Things Change--Biden and Demographics

 

This is the president signing an executive order on customer service. Just a semi-routine ceremony, but I thought the demographics of the attendees were interesting, especially in contrast with the prior administration.

Thanks to Republicans

 Though I may never have voted for a Republican, I think we should acknowledge the principled Republicans who did the right thing--VP Pence for resisting the former guy's pressure and his mob; the representatives and senators who voted to accept the state results on Jan 6; and most of all the mostly Republican administrators of elections in WI, PA, GA, NV and AZ who affirmed the counts.

Vietnam Photos--Street Scene

 This would be another photo from somewhere in Saigon.

Suicides and War

This fact was noted in one of the newspapers but I found this at the USO site. 

In 2021, research found that 30,177 active duty personnel and veterans who served in the military after 9/11 have died by suicide - compared to the 7,057 service members killed in combat in those same 20 years. That is, military suicide rates are four times higher than deaths that occurred during military operations.

Hand Milking

 A while back I ran across a reference to "hand milking", which turned out to what dad would have called "machine milking".  Now the distinction is whether it's a robot putting the teat cups onto the cows or whether it's a human.

I was reminded of this by a Newshour piece on the advance of robots in dairying. 

Inflation Strikes Pizza

 My wife and I order the occasional pizza from Dominos.  For years our usual order was about $17 plus tip.  These days it's up to $31.  Part of that is the inclusion of a delivery charge, part is a more generous tip.  I suspect not only are the ingredients a bit more costly, but salaries for the help are up and management has been scared by the ups and downs of operating through the pandemic, thus becoming more cautious.  And the reality is that demand likely has stayed strong because of the pandemic. 

Rules of the Road in Space

 We've seen reports that the International Space Station has had to maneuver to reduce the chances of being hit by debris.  That's pretty straightforward--ISS can maneuver, the debris can't.  

What happens if ISS  and one of Elon Musk's satellites are on a collision course, or any set of two active satellites, each of which can maneuver?  (My guess is that such a collision is less likely than the debris/satellite scenario, but it must be possible.) If both maneuver there's the possibility they will increase the likelihood of a collision. On the sea, or on the road we have well-established conventions to minimize collisions. But in space? 

The Value of Consistency: Civilian Lawsuits

 Reading "Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism". 

I may write more about it, but I want to note that "civilian lawsuits" were proposed by Ralph Nader and his followers to enforce stronger standards for clean air and water.

Can we see this delegation of authority to sue as paving the way for the Texas SB 8 legislation on abortion?  Is there a difference in them? 

Social Security Administration and FSA

Washington Post yesterday had an article on the difficulties caused by SSA's switch to remote service.  The agency has over 1200 field offices. 

I'd love to see a comparison of SSA and FSA operations during the pandemic.  FSA would, I think, come out better, mostly because farmers have a history of interacting with their local office because farm programs are annual while usually people only need SSA once.  That may be oversimplification, but that's my guess.

But I'd also expect other differences, partly due to the county committee structure, partly the clientele, partly different histories and norms. 

SSA does have unions, as opposed to the NASCOE and farm loan groups.  They also have at least one Facebook group, as with FSA restricted to active and retired employees.

Covid and William Goodman

 William Goodman said: "in Hollywood no body knows anything" about what makes for a hit movie.

One lesson from covid is the limitations of knowledge, of expertise.  Over 2 years we've seen a lot of predictions, some were accurate within their frame, some were correct at the general level (i.e., the virus would mutate and the mutations would have different characteristics), but all had trouble tracking the changes over time.  

Another lesson is how vulnerable we the public are to misinformation.