5 Thoughts for October 16, 2015

1. Betcha didn't know that there were dozens of varieties of avocados, eh? I love this chart showing all of the varieties from around the world and those developed in Hawai'i. It came up in my head while I was putting together my grocery list, and I recalled how an uncle of mine had a couple of avocado trees with fruit that was not like the kind you normally buy at the store -- Hass avocados.
2. Two things about coffee: (1) Even if you have a cheap bean grinder, the flavor that comes out of grinding your beans is dramatically better than pre-ground coffee -- it's something I keep running into as I go back and forth between buying ground coffee and grinding beans; (2) In the long run paper filters cost more than fabric / steel washable filters, but paper blocks fines, and so you'll never have sludge at the bottom of your cup.
3. I've transitioned to Netflix streaming, sort of. I moved from 2-discs-at-a-time plan to 1-disc-at-a-time, and added 1-device streaming. Netflix used to try to slow my DVD rentals down, and now they're in for a doozy as I've streamed hundreds of hours in just one month.
4. Android Marshmallow is incredible! With the new Doze mode, overnight the charge barely drained; when I woke up and looked at my phone I was shocked to see it at about where it was when I fell asleep; usually I'd wake up and have barely anything left. Additionally, Marshmallow brought the ability to individually turn off any app's permissions -- a long-wished-for feature -- which I put it to use, immediately.  Some apps really shouldn't be accessing your Contacts, after all.
5. That New Yorker article on the Cascadian Fault quake, has really shaken up Oregon. OPB's Oregon Field Guide had a special presentation (and a dedicated site) that was actually in the making long before that article came out, and it's really worth watching, to understand what the risks are, and how different jurisdictions have reacted. The bottom line is, that Oregon disasters are so extremely rare, that few can justify the cost to prepare for what amounts to an extremely rare cataclysm; in Japan, they routinely get large earthquakes and big typhoons; Oregon not so much. I just can't see taxpayers paying up for an event that may happen tomorrow or 50 years from now. Instead, it's much easier to visualize households preparing themselves to survive and recover from such cataclysmic events.