Apple Woods

Conservation Intl: "Mangrove forests cover just 0.1
percent of the planet’s surface but store up to 10
times more carbon per hectare than terrestrial forests."

Apple is planting forests to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere:

The tech giant, Conservation International and Goldman Sachs have launched a $200 million Restore Fund meant to remove "at least" 1 million metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year by investing in forest restoration projects...

The firm wasn't shy about its dependence on this project. It estimated that it would only cut 75 percent of its emissions by 2030 through improvements to products and the supply chain, and carbon capture would be necessary for the rest.

Comments:

1) Normally your humble blogger looks askance at projects that stray far afield from a company's line of business. However, a successful company like Apple is allowed some leeway. Besides a $200 million investment represents only .01% of Apple's market capitalization.

2) Apple can forecast that nine years from now it will significantly fall short of its carbon-neutral goal. That's confident planning.

3) I worked in a vertically integrated (planting trees, harvesting, saw mill operations) forest-products company for five years and learned how a well-managed operation can be both profitable and sustainable. And that was before the benefits of carbon-capture became important.

4) Many environmentalists have realized from years of wildfires that the philosophy of keeping human beings away is not the best way to preserve nature. Apple wants to invest in "working" forests, in keeping with its history of practical environmentalism.

Dispensing with Money-Management Cuteness

After the third iteration the tax returns came back from the processor and for the first time in memory they were done by April 11th.

Now that we've simplified our financial accounts and gotten out of pass-through businesses that never made much money but always mailed us the K-1 forms late, the tax stress is gratifyingly confined to the first four months of the year.

Because this year's due date is May 17th, I toyed briefly with the idea of sending in the California 540 now, because we're getting a refund, and delaying Federal 1040 until May, because there's a four-figure balance due.

Dispensing with money-management cuteness, I went to the Post Office and sent in both returns. Not wanting to stand in line twice was one reason, and not having to worry about a must-do item on the calendar was the other. As one gets older, reducing stress during the time we have left has become more important than money.

California: Number One No Longer

Steve Breen/San Diego Union-Tribune

All the signs were there, now it's confirmed: California is not the best place to start a business. [bold added]

Washington, Texas and Florida are the best states to launch a technology startup, beating California’s Silicon Valley, according to a new index that ranks the vitality of national and global innovation hubs...

The Draper Innovation Index grades U.S. states and countries world-wide based on a range of local factors that its developers say support a healthy startup ecosystem. They include regulatory, economic, investment and workforce trends, along with less common indicators, such as openness to cryptocurrencies. Sources of data include the World Bank, the United Nations, the Nasdaq Stock Market and dozens of other private- and public-sector organizations.

The grades are then distilled into three broad categories, each with a separate rank. They include trust and transparency in local governments, the potential for development opportunities, and an overall rank based on the balance of all factors combined.

China, for instance, ranks second for emerging opportunities, but drops to 51 for government quality, according to the index. Its overall rank is 13. The U.S. tops the rankings in all three categories...

Although California scores high for its thriving tech sector, the state’s overall grade is weighed down by red tape, high taxes and other state regulations, [venture capitalist Tim] Draper said.

For decades Silicon Valley companies have expanded in other States for the reasons cited above--lower taxes, regulations, and labor costs--but the dam started to break when venerable California enterprises like Hewlett-Packard and Oracle undertook the costly process of moving their headquarters.

There is no credible challenge to the progressive politics that have caused talent and wealth to flee, so look for California's downward slide to continue.

When Gaining Weight Wasn't a Problem

In a world where one is forced to be a locavore, where there is no refrigeration, and where starvation is a much more severe problem than obesity, the cook has very different priorities.

Ladies and gentlemen, a 1750's recipe book from Yale's Rare Books Library:

Feeling peckish!! Here is a collection of recipes which includes "savory dishes such as calves’ foot pudding; hedgehog pudding; roast eel and lobsters" and plague water! https://t.co/4YJWE6f0Ae

— Haim A. Gottschalk (@GottschalkHaim) April 11, 2021

Peace Be With You

Today's Gospel lesson (John 20:19-31) was the well-known story of Doubting Thomas, but the priest chose to focus attention on the first five verses that were about God's Peace.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

The disciples feared being found by the Jewish leaders, who would not hesitate to imprison or kill them. Today, despite our immensely better circumstances, we are plagued with our own sets of anxieties. The Peace of God remains as relevant as ever.

