[FRIAM] genai and critical thinking

[steve smith]

On 2/12/25 4:46 AM, glen wrote:
> Who drives to the pub? That's just stupid.
Excellent point!
>
> I can't help but worry about my lack of empathy for at least *some* of 
> the victims of wildfire and flooding. The boundary between the 
> wilderness and society shouldn't be peppered by residential homes. We 
> should all live in town and take brief sojourn out into the world. Of 
> course, we do have to farm and incubate meat. But the right way to do 
> that is to commute from town to the farm, do the work, then commute 
> back. OK. Maybe you've got a *camp* out right next to the farm for 
> multi-day tasks. But it's a minimal camp, not a sprawling compound ... 
> more like a fire lookout.
>
> If you can't walk to the pub, grocery store, pharmacy, etc. then 
> you're the problem. Speaking of which, I loved this movie: 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banshees_of_Inisherin. Lots of 
> walking to the pub.

I agree with the sentiment... those of us who live far enough from the 
pub we can't wander down (as in Inisherin) at will shouldn't be going to 
the pub.  Now I've got two good hips (but no dorsiflexion in one foot) I 
could probably walk the 8 miles (each way) for a beer but probably 
won't...   If I want good beer, I *should* in fact move closer (or camp 
out next to the pub... pitch tent or appliance box.

I live in a flood plain.   The entire Espanola/Pojoaque valley was once 
under hundreds of feet of water (huge lake all the way to Dixon/Abiquiu 
and the the "barrancas" are the remains of hundreds of feet of sediment 
left. after the rio grande rift finally shifed enough to crack the lava 
dam that formed (among other things) Buckman Mesa.   In "modern" times, 
the watershed just north of Buckman periodically washed silt and and and 
gravel through the region where my house is.   Before Abiquiu and El 
Vado and Heron Dams were built (30s or later)  this area probably had a 
minor flood every few years.   San Ildefonso proper sits back about 1/4 
mile from the Rio Grande and I assume the pueblo adobes were always 
above flood line... they are probably 20' elevation above me.   When 502 
(from Pojo to LA) was widened from a windy 2 lane to a raised 5 lane in 
the 80s, it became a dam with very well and poorly in some cases placed 
giant culverts channeling those flood waters into arroyos, one of which 
runs 50' behind my property. Every once in a while it runs hot and hard 
for an hour with 6' cresting waves above the 4' high berm put there to 
protect us from these ravages.  Maybe 10 years ago it broke out of it's 
channel *opposite* our houses and flooded the Pueblo fields (been fallow 
since I moved here in 2000) leaving a foot of silt and sand... possibly 
making it freshly fertile in spite of not being cultivated.  My 
neighbors freaked out, especiallly noting that their homeowner's 
insurance didn't cover flooding (because flood plain?).     No water 
broke over the berm (mini-levee) "protecting us" and in fact the 
de-channelization of the arroyo into the fields allowed the arroyo to 
fill up  and now a 1' depth of water flows out into the fields (as 
nature wanted it to be?)

My house is far from "flood" or "fire" proof but I *have done a few 
things to harden it against such and before I gifted my tractor away, 
was  prepared to cut drainage and berm around my house in short order to 
reinforce the existing (artificial) topography if needed.   My ground 
floor is 1' above grade with only one door on the "uphill side" which a 
small stack of sandbags could easily divert another foot or two of 
depth?  Beyond that, my whole ground floor could take a few feet of 
water with little post-flood residual problem than muddy 
floor/furniture/cabinets. Most could be recovered with shovel, 
wheelbarrow and hose?  Maybe could get into my electrical boxes 1.5' off 
the floor?   Oh yeh... lots of water damaged books... I have too many 
anyway.   I doubt that short of the "was a lake" period has ever brought 
more than a foot or two of water over my home footprint.  My neighbors 
are downhill a few feet each, so might be yet more vulnerable and are 
much more modern-construction (mine being a pole-barn with brick-over 
adobe floor) and a lot more sensitive to inconveniences than I.

Bottom line, my house is paid off and if it washes away and nobody wants 
to pay to replace it, "oh well".  A decade ago, the bank would be bent 
out of shape perhaps.  If I quit paying my mortgage.  But they could 
foreclose on the lot, scrape off all my residue and fire-sale it for 
more than the remaining balance and some labbie would build a mcMansion 
in it's place.   Everyone happy (except maybe me?)!  200k of improvement!

I've a good friend who *literally* got his (90yo) parents moved out of 
the home they built in the 50's in Pacific Palisades and into an 
assisted living 3 months before the fires.   Their assisted living 
evacuated them to a sister facility a few miles away.   The parents 
don't fully apprehend what has happened. There was (during the sale) 
indication that the property value was dominated by the location/land 
not the home (70 years old in modest shape)... and probably whoever 
bought gets FEMA money (or bulldozers) to do the work they would have 
had to do on their own nickel to destroy the home to build a 
mcMansion.   *they* dodged a bullet... but <sigh> the false economies of 
it all!

Damn! I wish I was close enough to walk to the Pub!

I *AM* close enough to walk to Edith Warner's tea house, but that hasn't 
operated for 80 years and the little store "run by a Mexican" in San I 
where Julian (Maria the Potter's husband) used to get his whiskey 
(famous for going on benders) has been shuttered since the 20s or 30s?   
There are still the husks of about 5 "tienditas" between me and 
Pojoaque... each within walking distance of virtually everyone in the 
vally.  Also those probably closed after the era of the automobile (20s, 
30s, 40s, 50s). Some still maintain their paintjobs, some are flaked off 
but still show some lettering.

You are right as usual... we've gone astray and I probably celebrate 
*all* the wrong aspects of our tangential behaviour. Gonna go jump in my 
Chevy Volt and limp up to Los Alamos for a watercolor class today... 
maybe grab a beer to drink with another /Pieter from SA/ who is also 
practicing watercolor with me under the watchful eye of a retired 
Taiwanese woman who talks (anti Han Chinese) politics the whole time!  
She is an excellent watercolorist however.



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