…is sick.
A few months ago, I got a free six-month subscription to Disney+ through Verizon. Now that they’ve started charging me for it, it’s a great opportunity to be able to cancel it.
Checking In
So, the Reason Weekend was great. Saw many old friends, made some new ones. Average age of the attendees was pretty high (Patricia and I no doubt contributed to that), but it’s a gathering of long-time Reason supporters, so no surprise, and there was an encouraging number of young people.
We’ve been ensconced since Sunday in a vacation rental just north of the park boundary of Smoky Mountain National Park, above Wear Valley. I’ll put up a picture of the view after I take one from our balcony. Yesterday we drove from the Gatlinburg entrance down to Cherokee, with a side trip to Clingman’s Dome. The weather up there was funky; fifties and windy, and drizzly, so we didn’t other to walk the half mile to the top for the non-view. From Cherokee we came back up I-40, back to Gatlinburg, where we had dinner. One drive down the main drag there was enough to convince us that we didn’t have to visit again, It’s a place for families with kids to be separated from their money.
Today it rained most of the day, so we cocooned and enjoyed it (even heard some thunder). Then, when it cleared up, we drove the loop around Cade’s Cove, and saw several bears. We’re heading back to Nashville tomorrow, maybe via Chattanooga, to see a little more of the state, then flying back to LA early Thursday morning.
It’s been a nice break: our first real vacation since October 2020, and our second one since the onset of the plague.
[Friday-morning update]
We did drive through Chattanooga, and went up to Lookout Mountain. It doesn’t really look like a battlefield (in the way that Gettysburg or Antietam do), but it provides an interesting perspective on the Battle Above The Clouds. We thought about seeing the cave and Ruby Falls, but didn’t really have time, so it’s an excuse to go back sometime. We did manage to get to three states, but just for brief sojourns in North Carolina south of the park, and a brush with Georgia in going up on Lookout.
Had a hectic early morning yesterday getting on the flight (American check-in at BNA was chaotic, nothing like LAX), and had to suffer through a mask for six hours, but back home now with the cats, and life getting back to normal.
The Ukraine War
Off To Music City
We’re flying to Nashville today, where I’m going to be on a panel on commercial space with Bob Poole and Katherine Mangu-Ward on Friday morning as part of Reason Weekend (it used to be in Orange County, but…). Then we’re spending a few days in the Smokies. I’ll have a laptop with me, though, so I won’t be incommunicado.
Private Space Stations
A good overview from Jeffrey Kluger.
Ableist Orgies
This Twitter thread is hilarious.
Stop Counting “Cases”
Covid is over: “As of Friday, just 2.15% of hospital beds nationwide are in use for COVID-19 patients, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”
The Return Of The Third Horseman
We’ve had pestilence and war, and now famine appears inevitable in the near term.
Russia’s Debacle
What we can learn from it. “If there’s any lesson in this for Washington, it must be to ask: how much of America’s power is myth like Russia’s? Dare we collapse the wave function? If too much is spin then put it not to the test, but keep on bluffing until the reality is restored. You can’t live in the narrative forever.”
Eating Plastic
Is it killing your gut?
I rarely drink out of plastic bottles. And most of the water I drink comes from our four-stage reverse-osmosis filter. Not sure where else I’d be getting plastic.