January 17

 Let's see what is going on besides more of the same. It is still very cold. I had to put out-going mail in the box. A lot of the snow on the sidewalks has disappeared--probably blown away. However, that is on the south side of the house. On the north side the ice and snow are still there. I forgot that Monday was a holiday and trash pick up is delayed by one day. I struggled to get the gate unlatched and then struggled to  roll the tote out to the street for pick up--and then remembered that it won't be picked up til tomorrow. Well, it is staying out there til after the trash trucks come by. I can't close the gate because the frozen ground has shifted the gate post up. Oh, the joys of winter. Even through my gloves my hands were ice cold when I got back inside. (UPDATE: I guess the company our landlord uses to collect trash doesn't celebrate the MLK holiday. They picked up trash today.)

The continuing effect of the drought in British Columbia: reduced water flow in dams and rivers=reduced power production, dry wells, dangerous low water in reservoirs. One of the local power companies is importing power at a hefty cost and offering customers who reduce their usage by 10% this year compared to last year a nice credit.  Stray thought: this situation is and has been repeated over wide geographical areas for several years now and show the weakness of relying on one form of power generation. Hydroelectric plants require a certain water flow, solar requires a certain level of sunlight, wind requires wind at certain speeds, natural gas requires the supply of gas and can be interrupted by breaks or freezes in the lines. I could go on but the lesson here is to have back-ups for the back-ups for the main systems. I wish we had backups but we don't own our place.

Doomberg carried this article which shows the problems around government agencies mandating types of technology. Electric vehicles, or Zero Emission Vehicles as the Canadian government calls the technology, are perfectly good for certain environments--but, and it is a big but, not all.  I live in a medium sized city and I have seen several gas stations have put in charging stations. I still wouldn't want an EV. Or, rather, I wouldn't want to only have an EV. If I had to go outside the city I don't want to worry about whether charging stations are available. Also I have no idea how much it would cost to charge the vehicle. Too many unanswered question--sometimes the questions aren't even asked.

Found this substack post by way of my Facebook feed. I linked to a BBC (it think) article on the pains of self checkout technology. The piece today makes a few other good points. First, the technology is all about reducing the numbers (and therefore the cost) of minimum wage employees. Second, it isn't really labor saving because the customer has to do the work cashiers did--without pay. When gas stations introduced the practice of "letting" customers pump their own gas, they gave a choice for those who wanted full service and an incentive of a bit lower price for those who didn't mind doing the work for themselves. Now you don't get a choice and you don't get a price break. The retailers putting in self-serve kiosks do keep the choice because you can still, for now, go to a cashier manned station but they don't offer any price cut for those willing to do the work themselves.

Heather Cox Richardson made a couple of points about the Iowa Caucus before those of us who wouldn't vote for Trump unless he got a conscience implant (and maybe not then) start having palpitations. The turnout was considerably less than the previous Caucus turnout. It only represented about 15% of Iowa Republicans Trump's "win" amounted to 51% of 15%. The pundits keep reminding us that Iowa is not representative of the rest of the states. I am amazed the his supporters can't see him for the con artist see is. But my amazement has given way to a realization: he is a sound track for some people's grievances (real or imagined) and/or he is the vehicle for some peoples hopes for various changes they want (dismantled "deep state," "restoration" of a country they imagined once existed, creation of a society in which they would get what they think is their due, etc.) Those supporters don't give a thimble of warm spit for his moral failings.