Brane Space

Monday, June 26, 2023

Better Even Than Bug Burgers: "Upcycled Food' - To Cut Ginormous Food Waste

About to dive in to some 'upcycled' pizza at "Trashpie" Restaurant

Snapshot of food wasted in 1 month by typical American family

According to a report published in Plos One some years ago, Americans alone wasted over 25 percent of their food between 2007 and 2014. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture analyzed eight years of food dat to see where food is wasted and also what members of the public say they do at meal times. About 150,000 tons of food is tossed out in US households each day, equivalent to about a third of the daily calories that each American consumes. Fruit and vegetables were the most likely to be thrown out, followed by dairy and then meat.

This waste was also found to have an environmental toll, with the volume of discarded food equivalent to the yearly use of 30 m acres of land and 4.2 trillion gallons of irrigated water. Rotting food not only denies nutrition to a vast population that needs it but also clogs up landfills and releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Even more outrageous, 20 % of all household food waste is attributed to "confusion over date labels" In other words, otherwise intelligent Americans are tossing out their food because they are unable to discern the difference between the labels: "use by" - a safety flag, and "best by" - a measure of quality.

A more recent report in the AARP Bulletin observed that Americans toss away one pound of food per day per household on average. That adds up to over 30 pounds a month and 360 pounds per year per family. At a cost estimated to be $640 / year. That's a lot of money down the dumpster, especially given a Federal Reserve warning four months ago that forty percent of purported "middle class" families can't afford a $400 emergency payout.

But the food waste total in just the U.S. is even more deplorable, amounting to 40 percent of the nation's food production, or 35 million tons - at a total cost of $200 billion. Given so many people, families are food insecure, this is doubly outrageous.

Given food waste is also an unthinkable "luxury" in a world of 10 billion people - which soon may be coming,

Of Course Ten Billion Population Is Unsustainable

There is no time to spare in coming up with solutions, NOW! I already noted in a previous posts the option of going to insect-based proteins, such as one might find in cricket burgers, e.g.

The Bug Burger Impetus Is Renewed Again - But How To Get Americans Onboard?

But given the persistent "ick" factor other options are surely needed to quell the problem of hundreds of tons of food wasted each and every day. Enter "upscaling" of food that would almost certainly have been wasted if not rescued.

The Upcycled Food Association, which celebrated 'World Upcycling Day' this past Saturday, has the answers. For example, educating Americans about the difference in labels, i.e. between "use by" - a safety flag, and "best by". Given that 70 pounds alone of food wasted per family per month could be salvaged if families didn't chuck foods because of label confusion, this is a biggie. But the group has even gone one better by issuing labels to the effect a qualifying product (say pot pies, to cakes to pizzas) is "upcycle certified". That means it's 100% fine to eat, no problems.

Take the pizza that's been upcycled seen in the photo. What's wrong with it? Why upcycled in the first place? Well, because no one at the supermarkets wanted to purchase "ugly" produce - whether deformed mushrooms, ugly or slightly soft tomatoes or discolored green peppers. But aside from the appearance there's not a damned thing wrong with the foods, so it goes into an upcycled pizza pie. Similar deformed veggies can also be cooked into a veggie pot pie. I mean, what would you prefer, one of those or one of John Phillips' cricket burgers? I'd take the veggie pot pie made with deformed veggies any day - and twice on Sunday.

According to Angie Crone, the association's chief exec, in respect of the certified seal of approval (quoted in Sunday Denver Post piece, p. A5):

"A lot of the food uneaten or thrown away in our supply chain is actually due to archaic cosmetic standards or perceptions of what we think is edible or quality food. So this 'upscale certified' is a mark you can see on the products whenever you go shopping- to understand how that company is reducing food waste in its supply chain."

Co-founder Carolyn Cotto adding (ibid.):

"Our first product was pulp left over from making soy milk. We turn that into high fiber, gluten free flour and we use that flour to make things like ready to eat cookies."

Which I've sampled already and can say these cookies are every bit as good, perhaps even more wholesome, than the highly sugared brand stuff you get - maybe in the same stores. The company's special flour is even featured in Salt and Straw's new salted caramel cupcakes.

