Just One Thing: A personal note (but not a very important one)
For the first time in more than 18 years, starting in a couple of weeks I'll be a home renter rather than a homeowner. It's a weird feeling but (and this might change in two weeks) not as weird as I expected. I'm neutral to negative about real estate prices over the next year or so and I'd be very surprised if prices rose faster than the amount I can earn on my money in the bank. Also, since I'll have the profit from the sale of this home ready to go, we'll be able to move fast on closing on a house if we choose to buy one.
We're going to miss this truly lovely home (most of the loveliness due to the incredibly hard work of my wife.) This garden would certainly be in magazines next year (as my wife's previous gardens were) but now it will be somebody else's beautiful joyful burden. The inside of the house is basically perfect for us as well. I sure will miss having a steam shower (which is GREAT for a radio guy's voice) and I'll miss my SubZero fridge which I always wanted in a kitchen. Small stuff, I know. Anyway, in the meantime, I'll be saving quite a lot of money every month by renting rather than owning and we can get away from the jackass building to our west who is building within 1 inch of his legal limit so he can destroy as much of our view as possible.
Life moves on. A metaphor that just occurred to me is that it's something like a kayaker or rafter on a river. Sometimes the river is slow and calm and you have a good amount of control. And sometimes it's whitewater and you just have to try to survive. Packing and moving is probably in the middle of that range but in terms of stress level it's like whitewater.
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One More Thing: No, West Point, it's not better than Geraldo
The folks at the United States Military Academy at West Point found a "time capsule" from 1828 when moving a statue. With much fanfare and promises that "this will be better than Geraldo" (whose famed opening of Al Capone's vault found nothing but empty space, the "reveal" turned out...pretty much like a small version of Geraldo's.
I'm bummed...I was really excited to see the historical artifacts/treasures in the awesome looking box.
What was in the West Point Kosciuszko time capsule? (timesunion.com)
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Today's Guests
Francesco Bova is an Associate Professor at the Rotman School of Management and lab economist for the Creative Destruction Lab program that provides advice to start ups working with quantum technologies. His research includes quantum economic advantage and the commercial applications of quantum computing. We'll discuss the promise and potential peril of quantum computing, both of which I think are enormous. This conversation was inspired by a brief chat I had with Alfred "Big Al" Williams who is utterly fascinated by the topic.
Francesco Bova - Creative Destruction Lab
Quantum Computing Is Coming. What Can It Do? (hbr.org)
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Taylor Moore is a best-selling thriller author with a character and location setting that are a little outside the norm and that make his novels particularly memorable. His third novel is "Ricochet" and I think you'll enjoy it a lot. It's worth reading the other two first to have a little background info, though it's not absolutely necessary. The release day is today...I love talking to authors on publication day.
Taylor Moore - Author (taylormoorebooks.com)
Ricochet | Taylor Moore (taylormoorebooks.com)
Amazon.com: Ricochet: A Garrett Kohl Novel (Garrett Kohl, 3): 9780063292376: Moore, Taylor: Books
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Ben Cahill is a senior fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He covers oil markets, geopolitics, and macro trends affecting the oil and gas industry. He also leads a research initiative on methane emissions and global gas and analyzes how national oil companies are responding to the energy transition. We'll discuss the politics and the realities of how much oil the US is actually producing during Joe Biden's time of aggressively anti-fossil-fuel rhetoric and what's driving current high oil and gasoline prices.
Oil Market Tightens but China Looms Large (csis.org)
The U.S. is pumping oil faster than ever. Republicans don't care. - POLITICO
We may also touch on this bit of anti-fossil-fuel propaganda masquerading as research: Fossil Fuel Subsidies Surged to Record $7 Trillion (imf.org)
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Other Stuff
The federal judge in Donald Trump's (federal) trial about trying to overturn the 2020 election has set a trial date of March 4, 2024, the say before the critically important "Super Tuesday" of primary elections: Trump’s Super Tuesday Trial Date - WSJ
I get it but I don’t think I’d do it: Americans Are Dropping Their Home Insurance, Claiming the Odds of Disaster Don’t Justify the Cost - WSJ
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These are not just "tough part of town" southside neighborhoods. TV news crew robbed while reporting on Chicago robbery sprees; armed men targeted at least 30 people in about 12 hours - CWB Chicago
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Denver owes MORE money to George Floyd protesters because of the bad behavior (likely caused by poor training and poor leadership) of the Denver Police Department: Denver approves $4.7 million settlement to George Floyd protesters - Axios Denver
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Trials and tribulations for autonomous vehicles aka driverless cars:
Armed with traffic cones, protesters are immobilizing driverless cars | WBUR
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The economics of energy, especially of oil, is complex. (The economics are more interesting than Politico's trolling political headline.) The U.S. is pumping oil faster than ever. Republicans don't care. - POLITICO
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Free foot-longs for everybody! (Just kidding): Subway agrees to be acquired by private equity firm Roark (axios.com)
Background into: Subway's sale process enters endgame (axios.com)
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Of all the annoying things that airlines sometimes do, I think this is the worst. And I'm glad they're facing a big fine. They MUST fine a way to not keep people trapped on hot planes without food or water for hours. It's absolutely unacceptable. DOT fines American Airlines $4 million for tarmac delays - POLITICO
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Don't we deserve better? Biden is 'old,' Trump is 'corrupt': AP-NORC poll has ominous signs for both in possible 2024 rematch | AP News
Well, maybe the fact that these two guys were our choices in 2020 and may be so again in 2024 is definitive proof that we don't deserve better.
This guy was our president...and wants to be again?
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In case you were wondering why Colorado's most important courts, including our State Supreme Court, which just greased the skids for the clearly illegal Prop HH to be on the ballot, are so bad: Colorado's governor fills top judicial nominating commission with Democrats, Democratic donors (coloradosun.com)
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Today's Videos
This doesn't strike me as much as "girl math" as "Democrat math"
No, not everything is an investment. That said, going "above and beyond" can get you more work and at better compensation even if you're a contractor, I expect
Prozac for everyone! Including for the therapy dog!