The priest said that meditation and music bring him peace. I find that breathing exercises, playing an instrument, and listening to an audiobook have a calming influence.

This afternon I went for a walk and felt better...

Doing His Duty

Prince Philip (21) in 1942

For decades there have been a raft of movies and books about women who labored behind the scenes during great historical events. Usually men took the credit for their work, and the women, unacknowledged, took their place in the background. Values may have changed over the decades, but one that hasn't is the special regard for those who strive for the greater good without seeking praise for their own contributions

If we honor those self-effacing women, what shall we say about Prince Philip (1921-2021) who stood in the shadow of Queen Elizabeth II for 73 years? The Prince consort knew his duty to be loyal, supportive, and in the background. It wasn't easy for a young man of accomplishment:

In 1940 Prince Philip joined the Royal Navy, serving with distinction in World War II in the Mediterranean and the Pacific. During a 1941 battle off the coast of Greece, his skillful manning of his ship's searchlight helped his crew sink two Italian cruisers in five minutes, [biographer Ben] Pimlott writes. In 1942, at the age of 21, he was one of the youngest officers ever named first lieutenant and second-in-command of a destroyer.

He began wooing Princess Elizabeth in earnest toward the end of the war...Around the time of his marriage to Elizabeth in 1947, Prince Philip became a naturalized British citizen and was named Duke of Edinburgh.

When Elizabeth became queen in 1952, Prince Philip gave up his active naval career for full-time royal duties, serving as his wife's consort and as patron to charitable organizations. Asked about his life in a 1992 interview, he betrayed some regret about the trade-offs. "I didn't want to be President of the World Wildlife Fund," he said. "I'd much rather have stayed in the navy, frankly."

Before the war Philip's life did not conform to the stereotypical image of a royal life.

Philip had a relatively rough childhood. While he was still an infant, a Greek revolutionary court sentenced his father, Prince Andrew, to banishment for life for disobeying a miltary order during a battle with Turkey. That forced the family of seven to flee the country...

They lived an "impoverished" life in exile in a house provided by a relative on the outskirts of Paris...

Prince Philip's father effectively abandoned the family when the prince was 9, and his mother suffered a nervous breakdown and spent many years in mental-health clinics.

Philip married into privilege, perhaps the most archetypically privileged family in the world. Membership, however, comes at a high price, and, as younger family members have shown, a price not everyone is willing to bear. Philip accepted his responsibilities for nearly 100 years. R.I.P.

A New Director, That's the Answer

Shireen McSpadden (Chron photo)

Shireen McSpadden is the latest person tasked with solving San Francisco's homelessness problem: [bold added]

Mayor London Breed announced Thursday that Shireen McSpadden, the current executive director of the Department of Disability and Aging Services, will take over May 1 and oversee a department with around $600 million in funding to help the city’s more than 8,000 homeless people.

My calculator shows that $600,000,000 ➗ 8,000 = $75,000 per homeless person per year.

Real-estate website Zumper says that, as of April 9, 2021, a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco rents for $2,600, which is $31,200 annually. If the $75,000 were spent directly on a homeless person, there would seem to be ample room for not only shelter but food, clothing, and medical care.

In SF the cops advise homeless people
not to leave but to keep a safe distance

Despite the immense sum being spent, your humble blogger is 100% certain that no progress will be made in reducing the numbers of the homeless in--let's set a target--three years. That's a very safe prediction, based on the City's record of spending ever-greater amounts on an ever-increasing homeless population.

I hope I'm wrong, and good luck to Ms. McSpadden, whom I hope negotiated a good severance package going in.

