Studio711.com – Ben Martens

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Losing Our Views

blockedviewUsually conservationist efforts are about conserving our natural areas. But what happens when the natural areas grow up so much that they remove any of the good views that caused us to want to preserve the spot in the first place? Is it ok to cut some trees down in that case? Cliff Mass has an interesting post showing photos of some trouble spots. It would be interesting to see some kind of bill go through to conserve views at specific nature spots. I wonder how it would play out?

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2016/05/washington-state-is-losing-its.html

benmartens May 31, 2016 Links, Outdoors

John Oliver On Scientific Studies

John Oliver has an HBO news show called Last Week Tonight. We don’t have HBO, but a lot of the clips are on YouTube and I find it an entertaining way to get a perspective on the news that I might not get otherwise. The only catch is that since this is on HBO, it’s sometimes R-rated content .This video is no exception, but the content is so exceptional that i have to content on it. In this 20 minute clip, Oliver gives example after example of click-bait “science” stories that are completely wrong. The news media is so eager to get views and clicks that they will deliberately twist (or lazily ignore) the details to produce a story. It’s out of control and it’s sad how many people fall for them. By default, you should probably disbelieve any scientific study that you hear or read about, especially if it’s from a show like Good Morning America, the Today Show or Fox and Friends. If you’re really going to adjust your life because of a study, isn’t it worth a few minutes of your time to maybe READ the study instead of trusting somebody else’s 3 minute over-hyped review of it?

benmartens May 26, 2016 Links

Cashing Gift Cards

gift-cardI recently won a $15 gift card to a place that I’d probably never go. Sure I could have given it away, but I keep hearing about these places that will buy gift cards from you so I decided to try that out.

Coinstar is an easy one and they are in the Safeway right down the street. That seems to be the fastest way to go, but they take a big cut for the convenience factor. You can hope to get about 50% of the remaining value of the card. There are some slower options online that will give up a little higher percentage. I ended up getting about 65% from cardcash.com. There are multiple ways to get them the card (either type in the info or send it to them) and lots of ways to get paid (check in the mail, PayPal, another gift card, etc). Obviously your best bet is to use the card but if you are stuck with a card that you won’t use, this is better than nothing.

Cardcash also sells gift cards at a reduced rate. You might save 5-15% off the value of the card. The cards I looked at were all pretty big ($100-200) but if you know you have a big purchase coming up, it might be an easy way to save some money.

benmartens May 9, 2016 Links

Heat Storm

heatstormIf you live in the Pacific Northwest, get ready to bare those pasty white legs because a heat storm is coming! Ok a “heat storm” probably isn’t a real thing but it’s a good way to describe what’s going to happen today. Here in the early part of April when high temps are normally in the 50s, we are going to top out somewhere in the 80s! Cliff Mass has a great breakdown of the forecast, but the root of this is because of a huge high pressure ridge just off the coast. It keeps down the cool marine breezes, pulls air from the warmer eastern part of the state and creates downslope warming (air is warmed by compression as it flows down the mountain slopes.)

Get outside and enjoy it! We still have months of 60 degree rainy weather ahead of us before summer really takes hold.

benmartens April 7, 2016 Links, Weather

Simone’s Robots

simonesrobotsHow often have you been doing a repetitive task and thought, “A robot could do this”? Now imagine what would actually happen if you tried to build that robot. It probably wouldn’t work very well and it might be hilarious. That pretty accurately describe’s Simone’s Robots on YouTube. Go check out her channel and watch her build a robot to apply lipstick, chop vegetables, or slap her as an alarm clock. She’s got a good sense of humor and the videos are reasonable crisp and short. They’re good for a couple chuckles.

benmartens March 16, 2016 Links

Mike Rowe’s Podcast

mikerowecnnshowMike Rowe is one of my favorite people to follow on Facebook. He has such a refreshingly normal view on life (or at least one that aligns with mine) and he is great with words. I was thrilled to hear that he has started a new podcast. He says it’s an homage to Paul Harvey and I can definitely see the similarities. Each episode is short (~5-6 minutes) and tells a great story. I don’t want to ruin it for you because it’s so much better to hear it in his own words. But do me a favor and go to https://mikerowe.com/podcast/ and listen to episode 5. If you don’t get hooked after those 5 minutes, then I give up. It’s an incredible story.

benmartens March 10, 2016 Links

Conflicting Opinions

In a recent post, I mentioned the Smarter Every Day interview with the President. Destin, the guy behind Smarter Every Day, has posted another video talking about the whole experience. Why was he picked? How did disagreeing on some political issues effect the conversation?

Around the 3:42 mark, Destin goes into some really interesting thoughts about how polarized our political environment is. He compares it to feedback loops. There are positive feedback loops and negative feedback loops. If a system has both inputs, it will trend toward the norm. But if you remove one, you are going to wildly diverge. This is what happens with politics if we only listen to news/media/journalists who agree with us. You’re not getting both sides so you end up very polarized one way or the other. Destin points out that it’s our responsibility to really be informed about the issues and understand the other side of the argument.

If you were at all intrigued by my previous post, watch this video. He says it better than I did with some cool graphics and stats to back it up.

benmartens February 15, 2016 Links

Stuff You Should Know

StuffYouShouldKnowIf you listen to podcasts, check out the Stuff You Should Know podcast. (If you don’t listen to podcasts, this is a great one to start with). The hosts, Chuck and Josh, take hour-long deep dives into literally hundreds of different topics. Here are some of their recent subjects: caffeine, Isaac Newton, Satanic Panic of the 1980s, the Great Wall of China and maggots. Each episode is full of great facts and plenty of comedic relief.

They have built up 500+ episodes of the podcast so you can listen for a LONG time before you run out of fresh content. Plus they are still publishing two podcasts per week.

benmartens February 1, 2016 Links