Which is the best: audio or print books?

There is an interesting article on the Cornell University Evidence Based Living web site entitled, “Is Listening To Audiobooks As Good As Reading?”

Here are a couple of quotes from the article:

The analysis did find that literal comprehension — recognizing explicitly stated facts — was approximately the same for reading and listening. The paper’s authors hypothesized that readers have an advantage because they can slow down, reread a tricky paragraph, or pause to reflect, while listeners must move at the narrator’s pace.”
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Divided attention consistently reduces how much we retain, which likely accounts for differences in comprehension when comparing reading and listening.
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The evidence doesn’t suggest we should avoid audiobooks altogether, but rather that we should make careful choices about when to listen and when to read. “Audiobooks come at a cognitive price and one should not substitute them for reading,” Sternberg says.The take-home message: Although the human brain interprets reading and listening in similar ways, the evidence shows that listening likely does not promote cognitive development as much as reading.

I have noticed that my experience of listening to audiobooks and reading print is quite different and serve different purposes. The more challenging the material the more I get from print. I like listening to audiobooks for pleasure and reading print for information. I notice that a lot is lost when I listen to audiobooks as compared to when I read print.

For example, most nonfiction I would rather read print while fiction is usually OK in audio unless there are unusual names and words in which case I prefer print.

When it comes to rereading, it is much easier and more satisfying to reread in print. I found this especially true when I listened to the audiobook first. I don’t find it enjoyable or satisfying to listen to an audio of a book I already read in print.

88 corporations pay no federal income tax in 2025

From Common Dreams on 06/11/26 

Eighty-eight corporations that paid no federal income tax last year spent roughly $852 million on US campaign contributions and lobbying during recent election cycles, a report published Thursday revealed.

The report, “The Current Price of Zero,” was authored by Eileen O’Grady, a researcher at Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. The publication draws upon an analysis published in April by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) showing that at least 88 of the nation’s largest companies paid no federal corporate income tax in fiscal year 2025, despite reporting combined US pretax income of around $105 billion.

Here Comes The Sun by Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben's Here Comes The Sun offers a hopeful yet urgent perspective on the climate crisis, arguing that the rapid advancements in solar and wind power present a genuine opportunity—a "last chance for the climate and a fresh chance for civilization"—to transition away from fossil fuels.

The core argument is that renewable energy, particularly solar, has become the cheapest power source on the planet and is growing at an unprecedented, exponential rate. McKibben details this "solar revolution" with compelling examples, highlighting how this shift is not just an environmental necessity but an economic and geopolitical imperative. He frames solar power as the "Costco of energy"—inexpensive and available in bulk—no longer the "Whole Foods of energy" (nice but pricey alternative).

Here Comes The Sun gave me a whole new way of thinking about climate change and how we, as humans, will adjust to the changes we are experiencing now and in the future.

I highly recommend Here Comes The Sun and will give my copy free to anyone who wants it. Email me the address you want it sent to to davidgmarkham@gmail. com

House insurance no longer available

 Twelve percent of American homeowners had no insurance in 2024 at all, up from 5 percent in 2019, and as Bloomberg reported in December 2024, more and more of those who could find a policy were getting it from “non-allowed” companies—essentially unregulated firms that had been designed to cover “unique and relatively rare risks, like a fireworks factory or nuclear waste project.” If you can get a new policy, the premiums often rise by a third or more—as the Senate Budget Committee noted drily, “This underscores that climate change has become a major cost-of-living issue for families across the country.” Forget the price of eggs for a minute—insurance premiums are going up 40 percent faster than inflation.

But again, it’s deeper than that. At some point—a point we seem to be nearing—the inability to buy insurance means that the value of homes begin to decline. The latest global estimate is that by 2050 climate change could wipe out almost 10 percent of the value of the planet’s housing stock, or $25 trillion. For most Americans, one’s home is the greatest source of one’s wealth—therefore, as the Budget Committee reported, “any widespread decline in property values would thus present a systemic risk to the U.S. economy similar to what occurred during the 2007– 2008 mortgage meltdown and ensuing global financial crisis.” Indeed, “the difference from 2008 is that the financial system and asset values could and did recover.

