Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

When we show up, we win.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: (White) Housekeeping

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  1. 1.

    MagdaInBlack

    Regarding the current construction that was put off because Melania did not wish to ” disrupt the aesthetics.” > I notice she wasn’t worried about the “aesthetics’ of razor wire and barricades

    Eta: I dont like being first

  4. 4.

    Baud

    For Anne Laurie.

    Crypto artists have been building a rebellious, underground community of outsiders for years. Now they’re making a living selling NFTs.

  5. 5.

    Spanky

    Regarding economic recovery, the whole WaPo article is worth the read, although it’s mostly a reinforcement of what you would logically expect to follow a global upheaval.

     

    There is also growing evidence — both anecdotal and in surveys — that a lot of people want to do something different with their lives than they did before the pandemic. The coronavirus outbreak has had a dramatic psychological effect on workers, and people are reassessing what they want to do and how they want to work, whether in an office, at home or some hybrid combination.

    A lot of the article focuses on service employees, who in a lot of cases conclude “fuck that noise”. A not insignificant reason for staff shortages in food service.

  6. 6.

    Nicole

    Since it’s an open thread and for once I’m not joining 75+ comments in-

    I wanted to share a link to a column on Stereogum:  The Number Ones.  Tom Breihan writes an entry on (and rates) every single Billboard #1 song, starting in 1958 and going (eventually) through to the present (he’s in 1988 now; the column’s existed for 3 years so far).  It’s hilarious, filled with interesting facts about the songs and even when I disagree with the score he gives, I respect his line of thinking for why.  Plus, props to a guy willing to say out loud that “All You Need Is Love” really isn’t a good song.  It’s a really fun rabbit hole to dive down into.

  11. 11.

    germy

    I've always thought that the Fayum mummy portraits are some of the most intimate and striking pieces of ancient art. Two thousand years old, and we can almost perfectly envision what this woman looked like. Incredible. https://t.co/tujq3Y6O3o

    — Andy Mickelson (@AncientBaldGuy) May 7, 2021

  13. 13.

    germy

    Roman gold glass medallion portrait of a man wearing a cloak fastened by a fibula brooch. The striking portrait is expertly rendered in gold leaf, fused between layers of glass. An inscription reads 'EVSEBI ANIMA DVLCIS' – "Eusebius, sweet soul." 3rd century AD, Vatican Museums pic.twitter.com/Ga4fhA0PeL

    — Gareth Harney (@OptimoPrincipi) May 5, 2021

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    YMMV (no pun intended), however many of this guy’s automotive videos provide fun, short respites of low key humor overlaid on history.

    One senses he’s feeling his way to developing a formula in the earliest ones; they do improve in entertainment quotient over time.

  17. 17.

    leeleeFL

    @Spanky: Fuck that Noise is a mantra I say and hear EVERY DAY!  MY co-workers are pretty much done with the status quo.  Not sure what happens next.

  20. 20.

    Frank Wilhoit

    Biden’s use of the word “still” is a little dissonant.  It connotes an expectation that so much more could have been done in ~~100 days that it is now necessary to plead for patience.  Surely he is not talking to the Gotcha Press…?  In any case he should not be using Twitter (nor should anyone), because it has been discredited by its use by Trump and because the subtext of its design is that everything is tl;dr, which is a very big part of The Problem.

  21. 21.

    germy

    ATTENTION businesses: if I see a sign like this I will immediately interpret it to mean "we give our employees shit wages and working conditions and refuse to adapt our business model to reality," and I will walk right out the door without giving you my money. https://t.co/2Q2UcF6GIB

    — Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) May 8, 2021

    I keep seeing “People just don’t wanna work!” stories on my local TV news. They alternate between business owner stories and landlord stories. “People don’t wanna pay rent!”

    They never interview workers or tenants.

  22. 22.

    H.E.Wolf

    The CNN.com article was interesting. I was distracted midway through by wondering what word the writers were looking for, when they – or autocorrect – used “ostensibly” in its place.

    Biden has had to motorcade approximately two minutes from the White House to the Ellipse to depart and arrive, where before he could ostensibly walk out his back door a few hundred yards and board his private transport.

    Sensibly? Ostentatiously? Ordinarily? Simply?

    All I know is that “ostensibly” is a weird choice in that sentence. :)

  23. 23.

    Kay

    Jen Fifield
    @JenAFifield
    ·14h
    BREAKING: The Arizona election auditors have “indefinitely deferred” the voter canvassing (door to door/calls) portion of the audit.
    Claim that auditors made the decision weeks ago, before DOJ letter worried about voter intimidation.

    Just a reminder- no one in the United States can be made to comply with an interrogation by Donald Trump’s sleazy contractor or the low quality employees of the contractor. They’re deranged cult members so ordering them off your property is a sensible decision. If they won’t go stay inside and call the police.

  24. 24.

    debbie

    @germy:

    I almost jumped through the television screen last night to throttle a local Republican “activist” condemning Biden’s giveaways to workers as promoting laziness. He barely caught himself from adding “and shiftless.”

  25. 25.

    MagdaInBlack

    @germy: And I will be right behind Mr. Chapman.

    This whole bs ” people don’t want to work” from these employers (mine included) just makes my head explode.

  26. 26.

    germy

    @debbie:

    They admitted it was an activist?  Usually they try to pass off these professional republicans as just regular folks with no connection to politics.

  29. 29.

    germy

    U.S. Chamber of Commerce blames weak jobs report on enhanced unemployment benefit, kicks off lobbying effort

    “One step policymakers should take now is ending the $300 weekly supplemental unemployment benefit,” the group said. https://t.co/TSrCABG9CB

    — CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) May 7, 2021

    Fun fact: the US Chamber of Commerce is a secretive business lobby that supported a $3M effort to primary me out of office last year bc I stand up to Wall Street. (They lost ?) Wal-mart was outed as a secret client.

