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Showing posts with the label Health

Hodgepodge of Stuff

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  It's been a bit since I updated this blog.  Looking back at the past few years, my blogging activity seems to pick up in October and fall off as Spring arrives.  It has happened often enough that I can call it a pattern.  I guess that makes sense, as I spend a lot more time doing things outside when it isn't cold, snowy and dark.  As the days grow shorter, I have more time to think rather than do, so I turn to this blog for an outlet for all that thinking.  Many of my thoughts over the summer that are now ping-ponging around in my head are not defined enough or worthy enough to warrant a full blog entry about them, so I present them to you here as some wisdumb bites. Healthcare As you know, nothing gets me riled up faster than believing I'm being ripped off.  Therefore, I find it impossible to abide our healthcare system.  The for-profit nature of it is absolutely insane.  The billing, and the huge number of people required to administer it...
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My DNA Shocker

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 Did the clickbait title draw you in?  My shock may not be what you expect.  It isn't that I have some genetic condition I didn't know about or found out I was adopted.  My shock was at how primitive our current knowledge about our genome is!   Disclaimers: My readers are all intelligent enough to know this, but nothing in this blog should be considered medical advice since I am not a doctor or geneticist! Amazon links in this blog will hopefully earn me a commission .  I was going to put them in anyway so I might as well get paid for it!  A link does not necessarily mean I endorse that product.  Update: I apparently didn't drive enough traffic to Amazon, so they booted me from their associates program.  Links in this blog now earn me diddly squat. Background I read a book this summer called Healthy Heart, Healthy Brain  that presented what the authors' claim is a new way of looking at heart and brain health.  It focused a lot ...
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Dolphin S200 Pool Cleaning Robot Drive Motor Repair

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 I've spent the past two weeks doing battle with my pool cleaning robot and want to share what I've learned so others can fix their own if they run into the same problem. My robot is a Maytronics Dolphin S200.  The internals are probably very similar or identical to other models, and I think there are even rebranded versions, so the details below likely apply to a fair amount of the population.  These robots are pretty expensive to buy, but they are, in my opinion, the best way to clean my pool.  My pool is surrounded by pine trees and they are always dropping stuff in the water, so I keep my robot in the pool and it runs daily on its timer with little intervention from me and uses much, much less electricity than my previous pressure-side pool cleaner. Rant on Robot Manufacturer Greed There is a lot of markup on these robots.  The S200 I got for $600 in 2017 (and its equivalents) now sell for more than $1000.  The exact same design.  No new technology...
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What does a post-growth society look like?

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  A recent article in The Morning newsletter from the New York Times rekindled a smoldering ember of thought that resides in a corner of my mind.  It has never burned hot enough to inspire me to serious study on the subject, but this time it has at least motivated me enough to write about it.  The topic is growth; how our society and economy are dependent on it, why I think that is problematic, and how it can change.  My thoughts on this subject are not well formed at this time and, unusually for Wisdumb, I offer no answers, only more questions. The Times article covered the aging population of Japan and showed the chart below projecting other major economies and the world as a whole being on the brink of a rapidly aging populous. The article primarily focused on the social impacts of this aging population, in particular that Japan is running out of workers.  It posits the only solution is to bring in more immigrants.  This is what bothers me and stokes tha...
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A Call to End Discrimination

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  You are probably wondering what I, a white dude living in America, know about discrimination.  Sadly, I know more than I wish I did.  You see, I was born with a particular trait that was destined to make my life in our society more difficult.  I have never tried to hide it and I'm not ashamed of it.  I'm proud of it in many respects, and many people around me already know this, but never, until now, have I publicly announced it.  So, here goes:  I am left-handed. Obviously, the previous paragraph was tongue-in-cheek, and I in no way intend to marginalize the struggles of anyone facing discrimination for factors beyond their control.  Rather, it is the opposite.  I like to use humor to ease the tension serious topics.  This blog post is an attempt at empathy and solidarity on my part.  I'll let the reader draw the parallels between my seemingly minor inconveniences with being left-handed and their own experience with discrimination...
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