How’s transitory inflation in your area?

From the in-house economics Nobel-winner at the New York Times (December 2021): Even once the inflation numbers shot up, many economists — myself included — argued that the surge was likely to prov… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Exclude white trash by excluding pit bulls?

In 2017, I wrote High minimum wage is a city’s way to keep out low-skill immigrants Friends on Facebook are discussing “A ‘very credible’ new study on Seattle’s $15 minimum wage has bad news … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Politician characterizes immigrant-rich California as “like a third world country”

At 27 percent, California leads the U.S. in percentage of population who are foreign-born (Wikipedia). Many of these folks migrated from low-income countries where the typical resident is “lo… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Skiing in a country where nobody wants to work and where nobody can afford to live

A friend lives in a $3 million starter home in the Vail valley. He reports having to carefully pick ski days this season due to crowding on the mountain and long lift lines. “They sold a ton … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Soviet management tips for the American executive

To celebrate having gotten through one month of winter, let’s turn our attention to things Russian (since they are the true masters of the cold). Last year, I was invited to a family dinner i… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

We voted for Pedro; did all of our wildest dreams come true?

Joe Biden’s campaign promises were similar to those of Pedro’s (“if you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true”) in Napoleon Dynamite. It has been a year. Ho… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

It will be tougher to get a parking space in Palm Beach

“Rolls-Royce, Bentley, BMW Sales Surge as Cheaper Brands Lag Behind” (WSJ): The most luxurious brands such as Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Porsche and BMW have reported record sales.Bentley so… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Finished San Fransicko

I have finished San Fransicko, the book by a self-described lifelong “progressive and Democrat” that I wrote about in Reading list: San Fransicko. Let’s go to the solution first. … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Omicron is in Retreat

Adding some support to the Vietnam War analogy, today’s New York Times says “Omicron Is in Retreat”, with the implication that any decline in “cases” is due to the eff… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Will we ever know how the CDC’s cloth mask recommendations changed the COVID-19 death statistics?

“The C.D.C. concedes that cloth masks do not protect against the virus as effectively as other masks.” (NYT, Friday): When the C.D.C. finally recommended masks for ordinary Americans, i… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The 6-year-old hater

Rousseau thought that children were innately innocent, but maybe that is because he never reared any. On the way to the Stuart Boat Show, we stopped at a favorite local restaurant for breakfast. I … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

MIT: Groundbreaking research on politics and racial justice

The December issue of MIT’s alumni magazine, Technology Review, arrived. this includes a special sub-magazine that is only about things that happen on the MIT campus or that are done by MIT a… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

City of Boston happy to fly rainbow and Islamic flags, but not a Christian group’s flag

Today at the Supreme Court: Shurtleff v. Boston. Officials of the Cradle of Liberty were happy to fly the rainbow (Pride) flag and the Islamic-themed flag of Turkey, but a Christian-themed flag was… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Book to read if you’re upset that everything is out of stock

Island of the Lost: An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett is a timely read given for those who are upset that everything has been out of stock for two years. It… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Martin Luther King Jr. on Freedom

I hope that everyone who works for the government, at least, is enjoying having today off. This is a reminder to check Reinterpreting MLK’s ideas of freedom for the Age of COVID (July 4, 2021). Cit… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Plural versus possessive at Harvard

In Teaching Information Security there was a discussion of the fact that young people at a Florida state system university rejected the distinction between plural and possessive. A friend sent me t… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Why aren’t emails to an at-work lover copyrighted?

Academia is always great for showing those with inferior credentials (i.e., “inferiors”) how to think and behave appropriately. University of Michigan recently fired its president for h… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The Serbian Mushrik is cast out of the Antipodal Mecca

From “Why Are Non-Muslims Not Allowed Into The Cities Of Mecca And Madinah?” (Inside Saudi): In Islam, the cities of Mecca and Madinah are considered as places of peace, refuge, and san… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Trying to make sense of the Supreme Court rulings on the vaccine orders

We tried to predict what the Supreme Court would do with President Biden’s vaccine mandates on health care workers and on employees of larger companies (see Supreme Court hears arguments on f… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

School administrators comfort the afflicted

Everyone and his/her/zir/their brother/sister/binary-resister in fully-masked fully-vaccinated Massachusetts is testing positive for a deadly virus (but this in no way diminishes our faith in masks… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Romantic first date conversation advice

Today is the day that Tinder users will have to provide proof of vaccination in order to meet in a Boston restaurant (NPR). From there, they can decide whether it is time to go to the marijuana sto… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Washington, D.C. vaccine papers and Photo ID checks start tomorrow

Let’s check in to see how things are going at the Center of the Free World (TM). From the mayor of Washington, D.C.: Adults need a photo ID to go more or less anywhere in the city. If we beli… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Elon Musk pinball machine

Here are some photos from a recent excursion to the Silverball Pinball Museum in Delray Beach, Florida. Statistics that folks in NY, MA, and CA are passionate about watching showed that Florida was… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Will Americans use their free at-home test kits to ensure negative official test results as needed?

