Rhetoric, the ancient art of verbal manipulation, excels when a narrative can be framed to hook the receiver on a core value. Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion”, and since mastery of the art was necessary for victory in a case at law, for passage…
This post I stumbled upon from The Guardian. The key to the post was a research paper in Frontiers in Plant Science. Here’s the Guardian’s summary that should get everybody’s attention. Streetlights left on all night cause leaves to become so tough that insects cannot eat them, threatening the food chain, a study has found….
Grist published an article explaining the day – there’s a day called “Earth Overshoot Day”. “Earth Overshoot Day” reminds us that humans consume more resources than the planet can provide. Correcting that requires reimagining human behavior. Grist Humans have taken more from earth than the earth can supply within balance since 1971. The question for…
A Grist post on plastic pickers really got me this morning. Here’s the set up and helps answer, ‘who are plastic pickers?’ an estimated 20 million people make a living by collecting discarded plastic, aluminum, and other refuse from dumpsites and landfills and selling it to recyclers. They’re called “waste pickers,” and though their work is essential…
While reading a recent new book, Enlightenment Now, I now read with renewed skepticism and critical analysis of their assumptions, arguments and conclusions (inferences). Enlightenment Now will resurface on Kestrel once completed, but it already has altered my thinking patterns some. With that background, a recent article in Grist on world food insecurity deserves mention…
I was struck the other day by a perceived pivot in my mental model vis-a-vis my positioning to the world. Growing up during teenage and college years, I was heavily influenced by Laurel Canyon music. No better song captures the optimism within the class / social / cultural struggle of their times than Graham Nash’s…