    If UI > wages, the solution is to actually pay a living wage. https://t.co/04C2pCEZsY

    — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 7, 2021

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    @H.E.Wolf

    It’s floofy padding. Communication would be just as, if not more clear by jettisoning any adverb, thusly:

    where before he could walk out his back door a few hundred yards and board his private transport.

    Were I the copy editor, would also blue pencil both uses of “his,” among other alterations –

    whereas before he’d leave by the back door and walk a few hundred yards to the presidential transport.

  32. 32.

    The Thin Black Duke

    I hope Biden hangs tough on the unemployment extension, because the Chamber of Commerce recommended recently that the payments be terminated due to the difficulties employers are having in getting people back to the workplace. Paying their employees more money is never mentioned as an option, oddly enough.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    @germy:

    It’s a weekly program on the local PBS station, a local roundtable usually composted of two reporters and two people labeled “activists”; this guy runs Ohio Right to Life. I got all kinds of suggested labels, but I know they’d never be accepted.

  36. 36.

    Nicole

    Funny how no one ever calls the hereditary wealthy lazy, even though lots of them don’t work, either.  And just as much of their money (more, really) is due to government (favorable tax rates are just as much a handout).

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    @germy

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is anything but a secretive lobbying organization.

    Many years ago was visited frequently by their representatives to try to convince me to sign up my business. Finally got them to stop by emphatically stating I might – might – consider it when they ceased using the term “death tax” in their push to quash changes to estate tax law.

  40. 40.

    WereBear

    I understand office work has a similar earthquake going on: we’ve always known it’s ridiculous to spend hours commuting just so the boss can see your butt in a chair, but in a climate crisis, it’s irresponsible and adds tremendously to the problem we’re trying to solve.

  41. 41.

    Kristine

    @debbie:

    local roundtable usually composted of two reporters and two people labeled “activists”;

    Was ‘composted’ a purpose pitch or spellwrecker? Funny either way.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    @germy:

    Another Fun Fact: If the jobs report was really good, the Chamber would also argue that that’s a reason to curtail unemployment benefits.

  47. 47.

    Geminid

    @NotMax: Advances in materials science and engineering, like those detailed in the BBC article, are exciting components of the clean energy transition. I like googling “clean power, “wind power,” “energy storage,” etc. from time to time, and this encourages my belief that we can reach the IPCC goal of a carbon neutral world by 2050, and hopefully overshoot it. The technological base for the transition is already here, and further improvements are on the way.

  48. 48.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @MattF:

    I wouldn’t be surprised if the authors already knew and put it in as a dog whistle.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    If only $300 a week in unemployment insurance is enough to prevent your employees from coming back to work, that says a lot more about your wages than it does about unemployment benefits.

    Pay your employees enough to live.

    — Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) May 7, 2021

  52. 52.

    Suzanne

    @Spanky: 

    There is also growing evidence — both anecdotal and in surveys — that a lot of people want to do something different with their lives than they did before the pandemic.

    Even though I am getting more hours of sleep, I am psychologically weary to a profound degree. I don’t want to change careers, but I find myself still living elevated by fear.

  55. 55.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kay:

    The Arizona election auditors have “indefinitely deferred” the voter canvassing (door to door/calls) portion of the audit.

    Haha, nice way of putting that.

    I wonder if the Rethuglicans caught wind of how much bullshit this “audit”/bullshit is and wondered “What are Arizona’s stand-your-ground laws?”

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    And I see MattF got there beforehand. His comment was not yet on the page when I went searching for YouTube video.

  58. 58.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Michael Tracey

    @mtracey

    ·
    1h

    I think when most GOP voters say the 2020 election was rigged, they’re referring to the general sense that Trump was ill-treated over the course of his presidency (Russiagate, impeachment, media bias, censorship, etc.) more so than to any specific claims of literal election fraud

    746

    212

    873

    Tim Bishop

    @timbishop4000

    Replying to
    @mtracey

    If there was a Hall of Fame of stupid fucking tweets, this tweet would be its logo. Seriously, this may be stupider than anything Donald Trump or Gateway Pundit or Louis Gohmert or Glenn Greenwald has ever tweeted. Congrats.

    8:55 AM · May 8, 2021·Twitter Web App

  59. 59.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Baud: Funny how the same people who don’t want workers to get unemployment assistance, also object to raising the minimum wage.  Almost like they don’t give a shit about workers at all…

    Also, I thought “the market sets” the price, but I guess that doesn’t apply to labor.

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    @MattF

    Further background on the status of the Texas bill, now set to proceed to conference committee, which conducts its business outside of public view, including the capability to re-insert stricken sections.

  67. 67.

    sab

    One thing that strikes me about the modern Republican Party is how secretive they are. All these decisions made in closed rooms by unnamed people.

    Ohio Republican Party Central Committee votes to censure Anthony Gonzalez. That committee is actual people, but who are they? If I was a Gonzalez constituent I would want to know.

    Back when my mother was alive and Republican our county Republican party was having a civil war between the old line Republicans and the slimeballs. She couldn’t even find out at the precinct committeeperson level which candidate was on which side, because the slimeballs had everyone so intimidated. Don’t cross us or you will be an outsider forever.

    It is so corrupting.

    With Democrats, Nina Turner was a complete traitor to the Hillary campaign when she was on the Democratic State Committee, but at least we knew what she was up to, so moving ahead as voters we can decide. Republicans don’t have that option and yet they don’t seem to care.

