On the last day of Kwanzaa, I decided to pay homage to Tom Brady by seeing him play live. This was only the third time at an NFL game in my life. Once was the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium, a horrible experience due to cold weather and multi-hour traffic jams. The seco … | Continue reading
I hope and trust that everyone has cleaned up from their Kwanzaa celebrations and recovered from any toaster-induced head injuries. Now that you all have some free time, I’d like to ask that you paint and mail a portrait of me so that I can cover all of the walls in our house wit … | Continue reading
I’m back up in Cambridge to teach. I thought it might be worth checking out one of the places that made Cambridge pleasant (Darwin’s sandwiches/coffee is closed): the Regattabar live jazz venue. Here’s the web site, captured on 12/30/2022: It’s been a three-year temporary clos … | Continue reading
If you’re freezing cold in a northern lockdown state today, here’s an image (source) that will give you a warm glow: University of California graduate student slaves and other campus peasants picketing for a living wage (from the faculty that claims to be expert at determining ho … | Continue reading
The Silicon Valley religion is that robot software can figure out what you want based on what you’ve done in the past. The result is that Twitter shows you tweets that are a lot like tweets with which you’ve previously interacted. But what if you’re in the mood for something diff … | Continue reading
To commemorate the heroic efforts of our government’s millions of armed police and soldiers in putting down the very-nearly-successful January 6, 2021 insurrection, let me relate my own recent trip to Washington, D.C. I covered the first and last parts of this journey in Among t … | Continue reading
A friend is planning a trip to the Bahamas in his new Cirrus SR22 (more than 1 million Bidies for a piston-powered airplane!). When out of gliding distance from land, it is prudent to carry both life jackets and a life raft in an aircraft. Pre-coronapanic, rafts of all kinds were … | Continue reading
The media is full of reports about House Republicans being unable to agree on a Speaker. New Yorkers say that they are smarter and more sophisticated than everyone else in the U.S. Thus, the obvious choice is the Representative whom these hyperintelligent voters selected: George … | Continue reading
As part of my expert witness slavery to the world of patent litigation, I recently reviewed the transcript from a five-day trial. Part of the first day’s transcript covers jurors attempting to be excused from what was promised to be a single week of jury duty. Teacher saying t … | Continue reading
I’m going with a work colleague on a Royal Caribbean trip (on-board Internet is pretty good) departing February 6 from Fort Lauderdale. Who wants to join us? You’ll get to visit a lot of interesting places, albeit briefly, and a basic room with all food included will cost less … | Continue reading
Here’s a puzzler. Twitter says that there are offensive replies: If a person were to click on “Show”, he/she/ze/they would be exposed to a world of Nazis, anti-2SLGBTQQIA+ hate, Faucism-denial, Trump-support, etc., right? Here’s what was hidden: How were these replies “offe … | Continue reading
From “At Berkeley Law, a Debate Over Zionism, Free Speech and Campus Ideals” (New York Times, December 21): a student group created a bylaw that banned supporters of Zionism from speaking at its events. … the bylaw, which eight other student groups also adopted That a group o … | Continue reading
The Federal Aviation Administration likes to remind flight instructors that it is possible to control what one says, but not what the recipient of a communication hears. The Palm Beach Public Schools prepared a helpful two-page document comparing the multi-day candle-oriented ho … | Continue reading
Some photos from a recent trip to Costco where we stocked up for holiday entertaining. A roast feeds a lot of (masked-for-safety) people inexpensively: Wash it down with some red wine, reduced in price thanks to a glut in Australia: Costco in Florida offers fun fami … | Continue reading
Happy 5th day of Kwanzaa everyone. Here’s a kinara that a friend designed and 3D-printed: I can probably get the 3D model from him if you need it for next year. Inspired by the life of Professor Dr. Dr. Maulana Karenga, Ph.D., Ph.D., the creator of Kwanzaa, I ordered a new Br … | Continue reading
Back in September, the Europeans decided to deal with energy price inflation by cheating. They’d hide the market prices from consumers by borrowing (printing?) money. “Germany will borrow nearly $200 billion to cap consumers’ energy bills” (CNN, 9/29/2022): The German governmen … | Continue reading
