The Obamacare tax was imposed in 2013 on “net investment income” in order to shovel more money from Americans who don’t work in health care to Americans who do work in health care. Capital gains from selling a house, interest, dividends, etc. are hit with an extra 3.8 percent fed … | Continue reading
From https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/tips-and-ideas/holiday/passover-menu : Screen #2: From Screen #3 (after clicking Continue): | Continue reading
We made a family trip to Lakeland, Florida’s answer to Oshkosh, i.e., Sun ‘n Fun. It was a great experience with much more manageable traffic, hotels, food, etc. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds were the main airshow attraction and the USAF also brought a B-1 bomber, of which roug … | Continue reading
An iPad Pro costs between $1,100 and $2,200 (plus $350 for a keyboard), depending on precise configuration. It features a 12.9-inch LCD display and weighs about 1.4 lbs., making it inexpensive to pack and ship. It runs a Unix-based operating system and a bunch of apps to decode s … | Continue reading
A friend works at Amazon in Maskachusetts. She just got a 13 percent raise, not performance-based, to compensate her for inflation and prevent her from quitting. State-sponsored NPR today says that the inflation rate is just 8.5 percent: “U.S. inflation rises 8.5 percent, sharpe … | Continue reading
From the New York Times, April 3, 2022, apparently not satisfied with A corrected history of mRNA vaccines, its January 15, 2022 effort to erase Robert Malone: This post is not about the obviously false claim that someone whose name appears on a foundational paper regarding mR … | Continue reading
Moore’s law says that we should get GPUs twice as fast every two years (GPUs are inherently parallel so adding more transistors should add performance). Huang’s law says that GPUs get 3X faster every two years. Because everything desirable in this world is being scooped up by th … | Continue reading
Two Apollo 11 astronauts wore the Omega Speedmaster after riding the Saturn V to the moon. Swatch has recently released a replica “moon watch”. Demand for these watches, and an association with the men who were brave enough to go into space, was overwhelming (Daily Mail). I would … | Continue reading
Electrify America charges 43 cents/kWh in Florida: That’s 4X the average price to a commercial customer in the state (EIA.gov; which shows that Electrify America’s price is 5X the “industrial” rate, which might be more appropriate for a large and busy charging station). (Let’s … | Continue reading
From an interview with the Markus Bucher, the CEO of Pilatus (in Switzerland)…. For the first time we produced and delivered over 140 aircraft to our customers in one year, taking us virtually to the limit of our current production capacity. The enormous demand for our General A … | Continue reading
Who else will be at Sun ‘n Fun this weekend in Lakeland, Florida? For those who are unfamiliar with this glorious event, it is a gathering of aviation enthusiasts that is a little more manageable than Oshkosh (EAA AirVenture). To prevent a January 6-style insurrection within the … | Continue reading
The NYT, under a headline about “A Transformative Justice”: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will help make the Supreme Court look like the nation but will have little power to halt its rightward trajectory.Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman confirmed to the Supreme C … | Continue reading
To celebrate World Health Day, let’s look at a state where long-term public health was optimized by closing schools for more than a year while keeping the marijuana stores open. Every retailer of healing cannabis in Maskachusetts requires a permit to operate from the government. … | Continue reading
Here’s a challenge for those of us afflicted by a belief in the Efficient Market Hypothesis: Adjusted for inflation, Zoom is cheaper today than in June 2019, when the only lockdowns were for convicted criminals and any non-felon could work, socialize, and study in person to hi … | Continue reading
We’ve had runaway government borrowing and spending, plus money-printing by the Fed, for the past two years. Now we have runaway inflation, which has led to some eye-popping asset prices and a government eager to collect a share of these assets even before they’re sold (“unrealiz … | Continue reading
A New York Post story: [Daniela Jampel, who served as an assistant corporation counsel for the City] had publicly challenged the mayor at an unrelated event on LGBTQ issues — as [Mayor Eric] Adams stood in front of a podium banner that read, “Come to the city where you can say w … | Continue reading
