Completely off topic: My review of the Pixelbook Go

Pixelbook Go. Showing it next to an Apple keyboard and trackpad to give some sense of scale. 

Since I spend my working day, on computers, having a good, responsive machines if a high priority. 

A high battery life is also very important, especially if you are you doing 18 hours of travel, such as a trip from the East Coast to Guam. That made the Pixelbook Go a very attractive machine. 

I've been a big fan of Chrome operating system. When it was first introduce, bought one of the first chromebooks, an Samsung unit. It simplicity, fast boot up, was fresh air. No worries about viruses, and the machine is easy to reset. 

For a long time, Chromebooks were still stuff to use because the applications weren't there.

Here's a brief summary of what I like and don't like about the Pixelbook Go.

The pros:

Stellar piece of hardware. Incredibly solid.

Keyboard is as wonderful as all the reviewers have claimed. Best I've ever used.

Speakers are exceptional.

Fast charging works as advertised.

The M3 is very fast and responsive. After using it, really can't see a reason for buying the i5.

Battery life is exceptional. No reason to doubt the 12 hour claim.

Screen is bright. Very good glass. Sensitive to glare, but not an issue for me at least.

Touchpad seems great. And touch screen is very responsive.

The cons:

This is a big con for me. I am use to working on machines with higher resolution, such as Apple iMac, Microsoft Surface, Samsung CB Plus V1. All of them have a higher resolution than the Go's 1920 x 1080. This lower resolution has the letters, the blacks, look a little tad bleached and soft to me.

Minor thing: The unit seems to have trouble with the battery level reading.

Neutral:

I bought the Go knowing it's a clamshell. That's not a problem for me. No pen support, again no problem. Prefer an iPad for tablet use.

Summary

The Go would have been perfect if it had a higher resolution. Truly perfect. I'm not going to return it, although I'm tempted, because it will have value as a travel machine. But it's not going to be my main machine by a long shot.

I knew the resolution might be an issue but not as much as one.

The high-end model with the 4K resolution is retailing for $1,400 -- that's more than double the cost of the M3 at $650. Can't justify it.

Conclusion:

If you are use to working on machines with a higher resolution than the Go, you may not be crazy about the Go or anything less than its 4K model. It feels like a step back.

I'm a little disappointed with Google here. They could have done a little better. It should have had a 2400 by 1600 option, instead of nothing but 1920 x 1080 or 4K. I imagine they made that tradeoff to maximize battery life because they are selling this as a "Go" machine. But still, considering all the excellent work that Google did on hardware, it just seems like a pretty big trade-off. Nonetheless, I really need a machine with long battery life for travel. Every other laptop I've owned -- no matter what the manufacturer claims -- seems to rarely make it past 5/6 hours. I am so sick of trying to find outlets in airports. The Go does deliver in that respect.

So maybe that's the trade-off (long battery life vs. resolution) that Google had to make to get the price it wanted on the base model. Maybe in its next iteration of the Go (two years from now?) it will be able to give the resolution a bump? Let's hope so, because otherwise, it's a darn good machine.

Trump doesn't understand Greenland or Guam

If President Trump understood anything about Guam and colonialism, he would not have offered to buy Greenland. Indigenous people have rights. No longer can one nation "own" another, as Spain did in 1898, when it turn over Guam to the U.S. as a prize of war.

In 1979, about 70% of Greenland's voters approved home rule and since then the island has been self-governing. It's still dependent on financial assistance from Denmark, but the island is on a possible path to full independence.  Greenland is not Demarks to sell and it's amazing that Trump doesn't understand it.

Trump's offer to buy Greenland is rooted in Colonial-era thinking, pre-dating the UN charter that gives indigenous populations the right to self-determination.

This said, it's interesting to contrast Greenland with Guam. What becomes clear, is that Greenland is in a much better position than Guam to determine its political fate.

Guam's Chamorro population makes up less than 40% of the island's total. The Greenland Inuit, in contrast, account for about 90%.

Guam is an Asian melting pot and this culture diversity is one of the island's great strengths. But it is also a serious complication to a Chamorro-only vote on Guam's future political status. Federal courts have rejected a native-only vote as discriminatory. Greenland doesn't have this demographic obstacle.

Greenland, which has a population of 56,000, similar to the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, receives about $600 million in support from Denmark. It has universal healthcare and other Scandinavian-type social benefits.

If Greenland does seek full autonomy, it may look to the Pacific to try to understand what that means. Although the U.S. still has strong political ties to island states, China is using its economic power to expand its influence. China, for instance, has cut tourism to Palau for its recognition of Taiwan. In the Northern Marianas, it is using casino development and tourism to build stronger ties and weaken U.S. influence.

An autonomous Greenland may feel obligated to cut deals with China and Russia for valuable mineral rights and port access, actions that would put it in conflict with the U.S.

The best approach for the U.S. going forward in dealing with Greenland, is to respect and recognize the native population. Trump's offer to buy Greenland may be seen by a future administration as crude, but also a legitimate expression of geopolitical concerns over military and economic control of the arctic. America will have to compete for influence because it can't "buy" Greenland.

Selected readings:

Trump’s Greenland Plan Shows He Has No Idea How American Power Works, NY Times, Daniel Immerwahr, Aug. 23, 2019.

A Brief History of the Indignities Heaped Upon Greenland, NY Times, Matthew H. Birkhold, Aug. 22, 2019.

A new great game: US-China competition in Guam and CNMI, a paper by Major Nicholas Sigler. 2017. 