Hawaii No Ka Oi (Not)

(Image from CPA Practice Advisor)

Tax practitioners breathed a sigh of relief when the IRS extended the filing deadline for 2020 individual tax returns to May 17, 2021. More importantly, the April 15th payments due, if any, were also extended to May 17th. (In normal years the returns can be filed as late as October 15th if a simple extension form is completed, but the final payment must be made on April 15th nevertheless.)

Generally speaking, the States followed the IRS' lead in postponing the filing date and payments. Below is the ranking of States, including the District of Columbia, starting with those who are the most considerate of taxpayers' needs to the one which is the least accommodating.

The Best: States with No Individual Income Tax
AK, FL, NV, SD, TN, TX, WA, WY

Postponement to July 15
MD

Postponement to June 15
LA

Postponement to June 1
IA

Postponement of Returns and Payments to May 17 (37 incl DC)
AZ, AR, CA, CT, CO, DC, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS KY, MA, ME, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NC, ND, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, UT, VT, VA, WV, WI

Postponement of Payments to May 17, Return Due April 15
AL

Interest and Dividend Filing plus Payment Due on April 15
NH (does not tax wages but does impose a flat tax on interest and dividends)

The Worst: No Postponement of Returns or Payments After April 20
HI

From Governor Ige's website: "After careful consideration, the Hawaii State Department of Taxation has decided not to extend the Tax Year 2020 filing deadline. Taxpayers must file their returns by April 20, 2021."

Everyone, professional or amateur, who prepares tax returns does the Federal Form 1040 first, then completes the State return off of the Federal data.

By not budging on the April 20 due date Hawaii is forcing State filers to complete the calculations on the Federal return before they have to in order to determine the payment owed to Hawaii in April. And if they haven't finished by April 20th, to be safe they probably will significantly overpay Hawaii when they file the Hawaii extension and plan to get the refund later in the year.

Well, Hawaii hasn't relaxed its quarantine requirements even if inbound travelers have been vaccinated, so its inflexibility toward tax deadlines is not surprising.

That's the Aloha spirit!

Related (3/10/21): Hawaii Senate passes what’s poised to be the nation’s highest income tax. Someone has to pay for all the empty hotels.

California: Imperialists of the 21st Century

I've contributed to the Pomo Indians' welfare
at the River Rock Casino, Geyserville

There is no question that the taking of lands, the breaking of treaties, and the general treatment of Native Americans are a stain on the history of the United States. That legacy is reflected in the statistics: as of 2018 Native Americans have the highest poverty rate and lowest educational achievement of all minority groups.

Nevertheless, there are signs of hope:

Thanks to legislation such as the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, the Tribal Self-Governance Act of 1994 and generations of advocacy, Native American communities have greater control over their own land and resources and have experienced an increase of federal recognition of their tribal governments.

Annual gaming revenues have climbed every year to $34 billion in 2018 and have provided a source of earned wealth to many tribes.

One might expect that the Progressive State of California would not only be respectful of Native American rights but also support gaming as a means to economic self-sufficiency. But one would be wrong.

the tribes must periodically negotiate renewals of casino agreements with the state, and after five years of unsuccessful talks, five small tribes filed suit in 2019 accusing the state of demanding changes in policies outside the scope of the 1988 law, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

Judge Ishii

California attempted to make casino renewals contingent on the tribes' bowing to California law on social, environmental, and liability matters. U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii, a Clinton appointee, said that [bold added]

state negotiators had exceeded the scope of the law by demanding tribal enforcement of state court orders for child support and spousal support in divorce cases.

He said state negotiators may have also crossed the law’s boundaries by seeking tribal compliance with a wide range of California laws — on wages, discrimination, environmental review of land use and construction projects, and suits for injuries on tribal property...

Ishii said the federal law on tribal gambling contracts allows negotiations only on issues related to gambling on the reservations and not on other matters subject to tribal self-government.

Progressives claim that white patriarchal society foisted its alien values upon indigenous peoples, but give Progressives absolute power, which is what they enjoy in California, and they have shown themselves to be as disrespectful of tribal sovereignty as the imperialists of the 19th century.