McKibben, Bill. Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization (pp. 84-85). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition. 

People often wonder “Why is this happening?” They don’t or can’t connect the dots.

House values will decline if they can’t be insured and they can’t be insured because the risk

of damage due to weather events caused by climate change is too high.

Climate change deniers and their supporters don’t get it and when they do it will be too late.

Have you seen an increase in house and renter insurance premiums where you live?

Trump lies about wind energy

 

Speaking in Pennsylvania a few weeks before the 2024 election, Donald Trump repeated the standard gospel—wind, he said, “is the most expensive form of energy there is. You cannot get more expensive.” It won’t surprise you to learn he is wrong, indeed upside down.

McKibben, Bill. Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization (p. 81). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition. 

In the first Trump presidency the Washington Post counted his lies which came to over 30,000. I don’t know if the WP is counting in the second presidential term but if so, it must be over 50,000.

Many of the thousands of lies are very harmful to the well being of Americans and people around the world. As we are discussing the development of renewable energy resources such as wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal, the Republican support for fossil fuels and disparaging of renewable energy resources seems all the more egregious in the face of the climate damage and economic costs of fossil fuel usage.

What circle of hell will Trump and his supporters descend to when their bodies die? Where will their souls go?

Economic boycotts allow citizens to vote every day with their money.

 We Ain't Buying It is a protest against companies that undermine democratic processes and support autocratic government.

Why do business with companies that undermine democratic processes? Supporting these companies gives them power to harm our society. Not doing something, like boycotting doing business with them, is doing something significant.

Join us in sending a message to these three companies that their harmful practices will not enjoy our support.

Markham's Slow News Index #1, November 15/2025

 

1. Sterilization has gone up significantly for females after overturning Roe Vs. Wade in 2022. Click here

2. U.S. children who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods are more likely to die after surgery. Click here 

3. Heat-related deaths in the U.S. have surged more than 50% over the past two decades. Click here.

4. Eighty-nine percent of teachers said banning of phones in schools have improved the school environment. Click here

5. 91 percent of study participants with an average age of 32 report improvement in mental health with a 15 day smartphone ban. Click here

6. 15 day smartphone ban found better method of decreasing symptoms of depression than antidepressants. Click here

7. Seventy five percent of CPS cases in Monroe County, NY are unfounded. Click here.

8. Estimates that investigations based on those unsubstantiated reports cost the county about $13.8 million in 2024 — nearly $2,700 per case. Click here

9. Poverty is being mistaken for neglect. Rochester has one of the highest child poverty rates in the country. Click here

10. Anonymous calls account for about 7% of the reported incidents but are unsubstantiated roughly 97% of the time. Click here.

11. In New York State AI Companions Now Must Detect and Implement Safety Protocol if Users Discuss Self Harm and Must Refer them to Crisis Centers. Click here

12. Between 2019 and 2023, New York’s Medicaid plans consistently outperformed national Medicaid plans by a factor of 2. Click here

13. New Law in New York State requires schools to create and implement anti-bullying policies and procedures. Click here.

14. Data show that between January and June, labor force participation rate of women ages 25 to 44 living with a child under five fell nearly three percentage points, from 69.7% to 66.9%, Click here

15. Congress members get paid during government shut down but janitors don’t. Click here.

16. There were no January 6th FBI agitators. Click here.

17. Only 5%, 1 out of 20, people say they feel heard at the end of a conversation. Click here.

18. Small children don’t receive 80 different vaccines. Click here.

Solar and wind energy is delivered right to your community every day lost cost and climate friendly

 Forty percent of the world’s ship traffic, for instance, consists of moving coal and gas and oil back and forth across the ocean to be burned, a delivery job the sun accomplishes each morning as it moves across the heavens.

McKibben, Bill. Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization (p. 50). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition. 

The fact that forty percent of fossil fuels are transported by ship traffic which themselves burn tremendous amounts of fossil fuel just to facilitate their delivery is significant when another source of energy, solar and wind, is daily delivered right to our door without any effort on human effort whatsoever.

