Brewers vs. Mets, postponed due to rain.
Cubs 1, Padres 0.
The Brewers’ magic number remains 5. Any combination of Brewer wins and Cub losses adding up to that number will ensure that the Brewers end the season with a better record than the Cubs.
The Brewers have 7 games remaining; the Cubs have 6.
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Posted in Sports
Comments Off on Tragic Irony
Posted in General Foolishness
Tagged basic irony, cnn, irony, James Heselden, morbid humor, segway
The EPA recommends setting your water heater to no higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. But OSHA recommends setting it to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Why the difference?
“If you turn your water heater down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit; you will cut your water-heating costs by 6-10 percent,” says EPA. Doing so also uses less energy.
But 120 degrees is not hot enough to kill the Legionella pneumophila bacteria. Legionnaire’s disease causes both flu-like and pneumonia-like symptoms. The disease is most often caught by inhaling the spiral-shaped bacteria via water mist, such as in the shower or near a lake or stream. That’s why OSHA recommends setting your water heater hot enough to kill the bacterium – 140 degrees.
Legionnaire’s disease got its name when the Pennsylvania American Legion celebrated America’s 1976 bicentennial at a hotel with contaminated water. More than 200 people were treated for pneumonia. 34 died. The newly discovered Legionella pneumophila bacteria turned out to be the cause. That and other bacteria are why OSHA recommends 140 degrees.
EPA and OSHA are free to publish all the recommendations they want. But hopefully they won’t impose one standard or other on the entire country. One is expensive; the other would kill people.
Fortunately, you are still free to set your water heater how you choose. If you place a high value on saving money and energy, and you have your health, 120 degrees is the way to go. But if you are elderly or infirm, or you have children in your household, 140 degrees is probably better for you. When it comes to your water heater, you know best. Hopefully OSHA and EPA will continue to recognize that.
(via Sam Kazman)
Comments Off on Regulation of the Day 151: Water Heaters
Posted in Regulation of the Day, The New Religion
Tagged american legion, bicentennial, energy, epa, Legionella pneumophila, legionnaire's disease, OSHA, regulation, Regulation of the Day, water heaters
Brewers 7, Marlins 1.
Cardinals 8, Cubs 7.
The Brewers’ magic number is 5. Any combination of Brewer wins and Cub losses adding up to that number will ensure that the Brewers end the season with a better record than the Cubs.
Both teams have 7 games remaining.
Today was also probably the final home game as a Brewer for both Prince Fielder and Trevor Hoffman. Fielder is expected to be traded during the offseason. Hoffman will likely sign elsewhere if he doesn’t retire. This blog will miss them both.
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Posted in Sports
Tagged brewers, cardinals, cubs, marlins, Prince Fielder, trevor hoffman
Marlins 4, Brewers 0.
Cubs 7, Cardinals 3.
The Brewers’ magic number remains 7. Any combination of Brewer wins and Cub losses adding up to that number will ensure that the Brewers end the season with a better record than the Cubs.
Both teams have 8 games remaining.
With a fiercely partisan election just over a month away, the concluding paragraph of Ludwig von Mises’ Liberalism is a refreshing rejection of party politics. Mises, of course, uses liberalism in the original sense of the word:
No sect and no political party has believed that it could afford to forgo advancing its cause by appealing to men’s senses. Rhetorical bombast, music and song resound, banners wave, flowers and colors serve as symbols, and the leaders seek to attach their followers to their own person. Liberalism has nothing to do with all this. It has no party flower and no party color, no party song and no party idols, no symbols and no slogans. It has the substance and the arguments. These must lead it to victory.
-Ludwig von Mises, Liberalism: The Classical Tradtion, p. 151.
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Posted in Books, Elections, Great Thinkers, Political Animals
Tagged election, illiberal, liberalism, mises, partisan, partisanship, party politics, politics
Brewers 6, Marlins 2.
Cardinals 7, Cubs 1.
The Brewers’ magic number is now 7. Any combination of Brewer wins and Cub losses adding up to that number will ensure that the Brewers end the season with a better record than the Cubs.
Both teams have 9 games remaining.
Brewers 8, Marlins 3.
Giants 13, Cubs 0.
The Brewers’ magic number is now 9. Any combination of Brewer wins and Cub losses adding up to that number will ensure that the Brewers end the season with a better record than the Cubs.
Both teams have 10 games remaining.
CEI Senior Fellow Greg Conko, author of The Frankenfood Myth, talks about the promise and imagined peril of genetically modified salmon. The controversial creature reaches normal size twice as fast as unmodified salmon.
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Posted in CEI Podcast, Everybody Panic, The New Religion
Tagged cei, frankenfish, frankenfood, genetic engineering, genetically modified salmon, gm, gm animals, gm food, gm salmon, Greg Conko, salmon
The TARP bank bailout program polls poorly. 58 percent of Americans think the bailouts were unnecessary. Timothy Geithner, in recent remarks, subtly reminded voters that the hated bailouts were originally a Republican proposal. It began with George W. Bush, remember.
This is a clever bit of strategy from Geithner. President Obama and Congressional Democrats get most of the blame for TARP. And they deserve plenty of blame for not repealing the program. But Geithner is right. TARP began with Republicans.
The midterm elections will probably be very kind to Republicans. Geithner is saying, in effect, “be careful what you wish for.”
He’s right. If the GOP does regain control of Congress, little good is likely to come of it. They will probably do a decent job opposing the White House’s proposals. That could slow spending growth.
But what the country needs are spending cuts. And Republicans have serially proven they can’t be trusted with the public purse.
When Republicans last held power they passed the largest new entitlement program since the Great Society, nearly doubled federal spending in 8 years, gave billions of dollars in subsidies to businesses and farmers, and generally made a mess of things. The TARP bailouts and the largest spending stimulus in U.S. history were their closing flourishes.
Republicans did all the things they ran against in 1994. Many GOP candidates are saying similar things in 2010. But remember Geithner’s counsel about TARP. Only a fool would believe that Republicans will actually cut spending. Beltway fever catches quickly. And it’s contagious.
Of course, Democrats are just as bad. As I say with every election involving Democrats and Republicans, whoever wins, we lose. The best that we independents can do is nudge the intellectual climate in a better direction. Geithner has kindly reminded us that we need to redouble our efforts on both conservatives and progressives.
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Posted in Bailouts, Economics, Elections, Political Animals
Inertia Wins! 