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You’ve heard of predictable accidents Maybe also Perrow normal accidents: 2 predictable events combining in an unpredictable disaster in a single complex system, like a nuclear plant Now I give you: Curtis-Perrow hypernormal accidents. Systems of systems in a failure cascade.
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California is unable to fight record wildfires because the crews of incarcerated men they pay $5 a day to fight fires are locked down in a prison system overrun by COVID. Three disastrous failures – environmental, moral, and epidemiological – colliding. buff.ly/2BGlEWZ
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Hypernormalization = Adam Curtis documentary title, borrowed from theorist of Soviet collapse Alexey Yurchak. The documentary was meh, but core idea is good. TINA syndrome (There Is No Alternative) coupled with a mighty effort to maintain normalcy that is so surreal, it’s weird
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Top 5 hypernormal accidents unfolding 1. Covid 2. Stock market 3. China (yes, the whole country) 4. Trump 5. Return of Biden (I like him and will vote for him, but him winning nomination is definitely a hypernormal accident... in an aggravate-and-delay-the-inevitable way)
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This has been your regularly scheduled reality commercial break. Now back to fiddling with telescopes and astrophotography while the world burns.
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I'm tremendously heartbroken watching the fires encroach onto Lick Observatory. Fires are pushing closer to the telescope domes. Lick is the first mountain top observatory in the world (1888). It's truly a wonder of the world and national treasure.(Personnel are thankfully safe)
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