Give us your tax dollars and don't ask questions. Governor Polis joins a group of liberal Democrat governors to protect us. What's common to trailer tails and bartender tricks?
Give us your tax dollars and don't ask questions.
A bunch of left-leaning news orgs (KUNC, CPR, The Sun, RMPBS) got a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to collaborate on reporting from the state capitol.
In the process of researching this, I found out that the system that was in place to ensure even a tiny modicum of accountability for the fairness and balance of publicly-funded news reporting has now mostly been removed.
That is, the responsibility to make sure that the coverage we're all paying for has been mostly relegated to the outlets that make the coverage. And we all know how fairly they've been reporting lately.
I touched on that briefly in an op ed for Complete. That's linked first below.
In the interval between writing the op ed and now a new story came out which gave a little more detail on how the CPB grant money will be spent. Apparently, part of it will go to CPR News to make their politics podcast "Purplish" a weekly (instead of every so often) thing.
I took the opportunity of this new detail to try and follow up with an email (for the second time) to CPR's Executive Editor Kevin Dale. I wanted to see if I could get an answer to the question I posed for my original op ed but which they left unanswered. That is, how is it that CPR plans to manage accountability for providing "fair, balanced, and accurate" coverage, a legal requirement if they're going to use taxpayer money.
My email is attached as a screenshot (with the story that spurred it linked second below since you can't click links in a screenshot).
As of this writing, I've not gotten a response. The date on the second link below ought to give you a sense of just how long its been waiting for a response.
I think CPR's silence here tells you just about everything you need to know about how CPR feels about being accountable to the people that give them money.
https://current.org/2024/11/how-stations-are-enhancing-statehouse-journalism-with-cpb-funding/
Governor Polis joins a group of liberal Democrat governors to protect us.
In case you were concerned, in case you were up nights, have no fear. Polis, along with a roster (so far as I know) of entirely Democrat governors, is joining forces to (quoting his tweet at the top of this post): "...fortify and uphold essential Constitutional rights nationwide."
I know right?
He's done such a stellar job protecting our First Amendment Right to assemble here in Colorado during COVID. He did equally well protecting our right to worship then too.
Oh, and let's not forget about his stalwart protection for our Second Amendment Rights.
Perhaps just as dumbfounding is the more credulous media coverage (especially from the national outlets).
As an example, consider the Politico article linked ta bottom. I'll leave it to you read the article, but I would like to highlight the blinkered, obtuse writing that guides many in the media.
Quoting from the article:
"Governors Safeguarding Democracy is non-partisan ..."
Yes, certainly. This effort has no relation to party politics at all. How the reporter here managed to choke that one out with a straight face is beyond me. When you are dealing with people who make their living by playing with words you will see things like this.
One last important fact. You can at least take comfort in the knowledge that Polis and his merry band of Democrat governors are at least not expecting you to chip in on this sham. According to the article, this effort is privately-funded. As long as it stays that way, Polis is free to launch whatever efforts he likes.
Now, anyone care to place a bet as to whether or not the media will be extolling efforts to block Federal immigration enforcement in a Democrat-controlled state as virtuous after excoriating Texas when they tried to enforce immigration law AGAINST Federal wishes?
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/13/blue-states-unite-resist-federal-pressure-trump-00189204
Why does a spoon on top prevent a drip when pouring out of a cup?
That time of the week again. This'll be the last post til Sunday and that means it's time for something fun, in this case physics, and not related to politics.
The FB video linked first below shows someone's nifty little trick to pour out of a cup and not get a spill.
The question is: why does this work? Why would putting a spoon there guide the water into the cup?
It's not so much the fact that it's a spoon, nor that it sort of acts like a funnel. The answer is related to the way that fluids interact with surfaces.
Fluids (gas and liquid both) like to "cling" to the surfaces they pass over.** As they pass over a solid object, they will tend to want to follow the shape of that solid object.
You can see that in the picture at the top of this post: the heat of a human hand causes air to warm and pass over it. As you can see, the air coming over the hand tends to follow it and will even continue (thanks to inertia, but that's another post) to try and stay in that same curve upon breaking free from the surface. Note how the air "wraps" around the end of the thumb for instance.
This "cling" has pretty important physical effects that designers need to reckon with. Think about a rock in the middle of a fast moving river. After the water passes the rock, it forms an eddy behind it. That eddy actually has some suction to it. Think about how a leaf can get stuck.
It's also why the spoon helps get the drink into the other cup without spills. Absent the spoon, the drink wants to "cling" to the cup you pour from and thus it wraps around the top of the cup until gravity pulls it down onto the counter. Adding the spoon gives it something different to stick to and you let it stick just long enough that when it falls it falls into the lower cup.
Air does the exact same thing as it passes over objects moving through it. When the air hits the back end of the object, it wants to stick to the boundary of the object and curl around it. This can cause eddies in the air. These eddies, just like those for rocks in a river, pull back.
In other words, designers have to contend with air resistance not only for trying to push an object through the air and move the air out of its way, but they must also try to prevent suction on the back end caused by the air's seeming reticence to leave the surface.
Have you ever seen the "tails' on semi trailers? See the screenshot for what I mean if you're not familiar.
They are there to counter the tendency for air to curve around the back end and form an eddy. That is, the tails allow for a more gradual return of the air to the air stream. This lessens the formation of eddies behind the trailer and with smaller eddies there is less suction. There is less resistance to the truck's movement by the air literally pulling on the rear of the trailer.
So, something to keep in mind. If you are going to design something to move through a fluid, beware of not just how you shape the front, but also the back. Get that fluid back in touch with itself gently and not abruptly.
That's it for today. Have a good rest of your Friday and back at it Sunday!
**Well, let me be more precise, the bit of fluid in direct contact with the surface, the so-called boundary layer, stops moving. Because the fluid is attracted to itself (it has viscosity), the layer at the surface which doesn't move makes the layer just above the surface go slower, the layer above that slightly less but still slower, etc.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/3804678606437777
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_layer
Polis stated "essential Constitutional rights" (rights are inherent and protected by the Constitution). Obviously, he doesn't consider many of them essential.