֎ An entertaining perspective on climate change from 538: ‘Gumbo’ days in Louisiana are disappearing where the tradition is to make the state’s traditional meal in weather just below 50°. See https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/not-even-gumbo-is-safe-from-climate-change/
While on the topic of climate change, here’s an unexpected benefit from new non-carbon technologies:
There are already myriad examples to point to, from Puerto Ricans with rooftop solar who had power after Hurricane Maria to some Tesla owners using their cars to stay warm during last year’s Texas blackouts. (Both those disasters also show the vulnerabilities of a fossil fuel-powered grid.)
֎ Part of the new political era emerging in the northern hemisphere is brought to light by this item from HELSINKI (AP) — Through the Cold War and the decades since, nothing could persuade Finns and Swedes that they would be better off joining NATO — until now.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has profoundly changed Europe’s security outlook, including for Nordic neutrals Finland and Sweden, where support for joining NATO has surged to record levels.
֎ On the intellectual side of the new international picture is a curiosity about whether the authoritarian nations, e.g., the –Stans, Russia and its neighbors, the warring middle east and nations in North Africa will be able to sustain their economies given the burden of greedy oligarchical plutocrats, as new collaborative trade agreements (like the TPP) take over. A common opinion is that these economies will be absorbed by China’s Belt and Road Initiative and make China the dominant economic power on the planet – a club of authoritarian governments.
Mariner is more interested in how the southern hemisphere will join the rest of the world – he being an advocate of a new nation called ‘The United Continents of America’.
֎ Important progress in human rights: President Biden today will sign landmark workplace legislation that forbids companies from forcing sexual harassment and assault claims into arbitration.
֎ One reader will be pleased to know that the Doosan Bears, with a relentless offense and a tireless bullpen, have made history in the South Korean baseball postseason.
The Bears will play for the South Korean baseball championship for a record seventh consecutive year, after hammering the Samsung Lions 11-3 to sweep the best-of-three penultimate round in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason.
Ancient Mariner