Politics

GW Johnson · 2020-04-17 21:24:01

Kbd512:

Believe me, I do understand! At our age, both my wife and I are having significant health problems ourselves, although not as bad as what you describe for your wife. We do sincerely hope she gets her surgery soon, and that the results are good. If there is something we might do to help you, please tell me. It will be done.

What I saw today when the governor announced his plans to return to normalcy sounded pretty good. One thing he mentioned was resumption of treating serious illnesses that have nothing to do with the pandemic, which sounds like it applies directly to your wife's case. This is because, unlike in NY, here in Texas we never saturated our health care system with virus cases. Hindsight, but better than nothing, for sure.

I got the distinct impression that as the epidemic pulse subsides, things will become far more normal, for all of is. That is as it should be, as long as we watch very carefully for epidemic resurgence hotspots. That's where the testing is so crucial. The governor prefaced that policy revision with reference to isolating epidemic hotspots and getting lots of test data, but all in all, it sounds good. Please keep me informed how she does!

I think you said your wife is of Vietnamese extraction. Mine is half Japanese, and a naturalized citizen, so I do understand, far better than most, about your circumstances. Tell her for me best wishes and get well soon!!!

GW

kbd512 · 2020-04-20 19:43:22

GW,

Thank you for your kind offer. My wife is okay for now. We're in a holding pattern at the moment. When we're on the other side of this, I'll let everyone know how it went. The first two surgeries were successful, so my hope is that this upcoming surgery will also be successful.

elderflower · 2020-04-22 09:23:04

Good luck to you both, kbd

kbd512 · 2020-04-22 16:18:22

elderflower,

Thank you for your support.

GW Johnson · 2020-05-09 12:19:43

Kbd512:

How is your wife doing? Are you able now to get her scheduled for what she needs?

GW

SpaceNut · 2020-05-09 18:11:52

That might be possible in areas that have had low corona cases and have not brought them into the hospitals but have farmed them out to others.
But still hope all goes well...

SpaceNut · 2020-05-10 10:29:45

Remember the state check points that were called out as legal and now we have South Dakota Gov. Noem clashes with Sioux tribes over coronavirus checkpoints

Both tribes have been allowing non-resident access to the reservations for essential business only -- with visitors required to fill out a health questionnaire.

It is their right to do the same governor so get over it.

GW Johnson · 2020-05-10 12:24:45

Politics is a bitch, ain't it?

GW

SpaceNut · 2020-05-10 17:22:04

No dount when those not wearing the mask are now scared of others that have turned up positive in the WH ...wonder where is that recommendation now to not being told to wear a mask...of course they are now taking the resource to daily quick test and such which still has a negative error rate of 15%....pence has gone into quarantine....

kbd512 · 2020-05-10 17:27:19

GW,

My wife had her pre-op screening this Friday. Her surgeon will perform the craniotomy early Tuesday morning. Hopefully, third time's a charm. This time around, her surgeon is exercising the nuclear option. She's going to receive radiation therapy after the surgery in an effort to inhibit regrowth of the tumor. I expect that around this time on Tuesday evening, I'll know how the surgery went. No visitors are allowed, although oddly enough, that's probably a good thing. I expect she'll be in the hospital for a week or so, followed by a couple weeks to a month of recovery time at home.

SpaceNut · 2020-05-10 17:30:07

Good to hear progress on getting her back to normal is hopeful.

Good luck.

GW Johnson · 2020-05-11 08:18:36

Kbd512:

Wish her good luck and get well quickly for me!

GW

elderflower · 2020-05-11 15:01:29

good luck, Kbd.

kbd512 · 2020-05-12 12:09:49

GW / SpaceNut / elderflower,

First, thank you for the kind words.

Second, I just received a call from the hospital. She's out of surgery now, she's awake, and is able to answer questions. Her surgeon said the surgery went well and that there were no complications. If everything goes well, she'll probably be out of the hospital in a few days.

GW Johnson · 2020-05-13 17:01:40

That is VERY good news, Kbd512. Please keep us posted.

GW

kbd512 · 2020-05-13 20:48:48

GW,

I received an update from her nurse this morning and the nurse said her doctor thinks she'll be ready to go home tomorrow. I also had a video chat with my wife this evening and she sounds almost completely normal now, unlike yesterday. She said her head still hurts, just not as bad as yesterday.

kbd512 · 2020-05-14 13:33:39

GW,

My wife is home from the hospital. The surgery did a number on her, but she's up and walking around. She says she no longer has a headache, but her head / face is slightly swollen and "burns"? Maybe some nerve damage from where they had to cut through her scalp... I dunno. They gave her a bag of ice to help with the swelling. Anyway, she's talking on her cell phone with her sister and her friends, so that's good. It'll be awhile before everything is completely normal. No short term memory loss this time around. She's plan on working on Monday, if you can believe that.

