Boomerang Children: Why More Young Adults Are Moving Back Home

Since the Millennials came of age, children have been living longer with their parents and moving back home more often.  It isn’t just global events like the recession of 2008 or the covid pandemic that are creating this effect.  And especially not a perceived “laziness” effect by the older generations.  Many women are choosing to marry and have children later than they used to, when in the Boomer and Gen X eras they were expected to do these early in their 20s.  Many Millennials and Gen-Z students are staying in college longer to build their careers before having children.  Another symptom is the general trend to part-time work as the service economy replaces the former manufacturing one.  It is harder these days for the younger generations to find decent full-time work in a middle-class position.  I would know; it took me over a decade.

Compounding these social impacts with recent events, it does not surprise me that families are living with each other longer.  Housing prices are skyrocketing as the middle class shrinks and the lower class inflates.  That is the biggest negative impact; that socially we are becoming like sheep for our oligarchic overlords, who can no longer afford to buy our own homes.  A positive one is that more people living together reduces encroachment on the environment.  Overall, I would say it’s a net positive effect because ecosystem imbalance is more crucial to our health than most people are aware.  Plus, it helps us better maintain important relationships.  By not subjecting ourselves to “anomie” right out of high school, it helps us value our families more, which may be reflected in lower divorce rates since the 1980s.

U.S. Water Contamination Impacts 97 Million Residents

        According to scientists at the Silent Spring Institute, over 97 million Americans are exposed to unregulated contaminants in their drinking water, making up nearly a third of the population.  Hispanic and Black groups are more likely than other racial groups to have these contaminants in their water, as they are more likely to live in neighborhoods that are close to pollution sources.  These communities are generally situated closer to wastewater treatment plants, airports, military training areas, and industrial sites, all of which discharge pollutants into local groundwater through improper waste management procedures.  Some of these pollutants include 1-4 dioxane, Freon 22, and PFAS, which has been found to be more prolific in drinking water than originally thought.  The news writer suggests that historical factors such as racism and redlining have led to the siting of communities of color near heavily polluted sites.  The finding supports previous research about water contamination, with the conclusion that there needs to be more federal action to regulate these contaminants.

            For the most part, the article by Phys.org is a good summary that agrees with the message of the scholarly article.  The title of the news article has an attention-grabbing fact in its headline, stating that 97 million Americans are exposed to drinking water contamination, which to their credit agrees with the findings.  This contrasts with the title of the scholarly article, which only states that there are socioeconomic disparities in drinking water.  The scholarly article was more specific about the pollutants they studied, whereas the news article made it seem like there were only four important chemicals that the research group targeted.  But according to the researchers, there are 86,000(!) harmful chemicals in our drinking water (this could also have been an attention-grabbing headline).  An omission the news article made is that urbanicity (p=0.80) was more highly correlated with wastewater pollution than race (p=.34), even though minority groups in cities are more likely to be exposed.  It’s a significant omission because environmental justice is mainly an urban issue and not a rural one, so local governments need to be held more accountable.  Also, the news writer’s message was also more political; nowhere in the scholarly article does it mention racism or redlining as sources of the problem.

Phys.org has been my go-to source for science news for a long time.  Usually, they pay careful attention to detail and will offer a deeper explanation of scholarly articles than other popular science sites.  That’s why the omission about urbanicity comes at a surprise.  This is an important detail because their conclusion is that the federal government needs to do more to address the problem.  But since it is mostly taking place in cities, urban governments could be doing more as well.  Their conclusion would have been better if they had criticized urban governments for not doing more to realize environmental justice.

