Author: philg

How was your No Kings rally yesterday?

by philg

There was no No Kings rally here in Jupiter, Florida yesterday so I’m forced to rely on the New York Times to understand what one might have been like. Here’s one of their photos (source), I think from Minneapolis:

Principal confusion: We’re informed that Minneapolis is a fully integrated society of white people, Somalis, the Latinx, and some legacy African Americans who are being phased out in favor of migrants. But the photo appears to show only white people, consistent with Minneapolis in December (my experience in December 2025 was that environments were 100% white or 100% Somali and that there was no mixing).

Maybe the protest is actually against democracy? Folks are upset that the candidate for whom they voted was beaten by a candidate for whom other Americans voted? This is an illegitimate result because Americans who aren’t Democrats are “morons”:

In Little Rock, Ark., where more than 2,000 people marched across the Arkansas River, one woman carried her own MAGA sign: “Morons Are Governing America.”

The technical definition of “moron” used to be an IQ of 75 or less, but Democrats must mean something else because they advocate for increased immigration from countries whose average measured IQ is less than 75. Gemini in response to “average IQ in Somali”, for example (quote, but not in quote style for readability):

Based on studies conducted by researchers such as Richard Lynn and David Becker, and various international rankings, the average IQ in Somalia has been estimated to be in the range of 67 to 68.

  • Contextual Data: A 2025 compilation of countries by average IQ, often citing data from the Ulster Institute, lists Somalia with a score of 67.67.
  • Study Data: Another study focusing on Somali refugees in Kenya, using the Standard Progressive Matrices Plus, identified a British-scaled average IQ of 68.
  • Controversy and Factors: It is widely noted that IQ scores are heavily associated with environmental factors, such as nutrition, parental socioeconomic status, morbidity, and educational quality. These low scores are frequently attributed to poor socioeconomics, conflicts, and developmental challenges rather than innate intelligence.
  • Methodology Debate: Critics argue that these studies often rely on outdated data, small sample sizes, or Western-centric tests that do not account for cultural or educational differences. 

These figures place the estimate among the lowest in international IQ studies, often noted in the context of the lowest-ranked nations for national intelligence estimates. 

(I personally think that Somalis who collect checks from government welfare programs are smarter than white Minnesotans who write the checks and work 60 hours/week to pay taxes to fund the checks! So we can say for sure that IQ tests don’t measure practical intelligence.)

What did you all see in your neighborhoods for No Kings day? Your answer can’t be “nothing” because the NYT says “The No Kings organizers said that eight million people took part” and we know that it is Trump who lies and not those who are opposed to Trump.

Pictures from friends on Facebook who attended… note the lack of non-whites.

Boston:

Silicon Valley:

Portland, Oregon:

Black-free Atlanta:

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12 Hours of Sebring and a car show in Jupiter

by philg

A car weekend in Florida… (last weekend)

I took the 10-year-old to the 12 Hours of Sebring IMSA race, conveniently located right next to the Sebring airport.

Chevy, whose team finished just behind the Porsche 911 team, brought the latest Corvette ZR1X to the event:

I’m not sure who needs 1,250 horsepower to get to Publix, especially given that the nearest curve on a public road is in Georgia. The sacrifice of the front trunk space seriously compromises the ZR1X’s utility as a car. Chevy also brought the “Stars and Steel” 250th anniversary of the U.S. edition Corvette (a car that is made out of plastic (body) and engine (aluminum)):

GM unveiled the Grand Sport version of the Corvette at the event, but few details were provided.

Consistent with the quantities of alcohol previously consumed at Sebring, a drunken 4-day experience for many, Ford brought a Mustang tipped on its side:

Access to the elevated viewing deck is limited to Mustang owners and, presumably, their friends, so try to show up with a Mustang owner. Here’s the view from the top:

There’s a small museum next door. Reflect on the fact that today’s Islamic Republic of Great Britain was once sufficiently mighty to engineer and manufacture cars that could run continuously for 12 hours:

(See also 12 Hours of Sebring 2025 and 12 Hours of Sebring, a perfect Florida fly-in destination)

The next car event for the weekend was Cars and Coffee in Boca Raton at the office park in which the IBM PC was developed 44.5 years ago. I’ll cover that when the PC turns 45.

