horsemouth to quit youtube

a written entirely in the morning blogpost.

horsemouth read a really good article on decarbonisation (antimarket, william davies. 4 april 2024)

this uses braudel's distinctions between material existence, markets (where everyone can see what's going on and so profits are low) and capitalism (where there are all sorts monopolies, licenses, restrictive practices, cabals etc.). 

it is through capitalism that we must decarbonise if we are going to save the planet but renewables don't offer the high and quick returns that oil does (so that's probably that). unless those high returns can be charged to the consumer (by some of the means of capitalism itemised above) in which case capitalism will embrace renewables. 

offshore wind is incredibly expensive, it looks like oil-drilling platforms, and so it happens. for this reason the labour party's embrace of onshore wind is to be recommended (but it may not work). 

as the old joke has it;

‘yes, the planet got destroyed. but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.’

horsemouth should probably get back to ensuring the decarbonisation of the communal endeavour. 

last night bright moonlight and a strange thrumming noise. 

the baltimore bridge disaster continues to get better - the toxic gak in some of the containers is leaking, the cleanup may take months (years), other ships are trapped in the harbour unable to sail until the bridge debris and the ship (the dali) are removed. 

the port is a classic chokepoint or bottleneck (beloved of the logistics/ power to the logistics workers analysts).  

the worry is that the cleanup operation succeeds, the ships sail, but that when the port reopens fully in a few years time it will be at a lower level of activity. during that time the higher cost of getting the goods to market, of importing components, drives many firms in the hinterland that serves the port to the wall (and that by that point they will have been asset stripped beyond recovery). it's the major port for the region, many of the prospective cargoes can be shipped out of other ports but the coal terminal is a specialised facility etc. etc. etc. 

elsewhere rick beato and friend discuss the collapse of the music industry (a bit historic - CDs, napster, rise of social media, you know the drill - but most interesting) and rick on his own discusses youtube quitting videos - there are even youtube quitting reaction videos. rick likes what he does and he only does stuff out of interest (he says) - he doesn't feel the need to pump out response and product. 

another good morning in the countryside. later horsemouth's brother and family (mostly) arrive for the easter weekend.