 

News article:

Silent Spring Institute. (2025, January 15). Over 97 million US residents exposed to unregulated contaminants in their drinking water, analysis reveals. Phys.org. Retrieved January 27, 2025 from https://phys.org/news/2025-01-million-residents-exposed-unregulated-contaminants.html

Scholarly article:

Maruzzo, A. J., Hernandez, A.B., Swartz, C.H., Liddie, J.M., & Schaider, L.A. (2025) Socioeconomic disparities in exposures to PFAS and other unregulated industrial drinking water contaminants in U.S. public water systems, Environmental Health Perspectives, 133 (1).  DOI: 10.1289/EHP14721

Permanent

 Upon the altar of windcrash I dreamt you into my future. You were there when I left my job to train a new hire blessed by the notes I left, when for some godforsaken reason my predecessors wouldn't. I left them for you, innocent one, to guide you as clearly as possible through the wickets of confusion, that you might be saved from failure or at least not have to worry about it. You were there across the street blowing your driveway when the wind lifted your dress through the wretched fold when I fell into your spell on the school bus to drown where the rolling suicide melted my soul into yours. I swear you could read my mind and you teased me then and there like you did in class long ago, knowing I would want it eventually, that I always would, even after telling you I was married. The smile is all that remained, that all-knowing smile you spread over my regret to scream through adolescent barb wire that stung so bad I cut my wrists to bleed out the months I waited to gain enough courage to talk to you. The time can't be given back, it can only be found in sorrowful vaults of love deep in the abyss where my depression echoed off the trenches of your skin that sank me stupid beyond the bands of the rainbow framing your sunlit hair. It's so quiet here, sinking through the layers you weaved for me, passing through like the clouds of the day kissing the sun-sparked sky off the candy pane of your face. Beauty is blind, but that doesn't mean I couldn't see you and me together on a hot summer day being friendly neighbors, forbidden from having each other, hiding the biological truth so desperately under a burden of formality.

Cloud Effect From Longwave Radiation Slightly Reduces Global Warming

            In a study conducted by McGill University researchers, it was found that there is a small decrease in local warming when there is reduced cloud cover.  This happens from a decrease in longwave radiation being deflected back to the surface by clouds, in an atmospheric feedback loop.  Longwave radiation comes from sunlight reaching the earth’s surface, being deflected into the atmosphere, and in many cases being deflected again back to the surface by clouds, trapping it in the space between cloud cover and the ground.  Thus, a reduction in cloud cover results in more longwave radiation leaving the surface, resulting in a minor offsetting of the more general global warming trend.  The research team used radiative instruments in their study, including Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI), remote sensing, climate models, and their own “optimal spectral fingerprinting” technique to study the effects of longwave radiation on climate.  An important consequence, the researchers believe, is that the surface would warm even faster without this mitigating effect.  They suggest this offset does not entirely reduce the impact of global warming; it merely reduces the warming rate to a small degree.

The title of the news article “Clouds Have Surprising Effect on Surface Warming” provides no detail about the findings.  The title of the scholarly article “Clouds reduce downwelling longwave radiation over land in a warming climate” is more specific to include the impact of clouds on longwave radiation and how it applies to global warming.  The research article does a better job explaining the conclusion with the assistance of other studies and not entirely its own, while the news article boldly states that only the McGill researchers discovered it.  There weren’t any details in the news article about “optical spectral fingerprinting”, which apparently is a new method invented by one of the researchers.  This to me is an omission of significant detail because the lay reader is likely unfamiliar with such a new method.  Finally, the news article omits a key statistical method from the research article; that they used linear regression to determine which variable(s) were doing the most mitigating of longwave radiation.  To give the news article credit, it was consistent with the message and main points of the research article.  Though the study was only done locally- in the southern Great Plains- both articles concluded that it is a global phenomenon occurring at a non-specific site.  Both articles were also consistent in asserting that this information will improve predictions about climate change.  The research group for the scholarly article is run by Professor John Gyakum at McGill University and does not appear to show any bias.

I believe the title of the news article is intentionally vague to serve as clickbait.  People naturally want to know what the “surprising effect” of anything is.  I am satisfied that the news article agrees with the main points of the research article, but not with the lack of details provided, and especially with the failure to mention other studies that point to the same conclusion.  It shows a lack of integrity on the part of the news publisher; that they would minimize the amount of writing in the interest of generating more clicks and shares on social media.  Perhaps they are trying to make the article more efficient for their readers, but it comes off as lazy and disingenuous.

