Axodys 10C Edition

Technically a trike, with one big wheel in back and two smaller ones under the front cargo bin, it can carry up to 660 pounds — not including the rider. A 1,000-watt Bosch motor powered by twin batteries does most of the work, but only when someone is turning the pedals.

Smaller and more nimble than a truck, the bike is also cheaper to operate and maintain and can go places other vehicles can’t. It has no tailpipe emissions, uses far less energy, and it provides users a little exercise.

Estimated price tag I found in the article was in the $10,000-$12,000 range and that's completely competitive with all the gas powered light utility vehicles and golf carts we use on campus at work. Hopefully we'll start seeing a lot more vehicles along these lines in the near future.

The US practically invented the playbook of how to confront pandemics. Presidents — both Republican and Democratic — worked to ensure that if a pandemic came, there would be an effective plan to respond. Yet while other countries used that playbook and succeeded in doing what was necessary to get the coronavirus under control, the Trump administration threw out the plan.

What happened?

To help Americans understand precisely what went wrong, Insider hired the comics creators Anthony Del Col and Josh Adams to depict the Trump administration's course of action that put America into this position.

I didn't need a comic book to convince me that Donald Trump is a monstrous moron, but this is pretty good.

But casual players don’t like Luis Scott-Vargas just because he’s one of the greatest players of all time; they like him, and subscribe to the Divination, because LSV¹ is funny and charismatic and loves to durdle and tease Paul Cheon. That’s why they tune in to his Twitch channel even when he does things like sign tokens for GP Las Vegas, choosing to vicariously hang out with him. LSV doesn’t make his casual fans feel stupid; he makes them feel smarter, and as though they’re winning and losing alongside him.

Excellent history of WotC's approach to Magic the Gathering and why the company has stopped focusing on pro players, switched to emphasizing planeswalker character story, and digital is clearly the future growth area for the game. I came across it while wondering just how many female pro magic players there are (virtually none).

1. Incidentally, I am a big fan of LSV and his podcasts after listening to a bunch over the last month. Super smart about the game and very generous with sharing his knowledge in a friendly and entertaining fashion.

Jeffery Yoshikawa was at work in early April when he got the call.

His mother-in-law was running a high fever, and the dialysis clinic at which she was getting treatment suspected she had COVID-19.

He left immediately to take her to the hospital. On the way, her symptoms worsened.

When they arrived, she tested positive for COVID-19. Yoshikawa asked to be tested, too, since he had spent so much time with her.

They both had COVID-19, it turned out, becoming two of the 341 Marshallese people in Spokane to be diagnosed with the disease. With that number of cases, people from the Marshall Islands account for about 30% of the county’s COVID-19 cases – despite making up less than 1% of the county’s population, according to Thursday’s data from the Spokane Regional Health District.

Thankfully Mr. Yoshikawa and his mother-in-law pulled through, but this is so heartbreaking. I remember first hearing that Spokane had a fairly sizable population of Marshallese people a few years ago, but Spokane is big enough and they are a small enough group that I've never really interacted with anyone from their community. Hearing about their plight absolutely confirms on a local level everything I've read about minorities being the most the heavily impacted by Covid-19 in the United States. Our inability to protect low income and vulnerable groups is both shameful and dangerous to the health of our county as a whole.

📚Originally published in 1935, Canoeing with the Cree (★★★★) is a classic true life adventure story from a bygone era when two high school buddies pulled off an epic canoe journey from Minneapolis to Hudson's Bay during the summer of 1930. My main dissatisfaction with an otherwise excellent tale is that despite the pair's obvious respect and admiration for the Cree as masters of the Canadian wilderness, they ultimately still considered them uncivilized and lesser.

Three years ago, Seidel began to teach me how to play poker. Why on earth would a professional poker player—the professional poker player—agree to let a random journalist follow him around like an overeager toddler? It’s not for money or exposure. Seidel is notoriously reticent, and he hates sharing his tactics. I was, however, an ideal pupil in a few ways. Most important, I have a Ph.D. in psychology, and so I was well positioned to understand Seidel’s style of play. I also never had much of an interest in cards, meaning Seidel wouldn’t have to rid me of any bad habits. My academic training and my inexperience made me a perfect vehicle for an experiment to see if Seidel’s psychological game could still triumph over a strictly mathematical style.

After reading the excerpt in the Atlantic I definitely want to read the rest of Maria Konnikova's new book, The Biggest Bluff because it sounds like a fascinating story. Deadspin also has a pretty good interview with her about the book and her poker playing career.

The best part of the App Store, years ago, from this developer's point of view, was that it was easy to charge money for an app. No need to set up a system — just choose the price, and Apple takes care of everything. So easy!

Great insight from Brent Simmons about the realities of Apple software development and making money in the App Store. Today you have to do in app purchase and subscription to be sustainable long term and those are a huge headache to implement.

The history of the White Elephant stores mirrors the story of Spokane: A somewhat unconventional place that provides nearly everything that matters at an affordable price.

Outside the Division Street store, the mechanical elephant, which still only costs a dime, is about to offer its last ride.

The Conley family has decided to close its stores in Spokane and Spokane Valley, ending its patriarch’s legacy that started 74 years ago when John R. Conley Sr. started offering Army surplus before converting the business into a sporting goods and toy destination.

The White Elephant was THE toy store of my childhood. Its narrow aisles, crammed shelves, and grease-pencilled prices were the antithesis of a modern box store and only added to its appeal as I grew older. I bought countless Lego sets, tabletop games, model rocketry kits, Transformers, Playmobil sets, and a variety of general sporting goods there over the years. During the winter I still occasionally run in a garish wool stocking cap that I bought at the Spokane Valley store in the early 90s. The original Division street store is quite close to where I work so it's continued to be my go to store if I needed to pickup a fun game, toy or birthday present. My older kids are familiar with it and have shopped there a little bit over the years when they've had money saved up, but I'm bummed out that my youngest three won't really understand. This kind of thing is inevitable, but I'm truly sad to see such a treasured local institution finally close its doors.

It is true that the shuttle main engine, or RS-25, is the Ferrari of rocket engines. NASA designed these brilliant engines in the 1970s for the space shuttle program, during which they each flew multiple launches. A total of 46 engines were built for the shuttle at an estimated cost of $40 million per engine. But now these formerly reusable engines will be flown a single time on the SLS rocket and then dropped into the ocean.

There are four engines on a Space Launch System rocket. At this price, the engines for an SLS rocket alone will cost more than $580 million. This does not include the costs of fabricating the rocket's large core stage, towering solid-rocket boosters, an upper stage, or the costs of test, transportation, storage, and integration. With engine prices like these, it seems reasonable to assume that the cost of a single SLS launch will remain $2 billion in perpetuity.

I knew the SLS had some serious issues, but this is super troubling. And ten years out the Space Shuttle program continues to be an anchor around NASA's neck. If I was miraculously given authority over this boondoggle I would immediately cancel it and simply blame it on the post COVID-19 economy.

On the afternoon of May 27th, SpaceX is slated to launch its very first passengers to space, potentially heralding a new era of human spaceflight for the United States. It’ll be the first time in nearly a decade that people have launched to orbit from American soil, and it’ll be the first time that a private vehicle takes them there.

It's been a long time coming, but I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes tomorrow. Still not sure how I feel about the Space-X sci-fi spacesuits that look like style was the number one priority.