There is little dispute that the upscaling food movement is an essential one now as resources, crops are ever more depleted, diluted from the effects of climate change. And also existing supplies become more limited and costly because of overpopulation. My bet is that the upcycling of foods will now - soon anyway - rival or exceed the edible insect agenda.

And:

The US Has a Food Waste Problem and It's Getting Worse - Bloomberg

And:

Food Waste - The Halcyon Movement

And:

Tossed Out: Food Waste in America - YouTube

An Introduction To Numerical Analysis (2) Linear Approximation

The use of Taylor series as a means of approximation to a function's value was previously examined in terms of the challenge problem worked out (See Solutions to Pt. 1) . We saw, for example, how to obtain the value of Ö 5 using an approximation to 4th order terms, e.g.

P₄= f(x) + f ’(x) + f ’’(x)/2! + f ’’’(x)/3! + f ^iv(x)/4! =

2 + ½ x ^-1/2 + (-1/4 x ^-3/2)/2! + (3/8 x ^-5/2 ) /3! + (-15/16 x ^-7/2)/ 4!

There are many cases, however, where such higher orders aren't needed, especially if the root is likely to be 0 or near 0. In these cases a linear approximation is often employed, limited to the first two terms of a Taylor series for the function.

Consider obtaining an approximation for:

f(x) = Ö (1 + x)

at x = 0

In this case the applicable (truncated) Taylor series will be, if we evaluate at a = 0:

f(a) + f ’(a) × (x – a)

For which f '(x) = ½ (1 + x) ^-1/2

For the given values we have:

f(a) + f ’(a) × (x – a) = Ö (1 + 0) + ½ (1 + 0)(x – 0) ^-1/2

= 1 + ^{x / 2}Ö (0 + 1) = 1 + x/2

The graph of the function vs. its linearization is shown below:

As may be seen, the intersection of the two functions occurs at the x = 0, y= 0 point. We can get increasing approximation accuracy simply by refining the numerator of the 2nd term.

Thus:

1 + x/2 = 1 + 0.02/2 = 1.01

1 + x/2 = 1 + 0.05/ 2 = 1.025

1 + x/2 = 1 + 0.005/2 = 1.00250

The last result accurate to 5 decimals, while the next to last is at 3 decimals and the first at 2 decimals. It follows that in general we may write for this approximation:

Ö (1 + x) = 1 + x/2

Suggested Problems:

1) Find the linear approximation to:

f(x) = Ö (1 + x) at x = 3

2) Show that in general:

(1 + x)^k » 1 + kx

For any k, provided x » 0

Friday, June 23, 2023

Why It Seems Everything We Knew Is No Longer True - Can You Say Polycrisis?

When the article 'Why It Seems Everything We Knew Is No Longer True' appeared in the NY Times last week, I thought of Francis Fukayama's work: The End Of History. Therein his core conclusion was (according to one reviewer):

"Human history is moving towards a state of idealized harmony through the mechanisms of liberal democracy,:

But he was unable to foresee that within a decade Western liberal democracy would be thrown off its tracks by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida with the 9/11 attacks. In other words, the world as we see it at any given time is never stable given a geopolitical 'black swan' can strike any time and throw it off kilter. Then all the fine, ideal expectations go by the backboards.

The NY Times piece echoed the radical changes in our current world situation, noting:

"Today's sense of unease is in stark contrast with the heady triumphalism that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in December, 1991. It was a period when a political theorist could declare that the fall of communism marked 'the end of history' - that liberal democratic ideas not only vanquished rivals but represented 'the endpoint of mankind's ideological evolution."

But such expectations, fanciful to the core, took no notice of how human brains are designed for ideological conflict, not harmony. As long ago as 1968, in his marvelous book Chance and Necessity, biochemist Jacques Monod showed how easily "mind viruses" - based on powerful memes - could lay waste to millions of minds. We have seen such manifestations recently with the arrival of QAnon, e.g.

