Free EV charging at some Walgreens and maybe elsewhere

I was in Covington WA the last couple of weeks and saw this sign:

I tried plugging in my 2015 Nissan Leaf while I was sitting nearby at Jimmy John's ... and it worked!

It's a level 2 charger, not the faster CHAdeMO type that my car handles, but much better than nothing!

Politics roundup

Three items from recent news and one from further back:

Ranked choice voting in NYC

Ranked choice was on the ballot in New York City in the recent election and won with 73% approval!

Trump fails boosting Republicans in Red States

Kentucky: Matt Bevin concedes to his Democratic opponent Andy Beshear.

Lousiana: Democrat John Bel Edwards wins reelection ...

In both cases, Trump campaigned vigorously for the losing Republican.

Tee hee!

Comey probably cost Hillary Clinton the election

538's article came out in 2017, but I just found it recently via the New York Times ... History turns on events like this ... what would 2020 look like if we did have President Hillary? The mind boggles ...

Rats taught to drive teensy rat cars!

Here's the video evidence:


Will this guy win the Indy 500 one year?

Potassium calms the racing heart!

As I've mentioned here before, I have afib and control it with a boatload of supplements, potassium being notable among these.

My Lovely Wife likes dessert, including the wonderful ones that she makes:

But she's been complaining recently after having sugary desserts that her heart was racing, and I remember this clickbait I experienced:

Here’s how many avocados it would take to kill you

The basic idea is that avocados have potassium, and too much potassium slows down your heart until it stops.

That made me remember my wife's complaint, and after a nice dinner out on Saturday night with Creme Brulee for dessert, I suggested that she try potassium to make sure her heart didn't go off.

It worked! Hope this is helpful for some of you that have been avoiding sweets because of this effect ...

Enjoy!

Iodine deficiency a cause of breast cancer?

My Lovely Wife gets all kind of books, including one of hers that I read recently:

I found it fascinating, for a few reasons:

• I never thought of iodine as something humans need internally, just as that pink stuff that used to get painted on wounds, but even that is supposed to be a bad idea
• But according to this book, we need iodine not just in the "iodized salt" amount to prevent goiter
• In fact, iodine was baked into bread (in the form potassium iodate) until around 1970 such that one slice was enough for humans ... but some sketchy research published in the 70's that implied (without any proof whatsoever) that iodine was dangerous to human health ... and iodine was removed from bread in favor of bromine ...

Which binds to the same receptors and blocks iodine uptake by the body and seems to be implied in the rise of breast cancer.

Unfortunately the word hasn't gotten around to the Indians:

Potassium bromate and iodate: Why the presence of these chemicals in bread can harm you

From "firstpost" in India ...

I found one other note in the book of personal interest: there appears to be some association with Afib (which I have) and iodine deficiency, so I started taking:

... in addition to my potassium and magnesium heavy regimen ...

Summer of Space on my local PBS station ... rewarding and surprising

PBS and other broadcast organizations have been running a lot of space-related content in recognition of Apollo 11's 50th anniversary this last month.

The first one of these I watched was the documentary movie Apollo 11, which was terrific:


Then, PBS showed us a tour of the solar system and somewhat beyond:

And I found Wikipedia entries for a lot of the Apollo astronauts, and they're still alive:

• Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), age 89
• Frank Borman (Apollo 8), age 91
• Jim Lovell (Apollo 8 and 13), age 91
• William Anders (Apollo 8), age 85
• Michael Collins (Apollo 11), age 88
• Fred Haise (Apollo 13), age 85
• Thomas P. Stafford (Apollo 9), age 88
• Ken Mattingly (Apollo 16), age 83

And Neil Armstrong might still be here if not for an allegedly botched medical procedure that was said to have shortened his life. Overall quite a long-lived crew for a bunch of test pilot/astronauts, including the 3 who survived Apollo 13!

Most recently I watched an episode of the American Experience Chasing the Moon. It was also excellent, including recounting the darkest moment of the Apollo program, the Apollo 1 fire.

I'm not sure what's next (in real life or on video!) but this summer has certainly been fun ...

Solar cheaper than oil/gas ... since 2016!

Much to my surprise ... it turns out that oil and gas have been more expensive than
solar power ... since 2016!

Take a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmyrbKBZ6SU

This implies a trade, for that, see my other blog.

Happy solar!