Here’s a (Maybe Dumb) Idea

This would be a program designed to bring families out of poverty, enhance and fill in their education, and set them on a path to a new life. And I just made it up so it might not work, or the numbers are wrong, or just an all-around bad idea, but here goes:

Create a gated community outside the city, with 25-50 1,000 – 2,000 square foot homes, outfitted with quality furniture and appliances, all very simple and very clean. The gate, by the way, is serious, for a host of reasons. There would be lots of trees and green spaces, a main hall to meet, play games and celebrate, an office for administration and a pole barn/garage for groundskeeper/gardener and for training residents to work on the grounds and garden.

Other employees would include a caseworker for every ten homes (5), a part-time bookkeeper, banker or accountant to work with families on financial literacy, 3-5 admin positions, security (2), said groundskeeper, and a professional childcare worker and residents working as child-care employees.

Buses would run from community to city and back every two hours from 8a to 10p, with some small number of stops (close to or at mass transit pick-ups). Residents would be required to work from the age of 16 and over. High schoolers 16 – 18 could get out of work requirements when playing a sport or doing other school-related activities. Residents would also be required to sign in and out when they come and go. Allow each family to bring in enough of their own stuff to fill a 10 x 10 shed in the back. 

We assume although are not certain that this venture should bring in lots of willing support through donations and in many other ways, doctors, psychologists, nurses, dentists, chefs/nutritionists and others might donate their time, etc. Bring in artists, musicians, athletes and actors to entertain and to teach art, music, athletics and acting. 

Illegal drugs and drunkenness would be prohibited. 

$4,000,000 to $5,000,000 for land, to build and other start up costs
$1,200,000 for yearly salaries 
$200,000 per year for general upkeep
1,500,000 / 50 = $30,000 per family, per year
2,000,000 / 50 = $40,000 per family, per year

As residents work, they pay some sort of rent out of their paycheck; it would be low, but something to keep them in the paying for things mindset, that would be true of utilities as well. They would be expected to buy their own groceries and everything else once they get settled in and working. Families would be parent(s) and one to four kids. Once the kids are 19, they must move out. Parents move out when kids are out, or before if they desire it, or if it is felt that they’re ready to do so, which we would hope would happen the most often. 

Just thinking out loud here…

Maybe a Little

According to a recent issue of National Geographic, a company called Post Carbon Lab designs clothes that “photosynthesize using microbial dyes to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and release oxygen.” They quote one of the designers, Dian-Jen Lin: “‘Fashion has traditionally been based on an exploitative relationship with nature. We need to start reversing that.'”

Ending One:
Well, there you go. How cool is that? Every little bit helps.

Ending Two:
I’m gonna get me one of them t-shirts and walk into a room and be all like, “I’m a breath of fresh air, bitches!”

Ignorance is Pissed

“Woodland, N.C., has rejected a proposed solar farm after residents expressed fears that it would consume too much sunlight. Resident Jane Mann told the town council that the farm would steal sunlight that plants need, while another resident warned that it might ‘suck up all the energy from the sun.’ The council rejected the proposal, despite assurances that solar panels do not ‘draw additional sunlight.'”

The Week September 1, 2023

More and better education is important.

From a Cow’s Boob

Just before leaving for the holidays, the republican controlled congress, after doing absolutely nothing all freaking year but fighting amongst themselves and attacking their perceived enemies, whilst forgetting about Ukraine and Israel, migration, the border, etc., did deign to do one thing to make amends for the waste of time and salaries, they agreed to pass legislation that will bring whole milk back into our public schools. Their disdain for public schools and the kids who go there is clear, in their actions and inactions, but whole milk; we gotta give ’em that.

Numbers

I find it fascinating how numbers are portrayed in the media, mostly news media. I’ve thought about it myself as I was writing, like, should I write “two hundred million”, or “200,000,000”? Each will have a different effect on the reader. Sometimes I think that the full nine-digit number will seem larger than the written number. I guess I’m not sure. Different for everyone, I suppose.

I was reading an article in the newspaper about Oakland and their struggles as a city. Toward the end they wrote, “The city has lost 15,000 residents since the pandemic began…” That’s a very small city or large town, depending on your point of view, that up and moved out of Oakland since the pandemic. Then, I looked back to the front of the article and reread, “…Oakland, a city of 420,000…” and wondered what percentage it was and what it would look like if that had been presented as such. %.035. So, “The city has lost about %.035 of residents since the pandemic began…” Different. But the same.

Don’t Go!

Dudes wanna go live on Mars, have you heard that? I wonder if they’ve spent much time thinking about it. A couple of red flags.

I mean, what if you don’t like it? You’re 232,000,000 miles from home. You’re fucked. Plus, the planet is about as inhospitable as inhospitable can be, not only in terms of temperature, dust storms, and no air to breathe, but there’s radiation and lots of it. Mars is essentially trying to kill you.

Plus, you’d be living in a state of the art Habitrail, and seeing the same fucking people over and over and over, day after day after day.

FUN!

And yet all these billionaire dudes are actually seriously planning to do that very thing. Don’t go, fellas. It’s a really, really bad idea and the reality of Mars is that no one who’s rational, therefore, trustworthy, would ever join you.

The science is cool though.

The DNWay

“The DNA of wapiti deer as well as that of a woman was extracted from a Denisova Cave deer-tooth pendant.”
Harpers July 2023

This DNA could be from 300,000 to 50,000 thousands years old. Ponder that. DNA, as we all know it, can be grabbed from a cup or a glass or a straw to bust some murderer from the 1970s. But now, it can be grabbed from deeply in the past. And the present. Like, you getting up from your chair. There’s DNA – we can grab that.

People are all concerned about facial recognition. Which, now that I think about it, I am also concerned about. But your DNA is practically permanent – in the right circumstances. DNA describes who we are and why. And your’s and mine could be nabbed off something a hundred thousand years from now – or possibly way more.

I have no issue with this in any direction. I’d love to have my DNA looked at in 100,000 years by whoever that might be. And I’d be happy to help with any murder by spitting in a cup.

The point is, science is just so incredibly fascinating right now, I’m surprised Americans aren’t way more interested. It would take them away from their politics and grievances, as a start.

Real Dialogue

From the NYT.

I didn’t respect them.

But I did respect respect others. I respected many others that said the election was rigged.

My instincts are a big part of it.

That’s been the thing that’s gotten me to where I am, my instincts. But I also listen to people.

There are many lawyers. I could give you many books.

It was my decision. But I listened to some people.

Idle Hands

Percentage of eligible Americans who vote: 63
Of Hungarians: 71
Of Uruguayans: 95

I was paging through a Harpers Magazine on my desk to see if I’d already read it, which surprisingly, isn’t an exact science, as in, I just have to look at the words to see if I have already read it. It doesn’t work that way. How many of you have started a book and got dozens of pages into it and then realized that you’d already read the book? That’s what I’m talking about. I often read the letters in one month’s magazine about stories from a month or two back and can’t recall what on god’s green earth they’re lettering about.

It’s memory and attention and focus and all things I struggle with, and you probably struggle with, as we all struggle with the phones, the Internet, apps and the games and the movies, shows and the videos; blockbusters, podcasts and now, god damn it, AI and Chat GPT. That’s kicking a man when he’s down. It’s all too much and it’s evolving so fast. None of this was here when many of us were growing up and even adults. And it’s a firehose. No wonder we’re all barking at each other and fighting amongst ourselves about pointless issues – while the robber barons rob us bare, of course. Our phones and tablets scream at us, so we scream at one another. It’s about that simple.

And all of that distracts us from important things like voting.