A.I. generated image.
All the BEST in 2025
A.I. generated image.
Category: things getting better
Future of Desalinization
For countries where water is plentiful (Canada) and industries where water is a huge fraction of costs, desalination is probably not viable for industry.
BUT for countries where water is already scarce, or for industries that don’t depend mainly on water, bringing desalinated water is completely plausible. Prices continue to drop.
I recall having a hot shower in Saudi Arabia. Great water pressure. … Wondering where the H2O was coming from.
Desalinization plants hundreds of miles distant.
TOMAS PUEYO posted a deep dive.
Does Desalination Promise a Future of Infinite Water?
Driverless trucks SOON in Texas
In 2024 we are hearing much about driverless taxis.
BUT the much bigger market — and easier logistics — is long distance trucking.
As I post in October 2024, drivers are still aboard driverless Aurora Innovation trucks (for safety) but they should be hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston without human oversight SOON.
IF we had dedicated lanes for driverless trucks, no problem. But the software must anticipated every possible unexpected collision.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Here’s a cool video looking at an Autonomous Truck Terminal in 2024. There are PLENTY of humans working behind the scenes.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Systematic Sexism over my Lifetime
Long before I started this blog (weblog or online diary) — I was a list maker.
For example, I had a long, long list of books I’d read.
One day I drew up a list of favourite authors.
At some point I noticed that this list, and my full list, had very few female writers. (Dervla Murphy was a conspicuous exception.)
I had grown up with some kind of white man born in Canada 1957 bias towards male writers. Subconscious.
Since then I’ve made every effort to pay attention to female writers. And they now make up 50% of my books.
Even an old dog can learn.
Here’s that old list.
On American Imperialism
My love / hate relationship with the USA started early.
In University 1983, one of my textbooks in a sociology course was:
Under The Eagle: United States Intervention in Central America and the Caribbean
The history of the USA is damning.
No wonder Putin and others keep pointing out past wars started by the USA.
I spent a lot of time on a term paper: The Rise of American Imperialism and Precipitating Factors
Super critical of most American interventions in their part of the world.
I particularly criticized puppet dictators supported by Washington: Samoza, Trujillo, Batista, etc.
I only got a C+ / B- on the paper. 😀
Carbon Capture in 2023
Optimists like me keep hoping smart people will figure out how to start reducing the CO2 in the atmosphere.
There is hope.
And Carbon Capture looks to be a huge future business. Young people should be studying this technology in University.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Staying NEUTRAL is Supporting the Oppressor
In Coach Education we have a concept called ETHICAL ACTION.
If you see something you think is wrong, take action.
Record what you saw in a diary. Keep records.
Videotape what you saw.
Notify authorities in a respectful, diplomatic way.
Ideally you ask the (possible) offender: “Why are you doing that? I don’t understand.”
People wonder why I’m so vocal about the high crimes of Donald Trump.
Ethical action. That’s why.
Trump inspired smarter people in Florida to enact a law called Don’t Say Gay. That’s like passing a law called Don’t Say Black. Don’t Say Latino.
We should take ethical action against people who discriminate when their Constitution clearly states that ALL ARE CREATED EQUAL.
Support the lesser of two evils if both sides are bad.
Martin Niemöller was a Lutheran pastor. Initially a supporter of Adolf Hitler and a self-identified antisemite. Later best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime during the late 1930s and for his widely quoted 1946 poem:
“First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Martin Luther King Jr in 2022
Would King be happy with what’s happening in the USA?
The murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin has led to some improvements. Here’s what’s WORKING.
The phrase “defund the police” was always stupid. It should have been “reform the police“. Reallocate funding.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
My 2022 Workflow = Notes & Notion
Cooped up in my unheated garage WORLD HEADQUARTERS, I’ve been experimenting with BETTER ways to create NOTES and TO DO lists.
When on the run with only my iPhone, I’ll use Siri or jot down a quick note from the Lock Screen.
Click PLAY or watch how to edit the Lock Screen function to your phone on YouTube.
Once in a while I’ll take a photo (or scan) with my phone and save it as a Quick Note.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
If I’m on my laptop and want to take a quick note, I’ll either use Siri — or move my cursor to the HOT CORNER of the display I’ve set up to launch the app. (That works even in full screen mode.)
OK … ALL those methods put my quick notes into a folder in the app called “Notes” via iCloud.
From there, I’ll file them into the best of the folders I’ve created. It looks like this right now.
Done. Notes will archive my brain farts.
Any of those whims that become ACTION PROJECTS I’ll move over to the NOTIONS app.
It’s much more complicated Project Management software.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Kimbra MOCKS Traditional Female Gender Roles
Are little girls still brainwashed to dream about marriage in 2022?
Women who DECIDE to marry and have kids should do so. But it shouldn’t be a cultural expectation.
Kimbra is now age-31. Not married. No kids.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rick McCharles 