Jack Reacher does it again

I've been a fan of Lee Child's Jack Reacher for some years and just finished one of my favorites:

This one has the most satisfying group of extremely bad bad guys against Reacher ... with a couple of interesting subplots too.

I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say:  four stars and I'll give this my "money back if you don't like it!" guarantee. (Audible will do this too ...)

Enjoy!

What if Brexit were a restaurant? (and my favorite quote this year)

The New York Times has a cheeky restaurant review up in today's paper ... it has my favorite quote of the year in it:

Maybe the people in charge have been taking management cues from Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, which has approached its Brexit plan like a class of first graders trying to build a working jet airplane out of Lego pieces and a flying-squirrel sock puppet.

Business opportunity: backup battery power for grocery stores?

We had our "first major blow" of the year last night. This caused a moderate (for this region) power outage: 100,000 out of power, some for hours.

One of these was our local PCC (of the fabulous Jimmy John's conquering paninis) ... dark and out of power last night around 9pm when I drove by.

I'm not sure what they do in a power outage; maybe they already have enough battery backup to handle all the refrigeration? But if not: what kind of loss do they suffer when ice cream melts and meat thaws? This outage last night was minor, but the one in 2006 was major and parts of Issaquah were out for 1 day plus ... (south of town we were out for 7 days + 15 hours).

The Tesla Powerwall is inexpensive enough for homeowners to be a reasonable alternative to a generator ... but would a custom configuration work for somebody like PCC?

I don't know what the plan is for PCC when the power goes out, but I'm going to check with the next time I'm in getting a panini!

Another Dilbert vs. Open Office strip

Scott Adams read the latest research, I guess:

I'm just going to be leaving a job 12/31 and I have my fingers crossed about the office layout I'll be going into on the next one ....

PCC vs Jimmy John's: a surprising winner

I was out with my Lovely Organic Wife today running errands around Maple Valley and I asked if I could swing by Jimmy John's in Maple Valley to grab a sandwich for lunch:

She said, "How about Issaquah? I have to go by the post office and to PCC. I said "OK", but then the traffic in Issaquah for Saturday was so icky:

That I just said, the "the heck with it, I'll just find something at PCC."

For those not familiar, the stores do business as PCC Natural Markets and there are several ... they are competitive with Whole Foods and similar stores, but are a natural/organic focused retailer that's been around Puget Sound for a long time.

(My favorite quote on PCC: I was in the Issaquah store and some kid asked "where's the real grocery store?")

That being said: not necessarily the place I would have thought I'd get a delicious sandwich, but today I did: the Chicken Pesto Panini!

It was delicious ... and $7.49 ... and the cookies are $1 each (I like the oatmeal orange):

And they have drinks I like ... unlike some Jimmy Johns locally which only have "Fuse" iced tea. Bleah!

I'm going to make this a regular Saturday stop for a while ... too bad Jimmy John's and Potbelly!

Key to 2015 Nissan Leaf Range: tire pressure!

As soon as I picked up my new used Nissan Leaf a couple of weeks ago, I got an immediate annoyance:

A tire pressure alert, that is ... I checked the tires and found that I had about 28 psi in each.

This seemed too high to generate the alert, but at the same time I knew that recommended pressure for this car is 36 psi.

An extended family member had swiped my little compressor out of the garage and burned it up by overuse, so I ordered a new one:

It's an improvement over the previous (Kensun) inflator in that (1) it's a little bit quieter (still loud, though) and (2) it allows you to program the desired pressure level in and automatically inflates the tire to that level. 

I blew all 4 tires up to 36 psi last night, and this morning received the pleasant surprise:

No more warning light, and 70 miles available instead of the 61 I'd seen yesterday (similarly cold foggy weather). I gather that the computer calculates available miles based on several factors including air temperature ... and tire pressure!

Anyway, keeping my tires at 36 should make me a little less dependent on the superchargers around the area ...

I'm defecting to Ireland so I can vote in their elections!

Not really, but one of my other favorite podcasts had an episode last week covering ranked-choice voting and its implementation in Ireland:

Also, the Republican in Maine's 2nd district is slightly ahead but  is subject to ranked-choice voting and that probably won't be resolved until next week. (Although he's reserving the right to sue if he loses ...)

Interesting electoral times we live in!

Freakonomics: how to improve the political system by combining features that already exist

I've been a fan of the Freakonomics podcast for years ...

The most recent concerns the ossified political system in the U.S. and some efforts to retool it. The focus is on an organization called Unite America.

