Coping With Climate Change

Debating whether or not climate change is man made or not is a waste of time.  It wastes time because it doesn't solve the problem.  Either way, the global climate is changing and we are going to have to deal with it.  One way we are not going to deal with it is by radically changing our lifestyles.  For all the calls for renewables and energy conservation, the population of the world is simply not going to accept radically more expensive energy costs or living a greatly reduced quality of life.  People will not give up their cars in favor of public transportation.  They aren't going to be cold in the winter or hot in the summer.  They aren't going to give up their videogames, computers, and air conditioning.  No amount of guilt about future generations is going to change that.  For the Indians and the Chinese, cries from the West to reduce air pollution sounds as smug, paternalistic, and racist.  Why should the average Indian or Chinese person not get to enjoy the fruits of modern technology and comforts as those in Europe or the U.S.?  If renewables like wind, solar, and geothermal could meet our energy needs at the same cost as fossil fuels, we would all be using these technologies now and the matter would be moot.  The problem is cost.  Renewables are still not cost effective for most of the world.

The climate change deniers pose an untenable position as well.  They claim that global warming is a natural thing and that we should simply keep using fossil fuels as we need them.  The problem with this position is that it is unscientific and not based on facts.  The consensus amongst scientists is that climate change is real and that real consequences will follow if we fail to make changes regarding our energy usage.

My position is twofold.  First, solar power will meet 100% of our energy needs within the next 20 years.  Solar power technology is growing exponentially.  Within this time solar power will be much cheaper than fossil fuels.  A distributive energy grid based on everyone having their own solar panels will become commonplace.  We will have a smart energy grid that operates like the global web.  Energy production will become decentralized and locally grown. 

Until this time, however, we must deal with climate change and prepare for it.  Instead of yammering on about it being the end of the world or denying it altogether, we must realistically predict how much the climate is going to change between now and 20 years.  Once we can predict the scope of damage, we can plan ahead to adjust to this new reality.  This may mean relocating people on coastal cities.  It may mean preparing for shifts in agricultural production and new weather patterns.  Adapting to climate change within the next 20 years is the only adult response that will work.  Asking the Chinese to accept a lower standard of living is not going to work because they are not going to do it. 

Discouraging the use of energy also limits technological and human progress.  Google, Facebook, and the Internet in general require massive amounts of energy.  Computing and transportation require energy.  Living in caves is not going to be our salvation.  Improvements in solar technology will. 

Republicans who threw a hissy fit when Solyndra failed were being myopic.  Innovation and new businesses sometimes fail.  Risk is part of creating new things.  The Germans and the Chinese governments directly subsidize their solar power industries because they know that this is the future.  They know that these technologies will dominate.  The market has a hard time supporting these industries now.  But the future will be different.  It is like the Kodak company.  They invented the digital camera but instead of going with it, they buried it away because they were making absurd sums on their film sales.  Management failed to understand that the future was digital.  Now Kodak is bankrupt.  The United States must not make the same mistakes.

We must use creativity to solve the problem of climate change.  Innovation and new ideas will save us.  We were wrong predicting that overpopulation would cause mass starvation by now.  Norman Borlaug and his Green Revolution improved crop yields and saved us.  The same will happen with climate change, so long as we don't have Republicans throwing fits when the government chooses to help solar companies make some progress. 

Rethinking Energy Efficiency

Your smartphone updates itself as needed.  The presumption is that improvements can and should be adopted as they are discovered.  Yet we don't use the same logic with our homes.  While not as sophisticated as a smartphone, your home does rely on technology to operate--complex plumbing, electrical, heating, cooling, and insulation keep your home comfortable year round.  But if you have a house that is more than ten years old, these technologies aren't built in to your home.  You might still be working with a furnace which is older than you.  Efficiency was not the same 30 years ago as it is today.  The same goes for your appliances. 

When fuel is cheap, you may be able to afford poor insulation.  You just crank up the heater and you are fine.  But as the cost of propane and electric go higher and higher, energy efficiency starts to make more sense.  Winters here in Ohio and throughout the country have become harsher.  Summers have been scorching.  Only energy efficiency is going to help you recover these losses.

As a kid, I thought the idea of energy efficiency was totally boring.  But now that I have to pay the bill, I appreciate my father yelling "shut the lights off" or "close the door, I'm not paying to cool the entire neighborhood."  The Germans have developed a new efficiency standard called the "Passive House."  It involves making the home so well insulated and enclosed that it doesn't require much additional heating and cooling, even in such locations as Fairbanks Alaska.  Walls are made very thick with insulation, all gaps are sealed, and a high efficiency air and heat exchanger is used to recirculate the air.

