Ludicrous Levity

   As you know, I try to avoid the current news because most of it is awful. But, it is a cool Sunday morning and I am compelled by habit to look online at the printed newspapers I used to enjoy much more in print. Apart from the badness of the news stories, some of them are surreal and perhaps that should be a fourth news category to add to the 'real', the 'fake' and the 'breaking'.

   The headlines in even the most staid, solemn and serious newspapers now often resemble those found in the tabloids and one is reminded by them of the satirical publication, The Onion. If you aren't aware of it, see the information provided below. I was glad to see that The Onion is still around and the latest headlines provided include: "EU HONORS ANGELA MERKEL'S TENURE BY GIVING HER GREECE" and "MOST AMERICANS WOULD SWAP DEMOCRACY FOR $100 BEST BUY GIFT CARDS."

   It will probably not be difficult for you to figure out why I thought of The Onion when I saw the picture above of members of the Taliban in Bumper Cars (Dodgems, the generic term, which provides a bit more sophistication to an activity popular among American adolescents at amusement parks.) I am serious. The picture is from the very serious, Wall Street Journal and the headline to which it was attached is: "Afghanistan's Taliban Warn Foot Soldiers: Behave, and Stop Taking Selfies: Men Who Recently Spent Their Days in Bloody Battle Are Now Frolicking in Parks and the Zoo, Drawing Admonishments Form the Defense Minister," Saeed Shah, Sept. 25, 2021. The news is better today. Apparently the admonishments were taken seriously since a headline this morning reads: "Taliban Puts Bodies of Alleged Kidnappers on Public Display, In a Sign of Return to Harsh Islamic Justice," Rachel Pannet, Washington Post, Sept. 26. 

   Even on the domestic front (in the U.S.), there are news items that are rather odd and look more like spoofs written by the folks on the news desk at Saturday Night Live,  or from The Onion. This one involves a Black woman who bought a house, only to have it taken and occupied by someone else. Perhaps not an odd story if the usurper was white, but it was possessed by a Moorish "sovereign citizen", who is Black. You are unlikely to believe my telling of the story, so here is an abridgement from the source:

"She Bought Her Dream Home. Then a ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Changed the Locks.A New Jersey Woman was Preyed Upon by a Fast-growing Extremist Group That Claims its Members are Sovereign Moors, Not Bound by U.S. Laws," New York Times, Sarah Maslin Nir, Sept. 26, 2021

"The official-looking letters started arriving soon after Shanetta Little bought the cute Tudor house on Ivy Street in Newark. Bearing a golden seal, in aureate legalistic language, the documents claimed that an obscure 18th-century treaty gave the sender rights to claim her new house as his own….

Ms. Little was a victim of a ploy known as paper terrorism, a favorite tactic of an extremist group that is one of the fastest growing, according to government experts and watchdog organizations. Known as the Moorish sovereign citizen movement, and loosely based around a theory that Black people are foreign citizens bound only by arcane legal systems, it encourages followers to violate existent laws in the name of empowerment. Experts say it lures marginalized people to its ranks with the false promise that they are above the law.

“The Moors claim to be about Black liberation and opportunity, and uplifting Black people,” Ms. Little said in an interview seated on a staircase inside her house. “But he is literally oppressing me and taking what’s mine as a Black woman.”

   The members of this extremist movement are not to be confused with the white insurrectionists who were involved in the January 6 event in Washington (their racial group has not yet earned a Capital letter.) You may recall, however, another bizarre news item from back in July when a large group of heavily armed Black people were in a standoff with the Massachusetts state police. Apparently they were members of a Moorish sub-group, known as "Rise of the Moors." 

   Even the talented people at The Onion would have difficulty coming up with such surreal subjects. 

Sources: 

   The "real" story about the Massachusetts kerfuffle is here: "11 Arrested in Armed Roadside Standoff in Massachusetts," New York Times, July 3.
"The men, who wore military-style gear and claimed to be “foreign nationals,” were part of an hours long standoff with police officers."

   The Onion", "America's Finest News Source" can be found here. There is also a Wikipedia entry for "The Onion." 
  The picture above is of the cover of a book of good Onion stuff published by Three Rivers Press back in 2000. On the back cover it says: "The Onion is the world's most popular humor periodical. Its first book Our Dumb Century, was a New York Times #1 best seller and winner of the 1999 Thurber Prize for American Humor."