The final car event was a show here in Jupiter at the Double Roads Tavern. This show was heavier on antiques than the usual South Florida event. Here’s a 1946 Ford cab-over-engine (COE) truck:

A Lincoln Continental next to a 1955 Thunderbird (the first year for a car that lasted until 1997 and then had a retro version from 2002-2005) next to a 1957 DeSoto:

A lot of old pickup truck action:

This Chevy 3100 was a work of art:

Maybe the El Camino (1968) should be brought back for those who want to transport bicycles rather than the heavy cargo for which the Ford F-150 is spec’d:

What happens to all of these collectibles when Americans are no longer able to drive because robots have taken over? Will it be fun to sit in the passenger seats while the Optimus robot does the driving of a classic car? If not, do the ones that aren’t in museums get scrapped?

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Bank of America customers get to pay $72.5 million to Jeffrey Epstein’s female associates

by philg

If you’re wondering why Bank of America needs to charge fees… “Bank of America Pays $72.5 Million to Settle Lawsuit by Epstein Victims” (New York Times, yesterday):

The lead plaintiff in the Bank of America lawsuit, an unidentified woman, came to the United States from Russia in 2011 when she was about 20. The lawsuit said Mr. Epstein had sexually abused her at least 100 times and coerced her into a “cultlike life,” in which she was totally dependent on him.

In 2013, Bank of America opened an account for the woman, then 22, at the direction of Mr. Epstein’s employees, even though she spoke little English and had no job or discernible source of income — all potential red flags for sex trafficking, the lawsuit said.

The two law firms representing the victims, Boies Schiller Flexner and Edwards Henderson, could be eligible to receive fees totaling 30 percent of the settlement amount, according to the court filing.

Note that Boies Schiller Flexner was Theranos’s law firm, absolutely critical to keeping the fraud going according to the book Bad Blood, and David Boeis was actually a Theranos board member (see Evaluating trustworthiness; lessons from Theranos).

So… this woman got paid to have sex with Jeffrey Epstein from age 20 to age 28. In addition to whatever she got paid at the time, e.g., via the Bank of America account at issue, she would have received about $3.5 million from JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, and the Epstein estate. Let’s say with this latest settlement she’ll be up to $5 million, all tax-free because it will be payments for damages suffered. She says that she had sex with Jeffrey Epstein 100 times so that works out to $50,000 per sex act plus whatever Emmanuel Goldstein paid her on a current basis.

Loosely related… “[OnlyFans] proves that, when given the choice and opportunity, many women will choose to enter the prostitution industry voluntarily”

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Why is it legal for the U.S. to shut off oil and electric power in Cuba, but a “war crime” if we were to do it to Iran?

by philg

We’re not at war with Cuba, as far as I know, and Cubans don’t chant “Death to America” while building advanced weapons. Nonetheless, we’ve supposedly prevented Cubans from getting oil and, thus, generating electric power. From state-sponsored NPR… “How the U.S. oil blockade is taking a high toll on everyday Cubans”:

For millions of Cubans, daily life has turned into a desperate struggle. Earlier this week, Cuba was forced into a nationwide blackout after months of the U.S. effectively choking off oil shipments to the island from Cuba’s allies. The country continues to experience rolling blackouts. And meanwhile, President Trump continues to float the idea of taking over the country. But amid negotiations with the U.S., Cuban officials say they don’t intend to go anywhere.

(According to the U.S. Department of State, NPR is simply lying, but that isn’t relevant for the purposes of this post. Let’s assume that NPR Is telling the truth.)

Trump-hostile media outlets complain that U.S. policy toward Cuba is cruel, but not that it is a “crime” or a “war crime” (NYT example).

The most obvious way to reduce the Islamic Republic of Iran’s long-term military power is to disable the country’s oil industry and electric power generation. Without money from selling oil, the Islamic Republic wouldn’t be able to rebuild weapons factories. Without a surplus of electric power, the Islamic Republic wouldn’t be able to run its weapons factories.

The same newspaper that implies it was not a crime for us to disable Cuba’s electric power says that it would definitely be a “war crime” to do anything to harm our actual enemy, Iran. NYT, March 24, 2026:

Intentionally targeting the country’s energy infrastructure could constitute a war crime under international law.

Here’s another mystery… “Iran Moves to Formalize Toll Plan in Strait of Hormuz” (NYT):

Tehran has effectively closed off the critical waterway, turning back container ships on Friday, and Iranian lawmakers are considering whether to charge fees to pass.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said Friday that it had turned back three container ships attempting to enter what it described as a designated corridor, declaring that “the Strait of Hormuz is closed” and warning that any unauthorized traffic would face “severe action,” according to a statement carried by Fars.

