A personal note
2024 was a remarkable year in a lot of ways, not least of which was political. I won't try to recap the year, or even a week or a day. I just want to say thank you to everyone who reads my daily "blogcasts" (even if you don't read every day) and listens to my semi-professional radio show (even if you don't listen every day) for sharing some of 2024 with me.
It's a privilege to be on an important and historic station like KOA. (Now 850 AM and 94.1 FM, but I still have a spot in my heart for "85 KOA" which it was well before I got into the radio business.)
And I always appreciate the chance to speak with you and interact with you by text and email and share thoughts and ideas and reactions to the world around us.
I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a wonderful New Year, and let's reconvene in 2025.
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Our 2024 Stock Market Contest winner
And the winner is...
Cindy from La Plata, NM guessed 5865 as the closing price for the S&P 500 on Thursday, December 19th and the actual was 5867.08. So she was within 2 points of the actual result. I believe the second-closest was 31 points. The median error among the 195 players was 577 points. The S&P was up 23% from the beginning of the year until yesterday's close. Would have been significantly more without the terrible week we've had so far, but that's how the cookie crumbles!
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Just One Thing: Trump isn't quite as in charge as he thought
UPDATE: The House may vote on a "Plan C" spending bill on Friday morning and it may have passed by the time you see this...or not.
President-elect Donald Trump learned something yesterday: he learned that, despite what he may have thought, members of Congress don’t work for him. Yes, Trump is beloved by the GOP base but still 38 conservative House members voted against a slimmed down but still kinda bad spending bill to keep the government open and Dems weren’t going to help. They’re just popping popcorn. Trump railed against Democrats voting, as he put it, to shut down the government, but he’s the one who killed the prior deal (and I’m happy about that, to be clear) and then supported this one that failed. Trump needs to remember that most House members intend to be in office long after Trump is gone. In a sense he’s already a lame duck. A very powerful one, to be sure, but not infinitely so.
His demand: Trump demands GOP unity around new spending plan
And then this happened: House rejects Trump-backed spending deal, throwing Congress into limbo on eve of shutdown
Hell no: Jeffries pulls off a pre-Trump power play: "Hakeem's being strong"
Elon has a lot to learn about politics:
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Today's Guests
Dan Greenberg is general counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. We're going to talk about a case that I think is interesting and important. A lower court ruled for Dan's side over the summer. I believe an appeal by the government is underway right now. Let's hope the government get's crushed. It's about the freedom to distill alcohol at home for your own use.
Dan Greenberg - Competitive Enterprise Institute
Federal Court Recognizes Limits to Federal Power Over At-Home Distilling | The Federalist Society
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We end the year with the show's most frequent guest, the awesome Paul Beale, professor of physics at CU Boulder.
Paul Beale | Physics | University of Colorado Boulder
Some very easy-to-understand topics include:
Time:
Frequency ratio of the 229mTh nuclear isomeric transition and the 87Sr atomic clock
A clock with 8×10−19 systematic uncertainty
Cosmology and astrophysics:
DESI 2024 VII: Cosmological Constraints from the Full-Shape Modeling of Clustering Measurements
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Other Stuff
Looking back on 2024: 24 Things That Happened for the First Time This Year - The New York Times
Interesting international perspective: Top 10 major events that shook the world in 2024
A LOT of stories here: 2024’s Biggest News Stories, From Wars to the Election to AI, as Told by WSJ
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An annoyance for many shoppers, especially considering what a huge part of Christmas shopping is done on Amazon: Amazon faces strike as workers demand labor agreement | AP News
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I want to see these but I don't think I want to own one: LA Zoo hatches first-ever perentie lizards, one of largest lizard species in the world | AP News
(see video below)
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Upholding a previous ruling, a judge ordered Enel, a big wind power company, to remove its wind farm from land belonging to the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. It's an interesting story. The short version: Enel leased surface rights to put up the wind farm but did not lease sub-surface mineral rights. So when they started blasting big craters and crushing limestone for construction/installation of turbine towers, they were doing so without that right. They refused to secure a minerals lease and a judge ruled (and just reaffirmed the ruling this week) that the company has committed trespass and continues to do so. While the tribe didn't get a large monetary award, Enel is required to pay the legal bills for the federal government (a plaintiff against Enel after Enel ignored a judge's ruling for them to stop when the tribe was the plaintiff) and the tribe which, after 10 years of litigation, is estimated around $30 million. Plus another roughly $260 million in costs to remove the wind farm.
So much for Enel (based on Rome) claims of “continuous harmonization with environmental, social and governance principles.”
As Robert Bryce put it: Osages Win Again,Judge Orders Ejectment Of 84 Wind Turbines
(A)n order to remove 84 wind turbines— by a federal judge, no less— is nothing short of gobsmacking. It is a colossal black eye for the wind industry, which has collected tens of billions of dollars in federal tax credits by claiming its landscape-blighting, bird-and-bat-killing, property-value-destroying turbines are an essential part of the effort to avert catastrophic climate change.
Stuff about Stonehenge: Britain's Stonehenge is yet again a source of fascination ahead of the winter solstice | AP News
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I shared the story of the Pelicot trial that gripped France and resulted in the conviction of 51 men...all for raping the same woman, and the ring-leader was her husband. One thing I didn't know was how the husband was caught. A couple of listeners knew the story...here it is: What led to Dominique Pelicot’s horrific crimes being uncovered? | The Independent
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Kylie Kelce (wife of Jason) has a new-ish podcast that, for now, is ahead of Joe Rogan on Apple's podcasting chart: Why Kylie Kelce’s Podcast, ‘Not Gonna Lie,’ Is a Breakout Hit - The New York Times
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Some things I didn't get to earlier this week:
This has been going on for four years, not just the last year, and the government kept it hidden from the public. This must never happen again, regardless of partisan considerations. How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Charge - WSJ
Chasing the green new dream is incredibly expensive: Electric grid that can take a surge of EVs, heat pumps will cost $5B
Offered without comment: Doctors reveal what happens to the human body when you don't have sex or masturbate for months | Daily Mail Online
Teens and young adults, warn your elders about online scams! 73-year-old woman scammed out of thousands of dollars by person posing as MSNBC host
I have to try this: Dyer's Burgers And Their Century Old Grease Are A Thing Of Memphis Legend
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It would be remarkable if scientists can make these transplants durable, i.e. that the recipient is expected to live roughly the same lifespan as someone who received a human transplant: Tired of long organ waitlists, these patients are hopeful for a pig organ transplant | AP News
Interesting economic story: Axios: Don't blame inflation for the price of new cars
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That's some really bad luck: Accused murderer caught by police after Google Maps image showed him putting a body in car trunk
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What counts for entrepreneurship in Russia: Russian Entrepreneurs Sell ‘Snowman Arms’ Online
Today's Videos
I've seen people spin pens like this
A short video about the perentie lizards mentioned above
The only reason I'm sharing this with you is because Dragon told me he laughed a lot at it
Vanuatu earthquake
Happy Hanukkah!