After nearly three years of complete coronapanic, the MIT campus reopened to the public on December 1, 2022. Consequently, if Maskachusetts officials don’t impose a Science-based lockdown in the next two weeks we’re doing our three-day FAA ground school in person on campus, Janua … | Continue reading
What I wanted for Christmas and did not get is an entire house full of Art Nouveau furniture as seen in the Musée d’Orsay or the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Here are a few images of the collection at the d’Orsay, from our October 2022 trip there: With modern 3 … | Continue reading
“Migrant Expulsion Policy Must Stay in Place for Now, Supreme Court Says” (NYT, yesterday): The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that a pandemic-era health measure that restricted migration at the southern border would remain in place for the time being, delaying the potential for … | Continue reading
A couple of photos from a hotel in Houston, which just recently voted for a gubernatorial candidate who promised California- and Maskachusetts-style lockdowns and mask/vaccine orders: (Most Texans are Republicans and anti-lockdown Governor Abbott won reelection, but Houston … | Continue reading
President Biden has made Kwanzaa an official U.S. government holiday. Examples: The Biden-Harris Administration wishes you and your loved ones a joyous and peaceful Kwanzaa! pic.twitter.com/ZzrQ6QPttG— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 26, 2022 We wish all those celebrat … | Continue reading
How is everyone’s favorite Effective Altruist doing? Regardless of how the legal and financial situation gets untangled, I’m wondering about the linguistic aspects. Could “Bankman-Fried” become an English verb? “I’m going to try to Bankman-Fried the investors” would mean to tell … | Continue reading
Here’s a great example of gender studies graduates at Twitter practicing California-style Science. A statement is scientifically false if it “goes against CDC guidelines” (as it happens, Professor Kulldorff’s March 2021 heresy of recommending COVID-19 shots primarily for older fo … | Continue reading
Happy First Day of Kwanzaa everyone. Let’s look at a popular product from an African-American automobile company… During a trip to Houston, on my way back from trying to meet up with Hunter Biden in Pahrump, Nevada, I rented a Tesla 3 from Hertz. The rental of a BMW 5-series se … | Continue reading
From the BBC: “They closed the schools, the world remained silent, they closed our universities, silence, now they’ve come for our courses. What are we supposed to do? Kill ourselves?” Devastated Afghan girls mourn the loss of their education after the Taliban’s ban “They clo … | Continue reading
A (Jewish) friend born in the 1970s: When I was a kid, a neighbor played a joke on his Jewish neighbor. When the guy went away on vacation, he covered his entire house with a full blown Christmas light display. That might be considered a hate crime today. Merry Christmas to e … | Continue reading
The hotter the climate, the more people seem to love traditional Christmas decoration. Here are some neighbors’ houses. This one was fully up and running on November 23. Based on the lights 70′ above the ground in the palm trees, I’m going to guess that it was done by professiona … | Continue reading
Here are some photos from a recent trip to Las Vegas. For maximum understatement, a chrome Ferrari… We brought our masks and vaccine papers when visiting a friend on this street… At Red Rock Canyon: The “I Love Butts” car nearby: And the souvenirs at Cottonwood St … | Continue reading
Sam Bankman-Friedman must have had a few loose $millions, in the same way that many of us have $500 credit balances in miscellaneous accounts that we’ve forgotten about. Why didn’t he gather these up and fly to Moscow as soon as the stories broke regarding his crimes? My Novembe … | Continue reading
Sam Bankman-Fried must have had a few loose $millions, in the same way that many of us have $500 credit balances in miscellaneous accounts that we’ve forgotten about. Why didn’t he gather these up and fly to Moscow as soon as the stories broke regarding his crimes? My November 3 … | Continue reading
My old neighborhood in Harvard Square was home to a 30-year-old sandwich shop whose workers took advantage of the coronapanic labor market to unionize in the fall of 2021. After 9 months of union bliss, they responded to Bidenflation by demanding higher wages. The employer’s coun … | Continue reading
This is a report of a minivan driver’s experience at the Ron Fellows Performance Driving School in Pahrump, Nevada. A friend and I took the two-day intro class for complete novices. The school operates a fleet of nearly 200 C8 Corvettes, a fleet of 670 hp Cadillac Blackwing sedan … | Continue reading
