Just One Thing: Boring you more with my cool headphone amplifier
I'm not sure at the moment if I'm a nerd or a geek. You have to see the video at the end of the blogcast to try to decide. But I did want to show you the top of my new headphone amp which I showed pictures of the bottom of yesterday (to show off the new capacitors I just installed.) This is what you see when you're actually using the thing, and I guess I'll put a picture of the bottom here too in case you missed yesterday's blog. The new capacitors are the silver tubes that are on each side, about midway from top to bottom.
This is the amp: Mainline 1.1 Headphone Amplifier Kit - Bottlehead
These are the capacitors: V-Cap ODAM Oil Damped Advanced Metalized Audio capacitors
Today's Guests
Jed Babbin is a former deputy undersecretary of Defense, and he was my first editor when I became a political columnist. (That was at Human Events, and then when Jed went to American Spectator I went with him though I don't write much anymore.) We're going to address the macro question of how US should form its China policy and the micro question of how the events with the "spy balloon" fit into that story. Jed wrote about this a few days ago: Enough Balloons for a Circus - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
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Alex Armatas is one of three brothers still actively running the Sam’s No 3 Diner and Bars. GM of the Glendale location. We're going to talk about an insane piece of legislation working its way through the Colorado legislature that would place burdens and costs on the owners/managers of restaurants and bars regarding scheduling employees...a notoriously difficult thing to do far in advance in the food/drink industry.
Sam's No. 3 - Denver's Best Diner (samsno3.com)
Fair Workweek Employment Standards | Colorado General Assembly
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Kim Easton is the CEO of the National Sports Center for the Disabled, one of my very favorite non-profits. I'm very excited to be broadcasting from Winter Park again this year for the annual (except during COVID) Wells Fargo Ski Cup to benefit NSCD. That will be coming up on Friday, February 24. If you come up to Winter Park that day, come say hi during the show...I'll be in what they call the Balcony House.
NSCD: Recreation & competitive programs for people with disabilities.
47th Annual Wells Fargo Ski Cup - NSCD
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Lieutenant General David Deptula (USAF Ret) was a fighter pilot with over 3,000 flying hours, and was the Air Force's first chief of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. He was the principal attack planner for Operation Desert Storm's air campaign, and commanded air operations against al Qaeda over Afghanistan. He's featured in a new book entitled, "Airpower Pioneers: From Billy Mitchell to Dave Deptula." Dave was quoted in a Washington Post article as saying that shooting large high-altitude helium balloons with bullets, even a lot of them, wouldn't bring them down fast enough which is why we need to use missiles. I'm sooooo curious about this.
Three objects shot down over U.S., Canada may be ‘benign’ (Washington Post)
History suggests that bullets wouldn't have worked: Canada Research Balloon Floats Away | AP News
Home - Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies (mitchellaerospacepower.org)
Deptula Bio.pdf (mitchellaerospacepower.org)
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Other Stuff
If you live in or near Denver, this is probably not really news but seeing it in numbers is jarring: Denver among top 10 in nation for auto theft, property crime, rape | FOX31 Denver (kdvr.com)
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Our nation's future is at stake and we have a president who's on the wrong side of absolutely every economic issue: Biden’s Federal Budget Blowout (WSJ.com)
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Americans REALLY don't trust national news media: Half of Americans believe news organizations intend to mislead or misinform, survey shows | AP News
The actual research: AMERICAN VIEWS 2022: Part 2, TRUST MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY – Knight Foundation
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Would you sell it or keep it and, if the former, how much would you want?
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Axios Denver has a good compilation of information (though not very detailed) about the many candidates for mayor of Denver: Denver mayor's race: Meet the candidates on the 2023 ballot - Axios Denver
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Non-neighbors are frustrated too: Neighbors frustrated by trash and tents that line roadways | FOX31 Denver (kdvr.com)
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This isn't just about making fun of someone who clearly didn't look at actual social science data. It's about understanding that people's desire to be "woke" and to say that almost no particular situation or decision a person can make in life is better or worse than any other decision can lead to idiocy and bad outcomes:
But there are lots of actual studies showing that kids raised in married households, on average, do better than kids in other situations. Doesn't mean always, and there are real debates over the mechanisms, some of which you can read about here:
As I write this, the Brookings.edu site seems to be down. So here is the link I'm trying to give you: www.brookings.edu and here is an archived version that's missing a lot of the formatting but you can read the words: The marriage effect: Money or parenting?
https://ifstudies.org/blog/marriage-and-positive-child-outcomes-commitment-signaling-and-sequence
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Duh: Could apps replace websites in the next decade? (nypost.com)
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I don't know what to do with this information but it's interesting and, to me, it's believable: People can tell whether they like a song within seconds, study finds - UPI.com
Today's Videos
I'm not sure this guy doesn't have geek and nerd reversed. I'm not very socially awkward and I think of myself more as a nerd than as a geek. But I love the Venn diagram!
There's dumb, and then there's this
Lay Down Anywhere With This Wearable Beanbag (odditycentral.com)
I like dogs too much to insult one. Or maybe this is a sign of some sort of canine genius...but I doubt it.