Harvard.edu
The Atlantic reports, "Meritocracy’s early advocates championed social mobility. Today’s meritocrats still claim to get ahead through talent and effort, using means open to anyone. In practice, however, meritocracy now excludes everyone outside of a narrow elite." … more »
Wikipedia
Louis Menand of the New Yorker writes, "Conventional wisdom places the boomers at the center of the social and cultural events of the nineteen-sixties, including Woodstock. In truth, they had almost nothing to do with that era." An interesting point of view. … more »
USA.gov
Bloomberg reports that climate change is "extracting water from soil and plants and effectively drying them out" and is "a major contributor to forest mortality over the past decades, the authors concluded. If conditions don’t change, there will be stronger green-house gas effects; less vegetation will also reduce crop, herb and forest stocks. … more »
Melanie Bergmann/Alfred-Wegener-Institut/Sci
The Guardian reports, "Many millions of tonnes of plastic are discarded into the environment every year and are broken down into small particles and fibres that do not biodegrade. These particles, known as microplastics, have now been found everywhere from high mountains to deep oceans and can carry toxic chemicals and harmful microbes." … more »
SMART
After lying to the public and falsifying ridership projections, since 2007, in order to fund the SMART Train, now that the Board has the public "half pregnant" they are admitting their debt situation is dire and their ridership is not measuring up to expectations... something experts like Mike Arnold have been telling them since day one. … more »
Legal Aid Marin
Julia Foote, writing for the San Francisco Chapter of the Sierra Club, shares here critical thoughts about how the County is handling the situation at Golden Gate Village in Marin City. … more »
COB.org
The LA Times reports that "In the LA County metro area, total permits fell by 25% this year so far. Single-family permits dropped 18.5%, and multifamily projects fell by 28.6%" Developers say, it's too hard to make money building housing and demand is slowing, even as mortgage rates drop. People can't afford housing even with steep price cuts. … more »
bgccsc.org
According to the SF Chronicle, California's Attorney General found that the Sausalito School District "knowingly created and maintained a segregated school, and starved it of funding needed for basic necessities while funneling extra money to the charter school." It's pretty stunning that in these times, Sausalito knowingly did this since 2010. … more »
EU.gov
Kendra Klein and Anna Lappé write, "in an effort to more effectively kill pests, we created an explosion in the toxicity of agriculture not just for unwanted bugs but for the honeybees, ladybugs, beetles and the vast abundance of other insects that sustain life on Earth." … more »
CSPP
USA Today reports, "While public pensions are a financial lifeline to millions of Americans heading into retirement, they are costly – and most state pension systems are woefully underfunded. In 20 states, less than two-thirds of pension obligations have adequate funding." … more »
