apple juice

Thought I would type up a few thoughts on the things that I am following these days:

2016 Election

It was a short but sweet run by one of my intellectual heroes, Lawrence Lessig, but now that he has been flummoxed by the politcal machinery of the Democratic Party, I’m back to full-on support of Bernie Sanders. My Bernie 2016 sticker never left the tailgate, I promise.

Despite what you might think of Bernie Sanders, I think this op-ed about immigration policy in the New York Times is worth a read. The media has generally treated Bernie as a fringe candidate, despite consistently strong polling and support, and the NY Times has generally followed suit. Bernie is a man of principles though, and when you have a situation like the Syrian refugee crisis, a clear headed approach that calls upon our basic shared values as a country (and, you know, Jesus) just makes sense.

I would encourage the 3 or so readers of my blog (and who among you is undecided, really?) to check out this political quiz. I’d be interested to know how you scored.

Encryption / Privacy Online

I continue to be very interested in the topic of encryption and privacy. I also continue to have zero friends and family who would like to take the time to set up email encryption with me… oh well.

To learn more, the eff is your resource.

This New York Times op-ed is worth a read: Mass surveillance isn’t the answer

Reading

Current:

Countdown by Alan Weisman is blowing my mind. The book is oestensibly about our planet’s ability to support us all , but for me, highlights the environmental crisis of climate change and pollution in general, page, after page, after depressing page. It has spurred a couple of minor freakouts about our carbon footprint, the cars we drive, food we consume, etc. A well timed read on the environmental damage of eating meat might turn me in to a full on vegetarian. I remain optimistic. I have 100 pages left, so we’ll see if the optimism remains by the time I finish.

Recent

The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin Great book if you like to geek out on organizing your “workflows”. A bit long, it suffers from the tendency of many pop non-fiction books to belabor each point with anecdote after anecdote after anecdote. But I enjoyed the challenges the book makes to our assumptions about the decision making process, as well as suggestions for how to teach our kids to handle the deluge of information in life today.