I'm generally with the democrats, but I agree that the hyper-partisan setup isn't good for the country or anything else. Unite has three main goals:

• A nonpartisan "top four" primary ... the top four finishers go on to the general election
• Ranked-choice voting in the general election to pick the winner from these 4
• The removal of redistricting from the parties, giving it to a nonpartisan commission

Versions of all these exist currently:

• "top two" in Washington, California and Lousiana (maybe others)
• Ranked-choice voting in various cities around the country and in Maine, after an initiative battle with their wacky governor
• Nonpartisan redistricting in Arizona and there are efforts underway in Wisconsin and elsewhere

The thing about ranked-choice voting: you don't get a Trump or a Paul LePage. They're nobody's second choice.

This would leave creative independents a shot at the prize ... no longer would a vote for one of these be a "spoiler".

This is a years-long effort, but the pieces are in place ...

Going from a 2016 Nissan Leaf ... to a 2015 from Vroom.com

I am coming to the end of my 2-year lease of the 2016 Nissan Leaf I've been driving since early 2017:

I've enjoyed it well beyond the end of my 12000-miles-per year lease and have been getting a 15 cents per mile mileage charge since I passed 24000 miles ... several months ago. Also I have enough wear on 3 tires (I had to replace one of them after I found a screw in it) that I decided to just buy a certified used one from Vroom.com.

The 'new used car' is much the same as the old one:

Except is has only 2/3 of the range of the 2016: I think it's  a 20 KwH battery versus the 30KwH in the 2016. This is plenty to get back and forth to work (15 miles for me), but on Monday I went from home to work then home (plugging in for 1.5 hours at home) then to Mercer Island to play bridge.

When I was done the car said I had 31 miles left, and since it's only about 21 miles home, I figured, "good to go".  Not so! By the time I got home:

So: I absolutely am going to have to take advantage of the high-speed chargers that I've found over the past 2 years (mostly via Plugshare), on any day I'm doing much more than driving back and forth to work.

My experience with Vroom.com ... was not half bad! I mean: they are a car dealer and they did try to upsell me insurance I didn't need. But they arranged 100% financing with no hassle (over 7% interest since my credit score is down a bit, no surprise) ... They shipped it from Texas for $500 ... the car carrier driver was an immigrant with imperfect English who left the car at a bus stop out on a busy highway rather than the much quieter spot I thought I had picked out.

But overall, 8 out of 10 ... not even close to the worst car-buying experience I've had! On to the supercharger ...

Chipotle:: get 15% off with cash app, win free burritos for feedback ... or win one occasionally being sneaky

Chipotle is my favorite "fast casual" restaurant. Despite their problems of a couple of years ago

... I never had a personal issue with their food causing me illness and I took advantage of their hyperpromotion giving catering to anybody who got 2 burritos per month in 2016:

Lately on their receipts they've been offering a chance for free burritos for a year for giving feedback at their website set up for this purpose.

And one promotion that I take advantage regularly at Chipotle is their deal giving 15% off for using the Square Cash app debit card, which Cash calls a "boost":

Finally, the sneaky method (that Chipotle should fix!) ... the Cash App's debit card has to be preloaded (via the app) for enough money for what you're about to spend it on. A couple of times recently I've goofed and gotten my burrito and left the counter and only then got the ding on my cell phone:

In neither case was there any notice given from the cashier ... if I'd been doing this intentionally I could have been around the corner and out of the place before anybody had a chance of catching me. (Instead in both cases I added money to my cash app and went back to the counter to have them rerun the transaction.)

I'd think some indication would get flashed at the cashier ... Maybe it is and they just are too busy?

Don't know ... I'll settle for the 15%, but others may not!

New York Times (and others!) fumble economics of technology

In a recent article on the zinc-air battery, the New York times says that the breakthrough in cost for this battery is getting it below $100 per kilowatt-hour.

This confusion may come from the NantEnergy website, where there is a typo: they use kWh where they mean kW and journalists apparently including the New York Times, L.A. Times and Associated press all expanded this to kilowatt-hour, which is clearly ridiculous.

The actual average kWh price across the US is 13.5 cents ... and where I live in Washington state, it's more like 9.5 cents.

That point out of the way: if they can really deliver battery storage for $100 per kW, that's terrific; send me 10!

On being a renter after 17 years of home ownership

I've been a renter for most of my adult life. I've always paid the rent regularly and on time and I've never had a serious issue with the property management.