 

News article:

McGill University. (2025, January 15). Clouds have a surprising effect on surface warming. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 20, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/01/250115165341.htm

 

Scholarly article:

Liu, L., Huang, Y. & Gyakum, J.R. Clouds reduce downwelling longwave radiation over land in a warming climate. Nature (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08323-x

Biden Warns the US About Oligarchy

Shout out to outgoing president Joe Biden for warning the public about the dangers of the oligarchy sweeping our nation on the eve of Trump's inauguration. The warning is similar to the one Eisenhower made before he left office about the military-industrial complex. Unfortunately, his warning was realized with the horrid Vietnam War. Hopefully the country will not suffer a similar fate as the oligarchs attempt to dismantle the Constitution in favor of corporate power. Trump has always been a master con artist. This time he managed to trick even the supposedly educated independents of this country into thinking he cares about the working class, despite his disastrous first term. It's really unconsciable what is happening. I have been reading in "Autocracy Inc." about how countries like Russia and China are actively manipulating social media to help promote far right autocrats who would have the assistance of oligarchs, not just in our country but in countries around the world, especially in Latin America and Africa. These are traditionally weak democratic areas, and the idea is to undermine western idealism by using the exploitation of the Global South against them. Because the weakness of democracy is that it lends a stronger voice to those with money, the autocrats are succeeding at convincing people, in this country and beyond, that it is only those with money who can make their lives better, but without the assistance of big government. Their goal is to trick us into believing that big government, funded by high taxes on the rich, cannot be trusted and is causing economic mayhem. The truth is that they don't want to be taxed. They don't want to be held accountable for exploiting workers' rights and the environment, because it reduces their profits. And the only ones who can give them that power are the strong man autocrats, one who happens to be a master manipulator and billionaire who will run the richest country in the world. These are interesting times. Will the Russian ideology succeed by seducing Americans to believe their democracy doesn't work? For the sake of freedom, we must continue to believe it won't.

When You Drive on Me

 When you drive on me
 You pretend I'm a mountain,
 My legs a gently rising slope
 Leading your toy cars to snowland,
 Where they can view the whole town.

 When you drive on me
 The world stops turning,
 My mind stops spinning,
 I lose all my senses to touch
 What comfort undressed
 In sheets of blessed cotton
 That shaped the air senseless,
 Surrender complete, enthralled
 By the grace of a child.

 When you drive on me
 The soft rubber wheels melt my skin
 Into creamy pillows of snow
 Guided by your tiny hands
 Over bone-frilled ranges of sleep.
 Tread softly, little one,
 Slowly to the summit,
 To park on my chest
 That heaves the tread,
 Raising the summit to slumber,
 Your little fingers pressing
 Gently on plastic wheels,
 The wheels rolling smoothly,
 Rolling my head through snowflower,
 Becoming a dreamer on your summit,
 Shuffled by rolling mountain of breast,
 Collapsing from shorted lungs below,
 Escaping flesh through summit above,
 Drifting from escape, collapsed
 By each snowflake drifting dreamwards,
 Disintegrating into air, into me.

Mahashmashana

  My favorite song right now is Mahashmashana by Father John Misty. It is one of the best songs of this decade. The lyrics are fairly cryptic, but I think I figured it out. The man and the woman in the song are giving birth to a modern Christ-like figure. The man knows the mythology of his conception and life are lies, similar to how Jesus was "born" by immaculate conception. He is the only one who knows the truth and he sings about it because no one believes. The truth is dressed up by religious fanaticism, similar to the way Trump is seen as a messiah-savior figure. The truth is that he is anything but divine, and his followers have fallen prey to the ways of the flesh, just as he had when they conceived their son. The verse is about transcending this vicious cycle of being born into the lies of the flesh, in a universe beyond. Such a beautiful song with a powerful message, and musically phenomenal.

Alfred and Uhtred

  We are watching a great show called "The Last Kingdom", set in the time of Alfred the Great, the king of Wessex who fought off the Viking invasions and united England for the first time in the 9th century. While the story of Alfred is historically accurate, the story of its main protagonist, Uhtred, is not. Uhtred is a warrior torn between his Saxon heritage and his Danish upbringing. He has a love-hate relationship with his Saxon heritage, and with Alfred, the man who wants to integrate the races, who sees Uhtred as the perfect embodiment of them both in the same man. Alfred is easily able to manipulate Uhtred to get what he thinks is best for his country. And since he is one of the few literate men of the time, it is usually for the best. Despite all his fervent fanaticism about God, Alfred is one of the most intelligent people I've seen in a TV show. You have to admire his ability to see through people, and his vision for what England will become. It sends shivers down your spine whenever you get a hint of that vision from a twinkle in his eye. As for my wife, she has a similar fondness for Uhtred. Was Alfred the greatest English king? There have been many in real life. On screen, surely. On the pages of history, certainly one of them. The Vikings would have easily conquered the island without a strong leader. There's a reason "great" is in his moniker.

