Nelson Lowhim's Blog, page 16

Short story dropping.

New one here. 
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great short story here

By Ben Okri. Like it. 
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🦀

If this happened in any other country, let's say Russia, the media would be all over it.

A cop who's being investigated, serves a warrant on the person doing the investigation of them. This is probably even worse than 3rd world, tbf. And the right is cheering it all the way. I mean, just read this corrupt crap: 

The warrants served Wednesday on Kuehl and Giggans were approved by L.A. County Superior Court Judge Craig Richman, who has a relationship with Mark Lillienfeld, an investigator in Villanueva’s public corruption unit

yeah perfectly fine, perfectly normal. Thought we had protests over this, you trying to bring police accountability. Glad those weren't listened to. 
Oh and we're not doing great overseas. These people are far right and giving them any weapons is beyond dumb. Just like Afghanistan we'll create a worse monster than what we think we're preventing. 

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Long list National Book Award

Which of these have you read? Me? None. Will try to change that. 
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And now the Real News

Is articles like this. 

Climate tipping points (CTPs) are a source of growing scientific, policy, and public concern. They occur when change in large parts of the climate system—known as tipping elements—become self-perpetuating beyond a warming threshold. Triggering CTPs leads to significant, policy-relevant impacts, including substantial sea level rise from collapsing ice sheets, dieback of biodiverse biomes such as the Amazon rainforest or warm-water corals, and carbon release from thawing permafrost. Nine policy-relevant tipping elements and their CTPs were originally identified by Lenton et al. (2008). We carry out the first comprehensive reassessment of all suggested tipping elements, their CTPs, and the timescales and impacts of tipping. We also highlight steps to further improve understanding of CTPs, including an expert elicitation, a model intercomparison project, and early warning systems leveraging deep learning and remotely sensed data.
RATIONALESince the original identification of tipping elements there have been substantial advances in scientific understanding from paleoclimate, observational, and model-based studies. Additional tipping elements have been proposed (e.g., parts of the East Antarctic ice sheet) and the status of others (e.g., Arctic summer sea ice) has been questioned. Observations have revealed that parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet may have already passed a tipping point. Potential early warning signals of the Greenland ice sheet, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, and Amazon rainforest destabilization have been detected. Multiple abrupt shifts have been found in climate models. Recent work has suggested that up to 15 tipping elements are now active (Lenton et al., 2019). Hence it is timely to synthesize this new knowledge to provide a revised shortlist of potential tipping elements and their CTP thresholds. RESULTSWe identify nine global “core” tipping elements which contribute substantially to Earth system functioning and seven regional “impact” tipping elements which contribute substantially to human welfare or have great value as unique features of the Earth system (see figure). Their estimated CTP thresholds have significant implications for climate policy: Current global warming of ~1.1°C above pre-industrial already lies within the lower end of five CTP uncertainty ranges. Six CTPs become likely (with a further four possible) within the Paris Agreement range of 1.5 to <2°C warming, including collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, die-off of low-latitude coral reefs, and widespread abrupt permafrost thaw. An additional CTP becomes likely and another three possible at the ~2.6°C of warming expected under current policies.CONCLUSIONOur assessment provides strong scientific evidence for urgent action to mitigate climate change. We show that even the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to well below 2°C and preferably 1.5°C is not safe as 1.5°C and above risks crossing multiple tipping points. Crossing these CTPs can generate positive feedbacks that increase the likelihood of crossing other CTPs. Currently the world is heading toward ~2 to 3°C of global warming; at best, if all net-zero pledges and nationally determined contributions are implemented it could reach just below 2°C. This would lower tipping point risks somewhat but would still be dangerous as it could trigger multiple climate tipping points.

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Harold Bloom

I think I liked some of his POVs. Like how Hemmingway's shorts were way better than his novels. All fair enough. I do see that he got in a row with Toni Morrison and that does not endear me to him. So it goes. Solid discussion here. 
That being said, looks like a whole bunch is going on in Ukraine and I'm not sure what to make of it. There are people like Scott Ritter who seem to think it's not much (though he did say earlier that Russia was winning unconditionally.... and he does seem to be backtracking just a little..[1] And I'm certainly not one to swallow the western propaganda whole, but neither does the Russian type seem any better. Fog of war and all, but we'll have to wait and see what's going on.
Like I said, and the likes of Chomsky have said, the censorship (here in the West) is what's most worrying.  I'm not going to say that it's nothing. But as usual a kind of silence has enveloped the population and when Amnesty puts out a report stating that Ukraine has done war crimes, the outcry is at the report not at the actions (Amnesty head in Kiev resigned... what pressure was put on them to make that happen?). Note that there are plenty of reports on Russian crimes, but that's not enough, apparently. 
Just deja vu for me.

