January 12, 13

 Sunny today and mild. No precipitation expected til later in the week.

13**********************************************

As you can see I just didn't have much to say about what was on the news yesterday. Since there isn't anything different today I don't know what I will see worth commenting on today. The problem I have is I can't think of anything more to say about the insanity I see. I sometimes think I should learn a new language with some juicy swear words but I would run through those too quickly.

I have been concentrating on tracing the genealogy of my family. I will say that the internet has made a lot of the process much easier since so much is own line. However, I have run into a couple of interesting issues which make me distrust AI and the promises the AI industry is making. Looking up my father's immediate family I was surprised to see the records recorded his parents having several more children than I knew they had. I looked more closely and I found a reference to Pete, Marion, and Jim added to the roster. But Pete was the same as Marion (who was also listed as Carl on another site. My uncle was Carl Marion nicknamed Pete for why I don't know. My mother doesn't know and she is the last of that generation still alive. Jim was double listed with James. They were the same person. I don't know what AI would have done with that but I wouldn't trust that it would have given an accurate list. I am finding other confusing entries which will take research and careful evaluation to sort out.

I heard that Bobby Kennedy Jr. just put out the revised dietary guidelines. The news segments didn't really go into much detail so I looked it up. It looks like a simply 180 degree rotation of the old pyramid that doesn't really change any recommendation of the old one. I will ignore it. We don't eat a lot of meat any way and given how our appetites have shrunk with age (especially Mom's) it isn't really all that relevant. It would be nice if they gave poor families a financial subsidy to afford more fresh fruits and vegetables but you know they won't do that.

Stray thought: the coverage of the unrest in Iran attributed the demonstrations to economic woes. The inflation rate according to some of the pundits was north of 40% and the sanctions are biting. But as I thought about the situation I realized that it isn't so simple. The Iranians are facing a "Polycrisis": a series of concomitant set of crises which reinforce and intensify each other. No one has talked about the water crisis which a couple of weeks ago had Iranian government officials talking about moving the population of Teheran elsewhere--toward the coast was suggested. Only one article mentioned the sever multiyear drought but it is having a major impact. I read and hear more about (unspecified) mismanagement of the economy. That may be but the other factors are very much in play to make matters worse.

Interesting side thought: the Weather Channel had a promotional segment telling people they really should pay attention to the weather. Why? well the weather can raise the energy people need to keep warm (or in other seasons, cool) which raises costs for customers. Also, the droughts (and fires) damage crops reducing yields which means that people have less food available and at higher costs. Oh, and some of those crops feed into ethanol to add to gasoline (increasing costs of gas), or feed the animals that provide meat, milk and eggs that people eat. The prices go up, and up, and up.

This is the only article I have seen that ties the drought in Iran to the inflation in costs of food and the unrest in Iran. They observe that there are other fragile economies that could fail because of adverse weather conditions that cause food shortages. Some of the prepper bloggers I read used to hammer on the fact that most of America is only 9 meals away from riot. Or less because most don't have the minimum of three days of food on hand FEMA once considered the minimum.