A California Democrat posted “Holocaust book, Maya Angelou’s autobiography among nearly 400 items pulled from Naval Academy library in DEI purge” (CBS) to a group as an example of an outrage committed by Donald Trump. His introduction to this article: “Ahhhh…shades of the Mao Tse … | Continue reading
Most of the lectures at Sun ‘n Fun happen in a modern air-conditioned building that belongs to Central Florida Aerospace Academy, a public high school. Fittingly for today’s topic, one enters the building via a door that features a coronapanic sign: (See When will we feel safe en … | Continue reading
I’ll write up a couple of in-depth items separately, but here’s an overview of my day at Sun ‘n Fun (Lakeland, Florida). Previous visits to Sun ‘n Fun have been via (1) commercial flight from Boston and rental car from Tampa (advantage: Bern’s Steakhouse, back when you didn’t nee … | Continue reading
Flash back to 2024 when the Western Washington University Jewish Voice for Peace (unclear if there are any actual Jews involved in JVP; major funding is from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Lannan Foundation, neither of which seem to have any Jewish heritage) invited everyo … | Continue reading
Friends have been asking for an explanation of the horrific recent NYC tour helicopter crash, in which the machine was seen falling without its empennage (i.e., the tail had been chopped off by the main rotor system). Here are the passengers just before departure: The weather see … | Continue reading
The phone system has become useless, with seemingly 90 percent of calls and texts being from scammers (SMS: “Hi”). The USPS is losing money and trying to justify its existence as a sink for taxpayer dollars. What if the USPS launched a competing voice/text/email service in which … | Continue reading
The United States managed to destroy the utility of Antonio Meucci‘s invention, the electromagnetic telephone. We did this via a combination of (1) free calling, and (2) failure to authenticate callers. This has enabled half of India and their robots to work as phone scammers. Wh … | Continue reading
I was chatting this morning with a friend who is a retired professional investor, having been previously involved in the management of $billions (not as the ultimate fund manager, but in a pretty senior role). A staunch Democrat and an active trader of his own portfolio (using ex … | Continue reading
Coral Gables, Florida is supposedly the nation’s second planned city, after Washington, D.C., and the model for most subsequent planned communities around the country, including the HOA idea. Bubble in the Sun book: even those with the best information can’t predict a crash gives … | Continue reading
“Ex-Haitian mayor living in Mass. who lied about violent past convicted of U.S. visa fraud, feds say” (Boston 25, March 31): A former Haitian mayor living in Massachusetts who committed “unspeakable acts of violence in Haiti” has been convicted of visa fraud for lying about his v … | Continue reading
From state-sponsored NPR: I wouldn’t normally watch a basketball game, but the public school here texted out a message advising us that school uniforms wouldn’t be required today if students wanted to wear Gators or Cougars outfits instead (I would love to see the kid brave enoug … | Continue reading
High school seniors should have their acceptance/rejection notices by now. Thus, it is time to start thinking about how the younger kids will navigate the ever-more-brutal world of college admissions. First, some group chat messages regarding the son of a friend who married a Tai … | Continue reading
We’re informed by America’s expert class that Donald Trump’s tariffs, money paid to the government when an item from overseas is purchased for use here, are disastrous. We’ve been informed for 30 years by America’s expert class that consumption taxes, such as sales taxes, airline … | Continue reading
Happy International Asexuality Day to those who celebrate (i.e., 50 percent of of people in heterosexual marriages (measured at or after four years)). Below are some highlighted books from Books & Books, an independent bookstore that started in Coral Gables, Florida in 1982 and n … | Continue reading
Loosely related to Which explorer called the Gulf of Mexico/America the Golfo de Florida? … David Levitt, a Marvin Minsky PhD student at MIT 40 years ago, posted the following meme on his Facebook feed: It struck me as odd that Einstein, who died in 1995, would have written or sa … | Continue reading
Democrat-run media says car prices will go up 25% due to Trump’s new tariffs. My prediction: average transaction price goes up 3% and if we hold the car model and trim level constant, up 5%. What’s the basis of my prediction? Americans spend every penny they can earn, borrow, win … | Continue reading