Answering the Trap Questions

Out: build a better (mouse)trap. In: avoid
trap questions. (Korn Ferry photo)

Leaders of major companies are more highly compensated than ever. To be fair, their jobs are also more complicated than ever.

They have to answer to a multitude of constituencies ("stakeholders"), some of whom are concerned with matters other than revenues and profits. The slightest verbal miscues, even not saying something, can put a CEO's job at risk.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is a master at answering the "trap question." Here's an example of one from last month's Stanford economics conference:

"Let’s talk a little bit more about equity. Before the pandemic, the world was facing big challenges: climate change, structural racism, economic insecurity, wealth inequality and more....What is the responsibility of the corporations, particularly the underlying connection to racial justice in the U.S. and elsewhere?”

Before reading Mr. Nadella's answer, how would you respond, dear reader? All the problems on the list are intractable, beyond the capacity of even mighty Microsoft to solve. Also, "responsibility" is a trap word: if he says Microsoft is responsible, it can never succeed; if it is not responsible, he will sound callous.

Here is Mr. Nadella's answer, as described by WSJ writer Andy Kessler:

Mr. Nadella isn’t CEO of a trillion-dollar company for nothing. Coolly and calmly, he explained that “the social purpose of a company is to find profitable solutions to the challenges of people and planet,” crediting Oxford economist Colin Mayer for the definition. “Driving broad economic growth is perhaps the biggest thing that a company can do,” Mr. Nadella added. “In order to have the pie distributed evenly, the pie should first grow.”

As Andy Kessler explains:

finding “profitable solutions” is—shh, don’t give it away—basically the same as Milton Friedman’s “the social responsibility of business is to increase profits,” except with the crowd-pleasing word “planet” tacked on.

IMHO, public figures aren't liars when they say they are against climate change, racism, etc. However, they couldn't have gotten to where they are without a single-minded dedication to their business, their personal skills in sports or entertainment, or whatever else got them to the top of the heap.

Besides obeying the law, all other considerations are nice but secondary, and too many distractions could jeopardize their primary mission. Invest in social-media consultants, practice using words like "systemic racism", "sustainability", "equity", and others that placate the woke, and carry on.

A Little More Humility

Philipp Strack

Yale Professor of Computer Science and Economics Philipp Strack on his research into prejudice: [bold added]

Recently I’ve been researching how to explain prejudice in society. In a working paper with Paul Heidhues and Botond Köszegi, we explore the idea that overestimating yourself can generate prejudice. Suppose I think I’m great, even though I’m not; when I look at my outcomes in life, I am unhappy and think I deserve more. To explain why I’m not receiving what I think I deserve, I may believe there is discrimination against me. This leads me to overestimate discrimination against the groups I’m a member of, while underestimating discrimination against groups with which I compete.

This can create prejudice and specific patterns in people’s beliefs. For example, if you ask Black and white people which group is discriminated against, there are huge gaps between the perception of different groups. The same is true for men and women. But standard theories of discrimination — that people discriminate because they don’t like certain groups, or believe them to be less qualified — don’t predict these large differences in beliefs about discrimination across groups.

While there have been voluminous studies on discrimination and prejudice, this is the first time I have read about research into how an individual's mis-apprehension--specifically he thinks he is better than he is--of his own abilities exacerbates prejudice against other groups.

A little more humility is in order, not only from an ethical and philosophical standpoint, but because it will lessen intergroup conflict.

Easter, 2021

Noli me tangere (Do not touch me). Magdalene
mistakes Christ for the gardener. Fontana(1581)

Death loomed over the lives of the ancients. Existence was focused on finding the next meal and avoiding the predations of nature and fellow human beings.

In a world where the average life expectancy was about 30 years, there was wonder in the Resurrection, a wonder that has all but vanished.

Especially today, it is imperative that Christians recover the sheer strangeness of the Resurrection of Jesus and stand athwart all attempts to domesticate it.

In the 21st century the miracle of Easter has been normalized by science, science fiction, psychologists, Jungian philosophers, historians, and anthropologists, all of whom have alternate explanations for the Resurrection.