QAnon Cult - Possibly Awaiting the "Storm"

Then one also beheld the malignant spread of all manner of conspiracy ideations, whether about the 2020 elections, the origin of the Covid pandemic, or the MRNA vaccines produced to protect a large segment of humanity. The pandemic itself - a 'black swan' event which cratered minds as it destroyed bodies - and left millions dealing with Long Covid. E.g.

Long COVID patients in Colorado are still struggling as the world moves on: “We’re fighting for our lives”

The country saw a monumental spike in deaths, and decline in life expectancy, even as mental illness increased to historic proportions. Let's get back to the Times' delusional expectations, noting:

"Associated economic theories about the inescapable rise of worldwide free market capitalism took on a similar sheen of invincibility and inevitability. Open markets, hands-off governments, and the relentless pursuit of efficiency would provide the best route to prosperity."

But this malarkey could only gain wide acceptance in elite circles. And that was because other critical voices were being ignored. For example, author William Grieder, writing in One World, Ready Or Not (p. 401):

It does not require great political imagination to see that the world system is heading toward a further dispersion of governing power so the closet dictator of the marketplace can command things more efficiently, from everywhere and nowhere. The historic paradox is breathtaking: At the very moment when Western democracies and capitalism have triumphed over the communist alternative, their own systems of self-government are being gradually unraveled by the market system.

Like feudal lords, the stateless corporations will make alliances with one another or launch raids against one another's stake. They will play weakening national governments off against each other..... In that event, vast throngs of citizens are reduced to a political position resembling that of the serfs....

And Greider wasn't the only voice expressing concern with what was unfolding under the banner of global capital. Many others, like Ian MacDonald, Charles Reich and yours truly : 'The Elements Of the Corporatocracy' e.g.

warned about placing so much blind faith in an inequitable system. Then it only took a few more black swan events to topple the fantasies.

That started with the Covid pandemic and the inevitable supply chain choke holds resulting - which underscored the fragility of a global-sourced economy. Hell, I can still vividly recall the images of storage containers piled up by the hundreds in Long Beach and other areas - with packed up goods waiting for distribution. Also trucks unable to move supplies to stores because not enough drivers. Meanwhile, prices spiking because of the existing prolonged supply shortage of so many goods - from toilet paper to infant formula- on account of the choke holds.

Add in now the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the return of 'great power' Cold war politics and anyone could see how the global harmony and prosperity illusions were built largely on fairy tales and codswallop.

So, to my way of thinking, the transitions haven't been so much about "everything we knew is no longer true", but rather everything we thought we knew was wrong or incomplete from the get go. Had so many millions not been so reckless to believe the baloney that a "new world" was arriving based on global capital we'd not have gotten into the supply chain messes during the pandemic.

Had more people, including politicians, treated the mental dysfunction from the pandemic seriously we'd not now be wondering how mind virus-based conspiracies erupted to such an extent. And if we appreciated more the brain's structure itself - and how it's wired for propaganda - we'd not have been so surprised over the divisions, violence and political eruptions the past three years.

For piercing the veil of ignorance in those themes we have to thank Robert Nagel, who in a Denver Post Perspective piece from a year ago identified the three key elements undermining American quality of life:

1) Deep, divisions and acceptance of differing realities,

2) Addiction to technology and social media to the extent of allowing them to control our thinking, and

3) The degeneration of thought by wayward philosophical memes bordering on a form of nihilism, i.e. that objective truth no longer exists. In its place post-modernism reigns

I agree with all those and have written about some of the adverse influences, like Tik Tok, and why it needs to be limited for the use of kids, young adults, e.g.

Auburn U. Was Right To Ban Tik Tok - Sparing Students From 'Tik Tok Brain'

I still maintain that it's destroying brains like a multitude of other agents (FOX News, hard drugs, too little reading). But in fact, it may also be a multiplicity of coincident crises ("polycrisis") at work - which our finite human brains can no longer process or solve (se top link at bottoms). Far less solve, especially if we succumb to so many other distractions.