My Vision

  One of the most important things to know about me is that I didn't know I needed glasses until late high school. I couldn't clearly see the whiteboard, the baseball, and whether or not someone was looking at me. It shaped me in more ways than I was aware. At school I slacked off for having trouble seeing things. I wasn't as good at sports as I should have been. I had horrible social skills because I couldn't read distant body language as people were approaching. It is so important to know whether they're smiling at you, because if you miss it, you might offend them into ignoring you. That is a huge reason why I was ignored and still am. When my glasses are off, I can't see you. 

I don't know why it took so long to get an eye test and discover my vision problem. It may have in fact been getting tested for a driver's license when I was 16 that forced my mom and I to become aware. Things were pretty awful for me around this time. Maybe you can blame my stepdad, my mom, the kids at school, or even me for developing an antisocial personality. But my eyes had more to do with it than anything. By the time I found out, my self-esteem was so low that I didn't care about contacts or getting laser surgery. The stigma of wearing unattractive glasses suited my poor self-image and it never recovered. Sometimes I take them off in social situations to look more attractive but then I put them on again when I need to see something far away.  

Recently the problem has become compounded by chronic digital eye strain, from using computers too much. There's something about glasses that creates the same symptom as looking at the screen too long, which for me is a terrible blow because it forces me to take my glasses off whenever I don't actually need them, like in social situations. 

It is a lifelong thorn in my side. How was I supposed to know I needed glasses at 10 years old? I wasn't being tested. Vision was ok I think until around this age. They say modern living with all its indoor activities and screen time are ruining eyes for the younger generations. Perhaps this is contributing to anti-social behavior in general in the social media age. 

My propensity for turning inward and fantasizing is also a major product of the eye problem. I developed a strong inner vision to replace the one I lost outside.

Beauty Before Profit

  There's a Delirium composition called "In Four Dimensions", very little known even among fans. It took me 27 years to discover one of their best pieces. The part from 7 minutes onwards is pure beauty. It takes me to a place that feels like home yet is far removed from planet Earth. And this is why they are my top artist on Last.fm and probably always will be. There are some artists out there that we resonate with so highly despite most people not liking them that it is substantial proof of the variety of human taste. There may be some people out there who would believe me the best poet in the world right now, but they will never read my poems because they aren't good enough to get published or I'm not pushing it hard enough. Delirium's music might fade to dust, or resurrect in the future where it belongs. Because that is where I feel my work belongs, in a future far removed, post AI. Artists like us will transcend time to become fully realized in a world where beauty comes before profit.

Top 1000 Songs of the 2000s

  Below is my compilation of the top songs of the 2000s, based on popularity, cultural significance, landmark albums, play counts, and personal affections. Play counts derived from my profile at last.fm: skydude13579’s Music Profile | Last.fm

Casino Wonderland

 To the north star we drove
 Under diamonds in a firelit sky,
 Dawn of new year west of sundown,
 Tulalip's cove on the Salish Sea.
 The beach rolled forth
 Breakers of light that froze
 Over trees, dangling crystals of ice
 Adorning each branch in holiday colors.
 Cerulean maples behind bubblegum cedars,
 Neon green junipers that swirled candy,
 A rainbow garden beside a buttery grove

 Atop a waffled street edged by lavender firs.

 Inside a lemon-stone palace

 Casino lights dazzled the interior,
 Glittering logos of cash
 Emptying the hollow joy within,
 Redirecting it without.
 Ice skaters swiveled 'tween
 Statues of orcas angled aloft,
 Threading illuminated fountains
 That gushed all the winnings
 To the frostbit voyagers outside
 Where faces turned poleward,
 Bathed in the glow of fireworks.