If you’re in the market for a 150-250′ yacht, the Palm Beach International Boat Show isn’t a terrible place to spend the day (Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show might be bigger/better, I think, and there is also Miami, but both of those shows are spread among multiple locati … | Continue reading
If you’re looking for a new book to read that provides some historical context for current events, The Siege (Ben Macintyre, 2024) might be a reasonable choice. It’s about a spring 1980 takeover of the Iranian embassy in London. Why did an Iranian Arab (more on that below) and hi … | Continue reading
Who wants to meet at Sun ‘n Fun tomorrow? I’m flying into Bartow tonight (I have some commitments here in Palm Beach County and wasn’t sure that I could make the 8 pm cutoff for Lakeland) and will ignominiously approach the event in an Avis Toyota Camry. Fly the mighty Cirrus bac … | Continue reading
We had a 0-time Continental factory rebuilt engine dropped into a 2005 Cirrus SR20 back in 2019. The steel oil filler cap was new at the time. After 5.5 years of operation, in which combustion generated water vapor as a byproduct, the cap rusted out to the point that it is missin … | Continue reading
We’re informed by Science that immigrant humans make life better/easier for natives (the enrichers and the enriched). Science also tells us that immigrant plants and animals make life extremely difficult if not impossible for natives. Examples from the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, F … | Continue reading
My Facebook post from five years ago (i.e., near the beginning of the Maskachusetts coronapanic lockdowns), featuring the snow globe collection at KPVC: | Continue reading
Back in 2019, I watched a documentary about a diving accident (see Movie: The Last Breath). This year, I watched the Hollywood version. It’s the same director, but upgraded to meet the diversity quotas imposed by Hollywood for Oscar eligibility: It’s difficult for three guys to h … | Continue reading
Eid al-Fitr is now a “US Holiday” according to Apple: (Separately, nobody can write precisely precisely?) How about some new phrases, e.g., “As American as Eid al-Fitr”? (Eid al-Fitr is not on the analogous Google Calendar “Holidays in the United States”) Related: Profiles in Cor … | Continue reading
Today is the big day for the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County: Here’s the organization’s “Inclusivity Statement”: Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County embraces a culture of diversity and inclusivity in accordance with our Jewish values. We celebrate the uniqueness of our … | Continue reading
Compared to Maskachusetts, Florida is the land of the divided thoroughfare, dedicated left turn lane, and legal U-turn. It’s a little tough for people making a right turn on the cross street, though, to determine if a driver is making a left turn (no conflict) or a U-turn (confli … | Continue reading
Five-year anniversary of “FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne.”: A reminder to trust the experts and try to silence non-approved voices that might utter misinformation. | Continue reading
Our neighbor has a Model Y that is one generation behind the recently introduced one. He reports having made a 4-hour trip from Gainesville (home of University of Florida, which needs to branch out!) without once touching the steering wheel. I wonder if this supports a “yes” answ … | Continue reading
How about this use of artificial intelligence/LLMs… a complete personality upgrade. Consider that in-person interaction is becoming increasingly rare. Most of what is known about someone’s personality is based on whatever he/she/ze/they has typed into a computer or a phone. There … | Continue reading
“American Women Are Giving Up on Marriage” (WSJ): The 29-year-old always thought she’d have found her life partner by now. Instead, she’s house hunting solo and considering having kids on her own. “I’m financially self-sufficient enough to do these things myself,” said Vorlicek, … | Continue reading
“BYD confirms new 1,000V ‘Super E-Platform’ capable of fast charging 400km in 5 minutes” (electrek): Chinese auto conglomerate BYD has introduced a new 1,000-volt EV platform that can enable charging rates as fast (or perhaps faster) than a trip to the gas station. We’re talking … | Continue reading
A friend whose child recently applied to NYU downloaded the hacker’s data dump (canonical link; it may be that this has been getting updated with additional redactions) and found his child’s names and other identifiable characteristics. Background… “Hacker claims responsibility f … | Continue reading
