4-11-15 Hodgepodge

Light Posting Possible

Due to family obligations, I may be unable to post regularly, if at all, until Thursday, April 16.

Regulatory Doping?

A PandoDaily story describes the success of alcohol delivery startup Drizly in Seattle -- vis-á-vis the difficulties of Amazon -- as some kind of David and Goliath story:

But what's most impressive is that on its own turf, delivery powerhouse Amazon has been made a spectator in the alcohol delivery game.

My reading is a little different: I think a big part of the story is that Drizly games alcohol regulations better.

And we haven't even gotten around to the fact that Amazon is being kept from trying drone delivery by other regulations.

Weekend Reading

"Unless you can live under the shadow of his tantrums, you're going to have to move on." -- Michael Hurd, in "I Can't Live This Way" at The Delaware Wave

"... I've come up with 5 things that some therapists might do, often unwittingly and for whatever reason, to keep you in therapy unnecessarily." -- Michael Hurd, in "Shopping for a Psychotherapist" at The Delaware Coast Press

Why the Odd Shape?

There is an interesting article explaining the design considerations that lent the International Space Station its strange shape:

We don't yet have the technology to do construction in space, so we have to assemble a large vehicle in space from launch-able components. At the time of the ISS assembly, the two mechanisms for getting a large payload to space were the Space Shuttle Orbiter and the Russian Proton rocket.

There is also a video at the above link showing the station at the various stages of its construction.

-- CAV