  69. 69.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    Its time to take a hard look at the excessively broad IP protections granted in Europe, North America and ANZ. They now serve primarily to inhibit advancement and development, worsening the human condition.

  70. 70.

    mrmoshpotato

    @sab:

    One thing that strikes me about the modern Republican Party is how secretive they are. All these decisions made in closed rooms by unnamed people. 

    When you know your “policies” are donkey-balls-gargling crap…

  74. 74.

    Matt McIrvin

    @NotMax: There seems to be a popular belief that storage is an insuperable obstacle for renewable energy, but everything I’ve read indicates that battery technologies have an experience curve of their own that will make storage cheaper as volume increases. It’s not as ferocious as the corresponding curve for photovoltaics, but it does seem to me that the people who dismiss renewables out of hand because of the intermittency problem are going to see the end of that argument.

  78. 78.

    Nicole

    @WereBear: I’m so glad you’re enjoying it!  I have spent more hours than I care to think about reading that column. :)

  79. 79.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Looking forward to President Gaetz funeral in 2025 after his fatal drowsing during a bathroom accident, the MSM eulogize about how, once one gets passed the blemishes on Gaetz character like child rape and murdering rival drug dealers in prison about how we need more Americans like Gaetz, mixed in with headlines about the Small Pox pandemic going on the US because of that lab accident in Atlanta.

  80. 80.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    That, sadly, was a given. But (a) reality-based opposition is on the record and will be of use in court challenges and (b) we did manage to excise or dilute some particularly noxious parts, for now. See article linked above at #61 for more regarding (b).

    Texas legislature is scheduled to close up shop on May 31, so it is possible delaying tactics could keep a final bill from passage for this session.

  82. 82.

    There go two miscreants

    @Nicole: ​Thanks for the link to Stereogum, which I had not heard of, and the series, which does look interesting!

  84. 84.

    Fair Economist

    @Matt McIrvin: When you look at the incredibly difficult and complicated things we have to do to use fossil fuels – drill oil up from a mile below the water, ship it a thousand miles through a continent-spanning pipe network, put it through dozens of chemical reactions to get it clean and separated, and then pipe it another thousand miles – dealing with intermittency looks pretty surmountable. There are a number of potential approaches – batteries of course, but also other storage methods like thermal and compressed air; long-distance networks (wind is always blowing somewhere); and green hydrogen production. Plus, we can combine these different methods.

    Intermittency is a solvable problem, and I expect it to be solved within 2 decades.

  85. 85.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Glenn Greenwald, 2025:

    ”President Gaetz left a huge mark of progress on the United States, but his rooting out of all neoliberalism and war-mongering on the part of the corrupt corporatist DNC. Thankfully, his worthy successor Sebastian Gorka will perhaps do an even better job, without the distracting character flaws that pockmarked Gaetz’ previous life. Thankfully, that 6-3 Supreme Court affirmation of his candidacy put the nation in wonderful, capable hands. We can only hope that new First Lady Lauren Boebert acquits herself as well as Melania Trump, and look forward to what new Vice President Greene can do to affirm the Gorka agenda…”

  86. 86.

    gene108

    @Spanky:

    The coronavirus outbreak has had a dramatic psychological effect on workers, and people are reassessing what they want to do

    That’s SOOOOO me right now!

    I got laid off in January, and am starting school next week to get my teaching certification

  89. 89.

    Fair Economist

    @germy: Thermal storage is rather wasteful of energy but it has boggling capacity. I’ve seen estimates that it would already be reasonably competitive but there haven’t been any actual demonstrations. When daytime solar is nearly free in a few decades, though, I think it will suffice to replace existing fossil fuel power if something else hasn’t already.

  90. 90.

    Cermet

    @germy: try looking at the efficiency of such a process; yes, if one has free energy and vast amounts of it to waste. That idea has been around since the early 70’s and is nothing ‘to get hot’ about (pun intended.)

  91. 91.

    Barbara

    @Nicole: ​ I did this once. I went to 1970 and found Tears of a Clown. What. A. Great. Song. It has always been one of my favorite songs of all time. I did not know that Stevie Wonder wrote the music, or that it was the only Smoky Robinson and the Miracles song to get to #1 (how can that be?).

  92. 92.

    Geminid

    @germy: I don’t know enough to say. What do you think?

    I do know there are many energy storage methods being developed and evaluated. A group of engineers at MIT are working on pumps, etc., that utilize molten sulpher to store concentrated solar power; some outfit in Utah owns some salt domes they want to fill with compressed air, to help balance the output of nearby solar panels and wind turbines; several projects explore using giant weights in mineshafts or free standing towers for energy storage.

    And of course pumped water storage has been used for decades. There are two reservoirs in Bath County, Virginia, that use excess electricity from the North Anna and Surry nuclear plants pumps water from the lower to the upper lake. The water then turns generators on it way back down during hours of peak demand. One proposed project in Australia would have such a system, but use wind and solar power instead of nuclear.

    Not to mention different kinds of battery storage, and advances made in less problematic production of essential materials, which is what the BBC article addresses.

  93. 93.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Still trying to make up my mind about Tiffany Cross, who has hosted the weekend morning slot on MSNBC for a couple of months now. I like her messaging, and I like everything about her presentation except for her voice. Straight delivery, no problem; but when she gets excited/emotional, her voice is just grating and I have to hit the mute button.

    That said, she — along with many other MSNBC people — has adopted Joy Reid’s “Tuckums” to refer to Tucker Carlson. Tiffany just throws it out there like it’s his actual name, and I am there for it. I want “Tuckums” to stick to him like flypaper for the rest of his sorry days. I want it carved on his headstone.

  94. 94.

