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!

Miscellany: Apollo 11 computer crash, Malcolm Gladwell deconstructing law school admissions ... and maggots

Today is the day 50 years ago that the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon ... there have been a boatload of articles and specials commemorating their achievement, but as a computer guy I found a Wired article especially interesting ...

During the final approach to the moon's surface, the guidance computer "crashed" several times, giving just warning codes to Buzz Aldrin, the pilot. It finally turned out that the software was too busy with other activities like changing the thrusters minutely to be able to get the right display codes to Aldrin ...

Amazing that the thing worked at all, running in a tiny memory space that they had available ...

As well as a superbly performing technical organization, NASA probably had another type of resource available:

But how do lawyers get into law school, and does law school prepare them for the profession?

Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast has been consistently excellent and fascinating, especially these two:

http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/31-puzzle-rush

http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/32-the-tortoise-and-the-hare


From lawyers, finally, we come to ...

Yes, maggots ... an important source of food (for humans!) for the future, according to this company ...

Yummm! :-)

Apple News destruction of Texture leads me to a free alternative

I was pitched by Amazon about 18 months ago to try this digital Magazine app Texture:

I tried it an it was worthwhile ... $10 per month for digital magazine copies of several magazines that I was getting already at a significantly higher price for the print version.

Unfortunately, Apple bought Texture and killed it in favor of its own "Apple News +"

I didn't like it half as well; not only did it not keep some of the magazines I was getting from Texture, its interface was just lots of individual stories that you can read individually.

I like getting an issue of a magazine or newspaper so I can know when I'm DONE!

I happened to be in one of our fabulous local King County Libraries and saw an ad for another app called RBDigital with magazines:

I cancelled Apple News + and am just using this now. It's not perfect: the interface is a little clunky and not as nice as Texture's ... but it's free.

It's not a perfect replacement; it doesn't carry some magazines that Texture did, notably the Atlantic Monthly. But it carries some magazines that Texture didn't, too:

It doesn't have the 'modern interface' that Texture and Conde Nast promote: navigation horizontal, stories vertical. Instead it's just copies closely turning a print magazine page.

This OK with me, especially at this price point!

Happy reading ...

My new iced tea setup

I've been an aficionado of iced tea for decades ... For making tea at home I've mostly been using this thing:

And since I've had some extended family members in mooching the tea supply I've been supplementing with these:

Both of these taste fine ... I like moderately sweet tea from my youth in the south, I guess.

But the Mr. Coffee plastic tea makers over time can pick up whatever kind of tea or other stuff you brew in them and just don't taste the same after a couple of years.

I had noticed in the restaurant iced tea that I liked best that this pattern held: metal tea makers/pots were fine, plastic ones that had been there for who knows how long, not so good.

We moved recently and I googled around for 'metal tea maker' and came up with this:

It works with a half-gallon wide-mouth mason jar:

And finally I got a spout lid:

Total cost for this setup was around $20 ... but should last forever without getting plastic polluted. (Maybe I'll have to replace the lid in 10 years ...) Also no electricity! Takes maybe 12 hours to brew sitting on the counter ... I have two of these and just swap them out and sweeten the incoming one and put the tube with new tea in the outgoing one.

I tried loose leaf tea for starts, but tea bags work just as well and are a sight easier to clean up.

Happy iced tea drinking to you ... I thought this was a revelation after 20 years of Mr. Coffee!

I've been neglecting superstar SF author Daniel Suarez ...

I've enjoyed everything Daniel Suarez has published the last few years, but his latest one may be the best yet:

Flamboyant billionaire Nathan Joyce recruits a bunch of adventurers and scientists to try out for his mission to mine asteroids ... The description of the tryouts and training and the mission itself with all its complications is just fascinatingly well done and not to be missed.

Five stars: money back if not completely satisfied on this one.

The first two I experienced of Suarez was this duology:

These two concern rich and recently deceased game developer Matthew Sobel, who's apparently left a complex computer-game type set of deadly traps for former employees and law enforcement personnel.

One of these, Detective Sargent Pete Seabeck, is targeted for especially horrifying treatment ...

The second book continues the story with a critique of modern society, and the way Suarez weaves the whole thing together I thought was just brilliant.

Five stars for both of these, too, but warning as they both contain scenes of extreme violence ... I'm actually going back to replay the audiobook of Daemon after finishing Delta-V this past week.

More on Ranked Choice Voting: Results from Maine 2018 and an educational video series

Ranked Choice Voting update:

Sore Loser Loses Again': Federal Judge Rejects GOP Lawsuit, Defends Mainers' Right to Ranked Choice Voting

The Republican got a few more votes than the Democrat, but not a majority. So ranked-choice voting kicked in and the two minor parties' voters second choices were overwhelmingly for the Democrat and he won.

The Republican then sued, to no avail. Full story if you want it ...

On to the best educational series I've seen: Politics in the Animal Kingdom by C. G. P. Grey ... Enjoy!