The Halo Effect

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The Halo Effect

9/21/20 by NPR

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/112774361
Episode: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-510308/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/npr/hiddenbrain/2020/09/20200921_hiddenbrain_the_halo_effect_mix_sept_21_2_pm-5b502680-db7a-4c5b-bef1-1d3a731c644f.mp3?awCollectionId=510308&awEpisodeId=904660038&orgId=1&topicId=1136&aggIds=423302056&d=3294&p=510308&story=904660038&t=podcast&e=904660038&size=52589380&ft=pod&f=510308

Judy, Lyn and Donna Ulrich were driving to a volleyball game when their Ford Pinto was hit from behind by a Chevy van. The Pinto caught fire, and the three teenagers were burned to death. This week on Hidden Brain, we talk to a former Ford insider who could have voted to recall the Pinto years before the Ulrich girls were killed — but didn’t. And we ask, is it possible to fairly evaluate our past actions when we know how things turned out?

September 25, 2020 Evening

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Happy Weekend! Mostly clear and 67 degrees at the Mason Lake. There is a southwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 54 degrees.

A nice day today but busy one. 💼 But I did get out for a nice walk 🚶🏻 and the leaves were quite pretty. Laying back in the hammock and eventually I’ll get a fire started 🔥 once it gets a bit darker.

Tonight will have patchy fog after 1am. Otherwise, mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 50 degrees at 6am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 21st. Southwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2019, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 53 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1947.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon with 68% illuminated. At 5 PM, the moon was in the southeast (134°) at an altitude of 8° from the horizon, some 237,259 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by March 24th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The Hunter 🏹 Moon is on Thursday, October 1. The darkest hour is at 12:50 am, followed by dawn at 6:21 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:50 am in the east (91°) and last for 2 minutes and 57 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:27 am with sun in the east (97°). Tonight will have 12 hours and one minute of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 58 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have isolated showers after 2pm. Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly sunny 🌦, with a high of 77 degrees at 3pm. Nine degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 4th. Maximum dew point of 55 at 11am. Light south wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 69 degrees. The record high of 90 was set in 2017.

I am thinking that I will get a pretty early start in the morning 🌄 and do some hiking before the crowds. I’m thinking about hiking up and over Watch Hill over Indian Lake. 🗻 I do expect it it will be crowded by midday but I’ll probably head back to camp relatively early.

In four weeks on October 23 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (254°) at 6:01 pm,🌄 which is 47 minutes and 55 seconds earlier then today. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly sunny, patches of fog and temperatures between 64 and 38 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 57 and 37 degrees. The record high of 81 degrees was set back in 1947.

Looking ahead, Average High is 65 🍂 is in 1 weeks, Average Night Below Freezing 🌌 is in 7 weeks, Buy Nothing Day 🛍️ is in 9 weeks, Average High is 40 🌨 is in 10 weeks, Bake Cookies Day 🍪 is in 12 weeks, Christmas 🎅 is in 3 months, New Years Day 2020 🎉 is in 14 weeks, Bubble Bath Day 🧼 is in 15 weeks, 5 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 4 months and 38th Birthday 🎉 is in 18 weeks.

A beautiful day

report | Reuters

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World’s operating nuclear fleet at 30 year low as new plants stall: report | Reuters

The number of nuclear reactor units operating globally is at a 30 year low, while new plants struggle for investment, an industry report said on Thursday.

Proponents of nuclear say as a low-carbon power source it could be vital in helping countries meet climate targets, but several plants around the world are coming to the end of their life expectancies and many new ones have faced delays.

Some 408 nuclear reactors were in operation in 31 countries as of July 2020, a decline of 9 units from mid-2019 and 30 fewer than the 2002 peak of 438, the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR) showed.

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The slow pace of new projects coming on stream also increased the overall age of the global fleet to around 31 years old.

Of the 52 new plants being built globally at least 33 are behind schedule, while not a single new project came online in the first half of 2020, the report said.

Wading Through the Sludge

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Wading Through the Sludge

The Office of Management and Budget is required by law to produce a widely neglected annual report, the Information Collection Budget of the United States Government (ICB), which quantifies the annual paperwork burden that the government imposes on its citizens. The most recent ICB finds that in 2015, Americans spent 9.78 billion hours on federal paperwork.1

The Treasury Department, including the Internal Revenue Service, accounted for the vast majority of the total: 7.36 billion hours. The Department of Health and Human Services was responsible for 696 million hours imposed on (among others) doctors, hospitals, and the beneficiaries of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. The Department of Transportation accounted for no less than 214 million hours, including elaborate requirements imposed on truck drivers, automobile companies, railroads, and airlines. Comparatively speaking, the 91 million annual hours that came from the Department of Education might not seem like much, but for administrators, teachers, and students, they were pretty burdensome.

The ICB does not make for riveting reading, but it is worth pausing over those 9.78 billion hours. Suppose we insisted that for the entirety of 2019 all 2.7 million citizens of Chicago must work forty hours a week at a single task: filling out federal forms. By the end of 2019, they would not have come within four billion hours of the 2015 total. The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) was enacted in 1980 in an effort to reduce this burden, but it doesn’t appear to be living up to its name. (Disclosure, or perhaps confession: from 2009 to 2012, I served as the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs [OIRA], and in that capacity I oversaw administration of the PRA.)