168 in and out

While on hold trying to get a coronavirus test for Deb, I suggested we just go down to the nearest city testing place. With the hold music blaring from my pocket, we drove down there instead of walking because my (psoas?) is still recovering.

There was nobody waiting when we got there. After two hours on the phone attempting to get a test, Deb was tested and we were home again inside half an hour.

Apparently "let your fingers do the walking" has gone full circle. 

My brother, a physician, wanted me to know this:

It's never too late to start wearing a mask at home. Any amount of risk reduction is better than none.

So, back to the subject of which technologies are going to save our butts.

Because we're all addicted to cars, we're having a real hard time seeing anything else. So of course it makes sense that if we're going to keep on keeping on hauling four thousand pounds of metal around with us everywhere we go, then we'd want to power our electric car with something that won't run out, like sun or wind, or in some people's minds, natural gas, coal or nukes.

But personally, I think the car is on its way out. (I wrote a book about what I think will replace it, Self-Driving Mystery.) In the future, I think we may only haul around a hundred or two hundred pounds with us.

This will require seriously less lithium, and less energy overall. 

I'm not sure breaking the world's nuclear waste down into small batteries which will then no doubt get tossed away in all the usual places (dumps, kitchen drawers) to decay for the next few thousand years is the best best idea, but hey, these people are at least thinking.

They're nowhere close to powering a car yet. Or even a bicycle.

Or even a phone.

Right now, these "nuclear diamond batteries" are about 7% efficient. (Meaning 93% of their energy is wasted.) After 150 years of development, gasoline engines are...15% efficient!

(Electric cars are 80% efficient, but the electricity generation is another story.)

And great news, you'll be able to hand your batteries down to your ancestors! Like, for a long time. Imagine that, the old family battery.

Let's just hope it's not a leaky one.

Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo caught Cov2. 

When he let some people into his studio.

And he's reported from the tube side. He said he had no idea what was going on. He thought he'd been abducted. Time disappeared while he was on the ventilator.

And apparently, talking to his family was the ray of sanity that helped him out. 

So yeah, if you know anyone who winds up in the ICU, make an effort to talk to them, however you can. (It's not always easy.)

Not a great sign to see friends abroad saying stuff like this.

Will irony save us?

At top is my savior. Plus some yoga stretches.