From the Collaborative Fund Blog:

100 Little Ideas

Had a little scotch by the fire last night. Beautiful day here in Austin.  Took the train downtown, walked around the lake and had some lunch at Ranch 616.

From Bloomberg:

From The New Orleans Times-Picayune / NOLA.com.  interesting bit is that the work comes from a religious group, the United Church of Christ Breath to the People project.

Louisiana, in spite of historically producing something around half of of the oil and gas in the US (if you include federalized offshore wells), and in spite of being a major hub of the petrochemical industry, Louisiana, particularly south Louisiana continues to be polluted and impoverished.  I tell people Louisiana isn’t a state, it’s a colony.

Report: These 4 south Louisiana chemical plants are top-10 ‘super polluters’ in the U.S.

From cargo.com

From the BBC:

BBC News – Coronavirus: Should Americans be worried?

The president’s political rivals have also renewed criticisms over his 2018 decision to dismantle the National Security Council global health unit. The CDC’s global health division also saw drastic cuts that year.

What are the main concerns?

High medical costs make the virus particularly problematic – many Americans avoid doctor’s visits because of unaffordable charges.

Last month, a Florida man with symptoms had a coronavirus test and was handed a $3,270 bill from his insurance company.

Taking sick leave is another concern. Not all employers offer paid leave and workplace culture often pushes employees to go to work ill.

This is from May 2018.  Probably not a big deal, back then.

Top White House official in charge of pandemic response exits abruptly

I try to keep up with on-line privacy issues, but I learned a lot from this article. For instance, I did not realize that companies can (literally) individually target ads.  Toyota can (literally) tell Facebook to send Steven Guccione Toyota truck ads.  I always assumed this was based on some profile and, hence, anonymous.  Anyway, a good, non-technical read from a former Facebook security lead, now a critic.

Facebook’s political ad problem, explained by an expert

From the Houston Chronicle (certainly not a paper expected to be unfriendly to the oil and gas business).  Flaring is literally burning up natural gas coming out of oil wells.  This is so widespread in the Eagle Ford fracking region that it can be seen from space at night.  That crescent shaped area outside of San Antonio isn’t a city, it’s burning gas.

Flaring in Texas reaches levels not seen since 1950s, oil industry regulator says

I’m have to admit I have mostly been on the other side of this argument.  I agree with most of what they are saying, but I think it misses a key point.  Housing prices tend to be based on being “close” to high paying jobs.  But today “close” is measured more in time than in distance.  An hour in traffic is an hour in traffic, no matter if you go one mile or ten.  I think much of the problem is poor transportation infrastructure.

One of the best quotes:

Nearly all of the biggest challenges in America are, at some level, a housing problem. Rising home costs are a major driver of segregation, inequality, and racial and generational wealth gaps. You can’t talk about education or the shrinking middle class without talking about how much it costs to live near good schools and high-paying jobs. Transportation accounts for about a third of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions, so there’s no serious plan for climate change that doesn’t begin with a conversation about how to alter the urban landscape so that people can live closer to work.

My favorite ex-president.  Carter put solar on the White House roof back in 1976.  Reagan took it down in 1981. From People:

Jimmy Carter Put Solar Panels on His Farmland and They’re Now Powering Half of His Georgia Hometown