JustOneMinute

Saturday Afternoon

Here we go again!

Meanwhile, Back At Smith College

The NY Times cover the clash of an elite college mindset about race and racism with the ordinary lives of working class Joes. And Janes.

We've only seen the setup a million times:

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — In midsummer of 2018, Oumou Kanoute, a Black student at Smith College, recounted a distressing American tale: She was eating lunch in a dorm lounge when a janitor and a campus police officer walked over and asked her what she was doing there.

The officer, who could have been carrying a “lethal weapon,” left her near “meltdown,” Ms. Kanoute wrote on Facebook, saying that this encounter continued a yearlong pattern of harassment at Smith.

“All I did was be Black,” Ms. Kanoute wrote. “It’s outrageous that some people question my being at Smith College, and my existence overall as a woman of color.”

Folks who overcome their "Here we go again" instinct and press on to the fifth paragraph hit the plot twist:

The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN picked up the story of a young female student harassed by white workers. The American Civil Liberties Union, which took the student’s case, said she was profiled for “eating while Black.”

Less attention was paid three months later when a law firm hired by Smith College to investigate the episode found no persuasive evidence of bias. Ms. Kanoute was determined to have eaten in a deserted dorm that had been closed for the summer; the janitor had been encouraged to notify security if he saw unauthorized people there. The officer, like all campus police, was unarmed.

Smith College officials emphasized “reconciliation and healing” after the incident. In the months to come they announced a raft of anti-bias training for all staff, a revamped and more sensitive campus police force and the creation of dormitories — as demanded by Ms. Kanoute and her A.C.L.U. lawyer — set aside for Black students and other students of color.

But they did not offer any public apology or amends to the workers whose lives were gravely disrupted by the student’s accusation.

This is a tale of how race, class and power collided at the elite 145-year-old liberal arts college, where tuition, room and board top $78,000 a year and where the employees who keep the school running often come from working-class enclaves beyond the school’s elegant wrought iron gates. The story highlights the tensions between a student’s deeply felt sense of personal truth and facts that are at odds with it.

The Smith administrators seems to be facing the same problem opportunity as whomever is trying to mind the NY Times sand box newsroom.

Monday Morning

Shoveling out and pressing on!

R.I.P Rush

Rush Limbaugh has passed away, and its complicated.

I am somewhere in the space sketched by Jonah Goldberg, Peggy Noonan and David French.

I Guess You Can Mess With Texas

Power failure! Mother Nature 1,Texas 0.

Long term investment in winterization prep seems to be the problem.

Its one thing when an ice storm hits Atlanta and we all learn they have less salt and plows on hand then Buffalo.

But Texas is going to have to dial it up after this. The last Epic Fail was 2011 and there have been others.

By Eerie Coincidence, geothermal power was in the news yesterday:

Chevron and BP back renewable start-up focused on geothermal energy

When last I waxed enthusiastic on geothermal in 2009 there were earthquake issues causing PR problems.

This startup, Eavor Technologies, has an ingenious closed loop system that sidesteps all of that. Basically, they leverage drilling technigues developed by the frackers to lay pipe deep underground with flow like a radiator. Water gets heated underground, rises up the intake pipe, passes heat to a heat exchanger which powers a turbine, and, having been cooled, flows down the, well, down pipe.

David Roberts, formerly of Vox, ran an extensive overview last fall. The eye-catching stat:

The ARPA-E project AltaRock Energy estimates that “just 0.1% of the heat content of Earth could supply humanity’s total energy needs for 2 million years.” 

Clean, green baseload power potentially available anywhere. A BFD.

Also investing: The Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund backed by Gates, Bezos, and wealthy investors who can toss the odd billion at wild tech which may never pay off.

Tine will tell, and maybe not that much time. Deeper drills are hotter, and potentially cheaper than any other baseload power system. YES, including natural gas plants. We need advances in materials technology. On the other hand, this looks more do-able than nuclear fusion the other Eternal Product of Tomorrow.