Palau against China: The tiny island standing up to a giant. The Guardian. Sept. 2018. 

Palau island paradize abandoned after invoking wrath of China. New Zealand Herald, Aug. 2018. 

US steps up activities in the Pacific to counter China's growing influence. This Week in Asia, July, 2019. 

Paradise Lost. Ms. Magazine. A report on the exploitation of Northern Mariana Island workers. July, 2019. 

China's influence on Free Association States (page 36-37) testimony by Admiral Philip S. Davidson before Senate Armed Services Committee, Feb. 2019. 

China's Engagement in the Pacific Islands: Implications for the United States. U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, June 2018. 

CIA Factbook: Greenland. 

Why Trump Can't Buy Greenland. Lawfare, Aug. 2019.  

Greenland Reconciliation Commission finds colonization did 'a lot of damage.' CBC. Jan. 2018.

Future independence, Arctic minister and social issues on the agenda as Greenland goes to polls in Danish elections High North News, June, 2019.

How Greenland could become China's Arctic base. BBC, Dec. 2018.

How to Keep China Out of Greenland? Start by Asking the Greenlandic People. Georgetown Security Studies Review, Feb. 2019. 

The coming mass extinction?

No one would support President Trump is they understood that more than half our oxygen comes from the ocean. That seems like an odd thing to say, but it isn't.

Climate change is heating the ocean waters. This heat could stop oxygen production by phytoplankton by disrupting photosynthesis. The oceans are heating up faster than previously thought.

This could happen within the lifetime of a young child today. If the oceans stop producing oxygen, mass extinction is possible.

Many don't realize yet what we're dealing with. It's profoundly distressing. It only takes a modest investment of time to get understand the basics of this problem. 

The breakdown of our climate system isn't easy to discern on Guam. The island's climate remains relatively stable. The island's daily temperatures stay within a narrow band, or so it will seem to anyone the continental U.S. Climate change is very obvious in places such as Alaska and Siberia, where temperature extremes have become norm.

The ocean waters have always been warm, and the ocean-related changes around Guam have not been significant unless you dive. Guam's most obvious problem is the decline of coral reefs.

But there is more heat in the oceans and air and this may be energizing typhoons. Guam is built to withstand powerful storms, and faces a fair risk of one in any given year. Time will tell what this may mean for Guam.  

Trump denies that climate change is a threat. It's a wilful, ideological-driven ignorance. It is shaped by fossil fuel interest and Republican belief that remedies to climate change will amount to an attack on capitalism. 

It's hard to realize how much damage we are doing because we see it in isolation. Just small parts of it. But the collective impact is massive. By the time we truly wake up and begin to address our problems, it may be too late. 

Climate change and Guam

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite image, Typhoon Yutu

The Marshall Islands may become uninhabitable as early as 2030. It won't take much. A 3 foot sea level rise may force a wholesale relocation. This is bad for Guam as well. Much of Guam's development is in areas not much higher than the Marshall Islands. It's not the only problem.

Rising water temperatures will amplify typhoons. Super Typhoon Yutu intensified from a tropical storm to a category 5 storm in two days.  That's an increase from about 50 mph to 180 mph. Average water temperatures around Guam have risen more than 1 degree over the last century, reports the EPA. Heat is energy. As sea levels rise, and water gets warmer, Guam's vulnerability to massive storm surges increases.

Warming waters and changing pH levels from increasing carbon emissions will kill coral reefs, and probably Guam's tourism industry. Much, however, remains unknown.

There aren't good, firm estimates about how climate change will impact Guam. There's no roadmap that says what will happen in any given year.  But nothing good will happen from climate change.

Unlike the Marshall Islands, Guam's higher elevations will keep it on the maps should sea levels rise 10, 20, 30 feet or more. But Guam faces enormous challenges from climate change that may impact critical infrastructure, especially its fresh water lens and sanitation systems.

Guam's independence discussion ends

Guam has yet to discuss how its climate change future impacts its political future. It ought to be the key issue in the island's self-determination discussion, but it isn't. There's a disconnect and it's not surprising. 

Guam has a stable climate. It's average annual temperatures stay within a relatively narrow band. The rainfall patterns remain predictable. The Marshall Islands problem seems distant. There may be concern about more Yutu-type storms, but Guam is built, to a point, for storm resilience. 

But if mankind fails to quickly address climate change, the people of Guam have no future on the island. It may be getting too late already. No matter what action is taken, the Marshall Islands are lost. This also means that Guam's lower elevation areas will be impacted by rising seas.

Marshall Island residents have, under their compacts, the right to work and study in the U.S. with little restriction. It isn't permanent residency, but it ought to be a path for them. For Guam, the safest political status option is one that maintains U.S. citizenship. 

There are compelling arguments for Guam to pursue separation from the U.S. One leading advocate, Michael Lujan Bevacqua, has argued powerfully for decolonization and independence.

Far from being terrifying, independence for colonized people is a normal and standard course. Billions of people in the world today do not live in terror since they are independent countries. It only feels that way in Guam, because people have accepted certain myths and misunderstandings about the status.

But the decolonization argument is not independent of climate change. Climate change is our new history: Past, present and future. It is an existential threat to the survival of humanity. Everything that we have accomplish and everything that we may accomplish is at risk.

Guam needs to consider the possibility that one day the island may be abandoned.

Suggested reading: 

How climate change is making hurricanes more dangerous. Yale Climate Connections.

Here’s why hurricanes are rapidly exploding in strength. Washington Post.

Military bases threatened by climate change. Defense One.