I recently caught up with a friend who bailed out of Brooklyn in August 2020. He retired in 2019 after a couple of moderately successful startups (by NY standards, not by NVIDIA/OpenAI standards). He, his wife, and two kids (now 6th and 8th grade) moved to a beautiful historical … | Continue reading
Pierre Poilievre, the potential replacement for Mx. Trudeau as Canada’s leader, recently highlighted this chart showing the stagnation of the Canadian economy from an individual’s perspective (the economy grew with the population, though, so politicians had more money to spend ev … | Continue reading
I was recently asked to provide advice for a teenager with a $600 budget for a camera to take pictures of horses at horse nerd events. This girl is not interested in photography as a gadget fondling activity, but she needs a lens with a reasonably long reach. It’s the same situat … | Continue reading
We sent out a Christmas card that was postmarked West Palm Beach, December 23, 2024. The destination was Brooklyn. It was returned as undeliverable (my friend moved) on March 18, 2024, nearly three months after being mailed. An opportunity for DOGE? If the USPS were eliminated co … | Continue reading
The Righteous accuse Florida of being deficient in drag shows, especially drag story time for toddlers at the public libraries. Ocala, Florida, however, is home to a permanent drag show: the pet-friendly Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing. Here’s Wile E. Coyote’s dragster, which u … | Continue reading
A follow-up to 12 Hours of Sebring, a perfect Florida fly-in destination… This year, we arrived early to the race, scheduled for International Day to Combat Islamophobia. We traveled by Cirrus, an example of the kind of technology that has enabled all of the world’s religions and … | Continue reading
Back in 2023, the New York Times did a story on how Black residents of NYC were gone and immigrants had moved in via a process of non-replacement (see Great Replacement Theory for Black Americans (from the NYT)). Here’s the latest evidence that Replacement Theory is false (“debun … | Continue reading
Robinson has figured out that the big money in helicopters is government and medevac (also government, since Medicare and Medicaid pay). Consequently, they’ve released the R88, a machine big enough to serve as an air ambulance (government pays) or firefighter (government pays) or … | Continue reading
As you work on your taxes (one month to go!) and contemplate your charitable contributions, check out this post from two years ago… Our first grader learns about the non-profit world (American Heart Association): The CEO earned $2.44 million in 2020, How’s this lady with a bachel … | Continue reading
“E.P.A. Plans to Close All Environmental Justice Offices” (NYT): An internal memo directs the closure of offices designed to ease the heavy pollution faced by poor and minority communities. Mr. Zeldin’s move effectively ends three decades of work at the E.P.A. to try to ease the … | Continue reading
There is one thing that students and faculty at Columbia say that they hate more than than the state of Israel: inequality. The flip side is that there is one thing that students and faculty at Columbia love more than the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”), UNRWA, and Palestin … | Continue reading
A few screen shots from joesanberg.com before it gets taken down… His X profile consists of just a single quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and shows no white people other than himself: Here here says that he wants to give money extracted from native-born taxpayers to “low-w … | Continue reading
The Iditarod leaders should cross the finish line within the next 24 hours. The leader, from Alabama(!), has just 73 miles to go. As with aerobatics and endurance flying (see Department of Old Guys can Fly: nonstop cross-country at 1,100 lbs gross weight: “EAA keeps saying that t … | Continue reading
I don’t know if Joe Biden is dead or alive right now, but I have fond memories of his 2019 career advice to coal miners: Suppose that a high school student took Joe Biden’s advice in 2019 but skipped the coal mining phase. He/she/ze/they will graduate from college in 3 months wit … | Continue reading
According to “Statewide COVID‐19 Stay‐at‐Home Orders and Population Mobility in the United States” (2020), today is the five-year anniversary of the first American lockdown order: In the United States, the first coronavirus‐related activity restrictions were issued on March 12, 2 … | Continue reading
A Ukrainian immigrant friend has been (understandably) expressing rage at Donald Trump for wanting to shut down U.S. support of Ukraine’s military. He also recently texted us that he was enraged with Trump’s tariffs (that never actually happen? I can’t keep track) tanking the sto … | Continue reading