I Guess You Can Mess With Texas

Power failure! Mother Nature 1,Texas 0.

Long term investment in winterization prep seems to be the problem.

Its one thing when an ice storm hits Atlanta and we all learn they have less salt and plows on hand then Buffalo.

But Texas is going to have to dial it up after this. The last Epic Fail was 2011 and there have been others.

By Eerie Coincidence, geothermal power was in the news yesterday:

Chevron and BP back renewable start-up focused on geothermal energy

When last I waxed enthusiastic on geothermal in 2009 there were earthquake issues causing PR problems.

This startup, Eavor Technologies, has an ingenious closed loop system that sidesteps all of that. Basically, they leverage drilling technigues developed by the frackers to lay pipe deep underground with flow like a radiator. Water gets heated underground, rises up the intake pipe, passes heat to a heat exchanger which powers a turbine, and, having been cooled, flows down the, well, down pipe.

David Roberts, formerly of Vox, ran an extensive overview last fall. The eye-catching stat:

The ARPA-E project AltaRock Energy estimates that “just 0.1% of the heat content of Earth could supply humanity’s total energy needs for 2 million years.” 

Clean, green baseload power potentially available anywhere. A BFD.

Also investing: The Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund backed by Gates, Bezos, and wealthy investors who can toss the odd billion at wild tech which may never pay off.

Tine will tell, and maybe not that much time. Deeper drills are hotter, and potentially cheaper than any other baseload power system. YES, including natural gas plants. We need advances in materials technology. On the other hand, this looks more do-able than nuclear fusion the other Eternal Product of Tomorrow.

Presidents Day

Will there ever be a Biden Day? A Trump Day? Doubtful. Reagan and FDR have a shot though.

Let's Put Cuomo In A Nursing Home

The Times uses the phrase "cover-up" in their web hed on the latest in the Cuomo cover-up.

 

I guess they ran out of space on the front page, however, where the story was placed below the fold:

"Cuomo Faces New Scrutiny Of Death Data"

Whatever. Their long journey back to reality may have begun. And we'll see if "Granny died and we lied because Trump" really cuts it as an excuse.

 

 

Call Witnesses

This CNN bombshell on a McCarthy-Trump shouting match during the Capitol riots is shocking:

Washington (CNN)In an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the Capitol was under attack, then-President Donald Trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy did.

"Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are," Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed on the call afterward by McCarthy.

McCarthy insisted that the rioters were Trump's supporters and begged Trump to call them off.

Trump's comment set off what Republican lawmakers familiar with the call described as a shouting match between the two men. A furious McCarthy told the then-President the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and asked Trump, "Who the f--k do you think you are talking to?" according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call.

 

McCarthy's "Who the f--k do you think you're talking to?" was no doubt rhetorical. But since McCarthy voted early the next morning to overturn the election and later voted against impeachment, I'd guess Trump thought he was talking to his cabana boy.

Another Day At The Trial

Apparently there is some must-see video I have yet to see. Senators running, or anyway jogging, for their lives. Who knows?

Impeachment II

Reruns.

Republicans will vote to acquit by relying on the defensible but unconvincing argument that a trial of an out-of-office President is not Constitutional.

Is anyone expecting any surprises? Ok, that's why they are called surprises. But I don't see any coming.

As An Inspiration To Oldtimers Everywhere

How about those TB Buccaneers?!?

The Truth Is Out There!

In the course of contemplating the Supreme Court ruling which dialed back the restrictions on California churches I was wondering where "science" came out on the George Floyd protests.

SO: Protests did not effect on the level/rate of infection. Google data shows many other people were scared into staying home, so a net win. Its shown here as a working paper. IDK if it was ever published but it got press at the time.

Or, protests did have an effect on infections levels and/or rates of growth. Actually published in the Oxford Journal of Health.

Baffling.

Go, TB12.

Super Weekend!

The minimum wage boost to $15/hour seems dead for now. But mostly dead is partly alive, so don't turn your back on this one. Bad ideas that poll well are a cornerstone of our political system.