The same incentive for energy efficiency goes for cars.  I never thought the Toyota Prius or other hybrids were particularly exciting.  But as gas becomes more expensive, not paying most of my monthly income on such expenses is looking better and better.  If I were to run across a good deal on a used Prius, I would probably go ahead and get it. 

I never thought I would reach an age where the idea of staying home for a quiet evening and watching Youtube videos about home insulation would be exciting.  I suppose I have officially entered middle age.

Design Matters--Revisited

Design matters.  When I get into my car and the seat belt nanny bot dings until I fasten my seat belt, I don't feel a sigh of relief that the car company is trying to save my life.  Instead, I see it as a paternalistic intrusion in my life that I resent.  I wear my seat belt as a matter of course.  But if I am driving to my mailbox at the end of the driveway, I don't need big brother Co. telling me to fasten up.

The same goes for keyless car door clickers.  The designers of these products seem to have an autistic sense about them--they know precisely how to make the products work for 1% of the population.  An intuitive design would be one click to unlock all doors.  The next click would lock the car again.  This would require only one button.  Instead, the designers create an overly complex sequence that opens some doors, sometimes opens others, and even sets off a panic mode to scare the hell out of you when it senses you are tired or annoyed.

This panic mode is the bane of my existence.  On my Escape, if you unlock the door with the key too fast, and then open the door, it will set off the alarm.  And this alarm is LOUD.  Your ears ring after hearing it.  The only way to stop this torture is to put the key in the ignition and turn the vehicle off.  Sometimes this works, other times you have to disconnect the battery. 

A friend of mine has a Honda Accord.  I am 5 ft 6, the same size as your average Japanese man.  You would think they would have designed these cars for someone my height given their market--wrong.  You have to be a contortionist to get into this car.  And if you have arthritis and want to get out of it, God help you.  Another lovely feature of the design of this vehicle is the window pillar right behind your left shoulder--perfect for eliminating visibility when changing lanes in heavy traffic. 

If you are a corporation spending millions of dollars to develop and sell a product, you would think someone might consider studying the design implications of their products on usability.  After all, this is only one of the most important things in owning a product.  The genius of Steve Jobs was that he took ordinary things and made them more intuitive to use.  The old mp3 players of yesteryear sucked.  They had a half dozen or more tiny buttons that controlled music playback on the device.  Using them was like programming your VCR--impossible.  By introducing the scroll wheel and a large hard drive with an intuitive menu system that made sense, the iPod revolutionized music playback.  The technology got out of the way and let people actually focus on listening to music instead of screwing around.

This was part of the great design of the iPhone.  The touch screen and intuitive menu system made smartphones accessible. 

Google and its ecosystem of cloud computing products shares a similar simplicity.  With one gmail address, you have access to a world of computing products that can have a dramatic effect on your life.  You can save your important files in the cloud and have them be secure with two step verification, watch Youtube, create spreadsheets and word processing documents that are available to all of your devices immediately, synchronize your calendar, run your voicemail and get visual voicemails on your mobile phone, check your email, back up your photos from all your devices, and much more.  You can restore your lost Android phone in a few minutes without losing your data. 

The bottom line is that design is as important as function.  If you have to interact with a product on a daily basis and that product makes you want to tear your hair out, then you remain alienated from the tools which are designed to make your life better.  Using your consumer goods should be intuitive, fun, and if possible, beautifully designed.  Even the most simple and inexpensive items can be all of these things if the makers of these products spent just a bit more time on design and not just on engineering--or cutting corners to save money.  If the world learned anything from the iPod, it is that corporations can make huge amounts of money by making products people can actually use.

Design Revisited

Design matters.  When I get in my car and the seat belt nanny bot dings until I fasten my seat belt, I don't feel a sigh of relief that the car company is trying to save my life.  Instead, I see it as a paternalistic intrusion in my life that I resent.  I wear my seat belt as a matter of course.  But if I am driving to my mailbox at the end of the driveway, I don't need big brother Co. telling me to fasten up.

The same goes for keyless car door clickers.  The designers of these products seem to have an autistic sense about them--they know precisely how to make the products work for 1% of the population.  An intuitive design would be one click to unlock all doors.  The next click would lock the car again.  This would require only one button.  Instead, the designers create an overly complex sequence that opens some doors, opens others, and even sets off a panic mode to scare the hell out of you.

This panic mode is the bane of my existence.  On my Escape, if you unlock the door with the key too fast, and then open the door, it will set off the alarm.  And this alarm is LOUD.  Your ears ring after hearing it.  The only way to stop this torture is to put the key in the ignition and turn the vehicle off.  Sometimes this works, other times you have to disconnect the battery. 

A friend of mine has a Honda Accord.  I am 5 ft 6, the same size as your average Japanese man.  You would think they would have designed these cars for someone my height given their market--wrong.  You have to be a contortionist to get into this car.  And if you have arthritis and want to get out of it, God help you.  Another lovely feature of the design of this vehicle is the window pillar right behind your left shoulder--perfect for eliminating visibility when changing lanes in heavy traffic. 

If you are a corporation spending millions of dollars to develop and sell a product, you would think someone might consider studying the design implications of their products on usability.  After all, this is only one of the most important things in owning a product.  The genius of Steve Jobs was that he took ordinary things are made them more intuitive to use.  The old mp3 players of yesteryear sucked.  They have a half dozen or more tiny buttons that controlled music playback on the device.  Using them was like programming your VCR--impossible.  By introducing the scroll wheel and a large hard drive with an intuitive menu system that made sense, the iPod revolutionized music playback.  The technology got out of the way and let people actually focus on listening to music instead of screwing around.

This was part of the great design of the iPhone.  The touch screen and intuitive menu system made smartphones accessible. 

Google and its ecosystem of cloud computing products shares a similar simplicity.  With one gmail address, you have access to a world of computing products that can have a dramatic effect on your life.  You can save your important files in the cloud and have them be secure with two step verification, watch Youtube, create spreadsheets and word processing documents that are available to all of your devices immediately, synchronize your calendar, run your voicemail and get visual voicemails on your mobile phone, check your email, back up your photos from all your devices, and much more.  You can restore your lost Android phone in a few minutes without losing your data. 

The bottom line is that design is as important as function.  If you have to interact with a product on a daily basis and that product makes you want to tear your hair out, then you remain alienated from the tools which are designed to make your life better.  Using your consumer goods should be intuitive, fun, and if possible, beautifully designed.  Even the most simple and inexpensive items can be all of these things if the makers of these products spent just a bit more time on design and not just on engineering--or cutting corners to save money.

Cell Phone Etiquette

Technology moves faster than our etiquette.  Knowing social cues and remaining polite is difficult enough, that's why Miss Manners, Dear Abby, and Emily Post had jobs.  Watching the subtle cues for social appropriateness is easier for some than others.  But the rapid introduction of new communication technologies has thrown a curve ball to even some of the most socially savvy folks.

Prior to the introduction of the cell phone, reaching someone meant calling them on a telephone that was hard wired to a fixed location.  Need to talk to someone and they aren't at home or the office?  You will just have to wait.  Want to escape and go for a walk in the woods without being reached?  No problem.  Need a break in your car?  Not a worry.

Now we are expected to answer the phone any time of day or night.  People get pissed if they cannot reach someone.  This leaves no room for people to be unplugged and simply be.  It doesn't take into account having meals, using the bathroom, exercising, or simply visiting uninterrupted with others.  In many ways, it is a real violation of one's privacy when there is a societal expectation of "always on" availability.

For my law office, I only take calls during normal business hours, which are 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday.  If someone calls before or after these times, they are expected to leave a message.  The purpose for this is to keep my time and life segmented in a healthy way.  It is simply too stressful to be dealing with crisis situations at 10 pm.  There needs to be a mental expectation that one can relax and maintain balance in one's life without always being available.  If not, job burnout and poor performance result.

The same goes for visiting with others.  When I go to dinner with someone or I'm having a cup of coffee with friends or family, I don't take calls.  By doing this, I am telling the person who is present they are more important and have my full attention.  It is showing respect for that other person and their time.  They don't need to sit and listen to me chat with someone on a conversation they cannot hear. 

Bathroom breaks are the same.  I'm sorry but if I am using the bathroom, that is private time.  The calls will have to wait.  Hearing another person flush while they are talking is disgusting.  Sorry.

Smartphones make the problem of cell phone etiquette even more complex.  On top of calls, one can receive Facebook messages, Twitter updates, emails, Instagrams, and God knows what else 24/7.  If you are waiting in line at the bank or pharmacy and checking these helps you to pass the time without being impatient and being a dick to the clerk, then fine.  But once you reach the front of the line, put your smartphone away.  Nothing is more rude than taking a call or checking Facebook while the clerk is made to wait. 

If you are visiting with a doctor or lawyer, keep the cell phone put away.  Don't read your text messages.  It tells the person that you aren't fully present and don't value their time.  Be present.  Pay respect to that person. 

Not texting while driving should be a no-brainer.  Unfortunately it is done far too much.  You are better off driving drunk than texting while driving.  Both will get you and others killed quickly.  If you want to use your phone in the car, buy a Bluetooth headset.  Have both eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel.  I can't believe I have to say this, but it is true.

The urge to not check one's phone every few minutes relates to the dopamine reward center of the brain.  Studies have shown that the sensation one gets from checking one's phone is the same as one gets from tasty food and even cocaine use.  It releases dopamine and other "feel good" chemicals in the body.  Yet the will can overcome these urges.  We don't have to be slaves to our machines.

All of this doesn't mean getting rid of your cell phone.  It does mean letting the cell phone remain a tool and you not becoming a tool.  That is the difference.

Saying No to Israel

Benjamin Netanyahu has to be the most politically tone def, annoying, aggressive shit on the world stage today.  He's like the annoying customer that a waiter can't please no matter what.  This guy has the balls to defend Israeli settlements at the same time that peace talks are scheduled.  Let's go ahead and take a shit on the same people we are supposed to be making peace with right before negotiations begin.

His hypocrisy is epic.  While Israel has a treasure trove of nuclear weapons and chemical weapons, this guy has the chutzpah to condemn Iran for developing nuclear weapons.  What makes Israel so fucking special?  If Israel isn't allowed to bully all nations around it, then it throws a fit.  Part of the reason for discord in the region is because Israel is already disproportionately powerful compared with its neighbors.  This creates insecurity amongst the other nations, and for good reason.  After all, the U.S. has already invaded Iraq and Afghanistan.  It has military bases surrounding Iran and troops in Saudi Arabia.  Iran would be insane not to be concerned about Israel given the American right wing and its lips being sown to the asses of the Israel government.

On the news, we keep hearing about the "Security of Israel."  Israel has enough money, weapons, and kick ass power to take care of itself.  In 1967 it kicked some serious ass.  They are fine.  It's practically a mantra in the U.S. that we have to worry about the "security of Israel."

Even if Iran were to get a nuclear bomb, the government there wouldn't actually use it.  The Supreme Leader has no problem treating its own citizens like shit, but he is not aggressive towards other countries.  If anything, it would balance the power in the Middle East sort of like the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia.  There's nothing like mutually assured destruction to make peace between enemies.

It's interesting how the right wing in America obsesses about Israel.  Why is that?  We don't see them worrying about the well being of Nairobi, East Timor, or other nations. 

The people who live in Israel are fine folks, but their government is run by assholes.  These are the same dickheads that joined forced with the Apartheid government of South Africa back in the day. 

We have been kissing Israeli ass for 60 years and there is still no peace.  Maybe it is time for a change in direction.  If Obama were to tell Netanyahu to go fuck himself, America and the Middle East would be far better off.

Toilet Seat Politics

Forget the health care debate.  The real issue of our time is that of the toilet seat.  Should it be left up or down?  That is the real question, one which affects all of us who live in mixed gender households.

Many men are admonished by the women in their lives to "put the seat back down" after using the toilet.  However, this declaration makes some presuppositions that shouldn't be considered automatic.  After all, what is the natural state of the toilet seat?  Does the design of the toilet seat lend it to being put down as opposed to being left up?  Are there safety considerations?  What about the convenience factor of the other members of the family?

Given the design of most toilet seats, they just as easily remain up as they do down.  The exception to this is the foam filled toilet seat.  These tend to fall down and pose a safety hazard to midgets, dwarfs, and three year old boys.  These seats are best left down for the benefit of all.

Some women make the argument that they might accidentally fall in the toilet while attempting to pee at night if the toilet seat is left up.  However, I have yet to hear about this actually happening to anyone.  Besides, this is a matter of conscientiousness--one should always be paying enough attention to one's surroundings that one doesn't fall into the toilet.  From a legal perspective, this would fall under the "open and obvious" hazard which would exempt one from legal liability.

Next we move to convenience.  From a utilitarian perspective, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.  If there are more women than men in a household, there is naturally going to be more convenience for the many as opposed to the one by putting the seat down after use.  If you also consider in the fact that both sexes do number 2, then this argument is also "solidified," so to speak.

From a deontological point of view, leaving the seat up or down remains a question in itself that needs to be asked, not whether it is more practically beneficial for a greater number of people.  It doesn't seem to be morally useful in itself to consider the vertical status of the toilet seat.

Applying the Golden Rule after doing the golden sprinkle might make everyone happy.  Like the O'Henry story of the "Gift of the Magi," men would lift up the seat after peeing to please their wives while always finding it up after their wives sprinkle because their loved ones had done the same.  WWJD?  It depends on whether he was married or still living with male roommates.  My guess is that if he can walk on water, he can make the toilet seat do whatever he wants hands free.

While Freud might say that women become so angry about this issue because they have penis envy and the lowered seat is a reminder of this, I beg to differ.  Maybe we should be like Soloman and order the toilet seat be placed half up after every use to accommodate everyone.  Whoever decides to relent would then be the winner.