In the end, even given the existence of a polycrisis, the failure to figure out that so many things "known" were not true amounted to a failure in critical thinking. We desperately need to get back to teaching that fundamental skill, and not just on its own. But also part of science courses, as well as history, politics and the arts. The sooner we do so the more likely we won't be surprised by things we think we know in the short term, not being so in the long term.

Coming Soon to a Planet Near You: Polycrisis, Unraveling, Simplification, or Collapse?

by Richard Heinberg | June 23, 2023 - 6:47am | permalink

Excerpt:

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting disruption of multiple global supply chains, policy think tanks have increasingly adopted the term polycrisis to signify humanity’s destabilized status quo. The World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Risk Report uses the new-ish word 13 times in 90 pages. Scholars from a range of disciplines (including Columbia University historian Adam Tooze) have written about the polycrisis, and both Cascade Institute and Omega Institute have published papers and reports on it.

The Cascade Institute notes that “a global polycrisis occurs when crises in multiple global systems become causally entangled in ways that significantly degrade humanity’s prospects. These interacting crises produce harms greater than the sum of those the crises would produce in isolation, were their host systems not so deeply interconnected.”

And:

Big Tech | Donald Trump

The Warping of the American Mind: Trump’s Two Big Lies Are Getting Magnified

by Robert Reich | June 22, 2023 - 6:41am | permalink

— from Robert Reich's Substack

And:

The Insidious Danger Of Propaganda And How It Has Infected Brains And Threatened Our Democracy

And:

The Mind Virus Scourge of Conservative Talk Radio -It Needs To Be Controlled But How?

Thursday, June 22, 2023

GOP's 'Biden Derangement Syndrome' Reaches Its Apotheosis - Equating Hunter's & Trump's Transgressions

There's no comparison between their respective offenses

"Democrats, not Republicans, should be the party bellyaching about the nation's top law enforcement agencies. If Democrats are weaponizing the federal government against their political opponents they're sure doing a bad job of it. No wonder the Republicans are firing blanks as they seek evidence of 'dirty deeds' at the Justice Department and the FBI". - Jackie Calmes, LA Times today, 'The GOP, not the DOJ is weaponized', p. A10.

When the Hunter Biden plea deal was announced two days ago, I told Janice: "Watch! In less than ten minutes these fools will be going bananas and trying to equate Hunter's "crimes" with Trump's" In fact, the false equivalence barking began in even less time, with all the predictable baloney to try to gain some specious political traction.

Can the GOP’s logic-less moral arbiters seriously believe Hunter Biden filing his taxes late, and lying about his drug use when he purchased a handgun is equal in gravity to Trump keeping top secret docs (including on war plans and nuclear deterrence) - obstructing their retrieval and leaving them lying around Mar-a-Lago? And being federally charged on 37 felony counts?

As per Jack Smith's indictment:

e6276c02-dfd0-428d-9731-8594c1f7261d.pdf (washingtonpost.com)

Well, yeah, they can, but then there are unlimited ways for a Trump -sucking cult to be stupid and mindless. Why else equate a relatively minor tax rap (compared to Trump's major tax manipulations) and a rarely prosecuted gun charge to a 37 count federal indictment of a traitor who's already attempted an insurrection and overthrow of our elected government?

Let's also point out, as Chris Hayes did on ALL In Tuesday night, that the latter crime concerning the weapon purchase - even in connection with drug use or lying about it - is rarely ever prosecuted. As Hayes noted it's one of the least used statutes and emerges in this case only because lead U.S. attorney (David Weiss - a Trump appointee) felt he had to show something for 5 years trouble. Also, to try to keep the baying hounds of the Repuke cult (and FOX News) from calling for his head.

And to compare this to Trump's charges?? Look, this ain't rocket science. Even Karl Rove in his WSJ column today (p. A15) called out the orange roach for a recent interview he gave on FOX. To wit:

"Trump said he had “every right” to take classified documents. He didn’t. He said “everything was declassified.” His lawyers haven’t made that claim.

He insisted he acted “like every other president” in leaving office with boxes upon boxes of papers. No other president did what he did."

