Is it sacrilegious to step on a rainbow flag?

Happy Valentine’s Day! Let’s talk about love… I shared some photos from a visit to Atlanta in a chat group, including the following: A friend who lives in San Francisco: This is h… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Super Bowl Covid variant?

As noted in California Karen hosts a 200,000-person mass gathering (Super Bowl in Los Angeles), the vaccinated will soon be huddled together in California, land of the closed public school and open… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The Boulder County fire

In January, I visited the site of the 2021–2022 Boulder County fires. The section that I visited is directly behind a huge fire station: More shocking than the inequality that AOC and Bernie Sander… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

CVS marked down COVID-19 tests before Joe Biden’s arrived in the mail

The 6-year-old and I found COVID-19 tests on sale today at CVS in Jupiter, Florida: I placed my order for taxpayer-funded tests (“free”) on January 19, the advertised first day in ̶… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Justin Trudeau’s old school in Newton, Maskachusetts makes the news

I hope that everyone (except, perhaps, that notorious reprobate Toucan Sam) has been celebrating Black History Month. Some news from Newton, Massachusetts… “… Blackface classroom … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Avanti Piaggio cabin noise measurements

For folks who’ve been beguiled by press releases from Otto Aviation, the Piaggio Avanti is a reminder that most of the great ideas in aerodynamics were implemented in the 1980s. The Piaggio d… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Is our public health policy now informed by the Kyle Rittenhouse prosecutor?

Science, August 2021 edition: Getting COVID-19 (e.g., in Florida) is due to stupidity, irresponsibility, failure to get injected with an emergency use-authorized vaccine, Science-denial, and suppor… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Cirrus Vision Jet cabin noise measurements

One of the knocks against the mostly-pretty-awesome Vision Jet from Cirrus is high levels of interior noise. The fuselage is composite rather than aluminum and this is typically a recipe for high l… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Climate Science meets Coronascience

A paywalled article from the UK Independent is available at MSN: “Tube ‘low risk’ for catching Covid, study finds”. The authors followed people who rode London’s mass transit syst… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Inflation Chronicles: meatballs and spec houses

“Annual American inflation hit 7.5%: A near 40-year high” (CNN, today): A key measure of inflation climbed to a near-40-year high last month. Economists are hopeful that America will re… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

More bad news for Americans in the slavery zone ($100,000 per year)

The U.S. is a great place to be on welfare. Except for France, we spend the largest percentage of our GDP on government handouts such as free housing, health care, food, and smartphone (Washington … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Prius sighting in Florida

Two middle-aged ladies were in front of us at Lion Country Safari: Biden/Harris, Black Lives Matter, and Eat More Kale plus an Imagine there’s no hunger license plate (proceeds to the Florida… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Subaru Outback review

On a recent trip to Denver, I rented a $550/week “full size” car from Hertz and received a 2021 Subaru Outback station wagon. As part of the Great Falling Apart of the U.S. service indu… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The CDC advises us to avoid countries that followed CDC advice

The CDC advised that countries force citizens to wear masks and receive injections of experimental-use-authorized vaccines. Let’s have a look at some of the countries that followed the advice… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

What is the scientific reason that Canadian truck drivers need to be vaccinated against COVID-19?

The news is packed with stories about the Canadian truck drivers protesting against a vaccine order (Wikipedia). Premier Blackface (Justin Trudeau) says that, while Canadians have some right to fre… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The Maskachusetts Righteous debate public housing policy

Recent discussion involving two residents of of a rich Massachusetts suburb…. From a woman who gets paid to help migrants from South Sudan settle in Massachusetts: Good morning! I can tell yo… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

What’s a good introduction to Joe Rogan?

Who watched the Dave Chappelle special on Netflix? was about how I invested one hour to learn about someone identified as an Enemy of the Truth. The latest Enemy of the Truth, a dangerous spreader … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Are Californians on track to implement universal health care?

Covid-fighting hero Gavin Newsom promised California voters a single-payer universal health care system in 2018. A majority of Californians agree that health care is a human right. California has a… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

COVID-19 boosters cut death risk by 97X?

“Boosted Americans 97 times less likely to die of virus than unvaccinated” (USA Today, 2/2/2022): As the U.S. inches up to a 64% vaccination rate for the entire population, only 42% of … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

CNN educates us regarding the glass ceiling

An immigrant friend’s comment on news from the CNN executive suite: These are defenders of liberal morality and destroyers of glass ceilings A Google search for “glass ceiling” si… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Voter participation increases as government expands?

Friends from Maskachusetts (a.k.a. “Democrats”) were attributing all of the nations’ current woes to Donald Trump. One example that they highlighted was Trump’s reference to… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Even with COVID-19 anxiety, there is always room for climate anxiety

For readers who demand to know why I continue to pay for a NYT subscription… “Climate Change Enters the Therapy Room” (NYT, today): Ten years ago, psychologists proposed that a wi… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

MIT spirit in Washington, D.C.

