Karen visits a Florida theme park

This is a quote from a friend’s Facebook post, but I am not going to use the WordPress Quote style because it will be easier to read if not in italics. The names have been changed. The author… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Career Planning Inspiration

This is the time when young people begin looking for their first jobs out of college and/or high school. Where are these jobs likely to lead 40 years down the road? A friend sent me this article fr… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Who followed the Elizabeth Holmes trial?

Who followed the Elizabeth Holmes trial closely? “The Elizabeth Holmes Verdict: Theranos Founder Is Guilty on Four of 11 Charges in Fraud Trial” (WSJ, which is the newspaper primarily r… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Why doesn’t the raging plague in Maskachusetts cause doubt among the true believers in Faucism?

This post generally falls into the category of “Are humans in charge of SARS-CoV-2 infections or is the virus in charge?” One of the principal heresies of this blog, since March 2020, i… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The unvaccinated can upgrade their image by consuming meth and heroin?

The self-described “progressive” who wrote San Fransicko thinks that one reason homelessness in California is so persistent is that individuals are not held accountable for their choice… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Success with Wise money transfer

In Finally a use case for cryptocurrency? (currency conversion fees), Tim suggested Wise as the, um, wise way to transfer dollars to euro-denominated accounts overseas. I recently used this to pay … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

How far would you go to get your child into college?

Now that the Harvard College application deadline is behind us, let’s look at a book by Nobel-winner (like Obama!) Kazuo Ishiguro that turns out to be partly on the topic of what a parent wou… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

COVID-22 for those renouncing U.S. citizenship

“Americans seeking to renounce their citizenship are stuck with it for now” (Guardian): For almost two years, since the pandemic struck in March 2020, most US consular missions around t… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Protected by masks on a 100-percent full flight

Readers may recall that I’ve been an advocate for preventing airlines from selling middle seats during coronapanic, rather than relying on masks to block the spread of germs (see Coronavirus … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Breaking bad habits for the New Year

Happy New Year to everyone! What bad habits are you going to try to swear off for the New Year? A recent conversation in the middle seat of the minivan: 6-year-old: Dad, if you crack your knuckles … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Safe way to celebrate New Year’s Eve: watch Contagion

Contagion, by the brilliant director Steven Soderbergh, leaves HBO Max tonight. Most of the friends who scolded me for lack of coronapanic orthodoxy and weak adherence to Faucism are still in their… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Farewell to Christmas lights

I hope now that everyone has been inspired by the example of Kamala Harris’s family in quickly breaking down the Christmas decorations (illustrated in a photo from her childhood) to make room… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Royal Air Force versus U.S. Air Force

This book will appeal primarily to pilots: An Officer, Not a Gentleman (Mandy Hickson). It’s by a pilot who spends 24 years in the Royal Air Force flying what the Brits call “fast jets,… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Covid epidemic among air traffic controllers in Orlando

Numerous COVID-righteous friends have reported problems getting to vacation destinations this year. Dr. Fauci apparently told them to cram themselves onto 100-percent-full airliners and then congre… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Inflation chronicles: when a $120 steak dinner is underpriced

One of my favorite restaurants is Bern’s Steak House in Tampa. If you don’t order any wine, you could probably get out of there for $120 per person including tax and tip (menu with some… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Kwanzaa stamps an expression of hate?

I went to the Post Office today to get some stamps for our New Year’s cards. It’s Florida so naturally the guy working the counter wasn’t wearing a mask and didn’t ask any c… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The New York Times explains computers circa 1967

Americans today love to read about cosmology and string theory, but you couldn’t pay most to listen to a lecture on how their beloved smartphones work. Apparently, there was a time when non-s… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Teaching Information Security

This post is to help professors trying to teach information security, a subject typically studied by seniors earning a Bachelor’s in Information Technology. Information Security covers how to… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Avionics News: What’s worse than paying $18,245 for $200 of electronics?

Chatting with some pilots and aircraft owners this evening, one mentioned that he’d ordered an $18,245 Garmin 750Xi. This has some computing power, some flash memory storage, a touchscreen di… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Happy Kwanzaa

Happy Kwanzaa to everyone. The holiday reminds us just how far we have to go in our quest for social justice. Shutterfly, for example, shows only one or two people with light skin as sample images … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Merry Christmas from the Central Planners

Merry Christmas to everyone! Loyal readers will know that I love central planning (seen “Citizens for a Planned Economy,” the political group that I formed after watching the 2012 Presi… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

If at least 50 percent of us are Covid-righteous, how did hotels and flights fill up with leisure travelers?

From a reader: Our usual Mexico hotels are sold out, so we decided on Florida instead. We are going to be [in Hollywood, Florida] Dec 20-27. If you are up for it we can grab coffee. My response: I … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Grinch Olympics

Adults used to compete in trying to give as much as possible to children, bragging about sacrifices of time, effort, and money to ensure that children had a wonderful time and a bright future. At l… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Your Christmas gift to the richest people in the U.S.

If you’re concerned that you haven’t spent enough on Christmas this year, the Wall Street Journal reassures you that, via your federal income tax payments, you’re subsidizing some… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Tyler Cowen says inflation harms the poor more

In Inflation harms the elite, the working class, or the poor? I posit that the coverage of inflation by elite-controlled media suggests that inflation harms the elite more than it harms the poor (w… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Should police departments hire Kyle Rittenhouse to train officers?

Now that Kyle Rittenhouse has had a month to relax after his year of being targeted for what turned out to be, at least in the eyes of the unanimous jury, a meritless prosecution, I wonder what he … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Update on my friend with COVID-19

Today is the day that my friend, who woke up with a fever on Thursday, December 16, would have been tested for COVID-19 had he been willing to drive to Lynn (about a one-hour round trip). Here̵… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Photography suggestions from the Google

If you remembered to put your Canon mirrorless system in the back of the Rolls Royce for the trip to the Bal Harbour mall, here’s the Google Maps suggestion for where to stop and take picture… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Vaccine paper checks in the Cradle of Liberty

From “MAYOR WALSH SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER ESTABLISHING GENDER NEUTRAL RESTROOMS IN CITY HALL” (boston.gov, 2016): “Boston is well known as ‘The Cradle of Liberty,’ and for nearly 400 year… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Should Zoom let you choose the size of your pronouns on others’ screens?

“On Being a Trans Abortion Provider” (MedPage Today): “I’m so glad it’s all women in here.”As a family doctor and abortion provider, I hear this all the time. I … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Demotivated from non-summer travel now that we’re in Florida

When we lived in Maskachusetts, this is the time of year when I would start surfing travel web sites. Maybe it would be nice to go to a beach resort, a tennis destination, a sunny mountain town out… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The Korean Empire Strikes Back (against Tesla)

In Volkswagen ID.4 versus Tesla Y: Did the Empire Strike Back? I wondered if some of the world’s best engineers (at least when it comes to cheating on emissions tests) could make a better car… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

California Karen hosts a 200,000-person mass gathering (Super Bowl in Los Angeles)

SARS-CoV-2 is a sufficiently serious enemy that the Inglewood, California schools shut down completely for more than 400 days and, even after that, reopened only in a diluted “hybrid” f… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Update on my COVID-doomed/vaccine-saved friend

Day 1 of COVID for my friend: fever of 102 (chronicled in Why is it still almost impossible to schedule a COVID-19 test? (at least in Maskachusetts) Note that he had been feeling less than 100% for… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Vaccine effectiveness predictions

In light of the two recent situations in which fully vaccinated friends have gotten COVID-19 (see Maybe it is time for that booster shot? and Why is it still almost impossible to schedule a COVID-1… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Why can’t a dual-SIM phone use two mobile data sources simultaneously?

Whatever we are paying Verizon is not enough to induce them to build a working mobile data network here in Florida. The dead spots are at least as bad as in Maskachusetts despite the flat terrain a… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

“Elderly” tag depends on context (73-year-old killed by Comfort Sheep)

A sad tale from Newsweek, with “elderly” in both the headline and URL… “Elderly Woman Killed by a Sheep While Volunteering at Massachusetts Farm” (12/6): Kim Taylor, 7… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Why is it still almost impossible to schedule a COVID-19 test? (at least in Maskachusetts)

A friend woke up this morning with a 102-degree fever. He asked our chat group what the procedure was for getting a COVID-19 test in suburban Boston. Keep in mind that this is one of the epicenters… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Inspiration for sticking to your flying lessons (catch up with canine pilots)

We’ve hit mid-December, historically a time when a lot of flight students in Maskachusetts would give up, at least until the spring. They wouldn’t schedule lessons due to Christmas part… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

The COVID Booster Gap

Loyal readers will remember that, ever since January 2021, I’ve considered the Vietnam War to be the best analogy to American efforts in the fight against SARS-CoV-2 (see Lockdown is our Viet… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Tough week for a Tesla hater like me

“Naming Elon Musk person of the year is Time’s ‘worst choice ever’, say critics” (Guardian, today) ranks Elon Musk at least one notch below Adolf Hitler (Man of the Year in 1938). My ha… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Coronahassle travel site?

How about this as a business idea: a travel site that answers the question “Where can I go conveniently and safely in the age of COVID-19 and restrictions imposed in the name of preventing CO… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Among the Deplorable anti-vaxxers (doctors and nurses in Florida)

We were invited to a birthday party for one of the kids in the neighborhood. A slender mom who appeared to be in her early thirties, on finding that we had moved from Massachusetts, said. “I … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Reading list: San Fransicko

A friend, who was forced to abandon his $10 million custom-built house in San Francisco after the wife refused to continue to live in a neighborhood where people injected heroin in their driveway, … | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Should supermarkets have live music?

On a recent trip to Naples, Florida, we discovered that the Seed to Table supermarket (across the main road from our Marriott TownePlace Suites hotel; we explained to the kids that this was a doubl… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Enforcing orthodoxy among physicians

From the Federation of State Medical Boards: The FSMB is closely monitoring troubling legislation that has been introduced in a number of states aimed at limiting state medical boards’ authority to… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

What can my Identity Doppelganger do with a Citi Custom Cash Mastercard in my name?

Almost time for serious Christmas shopping. Personally, I prefer to pay for everything with someone else’s credit card. Apparently, this idea is not original because I started getting U.S. ma… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago

Inflation harms the elite, the working class, or the poor?

From page of the New York Times today: Whom does inflation harm? It has to be bad for someone, right? Otherwise it wouldn’t be front page news. The NYT story: The Consumer Price Index is risi… | Continue reading


@philip.greenspun.com | 2 years ago