    Cermet

    @Matt McIrvin: the cost and dealing with waste products both during mfg. and also afterwards as disposal also are important issues those ‘curves’ ignore. Further, simply assuming that storage density and or cost follows a certain upward (and cost effective track) is wishful thinking – maybe it can but so far, not showing great promise (yet.) Another overlooked issue is the carbon foot prints of batteries and  isn’t minor at all.

  96. 96.

    Nobody in particular

    @Nicole:

    To paraphrase Whitman, ( Walt, not Slim), I contain multitudes of my favorites of whatever. The Greeks had so many words for the different types of “love.” Six or even more. I haven’t really researched it. We know what “love” is now, and the Greeks didn’t.  I’m a terrible person but I think it’s just a trick of evolution. Recent research on Oxytocin suggest the trust molecule, or “cuddle chemical” as the pop-psych literature calls it, is possibly a two-way street.

    It promotes ethnocentrism while, or even by reinforcing the trust bond among in-group populations.  This is real science and just a progress report. When I hear the term “love” being bandied about these days, I suspect many people are thinking of sex, including John and Yoko. At least the Bonobos are. I could never decide which is the greatest album of all time.

    Baby, You’re a Rich Man is a much better song, but that entire album, Magical Mystery Tour, is an odd effort. It’s a great album, though, except for All You Need. Brilliant stuff like Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields… They were still consuming psychedelics at the time. Cheap Trick did a bang-up cover of Magical Mystery Tour.

    Lincoln could see Robert E. Lee’s plantation across the river in Virginia from his window in the WH.  Speaking of “cleaning” he suspended Habeas this month 160 years ago. Taney challenged in Ex Parte Merryman but Lincoln just cited the constitution. FDR did it and so did W. The “insurrectionists” never entered the Capitol, until this year. Biden is doing a great job and I respect his kindness, gentleness, and restraint. But I would have suspended Habeas by now, at least. That’s why I’m not the president. But, I think it may yet come to pass, someday soon.

  97. 97.

    Nicole

    I’m so happy people are enjoying the site; I think it’s such a fun read.

    I also am having to accept that my dad maybe didn’t have great taste in music, as “Tom Dooley” (2/10) and “I Want to Kiss You All Over” (6/10) were on all of his 8-track mixes.  Ha!  I have fond memories of listening to both, on trips to visit the grandparents.

  98. 98.

    Geminid

    @Fair Economist: There is a medium term solution to energy intermittency at hand: on demand thermal generation using natural gas. I’m told California is doing this now. In the long term, we don’t want to burn any natural gas, but there may be medium term compromises made while storage capacity is ramped up.

  99. 99.

    Cermet

    @Fair Economist: These issues fail for cost if one looks at the thermodynamics of those processes – huge losses. I am seeing a lot of wishful thinking as proposals – nice words but all are well understood and don’t work for good reasons. Not to say someday but trying to use optimism isn’t always a good idea; look at fusion energy; certainly the power source of the future but no one in their right minds thinks it will answer our problems any time in the near future.

  100. 100.

    Elizabelle

    @Nicole:   That was a wonderful site.  Except, now I have a Phil Spector song as an earworm for the morning.  So, thank you.  I guess.

    Bonus:  Amy Winehouse covered the Teddy Bears’ 1958 number one (ouch) to much better effect.

  101. 101.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I want “Tuckums” to stick to him like flypaper for the rest of his sorry days. I want it carved on his headstone. 

    Will all of the piss wear away the carving?

    Also, I’m personally bummed that “Tuckums” sounds too cutesy.  We’re well past time for “Nazi Fucker Carlson” to be widely used on air.

  102. 102.

    Nobody in particular

    @Barbara:

    This is how it came to pass…

    Black music. Mostly “popularized” by Pat Boone. And white people got all the royalties.

  103. 103.

    Barbara

    @Spanky: ​Based on what I am seeing in my own place of employment, it is clear that self-isolation has led to a lot of soul searching. I expect that many people who are reassessing will end up sticking with the path that they were on, but as a former waitress and catering worker, it would be shocking if people working in the hospitality industry did not try to take a longer view of their workplace.
    IMO, the real problem for the restaurant industry (more so than hotels) is that the profit margins are so low and the likelihood of failure so high that it creates a survival mode mentality among owners that inures them to the rotten working conditions of their workers. They whine about constant turnover and poor working habits but most refuse to try the “real world” experiment of paying workers more to see if that improves the situation. They accept the “dog eat dog” premise of their industry as a reason for not paying their workers more, but then resent those “worker dogs” who leave to get 10 cents and hour more somewhere else. Not everyone is like this, but many, many are.​

  104. 104.

    Cermet

    @Fair Economist: Check out the death valley solar plant; it does use stored heat (via a fancy techno solution.) But as you point out – the energy source is ‘free’. So efficiency isn’t really an issue. Have after sun down surge power makes sense for that design. Also note, there are no other such plants in that area.

  107. 107.

    Another Scott

    @Fair Economist: One of the many holy grails is direct thermoelectric power conversion.  Just dig a hole in the ground, stick a gizmo down there, and have reliable semi-infinite power based on the temperature difference between the deep ground and the surface.  No need for electrical power storage – it’s always the same.

    Of course, materials that make that possible have efficiencies that are still too low, but it’s been an area of continuous, interdisciplinary study for decades.

    ScienceMag has a recent review here.