But recently we sold the house we had been living in for the past 17 years and rented a palatial estate on 20 acres:

The house was built in 2007. The landlady lives in a smaller apartment over a shop across the street on the same property. She's a reasonable person and we've gotten along fine.

But the property management company who's accepting our large rent checks is something else again.

The initial minor conflict we had was over keeping the yard mowed. This place is at the end of a dead-end street and we didn't see any point in keeping it mowed down to the nubs ... and in fact the landlady said she kept it longer ... but the property manager wanted it mowed down to middle-city standards, which one interpretation of the lease required.

I wrote to this person and got a small compromise on this point and we hired a guy several times to mow the place ending a couple of weeks ago.

But we've also had two maintenance requests and those have both been uniquely unsatisfying:

Us: "our refrigerator's icemaker has stopped making ice. Help please!"

Them: "We don't normally fix icemakers. You could just use ice cube trays." [ We just want rent checks and we don't care about your little problems.]

We instead contacted the nice landlady and she got it fixed for us.

Now one of the garage door openers is having a serious problem ... for starts it was bolted not to the stud but just to the drywall and finally pulled out after these 11 years. We happened to have a handy friend over who  reattached it through a board to the stud. But then the whole thing sagged and you can only now open it with the cord and with difficulty.

I went in and paid the rent yesterday and I got the maintenance request in, and I started getting emails from this manager:

"Considering the door had worked and opened and closed with no problem, are you sure that with the amount of items you have in the garage, you did not somehow bend the brackets? " [It must be your fault, stupid!]

I don't know what's behind this sort of reaction; my wife and I aren't the tidiest people around and this manager seems super-tidy. So maybe the reaction is just against that.

Or maybe it's company policy just to resist all maintenance requests until the renter gives up? I don't know.

But I've been dealing with garage door openers since July 1995 and I think I know what I'm looking at and we didn't "somehow bend the brackets."

But we've had it ... I don't know if there are tons of potential renters out there for this high-priced place; I'd think that since we are regular on time payers we might get a little more help and respect ...

New nonfiction: Two books, one audio

I've been reading some excellent nonfiction lately. For starts:

The author grew up around China Lake, the military installation that grew up after the Second World War. Her story of the culture and background of the installation and of her family was compelling, as was her story of discovering herself as an English professor! Four stars.

Next up: I'm not finished with this one yet, but its chapters are about one lunch break long:

This is the science writer who's a friend of Radiolab, where I first heard the discussion of CRISPR. I expected to find this book fascinating, and so far it's meeting my expectations.

For example, Zimmer's chapter on the discovery of the disease PKU was focused on Pearl S. Buck, whose daughter had the genetic flaw that causes this. Good stuff!

Finally one of my favorite authors, Michael Lewis ... now out with an audio-only look at weather forecasting and its human element:

Why do people die despite hearing a tornado siren? That's just one of the questions that's addressed in this excellent 2-hour Audible audiobook. (Free with your Audible subscription ...)

Enjoy!

No cold for 2.5 years (or more) ... but why?

I've generally been healthy for most of my life, but I used to get a cold maybe once a year:

For some reason, though, I seem to be in a period where I'm not getting any respiratory infections.

I did start getting flu shots regularly in 1997, and I haven't had the flu since. This one is obviously beneficial.

But a couple of changes I've made the last 3-4 years make me wonder:

• I started taking a boatload of magnesium and potassium to control afib, which I found out I had about 18 months ago
• I stopped using almost all shampoo and soap, except on the palms of my hands, in 2014
• I changed to a low-carb diet in 2015 ... 

Maybe one or some combination of these did the trick ... an improvingly healthy gut biome plus plenty of essential minerals. Could be, I guess.

Whatever the reason(s), I'm very grateful!

Bethany McLean: Fracking just borrows money, doesn't really earn any

I've been a fan of Bethany McLean since reading her books on Enron and the financial crisis:

Both are excellent! Today I just read an excerpt in the New York Times of her new book on fracking:

... supposedly the fracking industry has sold to Wall Street and borrowed since 2008 on the idea of fracking riches, but so far it's mostly just an idea ...

See my previous post on this subject ...

I'm still driving a Nissan Leaf and feeling better about this all the time ...

Fabulous hearing aid now available at Costco

I posted last week about a hearing aid that is adjustable via Iphone. I found out this past evening that a bridge friend has one that he got at Costco!

Here's to improved hearing ... at a lower price!

A hearing aid controlled by the iPhone

Hearing aids have been benefitting from smartphone technology for a while now:

I've been reading about this for at least 4 years, including this article in the New York Times on a user's experience ...

I hope this is helpful for anybody suffering with hearing loss!

Open office plans are "as bad as you thought," new study says

The Washington Post just printed this article. Basically it proves the point:

Study shows that those in open office plans spend 73 percent less time in face-to-face communication than those with more privacy in the office. "You don't want to interrupt anybody, so you send an email instead."

It's always been obvious to me ...

Scott Adams on Trump and Reality in general

Scott Adams was an early viewer of Trump as a Master Persuader; this book gives details up through early 2017:

I read this in one sitting ... I've always been a fan of Dilbert, but I especially was interested in Adams' view of Trump as a Master Persuader ...

His story of Hillary supporters' threats during the campaign was also compelling; he also discusses hypnosis and the alternate versions of reality that we all inhabit.

Finally, he's a fan of Robert Cialdini, who apparently was advising Bernie Sanders and then Hillary (too little too late), and I've been a Cialdini fan since I read his first book decades ago:

Adams also has a "blog" which he's relaxed into a sloppy-sounding podcast and is begging for nickels on Patreon ... I would think he could self-fund this as he says in the book he has "fuck you money" and can therefore maintain his independent voice ...

I think both of these books would be of interest to any politician or sales person ...

How I control A-fib

I have a heart condition called Afib that's been there my whole life but only became a problem as I aged.

I found it getting "stuck" for hours and identified the difference in my day the day before: I walked around in the heat without getting as much to drink as I would have normally.

For a while I treated the condition with iced tea and potato chips. (I speculated that this was pretty much Gatorade.) This worked until it didn't ...

I found references to magnesium online and started taking a multi-supplement:

This worked for a while then I added potassium and gradually have been upping the amounts as necessary. I added another multi-factor supplement on advice of this alternative health provider in Issaquah, Mary Jane Mack:

This one has a long list of ingredients also ... I don't know why but this one was helpful in controlling the laxative effect that magnesium can have. It may be something to do with the combination of other ingredients or the particular form of magnesium it contains; I'm not sure.

The manufacturer of this one is making retailers pledge to only sell to people who've come in for an appointment once per year ... but of course, one can order from Amazon without that restriction ...

In general, magnesium citrate and magnesium lactate seem best for not getting my guts too excited.

My current morming regimen:

• 2 Tri-Boron Plus
• 2 99mg Potassium 
• 2 Biocardiozyme forte
• 1 250mg Magnesium

In the evening I take:   

• 2 Tri-Boron Plus
• 2 99mg Potassium
• 2 Biocardiozyme Forte
• 1 133mg Magnesium
• 1 1000mg Vitamin C
• 1 1000iu Vitamin D
• 1 200mcg Selenium

And late evening:

• 1 more 99mg Potassium

I hope this is helpful; post a question in the comments if you want to know anything else.

A self-driving car built from the ground up. Are Tesla and Uber F*cked?

This article in Bloomberg Businessweek on Friday piqued my interest: it's on Zoox, a self-driving car startup that designed and built its car from the ground up to be autonomous, without just bolting on hardware to a standard car.

It's designed without a steering wheel and to look the same from either end so it can go into a parking space one way and out the other way.

The review in the article is effusive on the smoothness of the ride ... the Zoox car prototype even "glided to a stop" ...

The prototypes are named VH1, VH2, etc. ... VH standing for "vaporware horseshit" in a nod to critics of the company.

Interesting times we live in!

Two recent amazing books

I recently finished two books I enjoyed well beyond my expectations. First:

This is the story of Louis Zamperini, a prodigy in track who was likely on track to be the first to break the 4-minute mile until World War II intervened.

The story of the war's influence on Zamperini's life and his survival through unbelievable hardship is a story I'll never forget.

Then I tried one that I've been seeing on the shelf for years but never tried:

This one was published in 1990 and is still on hold at our local library.

I experienced it as an audiobook and it's leapt up to the top of my favorites. I greatly enjoyed Neil Gaiman's American Gods and appreciated the one of Terry Pratchett's that I've tried so far: Raising Steam. 

But this one has everything:

• An angel and a demon as protagonists
• A plot involving the Antichrist
• Fumbling of this plot by a bunch of Satanist nuns that are supposed to be helping it
• A 17th century witch who's left prophecies about the present day

... and much, much more including interesting references (for me) to 1990-era computers ...

Money back if not completely satisfied with this one!