Oval Office fires and early bedtimes – CNNPolitics

Inside the new President’s routine: Oval Office fires and early bedtimes – CNNPolitics

As Biden settles into a job he has been seeking on-and-off for three decades, the daily routine of being president -- with a phalanx of Secret Service agents, regular updates on the nation's top secrets and an ever-present press corps -- has come more naturally for him than for his more recent predecessors. He has established a regular schedule, including coffee in the mornings with the first lady, meetings and phone calls from the Oval Office starting just after 9 a.m. and a return to his residence by 7 p.m. As he walks home along the Colonnade, he's often seen carrying a stack of binders or manila folders under one arm. He still brings a brown leather briefcase into the offic

452. Jeff Immelt Knows He Let You Down

452. Jeff Immelt Knows He Let You Down

2/17/21 by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/119294391
Episode: https://chtbl.com/track/736CG3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/aaea4e69-af51-495e-afc9-a9760146922b/14a43378-edb2-49be-8511-ab0d000a7030/8e2b901c-055e-40e4-849d-acd300052d42/audio.mp3

Not so long ago, G.E. was the most valuable company in the world, a conglomerate that included everything from light bulbs and jet engines to financial services and The Apprentice. Now itโ€™s selling off body parts to survive. What does the C.E.O. who presided over the decline have to say for himself?

February 19, 2021 Morning

Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! โ˜บ Six weeks to Good Friday โœ๏ธ . Snow flurries and 24 degrees in Delmar, NY. โ„ Calm wind.There are 6 inches of snow on the ground. โ˜ƒ ๏ธThings will start to thaw out at Monday around noontime. ๐ŸŒก๏ธ

Kind of a pleasant morning for my walk. ๐ŸšถLots of snow flurries around, not too cold. I was surprised, a lot more people out walking then I’ve seen recently about. The sidewalks have been plowed and are mostly just wet at this point.

Didn’t have milk for my coffee, ๐Ÿฎ which made me sad, ๐Ÿ˜ข but I was able to make do with some hot coca and water mixed into my favorite morning drug. โ˜• I do have a lot more coffee these days due to working from home. When I’m in the office, I usually skip coffee as I worry about spilling milk all over myself — plus I don’t want to bother with all the pain of being part of coffee club. ๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿ‘ฆ

Today will be light snow before 1pm, then snow likely, mainly between 1pm and 3pm. ๐ŸŒจ High of 31 degrees at 3pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around January 30th. East wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 41 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1981. 11.4 inches of snow fell back in 1972.โ„

Lots of snow today, ๐ŸŒจ although less then earlier expected. But I’ll be working from home and if I have to trudge through the snow later on, then so be it. I don’t really care one way or another.

Solar noon ๐ŸŒž is at 12:10 pm with sun having an altitude of 36.2ยฐ from the due south horizon (-34.6ยฐ vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐Ÿ… starts at 4:54 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (249ยฐ). ๐Ÿ“ธ The sunset is in the west-southwest (256ยฐ) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:33 pm after setting for 3 minutes with dusk around 6:01 pm, which is one minute and 17 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter ๐ŸŒ“ Moon in the south (179ยฐ) at an altitude of 67ยฐ from the horizon, 251,264 miles away. ๐Ÿš€ The best time to look at the stars is after 6:35 pm. At sunset, look for snow ๐ŸŒจ and temperatures around 31 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 10 hours and 47 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 45 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of snow before 7pm, then a chance of snow showers after 7pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy ๐ŸŒจ, with a low of 19 degrees at 6am. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 21st. Calm wind becoming west 5 to 9 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2020, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of -16 occurred back in 1966.

Tomorrow will have a chance of snow showers, mainly between 11am and 4pm. Partly sunny ๐ŸŒฆ, with a high of 30 degrees at 2pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around January 22nd. Northwest wind 7 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 31 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1930. 11.2 inches of snow fell back in 1977.โ„

I am thinking tomorrow of just walking out to Five Rivers. ๐Ÿฆ I could drive out there and ski but I generally prefer to just go for a nice walk. It saves fuel, and I think it burns more calories and is more fun to walk rather then drive. I think it’s supposed to cloud up mid-day, so I”m not sure how nice of a day it really will be.

Looking ahead to Sunday, sunny, with a high near 31. Northwest wind 6 to 9 mph. ๐Ÿ˜Ž I am thinking of going skiing on Sunday at Partridge Run. Typical average high for the weekend is 36 degrees.

When I went shopping I finally got sheets for my bed. ๐Ÿ› I was able to just replace the bottom sheet that was ripped with a matching fitted sheet. I was glad to just get that, as my other sheets are fine, and no sense in throwing away something perfectly good. That said, I decided not to put the new sheet on yet, but instead will wash it first. While it didn’t smell particularly chemically, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to wash with my other sheets, which are do for a good washing and I didn’t want to accidentally irate my skin with chemicals.

๐ŸŒน๐ŸŒป๐ŸŒผOnly 29 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!๐ŸŒน๐ŸŒป๐ŸŒผ Spring seemed so far away, not all that long ago. But then I looked and saw that a week from Monday will be the first day of March. And that really isn’t that far away — a little over a week at this point. It looks like come March we might actually see a pretty good warm up, at least getting to seasonable temperatures if not a little warmer.

One month ๐Ÿ“… from now will be Last Day of Winter ๐Ÿ‚ when the sun will be setting at 7:06 pm with dusk at 7:34 pm (Daylight Savings Time). I’ll be glad once the snow is gone.

Been watching that slow-moving disaster in Texas, ๐Ÿ”Œ thinking it’s all the more important to eventually own land and have an off-grid home. Power plants are so unstable when grid demand is super high and when your tied to the grid, you really have no alternative when the power goes out. But if you live a life of conservation, have your own system, if something breaks, you fix it or are already prepared to live without it.

Your stuff isn’t nearly as recyclable as you think. Blame corporate Am

Your stuff isn’t nearly as recyclable as you think. Blame corporate Am

In a recent survey conducted by Smart Design, respondents ranked compostable plastics as a more sustainable material than recycled plastic or paper fiber. Unfortunately, compostable plastic breaks down only under the specific heat and moisture conditions of an industrial composting facility—a fact that only 22% of people we surveyed were aware of. Toss a compostable plastic bag into a landfill or composting bin, come back a year later, and you’ll find . . . plastic.

You can chalk up part of this misunderstanding to greenwashing, but there’s also a basic truth of human nature at play. People like to feel they’re doing the right thing, and they seize upon messages that support this. If that emotional need is fulfilled, they tend to suspend their skepticism and interpret the message in the most comforting way possible. This is the main reason “wish-cycling”—putting things in recycling things that we wish belonged there—is so common, driving the average contamination rate in curbside recycling to about 25%.