10 Thoughts for March 27, 2014

1. So, I finally brought my nearly 7-year old car for its 15,000 mile service.  I enjoyed talking to the service guy about that.  Apparently one is supposed to take a vehicle in for regular service, every 5000 miles or 6 months, whichever comes first.  The only problem is, if I brought it in every 6 months, it'd amount to changing the oil every 1200 miles.  I'll probably just settle for once a year ~ 18 months.  Shorter than that would seem to be a waste when my odometer is just 15,000.
2. While I was at the dealer, I test-drove the Prius C.  My two cents: It's a lot quieter (more so than my own vehicle) than the negative reviews, including that from Consumer Reports, and apparently quieter than the new RAV4; if you're too tall, the folks in the rear seat will feel extremely cramped; I really enjoy the feel of the interior, even if surrounded in plastic (resin extracted from bamboo).
3. Chris Christie's personal lawyer issued a taxpayer-funded report, stating that Christie was not involved and did not know about Bridgegate.  No one believes him.  Makes you wonder if this PR campaign, paid by taxpayers, is itself legal.
4. With everyone (Japan, Thailand, China, France) pointing their satellites at the same area in the Indian Ocean, the first visual in my head was a queue of satellites waiting to get into position to take their turn at photographing the area.  Obviously they're all at different elevations in orbit so that they don't actually hit each other and a queue is obviated.  Nonetheless the point is, it'd be more productive if just one satellite remained in geostationary position and send back photos of the same region every hour, then split the job of reviewing the images by quadrants, between all the interested parties.  Instead, we have what amounts to a race to see who can spot the most debris.
5. Microsoft revealed a free version of Office for Android / iOS.  The caveats they didn't tell you: It's only free for personal use, limited to documents in your personal Microsoft (Live / Sky Drive / Outlook) online account, and it isn't available for your Android tablet, whereas you have to use the paid version for the iPad.  It's a half-measure and one that'll keep Google in the lead in the cloud.
6. Hawai'i reversed itself and will now make it illegal for undercover cops to have sex with prostitutes.  I can't believe this wasn't changed sooner.
7. I didn't see it pop up on the news, but the final Q3-2013 GDP number was 4.1% (over Q3-2012), and the third estimate for Q4-2013 was revised upward from 2.4% to 2.6%.  Meanwhile, exports were accelerating faster than imports, so good news.
8. Butter is back in, baby.  For what it's worth, I stopped using Crisco and margarine a decade ago when it was apparent to me that everything that was previously espoused on food science regarding fats was wrong.  NOT that I go hog wild on animal fats, however, because I prefer the flavor of plant fats such as olive oil.  This follows roughly on the heels of eggs coming back with fruit juices going out.  Eating fruit is good; drinking fruit juice not so much.
9. We're one more step towards creating life from scratch.  This is going to be one of those things where the future will be equally well-served and condemned.  Well-served because it means that we're one step closer towards understanding how to replace bad genes effectively and repair damage, but equally condemned because it means super humans and chimeras.
10. Thomas Picketty has a book out, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century", which may or may not be sold out, as it is extremely popular.  A lot of high praise from all over, but at 696 pages of information to take in, there's just no way you can borrow this from the library and get through it in 3 weeks.  Besides, the library has 60 holds on just four copies.  It'll get longer as the book gains publicity.