As a side note, Ukraine may be winning the war with Russia because it has damaged the ports and shipping of Russian oil which was providing the funding for Russia’s war against Ukraine. Will the customers for that Russian oil now be motivated to change their energy sources from fossil to renewable energy?

Environmental sociology

What Climate Change Will Do To America By Mid Century, The Atlantic, December, 2025 also entitled “The Dead Zones” in the print magazine

There is no going back to previous temperatures on earth. There is only adapting to the new normal which means determining the truth of the situation by accurately labeling the problem(s), figuring out how to best manage the problems to minimize their negative impact and capitalize on whatever, if anything is positive, and being flexible and reengineering our ways of living. This area of study is a new discipline called “environmental sociology.”

The article, What Climate Change Will Do To America By Mid Century describes some of the changes which are already occurring, the major of which are increasing rates of home insurance, climate migration to higher ground and cooler weather leaving “dead zones” and ghost towns if they are above water, and submerged communities as sea levels rise.

A consideration not covered in the article is the increasing importance of services from the Federal government to manage interstate relocation and management of damage from weather events with which local communities and even state governments don’t have the resources to mitigate and transform. 

The role of the federal government has already become an issue in presidential administration 47 because of withdrawal of federal money from FEMA. the gutting of the weather service, and the politicization of Federal resource distribution to the states based on partisan considerations.

One thing is paramount - United we stand and divided we fall.

Possible questions for consideration and/or discussion:

1. What do you think some of the biggest changes are that will have to be made to live in a hotter climate? 

2. How will climate warming affect your community in the next 30 years? 

3. How will your children and grandchildren have to adapt?

How Save the Children is dealing with massive budget cuts

The CEO Of Save The Children On Navigating A Sudden Funding Crisis, Harvard Business Review, September-October, 2025

When the Trump administration issued its January 20 executive order announcing that it was freezing all U.S. foreign development assistance—funding that typically accounts for about a third of Save the Children’s annual global program budget—our senior team was already gathered for a previously planned in-person retreat. Together, we quickly moved through every stage of grief.

First, denial: Was it even possible for a U.S. president to deny funds appropriated by Congress? Second, anger: How could the administration be so cruel as to cut off food, medicine, and education from children in need? Third, bargaining: Could we litigate or negotiate to get some of the money back? Fourth, depression: In the absence of U.S. aid, would we be able to continue our work? Finally, acceptance: We couldn’t avoid or reverse this massive crisis, but we would stay calm, creative, and agile—and eventually navigate our way through it.

Having worked my whole career of 57 years so far as a Psychiatric Social Worker in non profit agencies I have become very aware that many non profit CEOs are more skilled at management than profit making CEOs. They have to be more skilled and competent because the services their organizations provide are often life saving and life sustaining. Janti Soeripto, CEO of Save The Children, is a good example of excellent leadership and management in a time of crisis.\

She writes that in a crisis situation a non profit staff and board can engage in:  First, radical acceptance: Confront your new and brutal reality as soon as possible. Second, flexibility: In any volatile environment, you must keep your knees slightly bent, ready to absorb and adapt to new developments. Third, focus: Ignore the noise around you, home in on what you can control, and commit to working together to fulfill your mission. Fourth, decisiveness: In chaotic and fast-moving situations, you can’t always wait for more information, so understand that close enough is good enough and that, if things change, you can adjust course. Finally, vision: My team’s embrace of the three-phase outlook—starting with crisis response but then looking ahead to rebound and reform—helped us immensely, giving us a positive, proactive mindset and pointing us to the light at the end of the tunnel.

The locker room slogan “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” might be better said, “When the going gets tough, the tough get smart.”

Questions for consideration and possible discussion:

1. When resources are cut or dry up, how can a nonprofit continue to pursue its mission to achieve its vision or should it change its mission and vision, or give up and disband? How is this decision made?

2. How important is it to measure key performance indicators and point out the value of program results?

3. How can an organization continue to be focused on mission over money when money is necessary to carry out the activities necessary for the mission?

4. The three legged stool of good outcomes, cost efficiency, and customer satisfaction stand in dynamic tension such that often only two out of three can be achieved. Which two do you think are most important and which one is most easily sacrificed for the other two?

Save The Children Web Site