Category Archives: General

General, General Science, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Heat Wave

35 Comments

Looks like the next week and a half will be one of those times we wish we had A/C in coastal California. It was warm last night (temperature has been below seventy every morning when we get up, but it was 73 this morning). Can’t really justify the expense and electricity of central air, but maybe we’ll finally be motivated to get a window or portable unit for the bedroom.

[Noon update]

People are talking about split units in comments. No way we’d spend that kind of money, particularly when we have no use for a heat pump. We just need something to keep the bedroom cool to sleep at night.

[Saturday-morning update]

Well, so far, so good. It never got below 74 in the house, but we slept well. If it gets no worse than that, we’ll be OK. The worst thing about Santa Anas is that when the wind comes from the east, we can hear the sound of the 405 freeway, which is about a mile away. Otherwise, the neighborhood is quiet, because despite being half a block from a major thoroughfare to the west, the sound is blocked by a dune that our place is at the bottom of.

Education, General, History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Independence Day

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We have ribs in the smoker, and I’ve been doing odds and ends around the house (including laying conduit and PVC for power and water of a new irrigation system). I want to wish as happy a holiday as possible under the circumstances to all of my readers. If you’ve never done it (or even if you have), I recommend reading the Declaration aloud; too few understand what this is all about, particularly given the state of our educational system. I also recommend reading Coolidge’s speech on the sesquicentennial. It seems more timely than ever, and is one of the best of its breed.

I will say, though, that Trump’s speech last night was a pretty good one, and it kicked off the campaign much better than the one in Tulsa. And of course, it drove all the right people nuts.

General, Space, Technology and Society

Yesterday’s Launch

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Something to finish the weekend with.

FWIW, Amiko is married to Scott Kelly, who is the Kelly twin who spent a year at ISS.

General, History

The Midland Flood

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Wow.

I’ve driven through that area countless times on the way up to our cabin at Houghton Lake (we always considered Lake Sanford the half-way point from Flint), but I’ve never actually been in downtown Midland. I hadn’t realized the lake was artificial, dammed by the Tittabawassee. I wonder if this will affect Dow Chemical (the major industry of the town)?

General, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

Kathy Kinsley

2 Comments

She was a tech nerd and coder who started blogging about the same time I did, I think, back in late aught one. She lived in Cape Coral, and I remember when she went through Hurricane Charlie and her car was damaged, in 2004. I talked to her once when we were living in Boca, on the other side of the state, I don’t recall what about. I never knew how old she was, but apparently she was just a year or so younger than me. Rest in peace.

[Update a while later]

Wow, this post is already in the top 10 Google search for “Kathy Kinsley.” Not sure whether to be proud or frightened.