    BACKGROUND

    Heat and electricity are two forms of energy that are at opposite ends of a spectrum. Heat is ubiquitous, but with low quality, whereas electricity is versatile, but its production is demanding. Thermoelectrics offers a simple and environmentally friendly solution for direct heat-to-electricity conversion. A thermoelectric (TE) device can directly convert heat emanating from the Sun, radioisotopes, automobiles, industrial sectors, or even the human body to electricity. Electricity also can drive a TE device to work as a solid-state heat pump for distributed spot-size refrigeration. TE devices are free of moving parts and feasible for miniaturization, run quietly, and do not emit greenhouse gasses. The full potential of TE devices may be unleashed by working in tandem with other energy-conversion technologies.

    Thermoelectrics found niche applications in the 20th century, especially where efficiency was of a lower priority than energy availability and reliability. Broader (beyond niche) application of thermoelectrics in the 21st century requires developing higher-performance materials. The figure of merit, ZT, is the primary measure of material performance. Enhancing the ZT requires optimizing the adversely interdependent electrical resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity, as a group. On the microscopic level, high material performance stems from a delicate concert among trade-offs between phase stability and instability, structural order and disorder, bond covalency and ionicity, band convergence and splitting, itinerant and localized electronic states, and carrier mobility and effective mass.

    There’s still a lot to learn about this wonderful world of ours…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  108. 108.

    Fair Economist

    @Cermet: The theoretical potential efficiency of pumped heat storage is above 70%, which would make pumped heat storage competitive today.

    Even if the realizable efficiencies are much less (such systems haven’t actually been built), it becomes irrelevant once nearly free power is available, and we will have nearly-free solar power in CA for several hours most days within a few years.

  110. 110.

    Nobody in particular

    @Elizabelle:

    It’s similar to my response to Barbara. I am a former studio rat. Phil was a producer/engineer. His name found its way onto the credits, mostly because he was in a position of power. Brilliant engineer/producer credited with the Wall of Sound. But a musician he was not. He contributed by his facility with the technology at the time, access to it, and his overall acoustic vision. He may even have done little mods like, “Let’s modulate here and go up half a step to another key.” He may have come up with “da doo run run” for all I know.  But then his contribution is more like that of a lyricist. I know he liked to play with guns.

  112. 112.

    Nicole

    @Nobody in particular: Magical Mystery Tour is a weird album because it’s not really a fully planned “album.”  The first side is the soundtrack to the movie, and the 2nd side is a collection of Beatles songs they didn’t put onto other albums.  I agree, it makes for a weird listening experience.  I like it, too, but it’s odd.

    Simon & Garfunkel’s Bookends is the same thing- first side is a completely thought out concept (life journey from childhood to old age), but the second side is a mishmash of songs put in to fill the album out.

    (My poor 10-year-old has to spend entirely too much time listening, if not dancing, to songs that were a hit before his mother was born.)

  113. 113.

    gene108

    I can’t get angry about how stupid U.S. corporations are anymore. It’s just sad:

    Car companies across the globe have had to idle production and workers because of a shortage of semiconductors, often referred to as microchips or just chips. They’re the tiny operating brains inside just about any modern device, like smartphones, hospital ventilators or fighter jets. The pandemic has sent chip demand soaring unexpectedly, as we bought computers and electronics to work, study, and play from home. But while more and more chips are needed in the U.S., fewer and fewer are manufactured here.

    SNIP

    Lesley Stahl: it used to be that there were 25 companies in the world that made the high-end, cutting-edge chips. And now there are only three. And in the United States? – You.

    GELSINGER HOLDS UP FINGER

    Lesley Stahl: One. One.

    Today, 75% of semiconductor manufacturing is in Asia.

    Pat Gelsinger: 25 years ago, the United States produced 37% of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. Today, that number has declined to just 12%.

    SNIP

    A problem because relying on one region, especially one as unpredictable as Asia, is highly risky. Intel has been lobbying the U.S. government to help revive chip manufacturing at home – with incentives, subsidies, and-or tax breaks, the way the governments of Taiwan, Singapore, and Israel have done. The White House is responding, proposing $50 billion for the semiconductor industry in the U.S. as part of President Biden’s infrastructure plan.

    SNIP

    Lesley Stahl: Why shouldn’t private industry fund this instead of the government? The industries that rely on these chips – Apple, Microsoft, the companies that are rolling in money?

    Pat Gelsinger: Well, they’re pretty happy to buy from some of the Asian suppliers.

    Actually, they don’t always have a choice.

    For chips with the tiniest transistors – there is no “made in the U.S.” option. Intel currently doesn’t have the know-how to manufacture the most advanced chips that Apple and the others need.
     

    We’ve become a second rate player in an industry invented in America. The rise of the semiconductor industry, in the 1960’s, is how the whole area around Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, etc. got the name “Silicon Valley”.

    Was the complete failure of the U.S. auto industry from the 1970’s onwards not an object lesson to Intel? ???

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/semiconductor-chip-shortage-60-minutes-2021-05-02/

  115. 115.

    WereBear

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Straight delivery, no problem; but when she gets excited/emotional, her voice is just grating and I have to hit the mute button.

     
    I had the same problem with a great podcast: but one of the hosts had a voice I couldn’t handle listening to.

  117. 117.

    Chris T.

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: (quoting some twitter-tweet):

    I think when most GOP voters say the 2020 election was rigged, they’re referring to the general sense that Trump was ill-treated over the course of his presidency …

    No, they’re whining that even though the 2020 election was rigged in favor of Trump, Trump lost anyway! “How can this be, when we had our thumbs on the scales so hard!?”

  118. 118.

    Another Scott

    @gene108: As usual, 60 Minutes is vastly simplifying a complex topic and getting things wrong.

    Intel not having a working sub-10nm process for their CPUs has nothing to do with GM and Ford not having enough processors for their vehicles.  They’re different applications that require different solutions.  (You don’t have to worry about hooking your PC power up backwards, or working for 10 years, but you do have to design car chips that survive someone hooking up the battery backwards; and surviving 120F days in the desert; and -40F days in winter; and working properly for more than a decade.)