We’ve been told that the U.S. has sunk the entire Iranian navy and also that A-10 Warthogs are patrolling the Strait of Hormuz. How is Iran able to operate military naval vessels, even boat-sized, that can “turn back” a ship? Maybe the answer is that Iran is radioing the ships and threatening them with drones or missiles?

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San Diego tries to outlaw Jew-hate (sort of)

by philg

Instead of trying to stop immigration from countries where Jew-hatred is the norm, a California city decides to try to stop Jew-hatred with some elaborate non-binding words… “San Diego City Council adopts controversial definition of antisemitism” (state-sponsored KPBS):

The security line into the city administration building backed up through the door as hundreds of people filed in for a San Diego City Council meeting Tuesday. The councilmembers were scheduled to discuss whether to adopt a resolution — not a binding law, but something they described as “the lowest form of what we can do.”

The city adopted the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Dozens of countries and cities across the U.S. have already adopted it, including Los Angeles, Chula Vista and El Cajon.

It says: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

Californians a random assemblage of humans from all over the U.S. and the world, proceeded to argue over this pointless non-binding vague definition (“certain perception”?):

“Don’t you f–ing touch me, that’s assault!” a man cried before the meeting had even come to order.

Increased security surrounded the room. Before the night was over, they would escort out five members of the public.

Public comment ran over four hours.

The more than 200 in-person public commenters were nearly evenly split for and against the IHRA definition, despite the concern one Muslim speaker raised that the meeting was being held during Ramadan, preventing many from attending.

See also “In near unanimous vote, San Diego City Council passes IHRA resolution” (JNS):

“One speaker openly said, ‘Look at all the well-dressed Jews here with money in their pockets,’” she said. “At least two people were asked to be removed for their hateful outcries, with one of them causing an altercation with our incredible San Diego Police Department officers who attended to keep the peace.”

Cohen-Reeis added that one person who spoke virtually stated that Jewish children deserve to be spat upon.

Multiple speakers, who expressed opposition to the resolution, accused Israel of apartheid, genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Meanwhile, here in Palm Beach County, Florida:

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The Trump- and Elon-hater leases a Tesla Model Y

by philg

A friend with an incandescent hatred of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Republicans in general bought a Tesla Y at the end of 2025 because he wanted to relax with FSD on regular trips from Boston to Manhattan. A base model RWD Tesla Y leased here in Florida, as of December 22, 2025:

With a subsidy from the working class in Maskachusetts:

(It’s a $3,500 subsidy from state taxpayers, but the lease is $3,888 cheaper over 36 months, presumably due to the time value of the $3,500 paid immediately. Note that the low price from Tesla is no longer available. As of right now, the price is up more than $100/month compared to three months ago.)

How’s he enjoying the machine, which has now gone about 4,000 miles, 94% of them on FSD? “I give it an A-,” he said, and compared it to a high-quality aircraft autopilot (he’s a rare example of a private aircraft owner/pilot who is also a loyal Democrat). The only consistent shortcoming that he has identified is that the car doesn’t get in and out of parking lots very well. He hates paying Elon Musk $110 per month ($100 for the FSD subscription plus $10/month for a required communication subscription) because he hates Elon Musk for being Trump-adjacent. On the other hand, he doesn’t want to return to manual driving. The car hasn’t been nearly as reliable as our Hondas. He has had some intermittent computer/camera problems and a rear side window actually cracked due to stress (maybe Boston’s cold weather contributed, but Tesla covered it under warranty).

Another friend in Maskachusetts is a dentist who drives about two hours round-trip every day to her practice (Medicaid is the path to max income for a dentist in MA, but most dentists don’t want to live in a Medicaid-heavy neighborhood). She also got a Tesla Y towards the end of 2025. Queried in March: “Loving fsd. Even did it in the snow.” I respect her opinion more than that of my tech friends because she’s not interested in tech.

My own experience with FSD:

Tesla FSD meets South Florida: I got an Uber ride home from the art museum in West Palm Beach to our house in Jupiter, a 20-mile trip. The machine was a 2021 Model 3 with 103,000 miles, owned by the driver since mid-2025. He had it set for “Hurry”. Tesla’s software was cautious when a cyclist appeared from the left and might conceivably have come into our lane. The machine handled the 6-lane local roads reasonably well, but stayed in the left lane longer than a human would have given the impending need to turn right onto a ramp (the human can override this behavior via the turn signal). FSD handled the traffic circles near our house perfectly. It came to hard stops at 4-way intersections in the neighborhood that a human driver would have turned into rolling stops. It got a little confused at the very end and tried to go into an alley next to our house (MacArthur Foundation laid out Abacoa with garages in the back). The Uber driver said that FSD is almost perfect from his point of view except that it doesn’t do well in the rain if it sees puddles. He estimates a 4:1 fatigue ratio of manual vs FSD. (Others I have talked to have said 3:1 or less.)

