No lockdowns and a small fraction of the death rate in the US. How? The “Three C’s”.

Wasn’t going to watch this one, but I like Mahomes and Allen is a rising star. Even the Guardian (UK) picked up this story. I have to agree, perhaps the best two minutes of football ever. Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers out, and Allen and Mahomes are now the ones to watch. I’ll call this the official generational changing of the guard. And look at this win / lose probability chart.

Chiefs v Bills: did we just witness the greatest two minutes in NFL history?

According to the Economist magazine, the excess deaths during COVID-19 are over 4x the official death count.

The pandemic’s true death toll

We are coming up on the one year anniversary of what I call the Big Freeze. There seems to have been little done to fix the root of the problem, freezing gas pipelines. From the Texas Monthly article:

You might think that the natural gas industry, having scored a multibillion-dollar windfall at the expense of other Texans, might show some magnanimity in victory and agree to take steps to ensure against future blackouts. But you would be wrong. The gas industry continues to fight ferociously to avoid the kinds of regulations that are commonplace in other states. It has boosted by millions of dollars its campaign contributions to friendly politicians, including the three officials leading the Railroad Commission.

The Texas Electric Grid Failure Was a Warm-up

Heard about this and had to go to an industry magazine (“Energy”) to get the story. Seems the folks in the gas pipeline business, who brought you last years disaster, are at it again. Remember this was very profitable for the energy industry, even as homes and businesses were destryoyed and lives lost. Here we go again.

Vistra Claims ‘Extortion’ by Pipeline Company, Says Natural Gas Supply to Texas Power Plants Threatened

It’s Monday. A ham bone and some Camillia red beans. Doing it old school in a big iron pot on the back burner.

I didn’t know there was a term for this. Basically how to be realistic and optimistic at the same time , even in bad conditions. Named for Jim Stockdale, more famous for being Ross Perot’s running mate in his 3rd party presidential bid.

THE STOCKDALE PARADOX

Listening to a little West Texas / panhandle music this morning.

Just a popular press article on the current state of supercomputing. While the US and the Chinese were out-muscling each other, the Japanese took the lead with a better design. From Al Jazeera, which is becoming my go-to source for international news.

Visualising the race to build the world’s fastest supercomputers