Administrative, Technology and Society

Home Ownership

16 Comments

Doing some plumbing stuff, and the gate valve that controls water to the house won’t open. Handle turns nicely, though. Probably stripped threads or broken spindle. I’m cursing the plumber who installed it, as opposed to a ball lever.

And of course, we’re going out tonight to see Climate Hustle. So I guess no shower for her in the morning. I’ll have to fix it tomorrow.

[Wednesday-morning update]

For those curious, I did end up replacing the valve with a ball valve. The handle had sheared off, and I couldn’t even get it apart to see if there were replaceable parts. It turned out to be sort of a PITA, because I didn’t have a lot of length to work with on the pipe, due to it bending as it came out of the ground, but I managed to solder it in. It will be a huge improvement for future plumbing projects. Including the current one, in which I’m replacing a charcoal water filter with a four-stage reverse-osmosis system.

[Bumped]

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

The Late Jumpers On The Trump Train

22 Comments

I agree with Jonah: I’m not going to abandon my principles just because he is “a winner”:

The “people have spoken” is not some abracadabra phrase that can change my opinions, never mind my convictions. If “the people” vote that I must hate dogs, I’m not going to start hating dogs. If a plurality of Republican primary voters tells me I have to like blue cheese, I’m not going to start liking blue cheese. And even if 99.99 percent of Americans tell me that I should shed my opinions of Donald Trump, I’m not going to do that either. New facts or some new argument — in theory — could make me change my mind. But crowds, mobs, twitter trolls, bullying hacks, eye-rolling apparatchiks – or even voters can’t just because they all shout at once. Why? Because I am not a politician.

[Update later morning]

Why #NeverTrump remains relevant. Yes, it wasn’t about denying him the nomination, per se. It’s about preserving what few limited-government principles the party had left.

[Late-morning update]

Five reasons Cruz shouldn’t have dropped out.

I was surprised. When I heard that late deciders had been going for Cruz, I saw it as a good sign going forward. I can only think that his CA donors told him to give it up.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Getting Humans On Mars

45 Comments

Will SpaceX do it before NASA does?

That would be the way to bet, absent some dramatic change in attitude on the Hill.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Speaking of which, one of a very long series of essays (including a lot of history) on why SpaceX will settle Mars. Because it’s a priority for Elon Musk, but not for the federal government.

Also, more and more people in the media are starting to notice the absurdity of SLS. Plus Garver unchained. Plus, thoughts on the program from a (smart) layman.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here is the Space News op-ed from Lori, with a lot of interesting history of the transition in 2009.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Trump Versus Clinton

35 Comments

The latest Rasmussen. Put me with “someone else” (particularly given that I don’t vote in a swing state).

As I’ve been saying on Twitter for months, my concern with a Trump/Clinton match up isn’t that Clinton will win, but that one of them will, and both are terrible. I’d like to see a poll with some specific names (e.g., Cruz, Ryan, Mattis, Gary Johnson) as “other.”

Culinary, Health, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

Losing Weight And Keeping It Off

1 Comment

The amount of unconscious junk science in this NYT article is staggering.

Note the underlying assumption: that calorie counting is useful, that burning calories (i.e., exercise) is useful, and that the type of calories you consume is irrelevant. And it’s all about the weight (they didn’t mention BMI, but I’ll bet they were measuring it). Did any of them do strength training? Because exchanging muscle for fat will increase metabolism.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!