From state-sponsored NPR, today: Summary: If you’re hosting an outdoor Kwanzaa event, ask guests to take a rapid covid test and beware of tents. Also, be sure to follow Anthony Fauci’s advice (spring 2020) and rely on a colorful cloth mask for protection against an aerosol vir … | Continue reading
I think I am beginning to understand why ChatGPT is so popular. It will agree with seemingly any religious belief. My question to ChatGPT: Why is Lisp the world’s best computer language? The answer (not in italics): Lisp is a programming language that was first developed in … | Continue reading
How is everyone’s pre-Kwanzaa candle-lighting going this week? The Righteous are showing their commitment to stopping Jew-hatred by wishing everyone a Happy Hanukkah and, oftentimes, bringing out a menorah to sit in front of next week’s kinara. This is a little strange considerin … | Continue reading
I had always thought that Leicas were too expensive, but some enterprising Californians managed to get a bunch of these cameras for Christmas stocking stuffers at a reasonable price. From one of my friends who lives in “the city”… “Leica Store in San Francisco Robbed at Gunpoint … | Continue reading
In testing the new iPhone 14’s satellite SOS feature before a trip to Death Valley, where getting lost sometimes leads to death, I reached the following demo screen: Why would dispatchers ask for your location? Can it be that the iPhone, which knows your 3D position precisely, … | Continue reading
Christmas gift idea: The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, a new-to-me 2005 book by Candice Millard. I listened to this as an Audible book so I can’t include excerpts. The story is about an exploration and mapping journey down what was then the Rio da Dúvida a … | Continue reading
“Harvard names Claudine Gay 30th president” (Harvard official news, 12/15/2022) quotes the new leader: There is an urgency for Harvard to be engaged with the world and to bring bold, brave, pioneering thinking to our greatest challenges. What are humanity’s greatest challenge … | Continue reading
Sam Bankman-Fried was notable for his ethical approach to doing business, particularly “effective altruism”. New York Times, May 2022: He lives modestly for a billionaire and has pledged to give away virtually his entire fortune, which currently stands at $21.2 billion, accordi … | Continue reading
Avoid humans who are breathing and also those who aren’t breathing, says “The Coronavirus May Spread From Corpses, Scientists Report” (NYT, today): Like a zombie in a horror film, the coronavirus can persist in the bodies of infected patients well after death, even spreading to … | Continue reading
Looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for a friend who shaves his/her/zir/their beard? Let’s examine Jeremy’s vs. Dorco, which prevailed over all competitors in my 2019 testing (see Friends weigh in on Dorco versus Gillette and Dorco Shaving Test: 7 blades good; 4 blades bad). … | Continue reading
Excerpts from a mailing list for residents of our former suburb of Boston, in which Social Justice is the most important issue after maintaining the 2-acre zoning minimum that ensures people need at least $1 million to buy in. November 16: Last night we heard erratic driving/wh … | Continue reading
The MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (where I was a grad student) demands that faculty job applicants include a “diversity statement” and they helpfully explain how to write a successful one: In general, a well-structured diversity statement mimics … | Continue reading
“The Tory immigration failure” (UnHerd, 11/28/2022): Over the past year, according to data released last week, net migration into Britain has soared to 504,000, the highest on record. This means half a million more people are coming into Britain than are leaving – that’s a city … | Continue reading
If humans and SARS-CoV-2 need to co-evolve, as my medical school professor friends said back in March 2020 when heaping scorn on lockdowns, school closures, and mask orders, we might be at half-time here, three years in. The Swedish MD/PhDs agreed with the professors and, conseq … | Continue reading
From a New Yorker article on Ryan Neil, the founder of Bonsai Mirai: That day [in 2002], [Masahiko] Kimura, who was then in his sixties, was working on an Ezo spruce with a spiky, half-dead trunk which was estimated to be a thousand years old. A photographer from the Japanese m … | Continue reading
A Los Angeles-to-Washington, D.C. helicopter trip started at PBI on a Sunday in November. Here are the Righteous preparing for a return flight to Boston after their optional vacation trip to South Florida. When I arrived at LAX, I discovered that they’ve set up a Fall of Sa … | Continue reading