Day: April 30, 2019

Thinking of the Rawhide theme, but waiting, waiting, waiting instead of rolling, rolling, rolling

benfell

So, I’m starving to death and a delivery is late. Very late.

But supposedly they are on their way now. And yes, I’m in my new apartment. It’s actually a little bigger than I remembered and I actually have no walls that adjoin other tenants. On the noise front, I’ll be worried about my downstairs neighbors and the hall outside my door.

Updates

  1. Originally published, April 30, 4:55 pm.
  2. April 30, 10:42 pm:
    • The furniture did arrive. I now await my bed and an Internet connection. Those should arrive tomorrow.
    • Robert Mueller didn’t like William Barr’s letter about the report either.[1]
    • A judge ruled that Congress members’ emolument suit against Donald Trump may proceed.[2]

Cellular phones

Yes, be afraid. The science on potential hazards is incomplete.[3] Oh, and actually read the story rather than the headlines attached to it.

That doesn’t mean there’s actually a danger. It just means that we shouldn’t be over-confident that there is no danger. Which, of course, is a more nuanced answer than anyone wants to hear.

Margi Murphy, “The truth about whether your mobile phone is giving you cancer,” Telegraph, April 29, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/04/29/truth-whether-mobile-phone-damaging-health/

Gadgets

What I find especially infuriating are the beeps you can’t do anything about. On uninterruptible power supplies. I try to get bigger ones so I have some resilience to power outages—yes, I like to keep accessing the Internet during them. But there’s no way to tell it okay, I know there’s an outage, but I want to keep working for a little bit. I mean, this is what its battery is for.

Beth Teitell, “Second-hand beep rage? It’s a thing,” Boston Globe, April 29, 2019, https://www2.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/04/29/second-hand-beep-rage-thing/4ZaKQDJRJlwFDHMZJ90nbI/story.html

Fraternities

It really all comes back to the question of what the university is for. Administrators tend to think it’s for whatever brings in revenue (Science Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Athletics, and, it would seem,[4] fraternities). A lot of students think it’s so they can get a degree and then a job, but refuse to conflate this with the learning that’s supposed to accompany that degree. Elite students often think it’s about “networking,” such as so-called “Greek Life,” but again, the learning isn’t really considered relevant. Even the “activists” here are likely convinced that they already know all the answers.

But I have a bridge for sale to anyone who actually believes a fraternity’s claim that they’re behaving themselves now.

Sarah Brown, “Anger Over Greek Life Reaches Boiling Point at Swarthmore, Where Dozens Are Occupying a Frat House,” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2019, https://www.chronicle.com/article/Anger-Over-Greek-Life-Reaches/246205

James Comey

Benjamin Wittes, “Five Things I Learned From the Mueller Report,” Atlantic, April 29, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/ben-wittes-five-conclusions-mueller-report/588259/

Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky, “Mueller complained that Barr’s letter did not capture ‘context’ of Trump probe,” Washington Post, April 30, 2019, https://beta.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mueller-complained-that-barrs-letter-did-not-capture-context-of-trump-probe/2019/04/30/d3c8fdb6-6b7b-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html

Donald Trump

Patti Davis, “Dear Republicans: Stop using my father, Ronald Reagan, to justify your silence on Trump,” Washington Post, April 30, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dear-republicans-stop-using-my-father-ronald-reagan-to-justify-your-silence-on-trump/2019/04/30/ed61c6de-6b50-11e9-8f44-e8d8bb1df986_story.html

Jonathan O’Connell, Ann E. Marimow, and Carol D. Leonnig, “Congressional Democrats’ emoluments lawsuit targeting President Trump’s private business can proceed, judge says,” Washington Post, April 30, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congressional-democrats-emoluments-lawsuit-targeting-president-trumps-private-business-can-proceed-judge-says/2019/04/30/ae2ae6be-5b9f-11e9-a00e-050dc7b82693_story.html

  1. [1]Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky, “Mueller complained that Barr’s letter did not capture ‘context’ of Trump probe,” Washington Post, April 30, 2019, https://beta.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mueller-complained-that-barrs-letter-did-not-capture-context-of-trump-probe/2019/04/30/d3c8fdb6-6b7b-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html↩
  2. [2]Jonathan O’Connell, Ann E. Marimow, and Carol D. Leonnig, “Congressional Democrats’ emoluments lawsuit targeting President Trump’s private business can proceed, judge says,” Washington Post, April 30, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congressional-democrats-emoluments-lawsuit-targeting-president-trumps-private-business-can-proceed-judge-says/2019/04/30/ae2ae6be-5b9f-11e9-a00e-050dc7b82693_story.html↩
  3. [3]Margi Murphy, “The truth about whether your mobile phone is giving you cancer,” Telegraph, April 29, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/04/29/truth-whether-mobile-phone-damaging-health/↩
  4. [4]Sarah Brown, “Anger Over Greek Life Reaches Boiling Point at Swarthmore, Where Dozens Are Occupying a Frat House,” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2019, https://www.chronicle.com/article/Anger-Over-Greek-Life-Reaches/246205↩