People in Reserve, LA are 50x more likely to get cancer than the rest of the US.  From the Guardian.

In 2006 we spent a summer in Japan at the University of Aizu in Aizu-Wakamatsu in Fukushima prefecture.  Just today I found out that the original Japanese settlers in the US came from the same town, Aizu-Wakamatsu.  They settled in northern California where they planned on producing tea and silk.  They called their settlement the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony.

It turns out that the settlement didn’t last long, but the site itself remains and is a part of the National Register of Historic Places.  In fact, this summer is the 150th anniversary of its founding, celebrated by the 2019 Sesquicentennial Wakamatsu Farm Festival.

I remember certain people in politics getting all worked up over deficits, even as we pulled out of the worst crash in modern history.  Yet, here we are at peace and in a time of prosperity yet we are putting an unprecedented amount on the national credit card, even as our president badgers the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.  What could go wrong?  From Liz Anne Sonders on Twitter.

This blog started as a small protest against the abuses of Facebook and other enterprises that exploit our privacy for profit.   Ran across this talk by T-Bone Burnett at the recent SXSW 2019.  It is worth a listen (was looking for a video, but couldn’t find one).

Music Keynote T Bone Burnett’s Powerful Keynote Speech

(Soundcloud link).

About a year ago I saw some electric buses in Denver (Electric Busses), and found out Austin is trying a few out.  Talked to a friend in Houston and they are having a look but haven’t bought any yet.  This can be a big deal when they go into broad use.  From the Austin Monitor:

Capital Metro to buy last wave of diesel, first electric buses

Stopped by Kura, the conveyer sushi place on Lamar and Airport.  Pretty good.  Stopped by the Ranch 99 Market after to get some katsu sauce.  Got all sorts of other stuff too.

Related to the previous posting:

From the PBS Newshour:

In Louisiana, are billions of dollars in corporate tax exemptions paying off?

Still finding devices trying to log into my new router since I added password protection (Router Flash Fail).  This time it was our two Roomba knock-offs, which need to talk to the WiFi, at least if you want to control them from an app.  Wonder if there are any more cut off WiFi devices lurking around the house.