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Josh Knox

Just Joshin' #114 (Heat)

Published 4 months ago • 2 min read

1 Family Photo:
Hot

It's been a hot week here in SLO. Though I recognize it's hotter in other places.

“Summers like the one we are experiencing now and the summer we had last year – which was the hottest on record – are going to become par for the course in the years ahead,” said Kristina Dahl, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

No comment as of yet from the Union of Alarmed Scientists.

It's been a while since Calvin and Lawrence and Luana and me have felt this seasonal heat. Springing from the US to Brazil in March (to South American fall) and back in September (to North American fall) has let us 'take summers off' for a couple years.

That solution doesn't scale — if the whole world migrated across the equator following the seasons, CO2 emissions from the air travel would exacerbate climate change even more.

(Lessons from Taylor Swift.)

So the heat has caught up with us — inflation too, but that's a topic for another day.

(More lessons from Taylor Swift.)

We don't have AC here. So we turn on the fans, fill the kiddy pool with water, drink from the hose, and rest in the shade.

It's bearable, for now. I hope longer term solutions are on the horizon.

1 Dad Joke:
Fever Dream

video preview​

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Highlights:
Heat Culture

​Some Things I Will Miss About Brooklyn by Chris Arnade​

The streets are the only summer home for much of Brooklyn. As the heat intensifies, apartments disgorge their residents and the hydrants are opened — legally, by having a spray cap installed by the fire departments, or otherwise, since on almost every block someone owns a gigantic wrench.

​The Techno-Optimist Manifesto by Marc Andreessen​

We believe this is the story of the material development of our civilization; this is why we are not still living in mud huts, eking out a meager survival and waiting for nature to kill us. We believe this is why our descendents will live in the stars. We believe that there is no material problem – whether created by nature or by technology – that cannot be solved with more technology. We had a problem of starvation, so we invented the Green Revolution. We had a problem of darkness, so we invented electric lighting. We had a problem of cold, so we invented indoor heating. We had a problem of heat, so we invented air conditioning. We had a problem of isolation, so we invented the Internet. We had a problem of pandemics, so we invented vaccines. We have a problem of poverty, so we invent technology to create abundance. Give us a real world problem, and we can invent technology that will solve it.

​Entropy: The Hidden Force That Complicates Life by Farnam Street​

As you read this article, entropy is all around you. Cells within your body are dying and degrading, an employee or coworker is making a mistake, the floor is getting dusty, and the heat from your coffee is spreading out.​
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We cannot expect anything to stay the way we leave it. To maintain our health, relationships, careers, skills, knowledge, societies, and possessions requires never-ending effort and vigilance. Disorder is not a mistake; it is our default. Order is always artificial and temporary.

​How Food Powers Your Body by James Somers​

[French chemist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier] concluded that “respiration is nothing but a slow combustion of carbon and hydrogen, similar in all respects to that of a lamp or a lighted candle.” Both flames and living beings exchange energy and gases in what’s known as a combustion reaction. In fire, this reaction runs fast and out of control: energy is ripped from fuel with violent abandon, and nearly all of it is released immediately, as light and heat. But life is more methodical. Cells pluck energy from their fuel with exquisite control, directing every last drop toward their own minute purposes. Almost nothing is wasted.

iamJoshKnox Highlight:

​Things I will miss: Brazil | IamJoshKnox.com​

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Until next week,
​iamJoshKnox​​

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Josh Knox

Hi! I am Josh Knox. Read more of me here: 👇

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