Folks who’ve been unpersoned by Twitter, Facebook, and/or YouTube/Google might feel that their practical freedom of speech is gone. The good is is that it can be bought back from the U.S. Mint for $1,595 via the First Amendment to the United States Constitution 2022 Platinum Proo … | Continue reading
We have some stuff in storage (see PODS versus PACK-RAT for moving and storage). The monthly storage rate was bumped last month by 8 percent (over a price quoted in June 2021). A local (Palm Beach County) dentist said that he’d raised hygienist wages by 20 percent to partially c … | Continue reading
“How Florida’s ‘don’t say gay’ law could harm children’s mental health” (The Guardian, today): LGBTQ+ parents and pediatric psychologists say the law stigmatizes being gay or transgender and could harm the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth.Stella, 10, attends a private school in Atl … | Continue reading
The standard example of chutzpah has been “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.” I wonder if we can replace this with one from a U.S. government agency. “CDC Reports Warn of Te … | Continue reading
Averros may find this of particular interest… The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III (Andrew Roberts): On 20 August 1782, the King and Queen were devastated to lose their youngest son, ‘dear little Alfred’, who died at Windsor Castle shortly before his s … | Continue reading
From the haters at Fox News… “Top DEI staff at public universities pocket massive salaries as experts question motives of initiatives”: A review of salary data shows that the universities of Michigan, Maryland, Virginia and Illinois, plus Virginia Tech, boast some of the highes … | Continue reading
Exactly two years ago (April 2, 2020), I asked If we could build renal dialysis capacity, why not COVID-19 treatment centers? On the one hand, the U.S. health care system is kind of lame. It consumes a ton of money. New York State spends $88 billion per year on its Department o … | Continue reading
Following Science, Mayor Eric Adams of New York City orders 2-year-olds to continue wearing masks while unvaccinated adults are free to party in strip clubs, on Tinder dates, at raves, etc. Every decision we make is with our children’s health and safety in mind. Children betwee … | Continue reading
Distilling from the comments on An internal hard disk disappears from Windows, but is still apparently working: my Seagate hard drive has failednobody should buy Seagate hard drives because same-price WD disks are 8X more reliable in Backblaze statistics and readers’ experience … | Continue reading
Happy April Fools’ Day! Today we can celebrate fools who buy stocks (or continue to hold, which amounts to the same thing) at near-historic-peak valuations: (the insane spike to a P/E ratio of over 100 was in 2009 when corporate earnings went down even more dramatically than s … | Continue reading
Everyone loves Facebook and Twitter (except those who’ve been banned for heresy!) and the Like button is credited as making those apps addictive (who doesn’t want to be liked?). Is it time to add a Like button for posts and comments on this blog? I’m pretty sure that there are Wo … | Continue reading
Today is the last day of Women’s History Month (does that mean that the other 11 months of the year should be devoted to learning about the historical achievements of people who identify as genders other than “female”?). Here’s are some photos from Disney Springs: The “Cel … | Continue reading
One of my favorite stops on a central Florida trip last month was the Basilica of Mary, Queen of the Universe (see also Wikipedia). It is tough to conceive of a more dramatic contrast with the theme parks. For starters, it’s free and you don’t have to wait in line, For folks who … | Continue reading
I am in the OR with Coach K on Monday and his partner Comedian Tom on Tuesday. I see three TURPs (transurethral resection of the prostate) on each OR day. After the patient is under general anesthesia (anesthesiologist chooses between endotracheal tube versus LMA) and draped, Coa … | Continue reading
“After decades of decline, Buffalo boasts a ‘Refugee Renaissance.’ Can it last?” (Democrat and Chronicle, January 2022): After reinventing itself as a haven for refugees, Buffalo seems poised for renewal. But with success comes higher rents.Across the nation, the results of the … | Continue reading
Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression (Christopher Knowlton) explains how Miami Beach was essentially the vision of a single individual, Carl Fisher (a pioneer in automobile headlights, highway development, and co-founder of t … | Continue reading
Since small aircraft are generally inferior to a 2009 Honda Accord as a transportation tool, it is worth celebrating the situations in which it make sense to fly. The Sebring, Florida race track is actually built on part of what was once a vast military airport and is now a mediu … | Continue reading
“Stormy Daniels must pay $300k to Donald Trump after losing defamation case appeal” (NBC): Adult film star Stormy Daniels has lost her appeal in her failed defamation suit against Donald Trump — leaving her owing almost $300,000 in legal fees to the former president.“I will go t … | Continue reading
A money manager friend recently attended a charity fund-raising dinner in Palm Beach. The beneficiary is a liberal arts college in the Northeast. If they reach their goals, the Second Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will be able to hire a second assistant and … | Continue reading
I meet my attending, Coach K, in the four-urologist private practice at 8:30 am. The radio is tuned to the sports channel as he signs paperwork before the first patients are ready. “If I can get you to not consult urology when you cannot pass a Foley, you have had a successful ro … | Continue reading
I meet my attending, Coach K, in the four-urologist private practice at 8:30 am. The radio is tuned to the sports channel as he signs paperwork before the first patients are ready. “If I can get you to not consult urology when you cannot pass a Foley, you have had a successful ro … | Continue reading
“What Quantum Mechanics Can Teach Us about Abortion” (Scientific American): As light can exist as both a particle and a wave, an abortion provider can honor birth and fight for a person’s right to give birth when it’s right for themQuantum mechanics, a discipline within physics, … | Continue reading
From an arcade in Stuart, Florida, the Millionaire pinball machine (1987) renamed “Billionaire”: Related: Pinflation (pinball machine pricing compared to 2020)Elon Musk pinball machine | Continue reading
Interview season has commenced, which means we get days, weeks, or even a month off to travel to residency programs. With the exception of a few specialities such as urology and ophthalmology, the Match starts when the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) opens at the … | Continue reading
Here’s a riddle that I hope the Windows experts among us can help solve. I have a 16 TB drive that is dedicated to Windows File History. It was installed in July 2021, assigned to R:, formatted as NTFS, and functioned just fine through mid-March. Now it doesn’t show up under “My … | Continue reading
Six months ago, the New York Times’s in-house Nobel-winning economist wrote “Wonking Out: I’m Still on Team Transitory” (9/10/2021): if we finally get this pandemic under control, the inflation of 2021 will soon fade from memory. Professor Krugman was correct about Joe Biden ge … | Continue reading
Disney supposedly has cut its maximum capacity, but the new maximum still results in multi-hour waits for rides, up to a one-hour wait to get through security before even reaching the ticket booths, no way to get food without waiting in an epic line, etc. We stayed at a hotel ne … | Continue reading
A reader sent the following: The product can be ordered at jeremysrazors.com. Based on the photos, it doesn’t look like this is yet another private-label Dorco (the Korean experts behind the marketeers at Dollar Shave Club). The commercial is fun and the product description … | Continue reading
We overlapped in Orlando last week with an electronic medical record expert friend who was attending HIMMS 2022, a conference for 20,000 senior hospital executives and the software companies trying to sell them stuff (the first round of digital stuff was paid for partly with $30 … | Continue reading
I haven’t been following the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson (CNN) closely, but it seems that nobody could apply for the job unless he/she/ze/they identified as a “Black woman”. From state-sponsored NPR: PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The person I will nomina … | Continue reading
We visited Madame Tussauds Orlando earlier this month and learned that Madonna might not be the best celebrity advocate for years of lockdowns, mask orders, and school closures: “It’s better to live one year as a tiger, than one hundred as a sheep.” This inspired a search that … | Continue reading