The car seemed to be in near-new condition despite its age and 100,000+ miles. Not sure the white fake leather seats would survive our kids…

(The puddle issue might be his car having HW3 rather than the current HW4 or the glorious HW5 that we were supposed to have now but won’t until mid-2027. Maybe this Rembrandt “scholar” is what Elon will look like when HW5/“AI5” finally ships?)

From a friend with an old Tesla 3 and a new-ish Cybertruck:

Today I tried the new new new Tesla update that almost no one has. 14.2.2.1. It was flawless [on the Cybertruck]. I forgot to worry about it as if another human was driving.

My response: “We know that it isn’t a cult because each release is “flawless” or “perfect” and then the next release is “more flawless” and “more perfect”. (Even my friends have learned to hate me, in case you were curious.) Tesla Fanboi:

No. I have told you many times FSD sucked and that is why I didn’t buy it. I have owned my Tesla for 6 years and the first time I ever said FSD was kinda good was in October, and I was today years old the first time I said it was really good.

My personal plan was to wait for HW5 or “AI5” before getting a Tesla, but now it seems that I probably won’t live to see the AI5 era. The latest slip:

A friend who lives in Switzerland owns a Model Y. The government there forced Tesla to roll back everyone’s software to 2019 and FSD is strictly illegal almost everywhere in Europe (it’s not hazardous to import tens of millions of humans from the world’s most violent and dysfunctional societies, but Tesla’s binary code is a civilization-ending threat). He recently rented a Cybertruck on Turo in Fort Lauderdale ($200+/day; pickup and return to FLL garage). He’s spent 3-4 hours per day on FSD while looking at various places to relocate his family to (he was born in the U.S.). He says There was one “phantom braking” incident on a local street where the system got confused by a shadow and braked moderately hard (he overrode this decision with the accelerator). “It probably wouldn’t have done that if there had been a car in front of me,” he noted. “Overall, it’s a game-changer for South Florida commuting and I’m sure it won’t be long before the last bugs are worked out and the system is approved for fully autonomous Cybercabs.”

In other news, my dream of a self-driving minivan might be arriving at around the same time as Tesla’s AI5 hardware. Mercedes is going to bring a pimped minivan EV, a format popular in China, to the US (Car and Driver). Unlike Tesla, Mercedes has no Nazi history, of course, so it can be purchased with qualms. The German minivan is interesting because Nazi-free Mercedes is working with NVIDIA to compete with Tesla in “full self-driving” (i.e., not self-driving because a human has to be constantly monitoring). Car and Driver tested this in January and it seems promising. Minivan leaders Honda and Toyota, by contrast, aren’t even beginning to think about a Tesla-style system. They would rather lose 100 percent of their customers than sell anything below Level 3 (full autonomy). Here’s the beautiful Mercedes minivan, showing what a luxury car company can do:

Who agrees with me that it needs a larger grille?

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Trump tried to fill our Strategic Reserve at $20-25/barrel, but wise Senators blocked him

by philg

Oil collapsed to $20-25/barrel during coronapanic and Donald Trump tried to seize the opportunity to buy enough to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Exactly six years ago, from rollcall:

The last point:

Senate Democrats took credit for stripping out that money from the Senate bill, unveiled Wednesday, calling it a “bailout” for the oil industry.

What happened after Trump was replaced by Team Smart (Biden-Harris)? The SPR was drained to its lowest level since 1985:

AEA… “Biden Drains Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ahead of Midterms”:

As the mid-term election approaches, the Biden administration is reportedly preparing to sell the 14 million barrels of Strategic Petroleum Reserve oil leftover from its 180-million-barrel SPR release program that began in May. It may also release an additional 26 million barrels of SPR oil in fiscal 2023 that began this month, which is required by Congress to raise money to pay for some of its earlier spending. The administration has a few weeks before the midterms to try to lower gasoline prices, or demonstrate that it is trying to do so.