Let's also process that membership in Trump's private club at Mar-a-Lago isn’t even fully or deeply vetted. Mar-a-Lago has never been a secure venue. Those boxes of highly classified documents didn’t belong there. It was an existential danger to our country that they were.

As recently as 2019 a Chinese woman carrying four cellphones, a hard drive and a thumb drive infected with malware breezed past security and entered without authorization. She was arrested and jailed for eight months. Another Chinese woman was arrested soon after; a jury acquitted her of trespassing but convicted her of resisting arrest.

When the Repuke cult in the House barks about 'two-tiered justice' , 'selective prosecution' and "weaponization of government" they forget - or don't care that:

i) Joe Biden never replaced the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney (David Weiss) in Delaware, when he could have demanded Garland do so. But he wanted a fair process whereby his only surviving son would be held to account. Compare that to Trump at a recent rally yelping that if he gets in again he will seek "retribution against the whole Biden family." How? By appointing his own special prosecutors.

ii) Neither did President Biden demand AG Garland get rid of the pest John Durham who's only role was to throw shade on the January 6th select committee's investigation of Trunp via 2 bogus counter investigations. Which, btw, cost taxpayer's $6 million and delivered only two acquittals. E.g.

Barr Lackey Durham Blows It Again With Attempted Danchenko Indictment. His Results Thus Far? Bupkis

All of this is pertinent to the current howling in the crazed Reep House, as Durham was exposed yesterday by House Dems (e.g. Ted Liu, Adam Schiff, Eric Swallwell) as the partisan hack he is - trying to investigate the investigators of Trump's Russian collusion. Faced with little to hang any further hearings onto - after Durham concurred with all the Dems charges- the Reeps were left with bupkis.

The cult then realized it had to amp up efforts to scuttle Joe Biden's re-election chances by going after his son Hunter. But here's all you really need to know for now: Hunter Biden agreed with the Justice Department on Tuesday to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and accept terms that would allow him to avoid prosecution on a separate gun charge.

This is a major step toward terminating a long-running and politically explosive investigation into the finances, drug use and international business dealings of President Biden’s son. It also effectively disarms the GOP traitor cult's most potent actual weaponizations - to use clown show hearings to try to bring Biden down. This is why they are going ballistic with all their yapping about "two -tiered justice" and DOJ "weaponization."

What these clowns ought to do is look at their own orange master for that - given he's promised such retribution. Indeed, the deranged imp has now gone "apocalyptic" in his rhetoric according to Colorado Sun columnist Mike Littwin. As Littwin writes: "He calls his campaign the 'final battle' against the 'closet thugs, misfits and Marxists trying to destroy American democracy' adding 'I am the only one who can save this nation!'"

This from a pestilence who did his best to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and then incite an insurrection to remain in power. In other words, a tried and true authoritarian fascist. Much in the mold of Hitler and Mussolini, according to Ruth Ben_Ghiat in her must- read book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present

Under a deal hashed out with David Weiss, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his 2017 and 2018 taxes on time and be sentenced to probation. That ought to be where this story ends, but don't count on the rabid Repuke roaches to do so. They are determined to make as much specious hay out of it as they did with the Benghazi circus 10 years ago.

Make no mistake these shameless poltroons will try to wring every last ounce of fake outrage to try to catapult their master once more into the Oval Office. Heaven help this country if they succeed.

by Alex Henderson | June 21, 2023 - 7:29am | permalink

— from Alternet

Excerpt:

During an interview with Fox News aired on Monday, June 19, former President Donald Trump had a lot to say about the 37-count federal criminal indictment he is facing. Special counsel Jack Smith and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) allege that Trump endangered the United States' national security by storing classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago — and that he made matters worse by failing to turn some of them over when they were requested.

The interview is receiving plenty of reactions from media figures and legal experts, many of whom believe that Trump hurt his case by acknowledging he didn't give investigators his full cooperation.

On Twitter, far-right radio host Erick Erickson said of the interview, "Guys, Trump admitted on TV tonight he withheld documents from the grand jury. Game over, legally. What an idiot."

And;

Donald Trump

On the Trump Indictment

by Mel Gurtov | June 22, 2023 - 5:45am | permalink