Downtime

The weekend downtime from Covid news. Instead, enjoy The Lincoln Project’s Work  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Between an ideal and an oil can? After shabby treatment during which I was refused a refund for the portion of my airfare impacted by flights cancelled due to Covid lockdown in SA, I cannot bring myself to purchase another long-haul flight with FlyUs or British Air. Alas, British Air is taking steps at least to try to address pollution associated with air travel. (Hmmm, I feel a dilemma of principle coming on.) 

British Airways has signed a deal for aircraft fuel made from recycled cooking oils and other household waste to be produced at scale in the UK and to be in use as early as 2022 to help power its flights….[purchasing] thousands of tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which it said would add up to the equivalent of 700 transatlantic flights on a Boeing 787 with net zero carbon emissions.
BA has committed to power 10% of its flights with SAFs by 2030, and has forged partnerships with US fuel suppliers as well as invested in a future waste-to-fuel plant to be constructed in the north-east of England.

Read more >> 

On the plastics’ front: 

Companies rethink recycling as costs increase

For retailers and shipping companies, the holiday season is the time for delivery. All those millions of tons of cardboard boxes will need to be recycled, along with the plastic and glass bottles and metals that make up half of the 292 million tons of waste we produce each year. The mountain of waste we generate has prompted new ways to think about how we recycle – and who pays for it. Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Television? Not a fan. Not a fan of a TV blaring in my living space. Not a fan of being forced to watch TV ads (ever listen to the “fine print” accompanying the many, many of the ads on American that push prescription drugs?). Not a fan of fiddling with controls, remote or not. 

However....

I am a fan of the Internet. And my recent purchase of a contract for Internet came with a “free” TV “box” and “free” access to “free” TV programs via the Internet. 

I’d placed this box in storage, expecting it to live there for the duration of the ISP's contact.
Truth is stranger than fiction: that still packaged TV box began to niggle. I like to watch TV news…and "free" TV comes with the contract... and I'm not forced into buying any more gear, cables, or "boxes"....
On an off chance  and never expecting success, I suggested a friend check the thrift stores in his area for a small, cheap TV. (This friend owns a large TV with all the bells and whistles. He has patience with and understands the intricacies of television and television set up, including how to use a remote.) Amazingly, he found a small TV – at about 22 inches it’s perfect for me – that cost $25, discounted down to $18. Great balls of fire! 

Change is afoot! I last owned a TV in the 20th century, before the move to cable, the kind of TV that required aerials and rabbit ears. 

Could this TV, now resident in my home, signal a shift in how I perceive the half of me that’s American?
The other half. The half of me that is not American is floored by the headline, “Over 100 Michigan School Districts Closed Due to Threats After Deadly Shooting. More than 60 schools closed earlier in the week due to copycat threats.”
Say what?
Surely, no sane country would normalize the day-to-day reality of children (and adults) killing children in schools. Yet the US has done just that.
How many shootings in 2021? “… at least 144 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 28 deaths and 86 injuries nationally." 
With a TV in my house and in my life, I’ll regularly confront the insanity that is life in contemporary America. Can I survive it? Time to buckle up for a wild ride.

***

This sunlit tree caught my attention as I sat on the patio of a local taqueria. 

Fiat lux!