A fourth post based on The Women Who Flew for Hitler, a book about Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg. Although both of these women were awarded Iron Crosses by Adolf Hitler, only Hanna was an enthusiastic supporter of National Socialism. The aeronautical engineer and dis … | Continue reading
On the cusp of the release of Intel’s Arrow Lake CPUs, which contain some sort of feeble “AI processor” that might boost performance by 1 percent for anyone who has a graphics card plugged into his/her/zir/their desktop PC, the company will have to fire 15 percent of its workers … | Continue reading
A friend was one of the first to order and receive an Apple Vision Pro headset. He’s had it for about six months. He’s a great programmer and a sophisticated user of technology. I asked him what he’s done with the $3500 device. “I use it to watch streaming movies,” he responded. … | Continue reading
A third post based on The Women Who Flew for Hitler, a book about Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg. The Germans were great at innovation, but the Allies built so many old tech bombers and escort fighters that it was tough for the Germans to exploit their innovations. Re … | Continue reading
That last of a multi-part series on our three-week June 2024 trip to Portugal (Lisbon and points north)… The Porto airport is gleaming and quite efficient. Our passports were checked once during luggage check-in, once at an immigration barrier set up on the way to the gates that … | Continue reading
Ponte de Lima is on the way back from Santiago de Compostela. It’s notable for being one of the oldest towns in Portugal (the bridge goes back to Roman times, for example) and also for being one of the flattest that I found. If you’re tired of having to walk up and down hills jus … | Continue reading
Exactly one year ago, I proposed an Oshkosh to San Francisco Tent Truck that would help those experiencing homelessness in a state where everyone with political power agrees that housing is a human right. This year, Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order encouraging Californi … | Continue reading
“A Wife’s Revenge from Beyond the Grave” (The Free Press) is worth reading for the window that it provides into modern American marriage. We consider ourselves smarter and more evolved than people in the past, but the story starts with a successful 33-year-old man deciding to rej … | Continue reading
Santiago de Compostela is the holiest Christian site in Europe, being the supposed burial place of St. James, and pilgrims have been walking there for more than 1,000 years. Suppose that a pilgrim spends a weeks or months walking from France or Portugal to this sacred site, what … | Continue reading
A second post based on The Women Who Flew for Hitler, a book about Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg. This supplies some detail about Hanna Reitsch’s pioneer flights in the world’s first practical helicopter. One day [in September 1937], however, Karl Franke asked Hanna … | Continue reading
We went to the UNESCO World Heritage town of Guimarães on our way back into the mountains. This place gets hit with bus tours that trek through the duke’s palace, for example. This might be where Hrothgar’s mead hall (Heorot) was! It’s still very pleasant, though maybe an afterno … | Continue reading
It’s the first day of EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the world’s largest fly-in and general celebration of aviation. In particular, there tends to be a lot of official celebration of women in aviation. Thus, today’s blog post is about the greatest female pilots in history, … | Continue reading
We are informed that Joe Biden is too senile to run for reelection, but also more than capable of serving as Commander in Chief of the $1 trillion/year U.S. military (so he’ll do that job for another half year). We’ll soon be reminded, no doubt, by government-sponsored media (NPR … | Continue reading
Instead of taking the Google Maps route on blind faith, we asked locals how to get out of the Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela. This took us through Belmonte, which we discovered was home to a Jewish museum and also a church on a traditional route to Santiago de Compostela. Bel … | Continue reading
The Day of the Jackal is a famous 1971 novel about a rifle expert who tries to kill Charles de Gaulle (he needn’t have bothered, presumably, since France would soon destroy itself via low-skill immigration). *** spoiler alert: stop here if you’re planning to read the book or watc … | Continue reading
The peasants revolted in 2022 by updating the Massachusetts constitution so that a progressive income tax rate system could be introduced in the progressive state. The higher 9 percent rate initially applies only to those who earn at least $1 million per year so it is the “Millio … | Continue reading
I felt sorry for myself on Thursday because Spirit was four hours late FLL to ORD (impressive considering that they had no mechanical or weather problems). On Friday, however, CrowdStrike managed to disable the entire U.S. airline industry. Can we agree that there should be a new … | Continue reading
