While high-tech Mandarins continue to accumulate staggering wealth, and the Revenge of the Nerds assumes dominance in the economy, service sector jobs make up most of the rest of what’s available in the marketplace and the pay sucks. The pandemic has convincingly demonstrated, among other notable inequities, that most of the “essential workers” keeping society Read More
All posts by jmp
Cascadia: Prelude II
Some fifty miles off the coast of Cascadia, miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean and only 10 minutes ago, pressure built up between two massive tectonic plates over more than 300 years finally gave way. Along a 700 mile fault line, the Juan de Fuca plate slipped a few meters beneath the continental Read More
Pay It Forward
The thing about change is that it usually is forced on us. Few of us go there willingly, foregoing the familiar for a venture into the unknown. When truly dramatic change happens, like the world wide pandemic we are suffering, all the pain is readily apparent. But sometimes, too, the sheer magnitude of the disruption Read More
Power Play
It may surprise you to know where your electricity comes from. This state-by-state look at the sources of power generation over the past 20 years is provided by Nadja Popovich and Brad Plumer in The New York Times edition of Oct. 28, 2020.
Cascadia: an excerpt
“So, what’s the deal?” he said. “Deal?” said the bum. “I thought we agreed you’d go away. I gave you money. You said you would!” “I did go away.” “Not for long. Just a few days.” “Had to get back to work.” “What?” “Money ran out. Need some more.” “More? From me, you mean?” Read More
Uncle Billy in the Last Best Place
Uncle Billy came calling on more than one occasion and it was always a pleasure when he did. He and you had been tighter than ticks in the bad old days in Boulder and Denver, spent a lot of time, effort, and money together dancing on the hyphen of irrationality, as he might put it. Read More
What It Was!
You begin in a little room in a little house in a little neighborhood. You get to know your neighbors a few at a time. They are Sparr, Mruz, Vannis, Hawkins. Up the street, the Allisons. Over on Krameria, there’s even a kid from New York named Jerry Cohen. He knows about the Brooklyn Dodgers Read More
Cascadia: Prelude
It is Tuesday, the 13th of June, 2022, nearly 9 p.m. Flag Day. A full moon has just begun to rise above Mt. Hood. The dark, volcanic mountain silhouetted against the moon and the Willamette River flowing silver in the valley below is a classic snapshot of one of the world’s most beautiful cities. There Read More
How We Move from There to Here
Think about moving things that are valuable. Things we can’t afford to waste. Things like water, electricity, food. Think about how we do it now and how we might do it better. Better Food There are many good reasons why the locavore movement is sweeping agriculture. Food is best that is locally grown, we are coming to agree. It is fresher; Read More
Police: their uses and abuses
Being a good cop might be the toughest job in the world. Maybe that’s why there are so few of them. Fortunately, there are some very good cops. Peace officers who walk the talk about “Protect and Serve.” Men and women in blue who do their level best to treat people, all people, fairly and Read More