    NXP in Austin makes chips for automobile applications. AutoNews:

    In a lawsuit filed March 31 in state court in Michigan that was later moved to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, JVIS alleged that NXP later reduced the number of chips it would deliver by tens of thousands from what JVIS had expected.

    JVIS had alleged the shortfall will cause it to stop production by April 19, which in turn will cause a shutdown of Stellantis production at its Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit within the first 10 days of May.

    Stellantis declined to comment after the ruling on the potential impact of a JVIS shutdown.

    An NXP spokeswoman declined to comment on the case. During the court hearing on Friday, NXP attorney Marc Collier said the company had scant supplies after a February freeze in Texas cost it five weeks of production time and 700,000 lost or delayed chips and was going to great lengths to deliver what it could.

    The distributors JVIS works with have “ordered a box of cereal from us, and we are sending it one cornflake at a time. As soon as it comes off the factory line, it goes on a FedEx plane,” Collier said during the hearing.

    Whodathunkit – having fragile infrastructure has ramifications for the larger economy??!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  120. 120.

    Chris T.

    @Another Scott: Ayup.

    Intel want to make $12000 (price) chips, which cost $30 each to manufacture.  Cars need $1 (price) chips, which cost $.50 each to manufacture.

    (Not all Intel CPUs are $12k a pop, and I don’t know the actual prices and margins, just that they are … high. If you’re set up to sell high-margin items, you usually can’t make money off low-margin items.)

  121. 121.

    BC in Illinois

    @Nicole:

    (My poor 10-year-old has to spend entirely too much time listening, if not dancing, to songs that were a hit before his mother was born.)

    This is a marker to me of the passage of time. When “You Mother Should Know” came out –senior year of high school, 1967 — it referred (for me) to songs that were hits before 1922.

    Last year my daughter was surprised to hear her 10-year-old daughter singing the song, which was in fact written before her mother (my daughter) was born. It made her feel old.

    The centuries march on.

    [See “The Beatles for Kids”]

  122. 122.

    Brachiator

    @Nicole:

    I wanted to share a link to a column on Stereogum

    The Number Ones Link is fun. Thanks.

    I have been watching some YouTube videos as today’s teens and young adults react to ancient pop music: songs from the 1960s through 1980s. Crazy fun. The kids, as one might say, dig the music, but often have absolutely no clue about context or much idea about pop music history.

    This has also led me to go back and look at some of the production details and history of hit songs that I thought I knew well. Makes for some interesting re-appraisals.

  123. 123.

    Nicole

    @RandomMonster: So many afternoons…

    Yesterday I read the entry on “Mr. Custer” (1/10), a song I had never heard of, and then listened to it to see if it was as bad as his piece on it said it was and that’s 3 and a half minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

    Yes, every bit as bad.

  125. 125.

    Cowgirl in the Sandi

    @Steeplejack:

    Yes!  I was a freshman in high school and the local roller skating rink had his sister, Louise Harrison Caldwell as an honored guest!  I always wondered how she got to Illinois (and why she stayed!

    Anyway, for my 13 year old self, it was soooooo exciting to be in the same room with a Beatle’s sister!!

  126. 126.

    Geminid

    @Another Scott: I was talking to a residential HVAC technician last week. He told me that orders for air handler components are backlogged for weeks because of damage to equipment at a large Trane plant in Texas, caused by this year’s freeze. The HVAC guy was glad this area hasn’t had much hot weather. Yet.

  127. 127.

    Another Scott

    In other news, …

    Clueless CEO writes an op-ed threatening her employees jobs because she wants them to come back to the office to sing happy birthday and smell each other's shit in the bathroom, employees revolt, she blames lack of "editor." https://t.co/IZnJbUlTcv

    — Dan (@TractorLaw) May 8, 2021

    If only they had paid the CEO more, these things wouldn’t have happened…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  128. 128.

    Nobody in particular

    @Nicole:

    Hmmm? I think you’re right.  I’d never looked at it that way but do recall the time, and the movie. Kind of a flop. And as was already remarked, those two Beatle Comps, Your Mother Should Know, and When I’m 64, are still relevant today. Timeless or Korzybski’s time-binding component of General Semantics.  My definition of a musician comes down to this: Do you sight-read? I myself do not, but as Buddy Rich demonstrated, one does not have to read music, sight or otherwise, to be still one of the most phenomenal technicians of his craft ever. He’s not alone.  I’ve faked way through playing the tubs for over 50 years.

    In fact, Coltrane once wrote that to really commune with the gods, one must forget everything one has learned and then begin to play.

  129. 129.

    MattF

    I know MoDo is unpopular here, but she (correctly) makes the case that it was the Cheneys who originated and orchestrated the reign of the Big Lie in the Republican Party.

  130. 130.

    Nobody in particular

    @MattF:

    That’s not really surprising to me and it really makes the case that all politicians are… politicians. I recently reread Kevin Baker’s article in Harpers over a decade ago. It goes back farther than that.

    STABBED IN THE BACK!: The Past and Future of a Right-Wing Myth

    First drink, hero, from my horn:

    I spiced the draught well for you

    To waken your memory clearly

    So that the past shall not slip your mind!

    —Hagen to Siegfried

    Die Götterdämmerung

    POLITICIAN, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared. When he wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive.

     

    a.b.

  132. 132.

    sdhays

    @MattF: This is an actual sober, well-argued column. Who is this person and what have they done with the real Maureen Dowd?

    Never-mind, I don’t care. I hope this person continues to write under her by-line. Maybe I’ll actually start reading her once in awhile for the first time in literally 20 years.

