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!