5 Thoughts for July 20, 2015

Been a while, huh?

1. Bought some earphone foam pad replacements from Amazon, last week, and over the weekend I received them and replaced the foam pads on my Motorola S305. The process was very simple: Rip out the old pad, pop up the ring holding them in (you can see the pad tucked into the ring) with a metal or plastic edge tool, place the ring inside the foam pad and pop it all back in. Took about 2 minutes, and it looks brand new; feels much better too, as the old foam had been compressed and offered little comfort.
2. Donald Trump seems like a fool on the surface, but if you look closely at his actions, he's doing exactly what people want their candidates to do: Be completely honest and unapologetic for holding your beliefs. I think it's very possible that his criticism of John McCain (contending that he is not a "hero") will actually boost him in the polls, because many conservatives believe that politicians are too afraid to express non-politically-correct opinions directly, and see this commentary by Trump as proof that he is unlike the other politicians who cower for political correctness. In other words, Trump is the leader of those who believe they have they right to express stupid ideas without consequences.
3. The Pluto flyby was spectacular. They have so much data, such that most of it has yet to be transmitted back, at something like 2 kilobits per second, which is like 1980s speed. Later in fall, the rest of the data will be sent back. Totally excited about seeing Pluto (and other objects near and in the Kuiper Belt).
4. While showering, I noticed that the water was significantly harder than normal. Just last week, Portland announced that, despite having enough water at Bull Run, they were tapping ground water and blending it, at 20%. I thought I'd check out the situation by looking at Bull Run's data, and indeed, this is unlike the normal year. You can see the direct result of limited snow melt from a dry winter.
5. Are you a fan of Zojirushi rice cookers? Woot's got them on sale, which, in some cases might only be $5 less than Amazon's price, but that's because Amazon owns Woot. I like these types of rice cookers (not just from Zojirushi), but unless you live in Hawaii, they're rather expensive and hard to find in a physical store.