The distractions and busy-ness of modern society have pushed aside deep thoughts about life, death, and the meaning of it all. However, in recent years an increasing number of my contemporaries have passed away. Over the past twelve months alone I've mourned the loss in absentia of Jan, the wife of a business colleague; Marc, whom I played bridge with on CalTrain; Richard, the husband of my cousin; Mike, who ran the Toulouse office; Judy, who always volunteered for charity; and Wayne, who let me read his comic books in 4th grade.

After a lifetime of ignoring the Resurrection, I am thinking about it more and more.

Sunday morning is cold and overcast, so I'm posting this photograph of the lagoon from three days ago. Happy Easter!

Clash of the Franchises

Godzilla and Kong face off at sea

Your humble blogger was a paying customer for monster movies back when the giant city-destroyers were played by actors in rubber suits. So when Godzilla and King Kong were rebooted in a MonsterVerse series of movies, I was all in.

Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) are escapist fare that balanced personalities--and the vast majority of women--might find alarming.

I only watch these movies over and over because I marvel at the advances in special-effects technology, not because I have an unhealthy fascination with skyscraper-sized creatures.

Film critics who like scripts to have some intellectual depth

(WSJ: ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Review: A Mental Mush of a Monster Mash,

Chronicle: ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ is a disappointment. It’s even a little depressing)

don't like Godzilla vs. Kong much, so I did anticipate disappointment about seeing the fourth movie, now streaming on HBOMAX for the month of April in what could be the final chapter of the MonsterVerse series.

No worries, I liked Godzilla vs. Kong. It had continuity with the previous movies and impressive special effects. Also (spoiler alert), the scriptwriters resolved the conflict between the two "apex" predators Kong and Godzilla without killing either of them.

Both had been shown as entities who could have empathy with human beings and were certainly morally superior to the evil monsters they had fought in earlier films. Each had their own fan bases, and, most importantly, the franchises could continue.

I think I'll watch it again...for the special effects, of course.

It was the Toddler's Fault

There are some people and organizations whose power over other people's lives is so great that we are forced to pay attention to their every utterance, for example, POTUS, the Pope, and the leaders of China and Russia.

It's easy to forget them after the Cold War ended, but the Strategic Air Command has the ability to destroy the world.

A Sunday night tweet alarmed some people and puzzled everyone else. [bold added]

Chuckle? Hide in a bunker?

The social media world wasn’t quite sure what to do when the Nebraska-based U.S. Strategic Command tweeted out a bit of gibberish Sunday night on its official Twitter account....

Thirty minutes later, StratCom issued a follow-up tweet apologizing “for any confusion” and asking that the previous tweet be disregarded...

the Command’s Twitter manager was working from home when he stepped away from his computer with the Twitter account open.

You can guess what happened next.

His child, who is described as “very young,” sat down at the keyboard and started playing with the keys — and then, somehow, hit “Send.”

Good thing the toddler couldn't access the arming and launch codes, right? Right!?!

Fake and Funny

Today is April Fool's Day, and the web is rife with hoaxes that are variations of fake pictures, videos, words, in fact any information that can be digitized. (Google's April Fool's "MentalPlex" antic is from the year 2000.)

Personally, I most admire practical jokes that were concocted before the Internet era, such as the famous Caltech pranks that included assembling a running Model T Ford in a dorm room, or the one where a student's door was plastered over so his room "disappeared."

The following isn't really an April Fool's joke because it originated a month ago and (almost) everyone knew it was fake from the beginning. WSJ: Stressed Over Getting Into College? Just Invent Your Own School

In the Reddit chatroom the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

Southern Rhode Island Institute of the Arts is the most exclusive college you’ve never heard of. Why? It’s not real.

It is, however, perfectly suited to this high-anxiety moment for high-school students around the country waiting to find out if they have been accepted to college. The fake school’s founders channeled their college admissions stress into inventing a university of their own.

High school seniors from different parts of the country were commiserating over the stress of college admissions, and SRIIOTA was born. The website material grew spontaneously as more participants added to the joke.

Boomers shouldn't worry: the country is in good hands.