, glucose and molasses. After the agreement was put in place a years-long decline in total sugar consumption ended, with a shift from liquid sweeteners such as maltose and molasses to corn syrup, a high-fructose sweetener linked to obesity. When high-fructose tariffs dropped, consumption grew: from 21.2 calories of corn syrup per day in 1994 to 62.9 calories per day by 1998. Because tariff reductions make food ingredients cheaper, irrespective of their nutritional qualities, lower prices encourage manufacturers to use more of those ingredients.
The researchers found that consumption stayed flat on those protected sweeteners, but spiked for high-fructose corn syrup. Countries that are economically similar to Canada but not in NAFTA such as Australia and the U.K. did not see a similar effect.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Barlow stated that the connection between free-trade agreements and health has not been well-studied. To date, most research on globalization and nutrition has examined the effects of foreign direct investment: how consumption patterns change when multinational food companies begin producing and advertising in new markets. In trade negotiations NAFTA has often been used as a blueprint. The research leading to the article is an opportunity to think about who benefits from them and who loses, and to construct them to promote health and wellness.
Those interested in this topic are encouraged to read the original research article:
Pepita Barlow, Martin McKee, Sanjay Basu and David Stuckler Impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on high-fructose corn syrup supply in Canada: a natural experiment using synthetic control methods July 04, 2017 189 (26) E881-E887; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.161152 See: http://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/189/26/E881.full.pdf
Barbara Ehrenreich, 2 March 2018 at her home in Alexandria, Virginia. (Photo: Stephen Voss, for the Guardian)
Barbara Ehrenreich is one of my favourite authors. She has written (at least) three important works: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America (2001);Welcome to Cancerland (2001) ; and, Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer (2018).
Cancerland can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20131108181820/http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/cancerland.htm .
To research Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich engaged in a three-month experiment surviving on minimum wage as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart clerk. Her book reports on the difficulties low wage workers face, including hidden costs for shelter and food. The work requires a wide variety of attributes, including stamina, focus, memory, quick thinking, and fast learning. Workers risk repetitive stress injury, have degrading and uninteresting tasks, and have to deal with managers who demeaned and interfered with productivity.
In Cancerland, she described a breast cancer cult, which “serves as an accomplice in global poisoning — normalizing cancer, prettying it up, even presenting it, perversely, as a positive and enviable experience.”
In 2014, at an age of 72, Ehrenreich realized that she was old enough to die. She did not want to waste the time on preventive medical tests or restricting her diet in pursuit of a longer life. She would seek help for a health issue, but would not look for problems. A wellness industry, a cult of mindfulness and food fads elude people into believing that we are in control of our bodies. But with her Ph.D. in cellular immunology Ehrenreich argues that this is not so. The immune systems can promote rather than prevent the spread of cancer cells.
Gender neutrality, or rather the lack thereof, is a troubling aspect of our times, showing that modern humans are not really that advanced. I found this paragraph when looking up “at sign” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign
“In Portuguese and Spanish, where many words end in “-o” when in the masculine gender and end “-a” in the feminine, @ is sometimes used as a gender-neutral substitute for the default “o” ending. For example, the word amigos traditionally represents not only male friends, but also a mixed group, or where the genders are not known. The proponents of gender-inclusive language would replace it with amig@s in these latter two cases, and use amigos only when the group referred to is all-male – and amigas only when the group is all female. The Real Academia Española disapproves of this usage.”
Perhaps @ needs to become the 28th letter of the Spanish alphabet. (The 27th is Ñ.)
While English lacks grammatical gender, it still has a pronominal gender system. I am trying to use s/he more often to refer to people more inclusively, but have not found a shortcut method for her and him. I note that many others are using a gender-neutral singular “they”.
Today, I faced a challenge with Linux Mint on one of my computers. I received a message informing me that my boot partition was full. I surfed the net to find solutions and ended up with a fix in the form of a script that seemed appropriate.
I applied it. After about 5 minutes I could reboot. The boot folder then showed only the latest kernel.
That was nice, this one time. So what do I do when this, or some other problem re-emerges? I don’t really have enough problems to store them in a database. Thus, I decided to use a more basic fix, a LibreOffice Writer file.
This file lists practical solutions to problems that arise with Linux Mint.
Problem: Boot partition is full
Documentation: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=256436
Solution: copy and paste the following in the terminal
When the next problem arises, it will also use the same format. A problem statement, that is a short description, followed by a link to somewhere for more detailed information. Then comes the solution as applied, followed by an end statement so that one knows where the problem ends.
