"Nobel Laureate economist Angus Deaton has delivered a ferocious rebuke to his own profession, saying economists have failed to understand that #capitalism is about #power."
"when efficiency comes with upward redistribution — frequently though not inevitably — our recommendations become little more than a license for plunder”
In May, a team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst published a paper declaring they had successfully generated a small but continuous electric current from humidity in the air.
“To be frank, it was an #accident,” says the study’s lead author, Prof Jun Yao. “We were actually interested in making a simple sensor for humidity in the air. But for whatever reason, the student who was working on that #forgot to plug in the #power.”
Right now, could you prepare a slice of toast with zero embodied carbon emissions?
Since at least the 2000s, big polluters have tried to frame carbon emissions as an issue to be solved through the purchasing choices of individual consumers.
Yet, right now, millions of people couldn't prepare a slice of toast without causing carbon emissions, even if they wanted to.
In many low-density single-use-zoned suburbs, the only realistic option for getting to the store to get a loaf of bread is to drive. The power coming out of the mains includes energy from coal or gas.
But.
Even if they invested in solar panels, and an inverter, and a battery system, and only used an electric toaster, and baked the loaf themselves in an electric oven, and walked/cycled/drove an EV to the store to get flour and yeast, there are still embodied carbon emissions in that loaf of bread.
Just think about the diesel powered trucks used to transport the grains and packaging to the flour factory, the energy used to power the milling equipment, and the diesel fuel used to transport that flour to the store.
Basically, unless you go completely off grid and grow your own organic wheat, your zero emissions toast just ain't happening.
And that's for the most basic of food products!
Unless we get the infrastructure in place to move to a 100% renewables and storage grid, and use it to power fully electric freight rail and zero emissions passenger transport, pretty much all of our decarbonisation efforts are non-starters.
This is fundamentally an infrastructure and public policy problem, not a problem of individual consumer choice.
The reason Republicans go after trans people, CRT, etc is they have professionals who have done polling & focus groups & examined the psychology telling them there are effective targets.
As with everything they do, the goal is to get the public to move power to them so they can use that power to benefit their benefactors.
Tax cuts, get kill regulations that protect the public but impede profits, privatize public goods, etc.
"In patriarchal societies where #masculinity is coded as #power and control, men often try to get closer to women through power and control. The range of how this plays out is vast. It could be inconsequential, or it could end a woman’s life. This (...) may also be a reason why so many women in the “Man or Bear” debate chose the bear."
I recommend every man to read this piece by long-distance #cyclist Laura Killingbeck.
Ukraine is preparing its air defenses with upgraded weapons systems to combat Russian assaults on the power grid during winter, Reuters reported on Sept. 7.
The operators of the electricity systems of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia signed an agreement on Aug. 2 to disconnect from the Russian power system and synchronously connect to the European grid, the Lithuanian Energy Ministry announced.
"The Praetorian Guard (Latin: cohortēs praetōriae) was an elite unit of the Imperial Roman army that served as personal bodyguards and intelligence agents for the Roman emperors.
During the Roman Republic, the Praetorian Guards were escorts for high-ranking political officials (senators and procurators) and were bodyguards for the senior officers of the Roman legions. In 27 BC, after Rome's transition from republic to empire, the first emperor of Rome, Augustus, designated the Praetorians as his personal security escort. For three centuries, the guards of the Roman emperor were also known for their palace intrigues, by whose influence upon imperial politics the Praetorians could overthrow an emperor and then proclaim his successor as the new caesar of Rome. In AD 312, Constantine the Great disbanded the cohortes praetoriae and destroyed their barracks at the Castra Praetoria.[1]"
Yurii Chernichuk, the so-called ?director general? of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) appointed by the Russian authorities, is trying to persuade Ukrainian nuclear specialists at the plant to launch power unit No. 4.
I am always amazed at the power of water, whether it is one drop at a time falling onto a rock over centuries, or a massive confluence that gathers strength until it plunges over a sheer cliff into the bubbling pool below.
CNN senior legal analyst and nationally bestselling author Elie Honig explores America's two-tier justice system, explaining how the rich, the famous, and the powerful— including, most notoriously, Donald Trump—manipulate the legal system to escape justice and get away with vast misdeeds.
Strongman rule is a fantasy.
Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman.
He won't.
In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents.
We take this for granted, and imagine that a dictator would owe us something.
But the vote you cast for him affirms your #irrelevance.
The whole point is that the strongman owes us #nothing.
We get abused and we get used to it.
Another illusion is that the strongman will unite the nation.
But an aspiring dictator will always claim that some belong and others don't.
He will define one group after another as the enemy.
This might feel good, so long as you feel that you are on the right side of the line.
But now #fear is the essence of life.
The politics of us-and-them, once begun, never ends.
We dream that a strongman will let us focus on America.
But dictatorship opens our country to the worst the world has to offer.
An American strongman will measure himself by the #wealth and #power of other dictators.
He will befriend them and compete with them.
From them he will learn new ways to #oppress and to #exploit his own people.
At least, the fantasy goes, the strongman will get things done.
But dictatorial power today is not about achieving anything positive.
It is about #preventing anyone else from achieving anything.
The strongman is really the weak man: his secret is that he makes everyone else #weaker.
Unaccountable to the law and to voters, the dictator has no reason to consider anything beyond his own personal interests.
In the twenty-first century, those are simple: 👉 dying in bed as a billionaire.
To #enrich himself and to stay out of #prison, the strongman dismantles the justice system and replaces civil servants with loyalists.
Some great girl power at the Newtonmore Highland Games at the weekend. Despite the weather it was a ball, or should I say caber! #girl#power#highlandgames#scotland
The monitoring mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has observed previously reported anti-personnel mines at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Rafael Grossi, the agency's director general, said in a statement on Sept. 23.
I think anyone following me knows I have serious problems with the field of #economics. It's little more than post hoc rationalizations for #power masquerading as #science
Well #AngusDeaton just dropped a shit bomb all over his fellow money priests.
"Without an analysis of power, it is hard to understand inequality or much else in modern capitalism.”
Nobel Laureate economist Angus Deaton has delivered a ferocious rebuke to his own profession, saying economists have failed to understand that capitalism is about power.
"The Christian nationalist movement has long used abortion as an issue to unify different strands of their movement. They know that if you can get people to vote on a single issue, you can control their vote. ...
If you dig deeper, it is really about the money and power, and not just sex."
~ Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshipers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism
Ukraine and Germany intend to build wind farm around Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (www.pravda.com.ua)
Ukraine and Germany have signed a declaration of intent to build a wind farm around the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).
Reuters: Improved winter air defenses may protect Ukraine's power grid from Russian attacks (kyivindependent.com)
Ukraine is preparing its air defenses with upgraded weapons systems to combat Russian assaults on the power grid during winter, Reuters reported on Sept. 7.
Baltic nations agree to disconnect from Russian power grid (kyivindependent.com)
The operators of the electricity systems of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia signed an agreement on Aug. 2 to disconnect from the Russian power system and synchronously connect to the European grid, the Lithuanian Energy Ministry announced.
Russians trying to force Ukrainian staff at Zaporizhzhia NPP to launch power unit No. 4 (www.pravda.com.ua)
Yurii Chernichuk, the so-called ?director general? of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) appointed by the Russian authorities, is trying to persuade Ukrainian nuclear specialists at the plant to launch power unit No. 4.
IAEA: Previously reported mines remain at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant (kyivindependent.com)
The monitoring mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has observed previously reported anti-personnel mines at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Rafael Grossi, the agency's director general, said in a statement on Sept. 23.