[1] Not to say I'd disagree with him always. He has been right a few times before... The Iraq war being a major point in his favor. And his willingness to speak truth to power is something we have to give him credit for (actual speaking not just right wing tripe)
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That Smell .

Working on some ai art for some shorts of mine. Some can be thought to be on point. While others... well  not so much. 
In the style of the following artist. Zdzisław Beksiński. I suppose his work seems nightmarish and I should choose another. We'll see how things improve. Stay tuned. 
Oh and this from the internet:






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Something most of our elites see as good: (NSFL)

70 year anniversary for the Brits massacres in Malay. 
And though you might think, well that's not anything and also it's in the past, well, know that our elites see this as a perfect example of how to carry out a counter insurgency. 

Sick shit, but it tracks (link has some worse pics). 




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🦀

Good interview with a Colombian activist. Part of it goes to show how much many of the downtrodden around the world have much in common as well as the unified oligarchs worldwide (however they may actually fight each other). 

Following is an interview with Andrey Tellez from last Summer, 2021. We are publishing it here on the occasion of the second anniversary of the 2020 Bogotá police massacre that left 14 people dead in one day. The following interview was arranged by then-Bogotá City Councilor Susana Muhamad, who is now Colombia's Minister of the Environment. They were joined by her Aide, Alejandro Mazuera. 

Excerpt: 

JPJ: Can you describe a little of what happened on the day of your arrest? 

AT: We learned the fateful news of the law student Javier Ordoñez who was brutally beaten by the National Police and who died. There was a call through social networks, and we decided to go to that CAI to show our dissatisfaction with everything that had been happening.... 

I started to record, although I had withdrawn a little because they were shooting in the air and also at people's bodies and I got really scared. A policeman approaches me, points a gun at me. I tell him that I am a Human Rights Defender and that I am recording. He threatens to shoot, but fortunately he does not fire his gun. He turns around and goes down towards the avenue, takes off his helmet, and I try to record his face since he threatened me. When I try to do this, I am stopped by a police officer who tells me that he is going to take me to the CAI. I tell him that I am not causing a problem, that I am not doing anything wrong. 

At that moment the police officer who had threatened me tries to take my cell phone and I do not allow it. He almost ripped off my finger, the nail was completely black, and another police officer had me from the back, and another one hit me with his knife in my abdomen. They couldn't take my cell phone, but in the struggle, I damaged my shoulder because another policeman hit me with a stout Billy club in the right side. I was left unconscious just because I was recording. I fell to the ground and the policemen kept hitting me. My glasses fell and a policeman stepped on them and broke them completely. He stole my cell phone so I have no proof of what I am saying, although there are some cameras around that can verify everything.... 

JPJ: What is the role of the international community, especially the U.S., with respect to your case, and with respect to the Colombian situation? 

AT: Three things. One has to do with pressure on the U.S. government to review the aid that is being processed for a murderous and genocidal police force. It is fundamental that this be discussed in the U.S. What is the role that the police really play in Colombia? Does the support that the U.S. is sending make human rights violations and the murder of defenseless civilians possible in this country? This would be the first task.

Anyhow, good to hear there are some anti-monarch types in England still. I wish them the best. I do find it funny that every keeps saying "oh she's just a figurehead" when in all actuality, the forced mourning period (no PL soccer games, a target at the working class) shows it does matter. 

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Welp, There Goes That.

There it is. At home we have to fight anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers (truly an odd sickness, though not one confined to our country) while real nations fight the pandemic like the social scourge that it is. And sure you have to think about China's covid zero policy as being negative, but that doesn't take into account the glaring unknown (with growing evidence that it's bad) that getting the damn virus and surviving is no cake walk either. You have the chance for increase brain fog as well as heart attacks (yeah without the vax it's worse). 

But the our system is broken and fast crashing. A trauma hospital (one of 2 level 1s in Atlanta) is going to close. And, apparently, rural hospitals all over the US are closing down (been doing it for a while now, but that has now accelerated because COVID):

I used to work in that ED. It was built decades ago with an expected daily census of about 50, or so I was told. It is tiny. Tenet had no interest in investing ED expansion when they owned it, and clearly neither did Wellstar.

When I was there they had a total of 16 main beds with monitors, plus an additional 5 in a fast track area (which was typically closed at night). There were 4 psych hold rooms and a 10 chair ambulatory care area that, given the patient population (lots of homeless and indigent people without primary care) stayed full around the clock. The trauma bay (just one) was smaller than any of the four trauma bays Wellstar ran at the old ED at their flagship hospital.

Still, when I was there the daily census hovered more around 150, with a heavy EMS component (up to 40-50%). Hall beds were permanent fixtures.

So yeah, factor in staffing issues, floor and ICU holds (also usually due to staffing issues), and the occasional multicar MVC, and the place could get swamped pretty quickly. Having only ~20 actual beds means space is tight.

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