The Bonus Source:

   All of this should be taken seriously, or at least the part about the terrorist group, of which you were likely unaware. It is serious enough to be the subject of an academic article in a legal journal. Apparently even we Canadians need to be concerned. 

"The Sovereign Citizen Movement: A Comparative Analysis with Similar Foreign Movements and Takeaways for the United States Judicial System," Mellie Ligon, Emory International Law Review, 297, 2021.
Abstract:

The Moorish Sovereign Citizens Movement began as an offshoot of the overarching Sovereign Citizens Movement in the United States in the 1990s by former followers of the Washitaw Nation and Moorish Science Temple of America. The Moorish Sovereign Citizens Movement follows an anti-government ideology, based on the idea the current American government is illegitimate and has been operating under false pretenses since as early as the 19th century. Though disagreement among the members of the movement regarding what spurred this covert change from a legitimate to an illegitimate government exists, examples of the different catalysts include the U.S. abandonment of the gold standard in the 1930s and the Reconstruction Era of the 1860s and 1870s following the U.S. Civil War. Members of the movement live scattered across the United States and do not follow a single ideology or teaching, but they all engage in similar tactics of disruption—levying false liens against government officials they deem have wronged them, filing countless motions to flood the system, and employing a nonsensical legal language of their own in court appearances and filings. This comment engages in an overview of this movement in the United States and subsequently compares it to parallel movements in Canada and Ireland, specifically by looking to their cases involving individuals with similar ideologies and tactics. Finally, it discusses takeaways from non-U.S. movements for potential application in the U.S. setting.

Hydration: Going Against the Current

 

  The cartoon above arrived today, courtesy of the New Yorker.  That fact, plus the fact that it is pouring outside, reminded me of a "FAD" which I have wondered about over a number of years. It has to do with the consumption of water. The need for humans to drink huge amounts of it; people doing little physical work at all in comfortable, climate controlled buildings. I recall going to meetings where the participants looked like they were heading off on a safari. To ascend to the second floor, elevator buttons had to be pushed for those carrying  enough water bottles to get them through the hour.  Had I been as smart then as I now am, I surely could have convinced the folks at "The Bay" to start selling colourful canteens to match the work gear.

   It is lucky for me that the answer to the question, "How Much Water Do You Actually Need?" arrived just prior to that cartoon.  The answer to the question is basically, "Not Much." Here is the recent article, as well as another one which determines that this whole myth began in 1945. You should look at the articles and additional literature since I am not providing all the stuff about electrolytes. Still, you are more likely to be waterlogged than dehydrated.

"How Much Water Do You Actually Need? Here’s how to know when you truly need to hydrate," Christie Aschwanden, New York Times, September 17, 2021. 

If you’ve spent any time on social media or visited an athletic event lately, you’ve surely been bombarded with encouragements to drink more water. Celebrity influencers lug around gallon-sized water bottles as the hot new accessory.... 
The purported benefits of excess water consumption are seemingly endless, from improved memory and mental health to increased energy to better complexion. “Stay hydrated” has become a new version of the old salutation, “Stay well.”...

We’ve all been taught that eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day is the magic number for everyone, but that notion is a myth, said Tamara Hew-Butler, an exercise and sports scientist at Wayne State University.

….Do I have to drink water to stay hydrated?

Not necessarily. From a purely nutritional standpoint, water is a better choice than less healthy options like sugary sodas or fruit juices. But when it comes to hydration, any beverage can add water to your system, Dr. Hew-Butler said.... One popular notion is that drinking beverages with caffeine or alcohol will dehydrate you, but if that’s true, the effect is negligible, Dr. Topf said. A 2016 randomized controlled trial of 72 men, for instance, concluded that the hydrating effects of water, lager, coffee and tea were nearly identical....
You can also get water from what you eat. Fluid-rich foods and meals like fruits, vegetables, soups and sauces all contribute to water intake. Additionally, the chemical process of metabolizing food produces water as a byproduct, which adds to your intake too, Dr. Topf said....
But drinking more water, even when I’m not thirsty, will improve my health, right?No. Of course, people with certain conditions, like kidney stones or the more rare autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, may benefit from making an effort to drink a little more water than their thirst would tell them to, Dr. Topf said.
But in reality, most healthy people who blame feeling ill on being dehydrated may actually be feeling off because they’re drinking too much water....

The Source of the Myth

"No, You Do Not Have to Drink 8 Glasses of Water a Day," Aaron Carroll, New York Times, Aug. 24, 2015

If there is one health myth that will not die, it is this: You should drink eight glasses of water a day.

It’s just not true. There is no science behind it.

I was a co-author of a paper back in 2007 in the BMJ on medical myths. The first myth was that people should drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. This paper got more media attention (even in The Times) than pretty much any other research I’ve ever done.

It made no difference. When, two years later, we published a book on medical myths that once again debunked the idea that we need eight glasses of water a day, I thought it would persuade people to stop worrying. I was wrong again.

Many people believe that the source of this myth was a 1945 Food and Nutrition Board recommendation that said people need about 2.5 liters of water a day. But they ignored the sentence that followed closely behind. It read, “Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods.”....

Water is present in fruits and vegetables. It’s in juice, it’s in beer, it’s even in tea and coffee. Before anyone writes me to tell me that coffee is going to dehydrate you, research shows that’s not true either.

Although I recommended water as the best beverage to consume, it’s certainly not your only source of hydration. You don’t have to consume all the water you need through drinks. You also don’t need to worry so much about never feeling thirsty. The human body is finely tuned to signal you to drink long before you are actually dehydrated.

Contrary to many stories you may hear, there’s no real scientific proof that, for otherwise healthy people, drinking extra water has any health benefits. For instance, reviews have failed to find that there’s any evidence that drinking more water keeps skin hydrated and makes it look healthier or wrinkle free. 

A Bonus Source:

This Question and Answer article is from the University of Virginia. Here is a sample. You can read the complete article by clicking on this link:

EVERYTHING WE THINK WE KNOW ABOUT DRINKING WATER MAY BE WRONG,

January 27, 2020 UVA. 

Perhaps, more important than the conflicting scientific evidence is the strong marketing effect for sports beverages and bottled water that began in the 1990s, along with a recommendation from the American College of Sports Medicine in 1996 that focused on higher fluid intakes and drinking as much as tolerated. This recommendation also popularized the claim that you should drink before exercise and stay ahead of dehydration. The marketing efforts have been highly effective and I think are likely the greatest contributor to current behaviors. 

Q. Is there a recommended amount of water that a person should drink on a daily basis? Do how much you weigh and your overall level of physical activity play into it?

A. I am always hesitant to give a specific amount of fluid intake that is “right” for someone.  There are so many variables involved, such as your activity level, fitness, ambient temperature and sweat rate, that blanket recommendations don’t make much sense.

More important, we should recognize that dehydration is not a disease. If you are exercising or doing other daily activities and you are not drinking then, at some point, you get thirsty. Thirst is our bodies’ way of telling you to drink. Thirst has evolved in the animal kingdom over millions of years and is a very effective way to prevent dehydration.

The notion that you should drink to prevent thirst makes no sense. Humans don’t need to be told when and how much to drink (except in rare medical circumstances). Thirst is our innate hydration sensor.

The End. 

9/11

    As September 11, 2021 approached, there were many articles and programs about September 11, 2001. I watched none of the programs since I remember too well what I saw on that earlier date.  You likely have had enough of the 9/11 commemorations, so I will turn to a 9/11-related event that happened ten years ago in 2011 in London, Ontario.

   Perhaps I was prompted by the title of an article (cited below) which indicates that "False, Toxic Sept. 1l Conspiracy Theories Are Still Widespread Today", which caused me to wonder if that was true. If you are innocent of such matters, you should know that what you saw on 9/11 was not necessarily what was seen by many others. Or, that what was seen, has been explained in ways of which you may be unaware. There are those who believe, for example, that a plane did not hit the Pentagon and that the planes did not cause the destruction of the buildings in New York. Some of them are likely to live in London, Ontario. 

Conspiratorial Thinking Close By

   In early March of 2011 the Western News announced that "9/11 Truther Brings Message to Campus." Here is the description of the event:
“Niels Harrit, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, will offer a critique of the official account of the destruction of the World Trade Centres on Sept. 11, 2001, focusing on Building 7. Harrit published an article in 2009 about the discovery of nano-thermite, an incendiary and explosive, in the WTC dust. The free lecture takes place 7 p.m. today, March 3 in Social Science Centre, Room 2050. The lecture will be moderated by Dr. Paul McArthur, Western adjunct professor of family medicine.”

   I was not in London at the time and was sorry to have missed the talk, and I was surprised when I returned not to find any mention of it.  I was surprised because, even in 2011, universities were not generally welcoming places, and many speakers with, shall we say "eccentric" views, were being deplatformed. Apparently the talk was well-attended and no one objected. I, by the way, think it is a fine thing when notorious thinkers and obnoxious speakers are allowed on campus. 

   As the summary above implies, the collapse of the buildings was not caused by the airplanes. This is the view of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth and apparently that view is still held in 2021. I am not sure what the attendees of the London talk believe now. It would be interesting to know. 

  A careful reader will have noticed that I said the talk was "well-attended", even though I was not there and found no accounts of the lecture. I have now found one, however, and it is provided by the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Back in 2011, the lecture at Western was one of several given on Canadian campuses and a full report is found in this post: "Nanothermite Co-Discoverer Adds Canada to Lecture Tour," Mike Bondi, PEng.  Here is the complete account about the event at Western.

At the University of Western Ontario in London, a city with a population of approximately 350,000 located about two hours west of Toronto, attendance for Professor Harrit’s talk was somewhere between 60 and 75 people, according to Dr. Sharon Baker, a palliative care physician and long-time London-area peace activist. Dr. Baker, who brought along her two teenage sons and one of their friends, and “hadn’t really heard of [WTC] Building 7,” was very affected by the presentation and felt compelled to do something.

The London event was organized by Dr. Paul McArthur, an adjunct professor of family medicine at UWO, and a practicing physician in Walkerton, Ontario. Dr. McArthur led the introductions, and before introducing Dr. Harrit, I presented a trailer for a documentary that is currently in production called “9/11 in the Academic Community” which is being directed and produced by Adnan Zuberi. In early production, the documentary will be narrated by well-known actor and 9/11 activist Ed Asner, and will feature a number of distinguished academics in Canada and the United States. The film will explore the difficulties faced by professors and students in broaching the subject of 9/11 within their respective academic circles. This documentary was inspired by a class in 2008 at the University of Lethbridge by Professor Anthony Hall that involved many academics in Ontario and discussed important issues surrounding the academy’s response to 9/11. Consisting of three parts – the nature and the dimensions of the taboo of expressing critical perspectives of the events of 9/11 in academia, scholarly scrutiny and the official reports, and ways activists might overcome barriers in academic institutions to examining this subject – the film will explore these issues through the experiences of university students, professors and presidents.

Professor A.K. (Kee) Dewdney remarked “Harrit gives a very methodical lecture, building his case like a lawyer and closing off the exits for deniers one by one. I had never heard such a damning discussion of the anomalies at the WTC and was especially pleased to think of the explanation of the very long time that molten material resided at the bottom of the ‘bathtub’ for weeks.” A graduate student who was reporting on the event and interviewed Dr. Harrit mentioned that in the past, she had experienced that “teachers aware of students who were promoting dangerous alternative theories of 9/11 were obliged to ‘report’ them.”

A theme that ran throughout the tour is the notion that “9/11 is key.” Of Harrit and Grumme, Dr. McArthur remarked that “we are all humbled and inspired by the pair of you, a real team – bringing your own talents to the cause of truth and justice, even beyond the 9/11 issue (though it is KEY).” It was interesting to note that during Dr. Harrit’s tour of Canada, the nanothermite paper he authored with eight other researchers was not available on the Internet for a period of at least a few days. Whether this was mere coincidence or not, one can only speculate.

   Careful readers from the London area will have recognized the name of one prominent London family in the account above.  Professor A.K. (Kee) Dewdney was in attendance and he was (and perhaps still is) an active 9/11 denier. He used to live around the corner from us here in "Old South" and may still be close by. I would have been afraid to approach him in any case, since he was a professor and my knowledge of nanothermite is slim. 

   I first learned of Professor Dewdney in the book: Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History.  I learned more from Among the Truthers, where this is found on p. 89: 

   "Of all the 9/11 conspiracy theories I have encountered, perhaps the most elaborate is that of Alexander Keewatin Dewdney, a retired Canadian mathematician, who believes there were no Arab hijackers on September 11, 2001: The passengers of the four planes were killed using sarin gas, and the planes were flown into their targets by government-programmed computers.

   Among the many inconvenient facts casting doubts on Dewdney's thesis are the various telephone calls from passengers on the hijacked 9/11 aircraft to their loved ones. And so, Dewdney has made it his life's work to prove that the people who originated these calls actually were actors and actresses pretending to be hijacked victims. Dewdney has even gone up in rented aircraft with a bag full of cell phones so that he can prove to the world that the alleged phone calls never took place."

   Although the summary provided by the Architects & Engineers suggests that professors and students can face some difficulties when broaching the subject of 9/11 within their respective academic circles, they apparently didn't face any when they visited campuses across Canada. I find that odd, given how ''touchy" those on campus are, and were even then. If the buildings were destroyed from within, then who did it? Some of us think the buildings were destroyed by terrorists and airplanes. Others, twenty years after the event, are still arguing about whether the Jews or Bush and the neocons, brought down the buildings and whether those in the U.S. government knew about what was going to happen or made it happen. I fear that the answers are whatever you want them to be and depend upon which channel you watch or what you choose to read on social media.

Sources: 
   If you are not a "Truther" and do not think 9/11 a "False Flag" operation, these resources will be of interest.

"9//11 Conspiracy Theories" Wikipedia.
   The article is thorough and well-arranged. If you need more:

"How 9/11 Conspiracy Theories Fueled the War on Reality: Twenty Years After Osama bin Laden Terrorized the United States, Evidentiary Thinking is Under Attack From the Inside."
Opinion by Kate Woodsome and David Byler, Washington Post, Sept. 8, 2021
Discusses a film by Evan Laine and Raju Parakkal. 
"When terrorists flew two jetliners into the World Trade Center on a clear blue morning 20 years ago — and a third plane into the Pentagon — Americans’ belief that they were invulnerable to attack was shattered. That belief, of course, was false. The War of 1812. Pearl Harbor. We’d been attacked before. But not while we had such a modern, well-funded military and intelligence networks. The system failed us — a reality too stressful for many Americans to bear. Evan Laine, a former trial lawyer-turned-academic whose home city — New York — was attacked, believes that people carrying the stress had two options. They could accept that the system failed us, or change the narrative. He eventually paired up with political economist Raju Parakkal to study what motivated people to change the narrative, i.e., believe in conspiracy theories blaming George W. Bush for 9/11 instead of the terrorists who planned and executed the attacks....In this short film, Laine and Parakkal reflect on why people are inclined to adopt a narrative unsupported by evidence. Their explanation draws a chilling line between 9/11 “trutherism” and the “Big Lie” of 2020."

"False, Toxic Sept. 11 Conspiracy Theories are Still Widespread Today," David Byler and Kate Woodsome, Washington Post, September 10, 2021. 
"The facts of Sept. 11, 2001, are uncontested: Terrorists hijacked four jetliners, flew two into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon, while passengers on the fourth plane helped crash it in Pennsylvania.
After the attacks, conspiracy theories spread quickly. By the middle of George W. Bush’s presidency, a third of the public either believed that the U.S. government assisted in the attacks or took no action to stop them.
Today, 9/11 conspiracy theories remain widespread: 1 in 6 Americans think Bush administration officials knew about the attacks and intentionally let them happen so they could wage war in the Middle East. Others go further, arguing that the government planned and executed the attacks.
These groundless theories — commonly known as “Trutherism” — raise important questions. How does a conspiracy theory take hold? And why, 20 years after the attack, does it endure?

"How the 9/11 Attacks Helped Shape the Modern Misinformation, Conspiracy Theory Industry," PolitFact. From the Poynter Institute.  Here is the synopsis they provide:
IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT
*The sudden terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, seemed to defy explanation and occurred just as the internet started to boom. That combination spawned various conspiracy theories and made them accessible in new ways.
*The attacks also fueled distrust in government and fears of real and perceived enemies. Experts said the feeling of lost trust and security likely made some Americans more susceptible to conspiracy theories about 9/11 and other topics.
*One key accelerator of the 9/11 truth movement was an amateur documentary released online in 2005, which created a template for future videos, such as “Plandemic.”

"Two Decades Later, the Enduring Legacy of 9/11," by Hannah Hartig and Carroll Doherty.
From the Pew Research Center. 
"The enduring power of the Sept. 11 attacks is clear: An overwhelming share of Americans who are old enough to recall the day remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Yet an ever-growing number of Americans have no personal memory of that day, either because they were too young or not yet born."

"Seven Resources Debunking 9/11 Conspiracy Theories: With the twentieth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks approaching, we recommend sources for better understanding 9/11 and its aftermath. This week: seven resources that debunk 9/11 conspiracy theories." Blog Post by James M. Lindsay and Anna Shortridge, September 1, 2021. From the Council on Foreign Relations. 

"9/11 Conspiracy Theories Debunked: 20 Years Later, Engineering Experts Explain How the Twin Towers Collapsed,"  .September 8, 2021.From: The Conversation: (Academic rigour, journalistic flair.). 

"How a Viral Video Bent Reality: The Opening Moments of "Loose Change;" A Conspiracy Film Energized the "9/11 Truther" Movement. It Also Supplied the Template for the Current Age of Disinformation." New York Times, Sept. 12, 2021. 
But millions of Americans were seduced. After watching it, they disappeared down rabbit holes and emerged days or weeks later as, if not full-fledged 9/11 truthers, at least passionate skeptics. They had opinions about obscure topics like nano-thermites and controlled demolition, and they could recite the melting temperatures of various construction materials. Some believed the government was actively involved; others merely thought Bush administration officials knew about the attacks in advance and allowed them to happen.
Today, the Sept. 11 truther movement is often mocked or reduced to a sad historical footnote. It’s easy to forget how successful it was. More than 100 million people watched “Loose Change,” by its director’s estimate, making it one of the most popular independent documentaries of all time. And while conspiracy theory videos now routinely go viral, “Loose Change” was an early example of the internet’s ability to accelerate their spread.
What I found, in short, was that 16 years after its release, “Loose Change” is still bizarrely relevant. Its DNA is all over the internet — from TikTok videos about child sex trafficking to Facebook threads about Covid-19 miracle cures — and many of its false claims still get a surprising amount of airtime. (Just last month, the director Spike Lee drew criticism for indulging Sept. 11 conspiracy theories in a new HBO documentary series.) The film’s message that people could discover the truth about the attacks for themselves also became a core tactic for groups like QAnon and the anti-vaccine crowd, which urge their followers to ignore the experts and “do their own research” online.

If you now wish to read an entire book on the subject, see Jonathan Kay's, Among the Truthers: A Journey through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground.

Post Script:

   Those who witnessed the event will soon be gone and, as we have seen, the testimony of the witnesses varies. Currently, many distrust the government, even more the media and somewhere on social media one can find exactly what it is one wants to believe. Besides, we are now not only entitled to our own opinions, but as well to our own facts. One only hopes that things will have changed considerably before the historians arrive.

The Bonus:
   At the risk of leading some of you to the dark side, I will provide here a link to a video of the charismatic and convincing Professor Harrit from the website TRUTH COMES TO LIGHT: "World War III Started 20 Years Ago:" The Psychological War on Humanity - From 9/11 to Covid - 19."

The Wind Chill

 

   The autumn equinox is upon us and we are losing about three minutes of daylight per day. There is less daylight and there will be lower temperatures. Soon, as we watch the 6 o'clock news in the dark, we will be warned about the "Wind Chill." It is much worse than the temperature, which is why we are being warned. Invitations to local outings will be accompanied by reminders to wear mittens and appropriate footwear. I suppose such warnings are issued not because we are stupid, but because the inviters want to be spared a law suit should we be bitten by the frost, or because we might have forgotten about the Wind Chill.

   Meteorologists have largely abandoned the thermometer and the temperature in favour of the expression "It's going to feel like....!!!" . As in other realms of our experience, I suppose,  feeling is more important than thinking.  The season of the Humidex has passed and there was rarely a pleasant summer day that was not described as "Horrific" because of it. Winter is bad enough, but it will be made much worse by the Wind Chill. I guess it could be even worse if there was also some kind of a "Light Index" and we warned that on the dreary day to come the weather person will say that "Tomorrow afternoon at 1, it is going to feel like midnight." 

   I may be a contrarian, but I am not alone on this issue. Back in March, the veteran science journalist, Tom Spears,  had this to say about both the "Wind Chill" and the "Humidex." The source: "The Weather: Opinion: Why Are We Inflating Our Weather Forecasts? The Scam That is the Wind Chill." Toronto Star, March 7, 2021.

On the Wind Chill:

"We have a problem with our weather.
It’s being reshaped by an inflationary force that is pushing out hard data — and replacing it with squishy approximations of “how cold it feels.”
This problem is a simple thing we hear about all the time: wind chill....But the wind chill still made the day feel colder than the actual temperature. At least, that’s the official story.

But why does every winter day have to be described as colder than it really is? Listen to the radio and count how often the announcer says: “ … but it’s going to feel like …” Increasingly I’m even hearing wind chill given more prominence than the actual temperature. I hear neighbours and people in shops talking about the terrible cold, -20 or -25 C, when the temperature is -15 C or so.

The effect of this is inflation. No matter what the temperature is, we keep telling ourselves it feels colder. And the deck is stacked to promote cold. First, the wind chill calculation doesn’t consider any warming influences, such as the sun that warms your face at this time of year. Touch a brick wall that faces the sun and you’ll feel this effect. Also, wind is generally measured high above the ground and with no trees or buildings nearby, often at airports. Down at ground level in my neighbourhood (or yours) the wind is less strong.

On the Humidex:

Now with spring coming, we turn to another way to make ourselves miserable and distort the weather all at once. We have the humidex. Again, it’s an approximation of how we feel, and yes, humidity makes heat worse, but this factor needs an overhaul.

Here’s an example. On one day in a recent summer, I found Detroit and next-door Windsor with temperatures near 28 C. The Weather Network gave Detroit a “feels like” reading of 30.5. But in Windsor, Environment Canada had a humidex of 38.

The humidex occasionally shows figures in the 50s in southern Canada, which is nearly equal to the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth. Toronto regularly gets humidex readings in the 40s, which is like summer in Arizona or south Texas, places where air sears the lungs and you can’t touch a steering wheel without running the air conditioning for several minutes beforehand.

Besides, what does it mean to say that we’re experiencing the equivalent of 35 degrees without humidity? When do we experience zero humidity in this country? It’s an illusory comparison, and continuing reinterpreting the temperature teaches us to misread the weather, with potentially dangerous results.

   Additional support is found in a fine work about old age, by an author who, like me agrees with the old concept about old age (see my OATS series where it is generally argued that 70 is not the new 50.) About the wind chill he notes on p.54: 

The wise old do not just instruct youth; they also buttonhole them to tell them tales of how much better it was back then or, if not better, then nobler and harder, when people were not spoiled by material success and indulgent parents. I really did walk through deep snow to school and there were no snow days off for excessive wind chill. That index was not kept. Once it was kept, people as far south as Nashville could claim to have endured zero degrees Fahrenheit when it was thirty-three on a mildly winter day. Wind chill is yet another instance of grade inflation penetrating into every nook and cranny of our lives.

From Losing It, by William Ian Miller. 

For more see: SO LONG SUMMER.

Library Stuff

 

   

   The images above were captured on Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021.  They seem to me to present conflicting messages. The staff in the libraries at Western University from which these were taken, seem to be eager to see the students return. On the other hand, all libraries but one are closed. Admittedly, we are currently in the midst of a pandemic and many of the resources once supplied in the libraries are now available from the comfort of your barcalounger. Still, one can argue that if you are a student attending a university, you might expect the buildings to be open and services provided most of the time. 

   There used to be more libraries on that campus and there were even others in various departments. Now there are just a few. The Archives, Data/GIS and Map Collection are in the Weldon Library, which is closed. Taylor is the Science Library (there used to be one for Engineering) and one must assume that the aspiring scientists, doctors and dentists are more demanding than the budding business students and lawyers. The Education Library is no more. It has been turned into an Indigenous Centre, a fact about which there is no argument. Oddly and ironically enough, there are three additional libraries at the affiliated colleges, which are religiously-based, and they were all open on that Sunday.

  To be fair, the flagship Weldon Library which serves the humanities and the social sciences is closed for renovation. More books are being removed to create room for staff and students. It will be largely a space for "learning activities" and mostly devoid of books. Once it re-opens, one hopes it will be open most of the time. Librarians will no longer be needed and have to worry about working in the evenings and on weekends. The Commissionaires can keep order and Custodians can clean up.

Indigenous Learning Space (the former Education Library)

Western’s Indigenous Learning Space (ILS) is located adjacent to the Faculty of Education at 1137 Western Road. The ILS is currently under renovation and will open in 2020-21. The ILS will act as a home-place for Indigenous learning initiatives at Western, and a touchstone for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to gather and learn together, building relationships in the spirit of reconciliation, decolonization and Indigenization.

Reshoring

 

   I have fallen behind again in my postings and the cartoon above provided me with a way of producing a short one about the subject of Reshoring.  I recalled running across that word in a headline in The Globe and Mail and jotted it down. The headline: "Reshoring: Reshoring Canada to Advocate for Less Supply-Chain Reliance on Risky Countries," Steven Chase, April 14, 2021. It is a timely topic since the automobile factories nearby have been idled because of a lack of computer chips which come from off shore.  Since many of our potato chips are also likely to be produced elsewhere, perhaps we should be worried more about the origins of our food supplies. 

   Reshoring still stumps the spell checker, but basically it is referring to the radical idea that we should consider making and producing, in-country, the things we need and even those things we want.  Generally the word is seen in the context of discussions about manufactured goods, but it is not a bad idea to consider applying it to the food we eat. Once we assume some control over our own food sources, we can then tackle the supply chain problem related to getting the domestic labour required to produce or harvest what we need for our tables. 

   According to the article, here is what Reshoring Canada is up to:
"Former Ontario economic development minister Sandra Pupatello and former federal industry minister Tony Clement are launching a new advocacy group to promote returning critical manufacturing to Canada and rebuilding supply chains so they don't rely on increasingly risky countries such as China.The venture, Reshoring Canada, aims to be a non-partisan repository and advocate of ideas to refashion supply chains to make them safer and more secure."  The website for the advocacy group: Reshoring Canada. 

  Since "reshoring" looks odd to me (and still does to the spell checker) I went looking for early uses of the term and found some about a decade ago. It appears in this Globe article back in June 2012 - "The Factory 'Reshoring' Opportunity: Faced With Rising Wages in Asia and Higher Shipping Costs, Companies are Moving Production Back to North America." It is found in an article in 2010 in an article in the Wall Street Journal where it is also referred to as Onshoring, ("Caterpillar Joins 'Onshoring' Trend," March 12.)

  Prior to those instances, one does find 'reshoring' often, but it relates to another problem that has to be dealt with - fixing shorelines. 

Sources: 

    Many Americans are embracing "Buy American" which implies that the items bought are made in America (or more precisely, in the United States. If they really mean "Buy American," then perhaps we have a chance to make things for them as well, although we will have to compete with the South Americans.)
See the Reshoring Institute and Reshoring Initiative. 

The Bonus: 
   Revisit The Red Green Show and the sketches of "Handyman Corner" for more ideas about improving our manufacturing sector.
   During the pandemic, as food disappeared from the grocery shelves people began wondering not about where it had gone, but from where it had come.  There are now webinars being offered about topics such as "Basic Ancestral Skills" and they are being watched by not just survivalists. If you had no idea, for example, that vegetables came from fields and not cans, then you might want to watch one. Here is some advice as a sample. If you want to know if that road kill is safe to eat you consider these questions: "Are its eyes clear, or are they clouded over?..." "Are the guts blown?" "How many insects are on it?" That this wisdom is not taken from a manual written by a member of one of the TEOTWAWKI tribes now found in the U.S. northwest, but from the sophisticated urban publication, The New Yorker, may surprise and even upset you. ("Survival Dept." Antonia Hitchens, p.19, Sept. 13, 2021.)

"Making Light of Heavy Things Since 2016"