Loosely related, the examples of Why are climate change alarmists also coronavirus alarmists? continue to mount. Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly, pre-war, advocating “action to protect our planet”:

The same Democrat, March 24, 2026, demands low gasoline prices so that Americans will be encouraged to buy 12 mpg SUVs and drive in circles. The most obvious way to reduce carbon emissions is a carbon tax, but Sen. Mark Kelly here advocates removing a carbon tax (that also pays to maintain the roads, thus shifting the tax burden for road maintenance from car owners to people who virtuously live in walkable neighborhoods and don’t use cars):

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Will the Iran situation persuade a few more Americans of the virtues of the 2nd Amendment?

by philg

The standard expression “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out” could be adjusted for recent events in Iran, where a popular uprising doesn’t seem practical: “You can vote your way into Islamic Theocracy, but you have to shoot your way out”.

It seems that very few Iranians could shoot their way out even if motivated to do so. The Islamic Republic has a near-monopoly on gun ownership that is enforced by a Chicago or New York Democrat’s dream common sense gun control system:

The Islamic Republic purportedly has only about 20 percent support (poll), but could probably have stayed in power forever if not for its nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, Hezbollah, Houthi, and Hamas programs.

Could the divergence between what the Iranian people supposedly want (to the extent that can be measured accurately) and what the Iranian government does lead some Americans to reconsider their goals of eliminating private gun ownership in the U.S.?

(Note that I personally believe that Americans’ right to own guns will disappear within the next few decades, a casualty of our immigration system and the consequent creation of a society that is a random assemblage of humans without any common values. When shooting jihads such as Ndiaga Diagne‘s become weekly events, Americans will gladly surrender their rights in exchange for a perceived safety advantage, just as Americans meekly surrendered their First Amendment right to assemble during coronapanic.)

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The LaGuardia airplane-fire truck crash

by philg

Friends have been asking how the LaGuardia airplane-fire truck crash could have happened.

Before reviewing any audio, my first guess was “Might be a controller error. Clear plane to land and someone else clears fire truck across runway.” That shouldn’t happen in general. Even if there are multiple Tower frequencies, there is typically one controller who is solely responsible for a given runway. Based on news reports thus far, it looks like my first guess was partially correct, but it was the same person who cleared a plane to land and a fire truck to cross. Here’s the airport diagram:

The crash apparently occurred at the intersection of Runway 4 and taxiway Delta (D), marked with a red oval below. The plane was moving in the direction of the red arrow.

Note that a jet doesn’t try to land right at the beginning of the runway, but rather 1000′ down the runway (out of 7002′ total here). Because of inertia due to weight and the slow-ish spool-up time of a big jet engine, it’s tough to adjust approach angle/position near the ground in the event the wind changes. If the airplane is going to come up a little short, therefore, the 1000′ marker target enables the short landing to still happen on the runway surface. The airplane would have been rolling/braking for perhaps only 1500-2000′ before the crash.

ABC has a timeline:

Based on an air traffic control recording, the truck had requested permission and had been cleared by the air traffic controller to cross Runway 4 at taxiway Delta. Shortly after, the air traffic controller tells the vehicle to stop several times right before the collision.

“Stop, Truck 1. Stop,” the transmission says. The controller can then be heard frantically diverting an incoming aircraft from landing.

Michael McCormick is the former vice president of the FAA and was once in charge of all of the airspace in the Tri-State.

He wants to know how many people were in the control tower, because initially it sounds like one person could have been doing the work of two people.

“What we’ve heard from that control tape, is it’s the same voice that is clearing the aircraft to land and clearing the vehicles across the runway and a normal tower scenario it would be ground control working the surface traffic and tower control just working arrivals and departures,” McCormick said.

Michael McCormick sounds much more qualified than I, but I think that he is incorrect regarding what’s conventional for Tower vs. Ground responsibility. In my experience, any vehicle or aircraft that wants to cross an active runway usually deals with Tower, i.e., the same person on the same frequency. This is substantially safer than two people issuing instructions on two frequencies because it gives pilots the chance to hear that a vehicle has been cleared across the runway that they were expecting to use and also concentrates control into one brain rather than requiring coordination among multiple brains.

It’s super sad to reflect on the deaths and injuries caused by what seems to be human error, especially since there was no need for the humans in the fire truck to be on their own. An AI in the fire truck could have been monitoring both Tower and Ground frequencies and also looking around at vehicles and aircraft on the field. The AI could easily have said “Don’t move! There’s a plane landing!” to the truck driver who’d been cleared across.

Has anything like this happened to me, you might ask? Yes. I won’t rat out the airport and controller, but I was holding short of a runway at a towered general aviation airport with a fair amount of flight school traffic. Tower cleared me for takeoff. I looked left and noticed a piston-powered airplane on short final and decided not to move into the runway. At a normal taxi speed, I think that the landing aircraft might have gone past by the time I was in the middle of the runway, but it was surely a controller mistake (at the point that I was cleared for takeoff nobody could have had any idea how long it would take for the landing airplane to clear the runway).

