These statements about company culture or core values reminded me of a post on patriotism that I did a few years ago. Not patriotism as easily mocked, condemned or dismissed - but patriotism as understood by people who embrace patriotic sentiments without apology or irony. Here are some excerpts:
…So basically a downward trend since the early, optimistic days of the war in Afghanistan, when 80% of respondents said they trusted the federal government’s handling of international problems. What about trust in the federal government’s handling of domestic problems?
Then again, the above chart makes the decline in cropland look bigger than it has been, which was just 5% over a period of 20 years. We can do better. Unfortunately, the federal government’s Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) undermines efforts to shrink US cropland further by subsidizing farmers to grow biofuel crops - mainly corn for ethanol - to meet biofuel mandates for transportation and heating fuel. Check out the next chart and guess the year RFS went into effect:...That would be 2006, or almost 10 million additional acres of corn ago. Now, nearly 40% of corn grown in the US goes to ethanol, up from 5% in 1996 (Saavoss et al, 2021).
In the early days of this blog, my posts were relatively brief, not quite right, but often onto something. A sampling: …
“The President will announce today that the EPA Administrator is planning to allow E15 gasoline—gasoline that uses a 15 percent ethanol blend—to be sold this summer. This is the latest step in expanding Americans’ access to affordable fuel supply and bringing relief to Americans suffering from Putin’s Price Hike at the pump.” Fact Sheet: Using Homegrown Biofuels to Address Putin’s Price Hike at the Pump and Lower Costs for American Families. White House Press Release, April 12, 2022
If I had to choose, I’d go with a meaningful life over a happy one. But that’s a false choice based on an idealized concept of happiness as pure lightness, unburdened by cares or worries. Not what I’m looking for. Wellbeing is more like it, at least wellbeing as the feeling that swells with autonomy (sense of agency, the ability to act on goals and values), competence (feeling able and effective), and relatedness (a sense of belonging and being connected to others). A feeling that grows stronger by overcoming challenge.
“Attempting recall of information from memory, as occurs when taking a practice test, is one of the most potent training techniques known to learning science. However, does testing yield learning that transfers to different contexts?” - Pan & Rickard, 2018.
A lot of people think healthy food is expensive and so either give up on the whole concept or take a bunch of vitamins and supplements and call it a day. Thing is, healthy food is not expensive. And by “healthy” I don’t mean organic or available only at the local farmers’ market. I mean at the very least 7 servings of fruit and vegetables, plus protein and carbohydrates. Some fresh produce is nice, but canned and frozen stuff will do too, nutritionally speaking. Like in this USDA table:
So we’ve got high crime, lots of police department staff, and low crime clearance rates. First thought: what’s wrong with the cops in San Francisco? Maybe nothing. Let me explain, starting with some relevant context…
Since would-be burglars typically prefer unoccupied buildings, San Francisco’s steep rise in burglaries in 2020 is not all that surprising. And the large rise in auto thefts can be at least partly explained by supply issues, which increased the market for stolen cars. Larceny and robbery are still down from the pre-pandemic baseline, which makes sense since these crimes are often committed in commercial establishments, parking lots, garages, parks, fields, and areas near public transportation - in other words, the type of places that have closed in great numbers or become sparsely peopled since the pandemic began, thanks to remote work, the decline of tourism, and widespread avoidance of public spaces.
Crime rates based on residential population are a poor indicator of victimization risk in cities that attract a large daily population from outside the city limits. In these cities, the population at risk of crime includes tourists and inbound commuters to work. Tourists and commuters are typically victims of crimes committed by strangers, such as robbery or car theft, while residents are more likely to be victims of crimes committed by family and friends, such as homicide, rape and aggravated assault.
In a previous post, I provided evidence that most Americans of prime working age (25-54) want to live in detached houses in low-density residential areas. Americans also prefer community and residential features such as limited street traffic, open space options nearby, large back yards and off-street parking. They especially want to live in quiet neighborhoods that are safe for walking and for kids to play outdoors. So is there a way to make low-density residential communities climate friendly?
“...you’ll see that mostly what we’re building these days is single-family homes. That form is inherently challenging when it comes to carbon emissions, and it’s made more so by the fact that we’re building much bigger houses than we used to…Simply put, you should build as small as you can for what you need, and if possible, you should avoid having a [concrete] basement.” - Professor Shoshanna Saxe/University of Toronto, quoted in Large carbon footprint of new house construction mostly due to concrete basements (2021)
It might be tempting to dismiss housing preferences as merely a matter of taste or culture, which can evolve with the proper incentives or education. However, global studies have consistently found that high-rise apartment living is a net negative for most people, especially families and children, and regardless of culture, nationality, or aesthetic traditions. Here’s a smattering of what researchers have found…
Specifically, the average homicide rate in the Most Restrictive states over the period of 2010-2020 was 4.6 homicide per 100,000 population. For the Least Restrictive non-southern states, the average homicide rate for 2010-2020 was 3.8 per 100,000, and for the Least Restrictive southern states it was 7.3 per 100,000. What’s going on here?
The FBI’s Data Explorer System does provide yearly state homicide data for the period of 2010-2020. Over that eleven-year period, the average annual homicide rate per 100,000 population was 4.7 for California, 4.9 for Texas, and 5.2 for Florida.
Secure attachment provides a foundation for resilience and a sense of control. A secure toddler can always return to home base, where she will be safe and loved. Or at least she will have faith that the caregiver will return. That certainty encourages exploratory behavior – going where baby has not gone before – which in turn increases tolerance of uncertainty and a willingness to power through anxiety....resulting in a succession of discoveries and delights, setting the stage for more confident explorations.
Of course, early experience is not destiny.
You can’t fix a problem you don’t understand correctly. And you can’t begin to understand a problem unless you see it as a problem. And you won’t perceive it as a problem unless it conflicts with some ideal of what you want the world to look like: a vision of the good (not just a vision of a fixed bad).
In that spirit, here’s an outline of my ideal society – at least today’s version…
New legislation that would see planes forced to use "sustainable aviation fuel"… Overall, this is good, says Chelsea Baldino at the International Council on Clean Transportation, a non-profit research organisation. But several suggested amendments to the legislation widen the definition of sustainable aviation fuels to include food-based biofuels, she says. And it isn’t just about the climate. The loss of habitat is the main driver of biodiversity loss around the world. “The main message is that there should not be any food and feedstock biofuels,” says Baldino.
— EU plan for cutting emissions from planes could end up increasing them. By Michael Le Page/New Scientist April 27, 2022
Approximately 73% (over 94 million acres) of remaining grasslands in the Northern Great Plains are privately owned. While ranchers operate across a spectrum of sustainability, they all face pressure to convert existing grasslands into cropland, which—depending on market fluctuations—can yield better short-term profits than livestock can. This reality means that, when wheat and barley prices go up, ranchers may feel compelled to plow up and plant crops on large areas of intact grasslands. But in the long term, plains land is not well-suited for row crops. - Common Ground. By Di Tipping-Woods, World Wildlife Magazine/Summer 2022