News and Views

That’s what this Supreme Court decision means to me: affordable health care, and complete coverage.

It means that I can have coverage over my urinary tract, the whole of which is excluded by my current insurance because of a benign bladder polyp removed 12 years ago. As a 61-year old man with an excluded urinary tract, I’m a little nervous. You know, prostate and all that.

I still have to wait until January 2014 when insurance can no longer exclude pre-existing conditions. That’s also the date when insurance companies can no longer set dollar limits on the annual amount of coverage, though lifetime limits on essential care were already abolished in 2010. And if I made an error on my insurance application, since 2010 my coverage can no longer be rescinded.

A plurality of Americans disapprove of the overall AHCA, though a majority approve of many of its specific requirements. The individual mandate is the part that most bothers me: Can Congress require everyone to buy insurance? I’m surprised the Supreme Court approved it; I really expected it to be struck down. But I think it’s an essential part of the overall plan.

It remains to be seen how it will all fall out in practice. Many people who are working just so they can afford insurance will be able to retire, which may open up job vacancies and reduce unemployment. Will overall medical costs go down, as the bill intended, or will medicine become more expensive from increased bureaucracy and loopholes in the law?

One thing I do know: Our current system has long been “socialized medicine”. If a person without insurance and no money to pay a doctor needs health care, they go to an emergency room which cannot legally turn them away, and the rest of us end up sharing the cost.

June solar energy generation was just about the same as May, and the savings were about the same too — $175 saved in May, and $185 in June. The days are a little longer in June, but the warmer temperatures reduce the solar panel efficiency too, so it’s just about a wash. I’m still generating well over half my energy used.

July will probably be down a little in solar energy because of higher temperatures (and hopefully clouds from the monsoon), but since the electricity rates are higher in July, the savings should be about the same again.

We are home. On Monday we left our Maine B&B and drove down to Boston where we spent the night.

In the morning we visited the JFK Presidential Library and Museum. This is the first Presidential Library I have visited and I enjoyed it. It took me back to the late 50s and early 60s, and I learned quite a bit.

We got home about 11:00 last night, which our internal clocks said was 2:00am, so we are resting up this morning.

Acadia was the first National Park east of the Mississippi. It’s on an island just off the coast of Maine, and contains the highest mountain on the east coast, Cadillac Mountain, at 1563 feet tall. They claim that at certain times of the year Cadillac Mountain is the first point in the US to see the sunrise.

We went on a hike through the Acadian forest.

After the park, we enjoyed another lobster dinner.

It seems that every corner in every village has a restaurant or two selling lobster dinners, or lobster sandwiches, or lobster tacos, etc. They really aren’t much cheaper here than in Phoenix, but they are very fresh.

On the way back to the B&B, we came by these cows grazing in a field. At first glance I thought they were Holsteins, but when I looked closer it was clear they were not. I seem to remember seeing this kind of cow before, but I don’t remember where.

We are are staying at a very nice Bed and Breakfast inn on the central coast of Maine, called the Weskeag Inn. It’s an old three story farmhouse modernized and adapted to accommodate up to 20 guests. There are only 4 or 5 here this weekend, so it’s very quiet.

Here’s our room, small but comfortable:

From the rear deck you can see the “reversing falls”. There is a narrow neck of water between the ocean and a small bay. As the tide comes in and out, the water rushes in and out through that neck, reversing direction twice a day. It really flows fast, like a swift river. I’m not sure if you can see it from the picture, but it was really pouring through.

We went exploring today. Here’s a deserted beach near the inn.

This is a picture of a mile-long breakwater built in 1899 to protect the port of Rockland from the “Nor-easters”, as a local man told me.

The picture was taken from the end of the breakwater where there is a still functioning lighthouse built shortly after the breakwater. We walked all the way out and back, watching lobster boats harvesting their traps as we walked over the uneven boulders. The breakwater itself was constructed of large slabs of granite, quarried on a nearby island and transported on steamboats. Quite an engineering feat for 1899.

Maine is beautiful, but this part at least is more civilized and prosperous than I expected. There are lots of nice restaurants and well maintained houses everywhere, though no large cities nearby.

We had a lobster dinner this evening, and may have another tomorrow.

We’ve been in New Haven, Connecticut now for 3 days. It’s a very nice little town/city. The conference went as well as they usually go. Our two talks also went well, with lots of questions (that’s usually a sign of interest). Here’s a picture taken on the campus of Yale, a block from our hotel.

On our second day in the hotel, the bathroom ceiling started dripping water … on the toilet… while it was occupied. They sent up someone who fixed it, but it started dripping again that evening. The manager was very apologetic, and moved us into a suite for the last night, along with two free buffet breakfasts. I guess it was worth getting dripped on.

Tomorrow we will drive up to Maine where we will spend a few days in a B&B.

Gisele and I are in the City this week. We’re staying in a Holiday Inn about 2 blocks from Central Park, and one subway stop from Broadway and Times Square. We are here with our friends Les and Sonia.

On Friday we went to the 911 Memorial at Ground Zero, and then Chinatown. Saturday was the Guggenheim Museum and Times Square.

Yesterday we went to a matinee performance of Porgy and Bess. The Tonys were presented shortly after our show ended, and we found that it had received the award for best musical revival, and the actress playing Bess was best leading actress in a musical. Personally I enjoyed the play, but can’t appreciate the operatic style of singing. I think it might have made sense in unamplified history when they needed to project their voice through the whole theater, but in modern days I think they should update to a more natural open sound. Anyway, I guess I’m unrefined.

Today we are going to the Museum of Natural History. Tomorrow we take a train to New Haven, Connecticut where Les and I will attend a biology conference. Les is presenting a paper on some work we did together.

Then on Friday Gisele and I are driving up to Maine where we will stay at a bed and breakfast for 3 nights.

Meanwhile, Derek is home taking care of Apollo and our house. It’s nice to have someone we can depend on and trust.

The UCS is preparing to release a report titled, “Electric Vehicles’ Global Warming Emissions and Fuel-Cost Savings Across the United States“. You can download the full report here.

They compare electric cars to gasoline-only and hybrid cars, and find that depending on where you live, electric cars (charged from the grid) generate the same amount of global warming gases as cars with MPG ranging from around 38 in Michigan to almost 80 in California. The difference depends on the source of fuel for the electricity that charges your EV. Looking at alternative sources of energy, they estimate the following MPG equivalents:

So if your local electricity is generated totally from burning coal, your electric car would generate the same amount of global-warming emissions as a gas-burning car that got about 30 MPG. They state clearly in the text that they are looking at well-to-wheels global warming impact, including extracting, refining and delivering gasoline. I assume the relatively high emissions for solar (500 MPG) includes the impact of manufacturing solar panels.

On the cost side, they conclude that electric cars are much cheaper to operate than gas or hybrid, saving the owner hundreds of dollars per year, and several thousands of dollars over the life of the car.

Our electricity here in SRP Arizona is slightly cheaper than 11 cents (averaged over a year), and gas is slightly higher than $3.50, so the savings would be a little better. But both prices are expected to rise over the next few years, and who knows which will rise faster.

Summer is (unofficially) here. The Weather Service is predicting 112 degrees today, 2 degrees over the record for the date.

At least it’s dry and the nights are still cooling off into the 70s. We leave our windows open most of the night and sleep comfortably, but that’s going to end in a few weeks when the monsoon brings in moisture and the humidity comes up. In recent years there were several weeks in a row where the low was in the 90s. We’re still waiting for our first ever 100+ low. I’m not in any hurry for that.