Since the quantity of music I listen to can be measured in minutes per year, it could take many months for me to hear all of these 20 (or 27) musicians. A few months ago, I actually binge listened to a YouTube collection of 1960s popular music. Never again. It took close to two weeks for my tinnitus to recover.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is located in Cleveland. Rather than wasting time finding out more about it, you would be better off learning something about Ahmet Ertegun, and why he was a pivotal figure in American music. Yes, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will be tied in. Here is a good place to start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmet_Ertegun
20. Björk
19. Lee “Scratch” Perry
18. Suicide
17. Larry Williams
16. Black Flag (Also mentioned: Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys)
Full disclosure: Cleveland shares the same lake, Erie, with notable other locations, including Essex County, Ontario. Cleveland has a soft spot in my heart. I visited it from Christmas 1967 to New Year’s day 1968, attending a convention of the Student Christian Movement. Ohio was the second US state I ever visited. (Washington was the first, located less than half-an hour driving from my childhood house.) For those interested in the minutiae of my life in the subsequent fifty years I have visited two additional US states, Oregon, also in 1968 and California, in 2015.
Confession: I am aware of listening to the following on the list: Björk, Black Flag, Roberta Flack, Depeche Mode, Whitney Houston, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kraftwerk, Can, Neu! and Trans-Europe Express. Neither Roberta Flack nor Whitney Houston have made in onto my personal Top 1 000 list of favourite musicians.
In the beginning there was a blog. Its first post was published on Saturday, 13 June 2009 at 22:22, brockmclellan.wordpress.com eventually morphed into Brock at Cliff Cottage. On Thursday, 12 May 2016 at 19:49, it was supplemented with the first post from unitwon.wordpress.com, Unit One, originally used an assortment of personas to write about various topics, before its focus changed to workshop operations.
These personas explored different topics. Jade Marmot looked at video production; Qwerty Asdf specialized in screenwriting; Proton Bletchley investigated science and technology; Alexa Qvam wrote (children’s) fiction, while Billi Sodd addressed art. There were also minor personas: Precious Dollar wrote about the economy, Brigand Brewer about history, Liberty & Modesty Patience about ethics.
In order to write more about industrial design, I usurped my daughter’s blog designeeds.wordpress.com stylized as Needs, Seeds and Weeds, on Sunday, 29 October 2017, publishing my first post at 04:37. She had originally started it Thursday, 19 July 2012 at 13:33. After writing five posts, it was not used after Wednesday, 24 October 2012 at 09:44. It had been dormant for over five years, before I started using it.
These three blogs still exist at WordPress.com. They are currently hibernating, and will continue to do so until their replacement (brock.mclellan.no) is mature enough to survive on its own. Yes, as noted in another post, all three of these have been merged, because it became impossible to distinguish the one site from another.
Despite having written more blogposts than tweets, by more than an order of magnitude, I am still a novice when it comes to blog writing. Writing a blog for me, serves much the same purpose as writing a diary does for others. It also replaces Facebook.
In much the same way that the prefaces Needs, Seeds and Weeds indicate that a post is concerned with (industrial) design, Ethan & Ethel posts are for young woodworkers, Charm relates to travel and photography. Now, Weblog will alert readers that a post relates to the technical, aesthetic and social aspects of blogging. In the future you can expect new prefaces to indicate special topics.
Operating a blog outside of WordPress or Blogger, is a very different proposition to operating one inside. Like a transition to adulthood, there is more freedom, along with greater responsibility. Thus, it has becoming necessary to learn new blogging skills, which will be reported on here using the Weblog preface.
‘If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere.’ Theresa May, 2016
Unlike Facebook, I am not “stockpiling and mining user information”. As far as I am aware, neither Cambridge Analytics, nor their lackey, AggregateIQ, are scraping posts. Yet, this blog is another incarnation of social media with an agenda (of attempting) to influence reader opinion.
Bill Blunden notes, “Social media is a form of mass surveillance and a tool of elite control. Buy product X, vote for candidate Y, support regime change movement Z. Pay no attention to the CEO behind the curtain.”
Dear reader, rest assured, I am not a member of any elite group. This includes Elite Singles, from whom I regularly receive invitations to join.
Yet, Blunden is correct when he states that messaging reinforces existing beliefs, and is part of a “divide and conquer strategy which the power elite have traditionally wielded to hobble the proles.” In fact, I see wisdom in his conclusion that “Readers should be wary of social media bubbles, safe spaces, and the like. …instituting societal change means reaching out to other folks. Some of whom may have different ways of viewing the world. Resist the temptation to write them off and have the humility to accept the limits of your own understanding.”
Currently, this blog only reaches a very narrow market. An optimist would be exaggerating by saying that it was somewhere between ten and twenty people, limited to family members and a few real friends. Its sphere of influence could be expanded to perhaps a hundred people – a few more (former) friends, Facebook acquaintances as well as others who have currently escaped Facebook attention, mainly Somewherians who lived in New Westminster in my formative years.
The market could be expanded more, if I chose to focus exclusively on an educational mission, ignoring family history and my blatant political, philosophical and other biases. Unfortunately, that isn’t me.
Blunden writes, “Take personal responsibility for your own social life. Go back to engaging flesh and blood people without tech companies serving as an intermediary. Eschew the narcissistic impulse to broadcast the excruciating minutiae of your life to the world. Refuse to accept the mandate that you must participate in social media in order to participate in society. Reclaim your autonomy.”
Birdhouses and beyond
The Inderøy birdhouse, a workshop project with a social and environmental profile.
One of the purposes of Hastighet (= Velocity) techno-garage, a local maker-space start-up, is to encourage the development of real-world Somewherian relationships with others from Inderøy. It is in the workshop world that people can make manifest their social and environmental ideals.
On Saturday, 2018-04-14, at E@ Internet Cafe, Inderøy, anyone could build themselves a birdhouse. Their only cost was an investment of time, during which they transformed 6 pre-cut, pre-drilled boards, 14 screws and a length of wire into a functioning house for a homeless member of the Paridae (tit) family, of which seven species live in Norway.
Almost 60 building sets were made, including one prototype. In the end, 14 bird houses were assembled and given away to specific people, for their contribution to the environmental movement in Inderøy. Currently, there are 17 kits left over. That means that more than 25 kits were assembled, or taken home for later assembly, by people attending the event.
Common birds, especially farmland birds, are in sharp decline in Europe.
As the graph above shows, common birds, especially farmland birds, are in sharp decline in Europe. Giving a child their own personal birdhouse, can foster an interest in the environment that may last a lifetime. With Workshop activism a focus for some members, the Inderøy Friends of the Earth is considering inviting all pupils of a particular grade, yet to be determined, to the Hastighet workshop in 2019 to build yet more bird houses. The real purpose is not to teach woodworking, but environmentalism. However, before this is done, a plan has to be made so that all school children are given regular opportunities to experience practical environmentalism, through woodworking. Additional plans also include a Repair Cafe, which would focus on rehabilitating rather than discarding products. It should also be noted that while some people were making birdhouses, others were working at the annual clothing exchange, making sure that inappropriately sized clothing received new owners.
Thus, my considered reply to Blunden is that I do take personal responsibility for my own social life. I am engaging with flesh and blood people, but I am also engaging with people who are geographically more distant, but emotionally closer. These are typically Nowherians living in places as diverse as Bergen, Prince Rupert and San Francisco. It is to keep in close contact with these that I have now turned to my blog. I dream of using Diaspora, but no critical mass has emerged there. I have applied to have an account with hello.com when it becomes available in Norway. It is a social networking service founded by Orkut Büyükkökten, the creator of Orkut.
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