GW Johnson · 2020-05-14 15:00:13

Kbd512:

That's wonderful news. Take care of her.

GW

louis · 2020-05-14 16:00:13

Glad to hear things have gone well and that your wife is making a good recovery after the op, kbd.

SpaceNut · 2020-05-14 16:57:28

This is very good news to hear for your wife and for you kbd512.....

SpaceNut · 2020-05-19 16:15:56

Trump signs order directing agencies to cut federal regulations

To what end....to hope for lower costs, to be able to trash more of the earth to cause more disease to humans?

This is one of those roll backs EPA staff warned that mileage rollbacks had flaws. Trump officials ignored them

kbd512 · 2020-05-19 18:16:45

SpaceNut,

The federal government doesn't need to regulate every stupid little thing in America, no matter what you believe.

Current technological limitations can't always provide the end result that radical environmentalists want and their purported "solutions" are often worse than the problems they're trying to solve, just in different ways. If the zealots at the EPA were truly concerned with fuel economy, then they wouldn't have pushed emissions equipment on diesel engines that significantly reduced achievable fuel economy. In other words, the emissions standards were set too high. Mandating arbitrary changes before available technology can deliver the desired results is a bad way to formulate emissions standards.

There is no practical replacement for gas and diesel engines at this time. Stop demanding impossible things and wait for technology to catch up with your belief system / environmental agenda. If you can't do that, then government needs to bear the cost to develop the technologies required to produce the emissions and fuel economy that they demand, rather than private industry.

If you think we're moving too slowly, then stop complaining long enough to develop the solution. Show us the way, bubba. Stop demanding that others do what you cannot and produce the technology you think is the solution to the problem you claim needs to be solved.

SpaceNut · 2020-05-19 19:39:51

Coronavirus cause a 17% drop in global carbon emissions but will it last or matter as it seems that the price of gas and diesel had nothing to do with the claimed EPA regulations on fuel costs...only the emission equipment on the vehicle which is not reducing the emissions only monitoring the unspent fuel in the exhaust.

kbd512 · 2020-05-21 11:41:16

SpaceNut,

The claim that the taxes on a gallon of gas or diesel doesn't affect the price is such an obvious lie that I would think anyone who can count would never buy into it. The federal excise tax is 18.4 cents on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel. California residents are now paying 98 cents in total taxes on a gallon of gas. At current crude prices, they're paying more in taxes than they are for the crude oil. The emissions equipment on diesel engines costs several thousand dollars. If you think that isn't the case, then go look at the replacement costs for those parts.

Fuel economy improvements do reduce emissions, but the emissions equipment reduces fuel economy through pumping losses from the back pressure it creates. All piston-driven internal combustion engines are just more sophisticated air pumps. There's no practical way to capture the emissions from small internal combustion engines. As I've stated many times before, we can use light hydrocarbons in fuel cells and that will, at a minimum, cut current emissions in half. Beyond that, decreasing aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance are also important at highway speeds. A hybrid that combines a small displacement combustion engine with a bank of super capacitors is sufficient to provide the acceleration required to quickly achieve highway speed, if mass-manufactured fuel cells prove to be too expensive. Whenever battery energy density and cost drastically improves, then we can replace hybrids and fuel cells with batteries.

I'm following a logical technological progression, rather than trying to leapfrog to technologies that clearly aren't ready yet:

1. large displacement low-efficiency manually-controlled combustion engines
2. low displacement high-efficiency computer-controlled combustion engines
3. hybrid low displacement computer-controlled combustion engine combined with super capacitors or batteries
4. high energy density batteries
5. high energy density super capacitors

Regulations should be TRL-based. Putting ink on paper doesn't make new technologies ready to use. If the technology can't reliably provide the desired performance, then you don't create regulations that mandate its use.

GW Johnson · 2020-05-21 11:50:09

Well, gasoline-burning engines are fairly clean these days, due to the emissions technology they employ. The only thing in the exhaust we cannot effectively deal with is carbon dioxide these days.

Diesels recently have also become cleaner, with their own emission technology. It's better than a decade ago, although there is still a long way to go cleaning up all the PM2.5 soot.

The biggest combustion polluters are now the power plants and industrial equipment, not so much the transportation. Even with soot and ash scrubbers, there's just not a lot you can do with a coal plant smokestack. Natural gas is far cleaner, and has been cheaper by far in recent years. The delay is more about waiting for end-of-life with existing equipment than anything else. These things can easily last half a century in service. That's just life. It takes time to build and install new stuff of such types.

GW

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