“‘I am deeply sorry for my conduct’: Biden’s top science adviser apologizes to staff” (Politico): [MIT prof] Eric Lander, the president’s top science adviser and a member of his C… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Report on a Southern Secession (Buckhead City)

On our return from Denver, we stopped overnight in Buckhead, the rich area of Atlanta that was annexed by the city in 1952 and that soon hopes to vote on seceding into “Buckhead City.” … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The 6-year-old hater responds to an interview with a World War II veteran

Follow-up to The 6-year-old hater… We took the kids to the National Navy SEAL Museum (a mask-free and indoor/outdoor experience, like most Florida experiences). The museum was showing an inte… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Unmasked Vladimir Putin braves a stadium packed with the infected

There is a high demand for pageantry in our household, but we don’t have a TV, so I signed up for the “ad-free” “Peacock Premium Plus” streaming service and used an iP… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

New Orleans update

The Cirrus Vision Jet is a great machine, but one thing that it can’t do is go non-stop from South Florida to Denver against a winter headwind. We decided to stop at Flightline KNEW for fuel,… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Adult life at MIT

Excerpts from today’s email from MIT Hillel (Jewish organization on campus): One trend we have seen is students are still craving IRL (in-real-life) interactions and events, even if MIT rules… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Medical School 2020, Year 3, Week 30 (family medicine, exam week)

The clinic staff throws a party for my last day. One of the secretaries brought in homemade rhubarb turnovers. I express my gratitude and they respond with “We take any excuse to throw a part… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

What are folks reading in Boulder?

Pictures from the Boulder Book Store. SARS-CoV-2 has achieved much more mindshare in Colorado than in Florida. Boulder and Denver are the centers of concern regarding COVID-19. As you enter the sto… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Medical School 2020, Year 3, Week 29 (family medicine, week 5)

We start at 7:45 am to read up on the ten patients we’ll see this morning at the clinic.  The 37-year-old nurse (from week 25) with a large MCA stroke and amputation after subacute bacte… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Do universities force students to wear masks forever?

Here are some young people at the University of Colorado, January 28, 2022: It didn’t look as though anyone over the age of 25 was in the room (a good thing, considering that most were wearin… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

WSJ: Covid-19 was more destructive of American life than World War II

“One Million Deaths: The Hole the Pandemic Made in U.S. Society” (Wall Street Journal, 1/31/2022): Covid-19 has left the same proportion of the population dead—about 0.3%—as did World W… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Verizon 5G: strong enough to disable aircraft radar altimeters, but not strong enough to download a web page

Here’s a better-than-usual Verizon mobile data situation in Jupiter, Florida: Three bars of 5G yields 3/1 Mbps of data, which turns out to be not enough to browse the modern JavaScript and CS… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Did banking leave London after Brexit?

Expert prediction was that Brexit would destroy London’s status as a financial center. Who knows more about London and economics than the Economist? A little over one month before the herd vo… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Why is the conflict over Ukraine happening now?

Please forgive my ignorance of everything that happens beyond the borders of the U.S. (and/or beyond the borders of Palm Beach County), but I’m hoping that readers who follow matters internat… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Medical School 2020, Year 3, Week 27 (Family Medicine, Week 3)

Monday morning: 84-year-old “T-Bone” car accident victim for a hospital follow up. He was admitted to the hospital for seven days with multiple rib fractures and a wrist fracture. A CT … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Malawi and the Church of Sweden

From state-sponsored media, “Africa may have reached the pandemic’s holy grail”: So to fill in the true picture, Jambo and his collaborators turned to another potential source of … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Medical School 2020, Year 3, Week 26

Week 2 on family medicine rotation. Monday morning begins with a one-hour lecture by a 53-year-old talkative palliative care specialist (“helping patients learn how to live with serious illne… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Movie suggestion: Black Death

Leaving HBO Max in a few days… Black Death, a 2010 film that is perfect for “these times.” I don’t want to spoil the movie, but one critical element is attempts by people wh… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Medical School 2020, Year 3, Week 25 (Family Medicine)

We pick up our hero’s story in January 2019, halfway through Year 3. Orientation begins at 7:00 am. Our clerkship director, a 58-year-old family doctor, explains that we are expected to write… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

A corrected history of mRNA vaccines

According to the world’s most prestigious scientific journal, here’s how the history of mRNA vaccines begins: In late 1987, Robert Malone performed a landmark experiment. He mixed stran… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Did your free COVID tests arrive yet?

Who has received his/her/zir/their free-from-Joe-Biden COVID-19 tests? This handout seems like an ideal political strategy. People will be delighted to pay $40,000 per year in local, state, and fed… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

What is Harvard’s argument for race-based admissions in the #StopAsianHate age?

“Supreme Court to hear Harvard admissions challenge” (Harvard Gazette): “The Supreme Court decision to review the unanimous decisions of the lower federal courts puts at risk 40 years o… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Encanto: Latinx migrants get a free house

The heart-warming story of the movie Encanto begins with Latinx migrants fleeing violence (in Colombia) and almost immediately getting a free house (created by a magic candle). This was a hit with … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

How an asset bubble that inflates and deflates makes a lot of people worse off

One might think that an asset bubble that inflates and deflates doesn’t hurt that many people. After all, if you just stay in your house, what difference does it make if the value goes up to … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

How is the James Webb Space Telescope doing?

Who has been following the James Webb Space Telescope? It will take a while to travel nearly 1 million miles to get to its working position, but is everything still working as planned? $10 billion … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

At-home test kits are back in stock; triumph of central planning?

As of last night, CVS in the Palm Beach area has at-home test kits back in stock. Do we call this a failure of central planning? The site to order “free” (i.e., paid for by us via taxes… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago