Well, we certainly have had a lot of issues in the news this week, many of which I wish we could change. But failing that, maybe we need to understand them a little better. Like:
What is Gavin Newsom doing in China?
A partnership on environmental issues is supposed to be a big part of the budding friendship between California and China. Does this mean that China will be suing California oil companies (like the State of California), or will California maybe be building some coal-fired power plants like China? They're having some fun with EVs.
Newsom's visit underscores electric car reality: China holds the keys to battery industry
When it comes to California's efforts to tackle climate change, China and California are linked in a critical way: The world's most populous country processes the vast majority of rare metals needed for electric car batteries.
This week Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, is touring China with an emphasis on the environment, namely on how California and China can cooperate on climate.
Same company got an over-priced contract for Chinese COVID masks.
Compare and Contrast:
That Chinese EV looks awfully fancy compared to a VW bug.
Meanwhile, Why are California schools so crazy?
Math made California prosper.
It's most obvious in top universities like Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley, and UCLA. Those schools funneled great minds into California STEM enterprises like Silicon Valley, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and aeronautical engineering. Both the Central Valley and Hollywood--America's main providers of food and fodder, respectively--rely upon engineering to mechanize production and optimize output.
All of this has made California's GDP $3.6 trillion--making it the fifth largest economy in the world as of last year.
But now "California is America, only sooner" is a warning, and not just because of the exodus of people and jobs and the decay of our major cities, but because of the state's abandonment of math--which is to say its abandonment of excellence and, in a way, reality itself.
Perhaps you've read the headlines about kooky San Francisco discarding algebra in the name of anti-racism. Now imagine that worldview adopted by the entire state.
Maybe Oregon is worse, deciding that high school graduates don't have to be able to read or do math. Don't know.
Know anybody who needs this? Stop the proposal:
Dear University of California Board of Regents, President Drake, and UC Chancellors,
We, the undersigned University of California stakeholders and supporters, strongly condemn the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council's appalling letter justifying Hamas� massacre, torture and kidnapping of Israeli citizens and "celebrating" BDS.
Is California losing a Young Turk? (well, her name is Armenian, but she's on the program):
Why is the USA so involved with Qatar?
Former American Vice President Al Gore is suing Al Jazeera America over the sale of a TV network he founded.
Mr Gore and his partners agreed to sell Current TV to the Qatari-owned broadcaster last year.
But Mr Gore and other former shareholders in the company claim Al Jazeera America is trying to retain $65m . . . of the purchase money.
They have filed a lawsuit claiming the terms of the contract have not been honoured.
Mr Gore's lawyer, David Boies, said in a statement: "Al Jazeera America wants to give itself a discount on the purchase price that was agreed to nearly two years ago."
Maybe we should start evacuating students from all the Qatari campuses of American universities before the IDF starts gunning for Hamas bigwigs in Qatar. The wiki on Qatar seems fairly straightforward, considering.
In September 2023, Qatar mediated the US- Iran prisoners swap deal. Iran freed five Americans in exchange for five Iranians held in the US and transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar. [175] In October 2023, United States President Joe Biden thanked to the Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for his help in mediating a landmark prisoner swap deal with Iran. [176] Furthermore, Iran and the US have a history of prisoner swaps dating back to the 1979 US Embassy takeover and hostage crisis following the Islamic Revolution. Their most recent major exchange happened in 2016.[177]
I wouldn't want to be there right now. But maybe they could provide refuge to some innocent civilians from Gaza.
Miscellaneous Notes
Reminder from Florida. Yesterday was National Civics Day. Can we teach university kids how to discuss civics?
From a mosque in the UK: Don't feel sorry for Palestinians. Dying in battle is glorious.
Interesting piece. We need to help kids think beyond headlines again. This oppressor/oppressed obsession makes them seem like robots.
This piece also predicts the description of what Ilhan Omar retweets.
The Nazi Case for Hamas is similar to the presentation given by the Queen of Jordan.
"no Palestinian action is ever connected to any Palestinian outcome"
Striking.
The same WSJ piece is discussed, along with others, at the links here. I think that this perplexing phenomenon deserves some discussion.
Poetry
"400 years old and clear as a bell in the right hands"
Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvOYgHCihIU
Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.
This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.
Last week's thread, October 21, Two weeks later . . . .
Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.