In a triumph of central planning, the test kits that nobody can buy will now be free. “Insurers Will Have to Cover 8 At-Home Virus Tests Per Month” (New York Times, 1/10): The Biden adm… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The Federal Reserve Bank president who said not to print money

Happy Lucky 13 day! Given the recent headlines, e.g., “Inflation rises 7% over the past year, highest since 1982” (CNBC), let’s look at “The Fed’s Doomsday Prophet Has a Dir… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Non-white people considered high-risk when it is time to get COVID-19 medicine, but low-risk when gathering

Welcome to Covidcratic Logic Lesson #731. From the Followers of Science in California, Order of the Health Officer of the County Of Sonoma C19-35: To slow the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“C… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Checking in on the wicked Swedes

One country we haven’t heard much about during the Ominous Omicron Oscillation is Sweden. As noted in Coronascientists are the modern Aristotles? for those who Follow the Science the original… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Is it better to get food poisoning at a women-owned restaurant?

Because I refused to pollute the sacred temple that is my body with a 947th slice of pizza in one month, while the kids and Senior Management had a strip mall pizza on the way to the Tampa Zoo, I w… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Population-wide COVID-19 vaccines a failure measured by death toll?

The mRNA vaccines invented in 1987 by Robert Malone and perfected to build immunity against COVID-19 in 2020 have been hailed by many as a great public health success. CNN, 5/26/2021: “The sp… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Revisiting my coronaplague prediction from July

On July 28, 2021, while we were at Oshkosh, a friend (who is a pre-2020 “scientist” in that he formulates hypotheses and tests them rather than constructing retrospective explanations) … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Measles as a best-case study of how humans stack up to respiratory viruses?

Nearly two years ago, when public health officials first began talking about “science” in the context of the measures they were taking that would eradicate SARS-CoV-2, the medical schoo… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Avoid travel to Australia now that Novak Djokovic is on the loose?

“Novak Djokovic Can Remain in Australia, Judge Rules” (NYT): Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star, moved one step closer to competing for his record 21st Grand Slam title after an Au… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Is it legitimate for the Supreme Court to use numbers to rule on forced vaccinations?

Based on what Justices said during last week’s hearing regarding the constitutionality of President Biden’s forced vaccination orders, the Supreme Court seemed to be prepared to rule ba… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

If vaccines are effective against COVID-19, why doesn’t China vaccinate its way into normalcy?

We’re informed that COVID-19 vaccines prevent nearly all serious consequences from being infected with SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 is no worse than the common cold for those who have accepted the sa… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Take a weekend trip to the desert, to the gay inns, where clothing is optional (and so are masks)

Here’s a mid-December 2021 story from the LA Times: Some excerpts from a newspaper that has supporting school closures, mandatory vaccinations, etc.: The skin wants the sun. The skin wants wa… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Who has recently switched from Verizon to T-Mobile?

We are in an abusive relationship with Verizon right now. They gaslight us by showing at least 2 bars of 5G service in our neighborhood (Abacoa; part of Jupiter, Florida) and at the beach, but, in … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Omicronicles: the high schooler tests positive and then goes to school

A friend back in the Land of Righteousness has a child who tested positive for COVID-19, but whose symptoms were mild. The child with laboratory-confirmed infection decided to go to his/her/zir/the… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Is Service in your DNA?

Here’s a sign that I was able to contemplate at leisure while waiting to get a license plate (Florida delegates what would a massive DMV bureaucracy to counties). The “Is Service in you… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Supreme Court hears arguments on forced vaccination in two parallel universes

The Supreme Court recently took up the question of whether elderly elites can order young peasants to get vaccinated against a virus that attacks the elderly. The argument took place in two paralle… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Coronascience charts

A reader sent me the following Trust in Science page: The Spectator folks track the predictions of Science against actual outcomes. This is enabled by the fact that the UK rejected Science’s … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Merry Collectivist Christmas to Russian Orthodox readers

Last month we visited the Morikami Museum, a building owned by Palm Beach County, notable for its constant efforts to force schoolchildren to wear masks, contrary to orders from the governor, rulin… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

How’s COVID test availability in your neighborhood?

From three weeks ago: Why is it still almost impossible to schedule a COVID-19 test? (at least in Maskachusetts) How are things now? Here in the Palm Beach area, using the CVS web site, the earlies… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

How is Rivian still worth $78 billion?

In What edge does Rivian have in the truck or EV market? (November 2021) I wondered how Rivian could be worth $127 billion, given that Ford will soon be selling electric pickups. As of today, the c… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Reminder that failure is an option

I stumbled on Closed for Storm in Amazon Prime (it is wedged into a corner of the app behind “Black voices” and “Hispanic & Latino voices” (no “Latinx voices”… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Exploring the land value tax

The U.S. Congress is getting back to “work” soon, trying to figure out how to squeeze enough tax revenue from Xbox-oriented Americans to fund all of the government programs that we drea… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The Science in the movie Don’t Look Up

Don’t Look Up is a cautionary tale of what could happen if Trump-supporters were a majority in the U.S. It is an update, to some extent of the 2006 film Idiocracy, whose underlying message is… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Let’s go to Brandon (Florida)

Our 8-year-old ran out of books to read on our recent excursion around the Florida Free State. Google Maps showed us that the most convenient bookstores between Lakeland and Tampa were in… Br… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The FAA burdened helicopter charter operators with rules to install useless radar altimeters that are now disabled by 5G

“FAA punches a hole in the U.S. economy today” (2017): Today is the day that FAR 135.160 goes into effect. This requires a radar altimeter (“radio altimeter” in the FAA’s parlance or “r… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago