Not a lot to report this week. I am still gearing up for my course on contemplative practice. A few interesting links this week— commentary included.

Politics

Why Russia Revelations Never Seem To Change Anything (20170725)

A fairly good article on the complexity surrounding the lack of effective responsiveness within American politics.

Tomgram: Michael Klare, Spreading the Cult of Carbon (20170730)

My source, someone whose astuteness I trust, regards Michael Klare as “one of the world’s experts on international energy politics, peace studies, and [the] American politics of both of those.”

Global Warming

Scientists consider ways to dim sunlight, suck up carbon dioxide to cool planet (20170727)

Given the gross lack of effective response to global warming, it is highly likely that carbon-removal processes and other machinations will occur. This is the beginning of such. Unfortunately it may well be ineffective for three major reasons:

• it is basically unexplored technology, and given our historic relation with technology, there are always hidden and deleterious consequences around the corner
• it does not address the basic inefficiency of the system, the immaturity of our species such that we have created the problem in the first place
• it is not being applied as a consensus response of our culture, and thus there will be those who impose their “solutions” upon the rest of the populus, a common difficulty of our species.

Miscellaneous

5 Productivity Tips That’ll Make You Rethink Your Day (20170720)

Productivity tips are common, but this one seems well organized, and links to a detailed free description. As usual, the limitation is the willingness of the individual to be disciplined.