  134. 134.

    Almost Retired

    @Nicole: …..and there goes any hope for productivity for the rest of the weekend.  Thanks for the link, I think?!?!?

  135. 135.

    Nobody in particular

    @trollhattan:

    Not just judges, but some, yes. And recall who shoehorned some of the clods onto the bench. Not all, but as I said, were it up to me I’d have already suspended Habeas, like Lincoln did this month, 160 years ago. The insurrectionists didn’t make it into the Capitol until this year but Lincoln could see Lee’s plantations in Virginia across the river from his WH window.

  136. 136.

    Steeplejack

    @Jeffreyw:

    Yeah, that Stereogum page says that Harrison “sat in with a local band at a VFW Hall.” Trippy. Wonder what they played.

  139. 139.

    Nobody in particular

    @Another Scott:

    As usual, 60 Minutes is vastly simplifying a complex topic and getting things wrong.

    This happens when you only have 60 minutes to devote to a complex issue, actually a ten-minute read, but who would read if there were adverts every few pages?

    “Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill-bucket.”

    Orwell

    It is the “ramp of capitalism” to Mr. Blair. I suspect he’d love his iPhone as much as we all do. Twitter? I don’t go there and I suspect neither would he.

    Very inside chip ball stuff there. Much of the stuff in media is just bad info used as a conduit for selling incontinence supplies and CPAP stuff. Fortunately, now I only have to deal with the latter, but…

    Whodathunkit – having fragile infrastructure has ramifications for the larger economy??!!
    Cheers,
    Scott.

     

    You are a smart fella.

    I thunk it long before I gradumated from High School, which I never actually did.

  140. 140.

    Nobody in particular

    @VeniceRiley:

    The House of Spector. Wall of Voodoo, (“Mexican Radio”) was a play on Phil’s Wall of Sound. Overdubs and chorusing on everything with lots of ‘verb so it’s literally underwater.

  142. 142.

    Geminid

    The Virginia Republican (disassembled) convention is today. The journal Bearing Drift is doing reports and updates from three different sites, and monitering campaign scuttlebut. Other media will be covering the event also. The Washington Post‘s excellent Richmond correspondent- whose name I forget- may have updates as well, on twitter.

  144. 144.

    H.E.Wolf

    @NotMax:

    It’s floofy padding.

    @sab:

    “Previously”?

     

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Maybe it’s part of the habit of hedging–the same thing that makes them put “allegedly” in places it’s not needed

     

    I agree with all of you! And yet, “ostensibly” has this wee little negative undertone, so why that particular word? Seems as if either the negative slant was on purpose, or the writer doesn’t know what the word means.

  147. 147.

    Geminid

    Speaking of natural gas, the lead story on the CBS hourly radio news was that Colonial Gas has temporarily shut down it’s pipeline system on account of a ransomware attack. Colonial, headquartered in Alpharetta, Ga., carries 45% of the nation’s natural gas. It’s pipelines run from Louisiana to the east coast.  One of it’s compressor installations is a couple miles from me.

    I won’t go look, though, as I need to catch up on stuff at home. And later this afternoon, I hope to use today’s abundant wind energy to fly my new kite.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    @MattF:

    This is bullshit though.

    Liberals responded to Trump’s derangements by bathing the Bush-Cheney crowd in a flattering nostalgic light.

    I’m watching Liz Cheney for one reason and one reason only- she’s a measure of how nuts they are, and she’s also a measure of how they continue to get worse.

    A lot of “liberals” knew Trump wasn’t going anywhere, and knew he would remain the leader of that Party. Since Dowd admits in the article that she did not know that she shouldn’t be scolding us.

    Dowd underestimated how dangerous Trump was and is. “Liberals” never did.

  149. 149.

    Kay

    @MattF:

    She still doesn’t get it. Does she think they’re kidding about this overturning elections thing? They’re not.

    The next time every single Republican will back the effort. They’re getting rid of the few who opposed it. It will be 100% slobbering, ass-kissing Trump loyalists from here on out.

  150. 150.

    James E Powell

    @H.E.Wolf:

    Sensibly? Ostentatiously? Ordinarily? Simply?

    All I know is that “ostensibly” is a weird choice in that sentence. :)

    Maybe they meant to say supposably.

  151. 151.

    Ruckus

    @MagdaInBlack:

    I’m not sure Americans are generally very nice people. Racism doesn’t help with that, guns on every corner and a huge number of people killed by them yearly doesn’t help, the current conservative – or hate party if you will, which seems to worship one of the least likable humans (several of them actually), the seemingly large part of the population that seemingly believe that the rich are far better people because they worship money above all else, the “news” industry that seems to love lying and showing disasters doesn’t help….

    I’d say the race to the bottom is going well, but I’m not that sure it’s the direction we actually should want to be heading. The only thing that seems to help is looking at who we voted in to actually run the country, rather than run it into the ground, that a majority of the participants in that project seem to be actual, real humans, and not the participants in a hate fest. I wish I had more of a clue about how to get there or even make it more likely to be successful, because it does look far, far better.

  153. 153.

    J R in WV

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Its time to take a hard look at the excessively broad IP protections granted in Europe, North America and ANZ. They now serve primarily to inhibit advancement and development, [ as well as to make the already wealthy far more wealthy, ] thus worsening the human condition.

    Added some text to improve your point — hope you don’t mind~!!~

  155. 155.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay:

    Liberals responded to Trump’s derangements by bathing the Bush-Cheney crowd in a flattering nostalgic light.

