July 4--Happy Independence Day on this 246th birthday of this country

In my bleaker moments over the last six years I have wondered how many more it will have. I read a lot of history because it reminds me both of how bad things can get and how humanity can rise after falling to awful lows. It reminds me also that political entities come and go but people go on. Some years ago I took a German in translation class and a couple of the stories have remained in the back of my mind. One (sorry, I don't remember either the author or the title) started with a young woman giving a neckerchief to the young man she was to marry He tied it around his neck as he walked off to his shift in the local mine. The mine collapsed killing the entire crew. The local tragedy was followed over the years by large catastrophes all over the world including a massive earthquake that destroyed Lisbon, Portugal. Years/decades pass and the mine was reopened leading to the discovery of a man's body. When he was brought out a very ancient woman identified him as the man she would have married by the scarf she had given him. Lesson: shit happens (large and small) but life goes on.

I did get out into the gardens for a bit before the temperature in that hot box of a patio passed 85F. Yesterday I discovered that one of the two tomatoes had suffered serious damage from the hard rains. It was still alive but sprawling all over in a big mess. I decided to take both out, transplant the marigolds into their own pots, and start emptying the pot. I found long cracks along the upper edge and I think I put a hole through the side trying to put in support stakes for the tomatoes. I haven't fount any holes (yet) but for some reason the pot is drying out very fast. I watered everything well yesterday and the soil in this pot was dry down several inches. All of my other containers are retaining moisture well. Tomorrow I will empty the soil into another large container for later use with amendments.

This article from Vox by way of MSN caught my eye this morning. I know that all my life I have heard the warning that the robots were coming for our jobs. And most of the stories we saw in the news followed that script. I think back to an Isaac Asimov short story which described the encounter between a drunken man and a robot. The man hasn't had a job since he was replaced with a robot much like the one he meets. In a fit of anger he throws the empty booze bottle which bounces off the robot who turns and tells him "at least you can get drunk." The robot has been replaced by a newer model and is also unemployed. However the article I linked to said we should hold up on that thought because the situation is a bit more complex. Some automation has made some jobs better for the humans, others have totally displaced human workers but in-between is a large category of jobs actually made worse for the humans who still work in them. I don't know how many out there remember the "I Love Lucy" shows. The one I am thinking of is one of the several where Lucy and her sidekick, Ethyl, decide they want a job and are hired by a candy maker. As the candies go by on the conveyer belt they have to do task. At first the conveyer moves as a slow speed and they find the task easy. But then the belt moves faster and faster until they are overwhelmed and reduced to stuffing candies down their shirt, into their pockets and even into their mouths. Needless to say they didn't last very long. Unfortunately, the predominate modes seem to be "technological unemployment" or a technological "sweatshop." The middle ground seems to be shrinking.