More on Capitalism:
It seems most everything I read lately has to do with the failures of capitalism and what might and should replace it. When I mentioned that to my friend Mark, he sent me a link to a Boing Boing article quoting Joe Stiglitz calling neoliberalism a "failed ideology". This analysis is similar to my recent readings from Lapham, Fleming, and the 60 Minutes episode, as well as the Paul Collier book I am currently reading (more on that next week). Select the "Capitalism" category to find those articles. Stiglitz has an impressive number of books in his bibliography, if his message resonates.

Speaking of Wealth:
At a casual dinner this week for a retiring co-worker, he commented that the luxury of time to explore new ideas on one's own time frame is true wealth. Sage words. 

The U.S. Has a Fleet of 300 Electric Buses. China Has 421,000:
Is there much else to be said after a stat like that? Well maybe that the rest of the world combined has a total of 4,000 electric buses, so less than 1% of China. Crazy. The stats are from a May article in Bloomberg that I just read this week. On a local scale, ETS is in the process of purchasing up to 50 electric buses, which makes transit in Edmonton a player on the world stage if you exclude China. 

Reading pile:
My consumption of books continues, with two more finished this week, and one I forgot to mention last week. 

First up on the list is "Red Queen" by Victoria Ayeyard, a fairly involved young adult-fantasy-adults are evil-only I can save the world novel. I started reading it to the younger daughter, but she lost interest, so after a number of weeks, I picked it up again and finished it off. Completely enjoyable, somewhat novel in concept, and good enough to read the next one in the series (because don't all of these type of books come in a series?).

Second is Michio Kaku's "The Future of Humanity". Kaku is clearly intelligent and is able to convey complex ideas fairly simply. I guess I was hoping for more from this book given his pedigree. This book was interesting in parts, and it did present some suggestions on how humans could move from Earth to Mars and beyond, but there was little in the way of enthralling narrative or vision. The best part of this book was Kaku's description of a T. Rex as a walking mouth. 

Third is "Drive: Volume 2" by Dave Kellett. I love Kellet's work, and especially with Drive which allows his to tell a complex and interesting story and intersperse it with his oddball humor. I picked up Volume 1 and 2 via two of his Kickstarters, and am looking forward to Volume 3. The entire Drive comic can be read online on Kellet's site. 

New words:
Surprisingly few new words this week, even though I read a ton.

pil·lion
[ˈpilyən]
NOUN

1. a seat for a passenger behind a motorcyclist.

towheaded
[ˈtōˌhedəd]
ADJECTIVE

1. having very light blond or untidy hair.

twee
[twē]
ADJECTIVE
BRITISH

1. excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental.

​Interesting people:
​60 Minutes interviewed Samuel L. Jackson. I would say I am a fan of Jackson ("Kong: Skull Island" excepted), but I don’t think I ever thought of him as a truly interesting person, any more than any other celebrity. The interview gave me three reasons to rethink that. First, Steve Kroft tries to call out his actions on campus in the 1960’s as part of student protests against the Vietnam war (6’ 20”). Jackson’s reply was a cool “That’s just one day in a life.” In other words, judge me by the course of my life, not by one moment that you see as a weakness. 

​Life lessons from business / self help books:
​Another great quote this week came from the performance coach, Peter Jensen, in his book, “Thriving in a 24-7 World”.

​Good reads:
​I just read “Grounded” by Miki Dare, as part of the Tesseracts 20 anthology. Dare created a new world with new ideas with beings that weren’t human in an environment that was totally alien yet entirely relatable, all wrapped around heartbreaking emotion. That is great speculative fiction.

New words this week:
hi·er·o·phant [ˈhī(ə)rəˌfant]
NOUN

1. a person, especially a priest in ancient Greece, who interprets sacred mysteries or esoteric principles.

whip·saw [ˈ(h)wipˌsô]
VERB
NORTH AMERICAN
whipsaws (third person present) · whipsawed (past tense) · whipsawing (present participle) · whipsawn (past participle) · whipsawed (past participle)

1. cut with a whipsaw.
   "he was whipsawing lumber"
   • informal
     subject to two difficult situations or opposing pressures at the same time.
     "the army has been whipsawed by a shrinking budget and a growing pool of recruits"
   • informal
     compel to do something.
   • stock market
     informal
     subject to a double loss, as when buying a security before the price falls and selling before the price rises.
   • cheat or beat (someone) in two ways at once or by the collusion of two others.

(Whipsaw was used in an article about Trump, so yeah, it was the "cheat or beat / collusion" definition.)

New beers:
​Three new beers this week. First, two local brews from Analog Brewing. In Another Castle is a peach and mango IPA that I wasn’t a fan of (2.75 / 5). However, their Bull’s Strength strong ale was much more to my liking (3.5 / 5). Finally, the Javalanche coffee stout from Banded Peak Brewing was quite good (3.75 / 5). Reminded me of the Iconic Milk Stout from Stiuation.