    I’m sure that’s true of the “liberals” MoDo knows

    I still get the dead tree Sunday NYT.  I skimmed a couple of her columns in the last few weeks and I had forgotten, if I ever knew, how much she hates Obama. I think she hates the man she insisted on calling “Barry” more than she hates Hillary Clinton. And that’s saying something. I think Biden is the kind of Democrat she thinks her dead daddy would have liked. You know, a regular guy, Irish, Catholic, working-class… am I leaving anything out?

  156. 156.

    Brachiator

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    I hope Biden hangs tough on the unemployment extension, because the Chamber of Commerce recommended recently that the payments be terminated due to the difficulties employers are having in getting people back to the workplace. Paying their employees more money is never mentioned as an option, oddly enough.

    From a great article posted recently by another commenter:

    Marie M., who asked that her full name not be used so her comments wouldn’t affect her job prospects, said she was juggling shifts at two separate restaurants in Los Angeles in the fall of 2019. When the pandemic hit, she lost both of those jobs.

    She collected around $30,000 in unemployment last year, about the same amount she made working in 2019. In July, she plans to start looking for restaurant work again. But this time, she feels more confident she will get the hours she needs. Restaurants are already reaching out to her about jobs, so she can afford to be more selective.

    “Unemployment benefits have been like collective bargaining,” she said. “They made a union out of all of us.”

    Most honest reporting underscores that people are not just sitting on their butts living the good life on unemployment benefits, but using the funds to help make their lives better. If the combined benefits are creating minor disruptions in the job market, this is a good thing if it helps people get better paying jobs. And ultimately these benefits are temporary. No one is intending to live on them forever.

  157. 157.

    J R in WV

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    …

    I think Biden is the kind of Democrat she thinks her dead daddy would have liked. You know, a regular guy, Irish, Catholic, working-class… am I leaving anything out?

    Yes, you are leaving something out.  White as Wonderbread. Which doesn’t matter to me, he IS a nice guy, but obviously overwhelmingly important to MoDo.

  158. 158.

    Ruckus

    @germy:

    They never interview workers or tenants.

    Because the news folks are about keeping more of the money than possible as well.

    They feel a kinship with the business owners and landlords.

    The people that do the work and struggle to over pay them for the scraps? Not so much.

  159. 159.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Liberals responded to Trump’s derangements by bathing the Bush-Cheney crowd in a flattering nostalgic light.

    I’m sure that’s true of the “liberals” MoDo knows

    I think I read that early in her NYT reporting career, she covered Trump for the Society pages. A lot of reporters, including Dowd,  treated him like a rich man about town. They painted him as “brash” when he was actually crass. They covered up his blemishes because they envied him and enjoyed hanging out with him. They helped create the monster and have never apologized for it.

    I still get the dead tree Sunday NYT.  I skimmed a couple of her columns in the last few weeks and I had forgotten, if I ever knew, how much she hates Obama. I think she hates the man she insisted on calling “Barry” more than she hates Hillary Clinton.

    Racists, including liberal racists always out themselves here. This reminds me of the devils who insisted on calling Muhammad Ali by his former name, Cassius Clay.

  160. 160.

    J R in WV

    A year ago a tree fell on our house. I called around after a google or twelve, many folks had answering machines but never called me back, even tho their ad offered emergency service, which is what I needed. One guy told me at length that his crew wasn’t willing to work because they were getting unemployment insurance (UI), he also offered me the phone number of an unlicensed guy who worked for cash only – no thanks there.

    But in high-end construction, who pays their crew less than they make on UI??

    Anyway, I called a friend who retired from roofing to farm, he helped me on an afternoon to repair the leaks. Running the A/C took care of the moisture that entered while we waited for the weather to clear — you can’t work on a roof when it’s raining, funny thing that.

    It’s been a very strange 18 months so far…

  161. 161.

    James E Powell

    @Brachiator:

    Most honest reporting . . .

    There’s a bit more this than we are accustomed to seeing & hearing. Hope it’s a trend.

  163. 163.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: I read the Op-Ed at the Washington Post the day before this blew up.  My takeaway from the CEO article was “nice job you have there, it would be a shame if something happened to it.”

    So I wasn’t at all surprised by the reaction.  That article was full of threats, and the CEO wants an editor because she needs an editor to tell her it’s not a good idea to overtly threaten your employees.

    Fuck her.

  165. 165.

    Geminid

    @James E Powell: I have found a lot of good local and state reporting the last few years, when I’ve researched politicians and campaigns that only occasionally make the national news. I make extra time for this by ignoring op-ed pieces.

  167. 167.

    Ruckus

    @germy:

    When I opened my small retail business the Chamber of Commerce invited me to a meeting to present my company and see about joining. When I got there I was told that I had to pay them to speak. I did everything but tell them to fuck off. But I spoke and didn’t pay them. And then I did one of the good things in my life. I didn’t join the CofC so that I could put one of their wall plaques up to show the other members of the CofC that I was as big a sheep as they were.

    As you might have noticed I’m not an admirer of the CofC because they are a group only interested in making the most money off their customers and don’t give two shits about them.

  168. 168.

    Bill Arnold

    @H.E.Wolf:

    Seems as if either the negative slant was on purpose, or the writer doesn’t know what the word means.

    Possibly, though it sort of scans if one is mentally comparing to TFG, who was known to avoid walking if he could. (Unless cameras were involved.)

  170. 170.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Nicole:

    Magical Mystery Tour is a weird album because it’s not really a fully planned “album.”  The first side is the soundtrack to the movie, and the 2nd side is a collection of Beatles songs they didn’t put onto other albums.

    MMT is an ‘album’ because Capitol Records wanted an album since that’s what sold in the US.  In the UK where The Beatles had more control over their releases it was an EP(which never caught on here) that contained their songs from their TV movie.

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