Here’s my book haul from Bear’s. I’ll get started on them as soon as I finish the books that Editor Friend sent me home with eighteen months ago. I promise.
Weather Stuff
I mentioned a while back that I’d picked up a new weather station to replace the Ambient Iris I had. It was getting old, and the rain gauge sensor was acting up with no economical way to fix it, so I pulled the trigger on an Ambient Weather WS-2902 (affiliate link). It had good reviews at /r/myweatherstation as well as Amazon, so I felt comfortable with the purchase.
I also liked that you can connect up to eight additional sensors, like a pool thermometer (affiliate link). The pool temp doesn’t show on the indoor console, but it does get passed through to the Ambient network, so I can see it on my app or the AWN dashboard.
AWN has a two-tiered service, and the free tier is pretty nice. You get a useful dashboard, weather forecasts, radar mapping, and graphing. The paid tier (currently $4.17/month billed at $49.99/year) gives you more of everything, and if I had an extra $50, I’d think about it. If anyone’s interested in gifting me a year, you can buy a gift code here and send it to bobmueller at revensbeak.com. If you want to. No pressure.
I’ve been very happy with it. It went up where the old Ambient was, though I’m going to move it if we ever get our pool deck built. Turns out that there’s a science about where weather stations should be mounted. Anemometers (wind speed) are supposed to be around 33 feet above ground, but temperature and rain gauges are supposed to be around 6 feet high. The current mounting is only about 18 feet high, and it’s obstructed by trees that are about 25 feet above the unit. Moving it over by the pool will open things up a lot and bring the thermometer and rain gauge down lower.
Free Will in the Garden of Eden
A friend of mine shared a FB post from Farmer Girl, and I have thoughts.
Farmer Girl is a dairy farmer, I think in northern Washington State, who mostly shares faith-based content on Facebook and farm-based content on Instagram.
Here’s the post that’s got me thinking.
Why, indeed?
God created Adam and Eve and The Tree, knowing that they wouldn’t obey him. He set a standard that he knew they couldn’t reach or maintain, and punished them for not meeting it. Then he punished everyone who came after for something they had no control over (“original sin”).
Now, he could have created us without “free will.” (Whether we actually have free will is another discussion entirely.) If he had done so from the beginning, how would we know we didn’t have it? You can’t miss something you’ve never had, right?
And he could have given us modified free will, such that we couldn’t disobey him, but could otherwise do what we wanted. That would have taken care of all the religious legalism we’ve seen over the eons, like, is it wrong for a Jew to hire a goy to do work for them on the Sabbath? That wouldn’t have been so unrealistic, because God created man such that we can’t do certain things, like breathe underwater.
And if he couldn’t have done this, then he’s not exactly omnipotent. But that’s yet another question.
The other thing God could have done, knowing that Adam and Eve were going to eat from the tree, is to not make the tree in the first place. Or not put it right there in front of them. If God had the ability to put supernatural guards in front of the garden, why not put those guards in front of the thing they’re not supposed to mess with? That would have prevented so many problems.
I mean, if you know without a doubt that these two creations of yours are going to break the one rule you’ve set for them, why not do everything in your power to keep it from happening? Isn’t that what good parents do?
Don’t we keep knives away from small children?
Don’t we keep cleaning products away from them, maybe even behind locked cabinets?
We’ve got gun safes and trigger locks. We put matches and lighters where kids can’t reach them.
Why? Because we know kids will do things they’re not supposed to do, and hurt themselves and others
For an omniscient omnipotent being, it sure seems like he didn’t think things through.
Elseread
This piece at Cato Institute talks about the death penalty through the lens of the case of Walter McMillian, wrongfully convicted of the 1986 murder of Ronda Morrison. The prosecution actively hid exculpatory evidence, coerced and fabricated “eyewitness” testimony, and ignored exculpatory alibi witness testimony. McMillian spent six years on death row before his exoneration.
The prosecutor and sheriff never faced any consequences for their actions. SCOTUS ruled that they were immune from charges or civil suits.
Ronda Morrison’s murder remains unsolved because of their actions. Her killer never faced justice.
We must do better.
We must end qualified immunity and severely limit so-called absolute immunity. Society must hold prosecutors and members of law enforcement responsible for their actions when they violate someone’s civil rights.
The Impossibility of Reversal: Why Capital Punishment Fails the Test of Accountability
Murder Has A Name
In November 2022, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle were murdered in Moscow, Idaho. A DNA sample recovered from a knife sheath became key to the case. Investigators used several forensic genealogy searches to identify the suspect, who later pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
To honor their daughter, Steve and Kristi Goncalves founded a non-profit organization to help other victims and families use forensic genealogy to close their cases. Read more at the Idaho Statesman: Family of Moscow murder victim starts nonprofit to use DNA and reopen cold cases
Learn more about the organization here: https://www.murderhasaname.com/
Colorado DNA Scandal
Speaking of accountability…
The DNA scandal in Colorado is a perfect example of the tiers of accountability in the justice system.
Yvonne “Missy” Woods was a DNA scientist for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, handling some 10,000 cases between 2008 and 2023. After a review process in September 2023 uncovered some anomalies, the agency placed her on administrative leave and opened an internal affairs investigation.
She retired a month later.
Kansas Bureau of Investigation and South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation opened investigations.
The agencies identified some 1,045 cases impacted by her data manipulation and charged her with 102 felonies. Under a plea deal, she pleaded guilty to single counts of committing a cybercrime, perjury, attempting to influence a public servant and forgery and faces 8 to 16 years in prison.
Had she been a sheriff or a prosecutor, she’d have faced no penalty. It’s her bad luck that she wasn’t high enough on the totem pole to avoid prison.
Missy Woods, former forensic scientist accused of mishandling DNA, changes plea to guilty
She was on administrative leave as part of the investigation and retired a month later. I wish the military’s Suspension of Favorable Personnel Actions flag existed in the civilian world.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to share a thought in the comments. Sign up for my infrequent newsletter here. Find some of my other writing at The Good Men Project, too. Subscribe to the blog via the link in the right sidebar or follow it on Mastodon. You can also add my RSS feed to your favorite reader.
Share your thoughts!