(For what it’s worth, our AI overlord (ChatGPT) says “Runway = Tower’s jurisdiction … No one—aircraft or vehicle—may enter or cross a runway without: … Explicit clearance from Tower” and that only rarely might a Ground controller relay a Tower controller’s clearance to cross a runway.)

Don’t take this post as a criticism of LaGuardia ATC. In my experience, New York controllers in all positions are some of the best in the U.S. I’ve talked to LaGuardia Tower while flying a helicopter around the East River and while flying a CRJ into and out of LGA. One really can’t get better humans and, therefore, improved safety will come only from improved systems, such as AI assistance in ground vehicles and, maybe, an AI assistant in the Tower.

One big question: why didn’t the fire truck personnel notice the CRJ’s insanely bright landing lights or get warned by the runway status lights that are supposed to prevent runway incursions even when a human makes a mistake? Pilots are trained to look both ways when entering a taxiway or runway so presumably the airport fire truck drivers are too. According to the FAA, there should have been a “stop” indication to the fire truck that the runway was in use (another easy thing for an AI to warn out: “STOP! Look at the red lights!”):

It will certainly be worth investigating whether this failsafe system was operating correctly at the time of the accident and also what kind of training fire truck drivers receive. For pilots in a two-pilot crew, the captain (left seat) is supposed to look and say “clear left” while the first officer (right seat) is supposed to look and say “clear right” before making a turn.

Related:

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The latest Pixar movie (Hoppers) and The Population Bomb (by Paul Ehrlich)

by philg

We took the kids to see Hoppers, the latest Pixar movie. It has some spiritual similarities to The Population Bomb (1968), whose author recently died. Stanford University prof. and Ivy League graduate Paul R. Ehrlich was famously wrong about human population growth leading to famine within his lifetime, but Hoppers shows that his philosophy remains alive.

The movie opens with a noble Japanese-American girl visiting with her grandmother at a single-family house with immediate access to an unspoiled natural area (i.e., something that is impossible for the average person who lives in a heavily populated country). It is access to nature, we’re told, that enables a human to be calm (urban “teens” who can’t access nature, thus, are guaranteed to be violent).

Population pressure and growth, as Prof. Ehrlich described, drive the plot of the movie. The humans are working to take away all of the animals’ habitat, something that they might not have done if the U.S. had stopped growing after reaching 150 million circa 1950.

Was Ehrlich actually wrong? He did say that we might “stretch” and increase food production by trashing the Earth and that is kind of what we’ve done here in the U.S., e.g., heavily fertilizing the Midwest and dumping runoff into the Gulf of America, thus creating dead zones:

The Dead Zone develops, somewhat ironically, as a result of the nutrients that fuel the high productivity in the Gulf’s surface waters. As dead plant material falls from the surface through the water column deeper into the Gulf, bacteria consume it using oxygen. This lack of oxygen creates the Dead Zone in bottom waters on the Texas-Louisiana shelf throughout warm summer months. This occurs when there are fewer storms and strong winds to mix the warm, oxygenated surface waters and the cooler, deeper waters. At other times during the year, winds, weather fronts and storms in the area mix the water, replenishing the oxygen used by the bacteria in the deeper water.

Nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, are essential for an abundant food supply, but crops take up on average just 40% of the nitrogen that is applied each season. The excess can run off into waterways, leading to a high nutrient load in the Mississippi River. Many efforts are underway throughout the Corn Belt to improve fertilizer efficiency and increase adoption of practices like cover crops and buffer strips that protect water quality.

See Book that explores the biggest issue of our age for a discussion of the tension between those who think we need six Earths total for the current batch of humans and those who think we can innovate enough to use just one Earth.

How was the movie? The boys (10 and 12) didn’t love it. Maybe because they don’t identify as either female or Black, the only two kinds of humans who are smart enough to be scientists and engineers. There is, of course, one white male character and he occupies the environment-destroying villain role. The movie involves mobile robots that are created by the intelligent female scientists. Said robots have no apparent solar cells and yet never run out of power. Speaking of miracles, the population in the unnamed U.S. city (Pacific Northwest?) is booming, which is why the humans want to take all of the animals’ habitat. The humans come in a rainbow of skin colors, consistent with U.S. population growth being entirely driven by immigration. And yet… nobody in the movie speaks with a foreign accent.

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