My U.S. passport expires in September so I’ve been looking at renewal options. The State Department has an online renewal system that they’re offering to a limited number of lucky taxpayers every day. I was excited about this because it doesn’t require mailing in the old passport … | Continue reading
In Why do the non-Deplorables deplore the Trump shooting? I highlighted the apparent contradiction between saying that Donald Trump will end American democracy and also that one is praying for Donald Trump’s long life and good health. “Schiff Calls on Biden to Drop Out of Preside … | Continue reading
Here’s a post that is being celebrated by Deplorables as evidence that Social Justice is under pressure in Corporate America: Our customers’ trust and confidence in us are of the utmost importance to everyone at John Deere. We fully intend to earn it every day and in every way we … | Continue reading
During coronapanic I decided to save our beloved planet by paying $71,533 for a Tesla Solar Roof to sit on top of our house in Maskachusetts and provide backup power for the week or so per year that we would typically lose power. About six months later, Tesla told me that the pri … | Continue reading
We’ve been getting some details about the face-off between the arch criminal below and the $3 billion/year Secret Service. Wikipedia says that the building from which Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Mr. Trump was identified as an ideal location for an assassin, that police snipers … | Continue reading
I’m not sure what caused our rented-from-Sixt Mercedes E 300de to fail and refuse to start even with a jump, but I am suspecting 12V battery health. The battery measured 12V on the tow truck guy’s multimeter, which sounds good for a 12V battery, but the chart below (source) says … | Continue reading
I’ve decided to travel to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and see if the Biden administration’s Secret Service is making efforts to protect Donald Trump from local armed teenagers. To avoid crowds, though, I will arrive on Friday, July 19 and my inspection will la … | Continue reading
We’re right in the middle of National Anti-Boredom Month. If you have a family of four and want to escape into interesting air-conditioned spaces it will probably cost you at least $100 per day. Unless… A young friend who lives in the Boston area had a period of unemployment afte … | Continue reading
If I’m going to hold an EU passport I should probably learn something about cheese and wine. While in Portugal on this recent trip, I decided to try to put the cheeses in “10 Portuguese cheeses you must try” in front of an expert panel (includes two tasters aged 10 and under). Fo … | Continue reading
From the Newspaper of Record: If getting shot is part of a “narrative” then “be the author of your own story” seems like either pretty good or truly terrible advice, depending on whether being shot is a required part of any narrative. Separately, let’s have another look, courtesy … | Continue reading
It’s a “nature park” rather than a “national park”, but the scenery in Serra da Estrela is great regardless of how you classify it. The park contains Portugal’s highest peak, more than 6,500′ above sea level. The drive in from Coimbra was rather harrowing. This is only at 4,400′: … | Continue reading
I’m in a chat group with a few Deplorables, a couple of whom are gun nuts. I’ve been trying to get some of my software expert witness work done before EAA AirVenture (“Oshkosh”) and thus was in the middle of a real-time work session when the Trump shooting occurred. I ]wasn’t pay … | Continue reading
Renting a car at the Lisbon airport takes so long that I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone getting off a transatlantic flight. Catch an Uber into Lisbon or Sintra, spend a few nights, and then send one designated victim back to the Lisbon airport to wait in various lines for 1.5 ho … | Continue reading
“AT&T security breach exposes call, text data from almost all customers” (The Hill): A security breach at AT&T exposed call and text data from nearly all of its customers, the company revealed Friday. The records of most of AT&T’s cellular customers between May and October 2022, … | Continue reading
For those who are logically consistent, coronapanic hasn’t ended. This follower of Science in New York begged people to protect his 2-year-old from a disease that kills 82-year-olds (tweet deleted, sadly): and then he repeated his plea just a few weeks ago in a now-deleted tweet. … | Continue reading
We used Google Maps in Portugal. It made quite a few absurdly bad routing decisions. To save a theoretical minute or two it would send our Mercedes E class sedan down roads narrower than a North Carolina dentist’s driveway. We were constantly terrified that a car would appear com … | Continue reading
Wrapping up some of the sights of Lisbon… We happened to be there on the evening of June 12, i.e., the night before the Festas de Santo António, patron saint of the city and of marriages. A massive parade assembles on the main avenue around 8 pm and goes until after midnight. Her … | Continue reading
“Pelosi Suggests That Biden Should Reconsider Decision to Stay in the Race” (New York Times): Representative Nancy Pelosi, a longtime Biden ally and the former speaker, is the most senior member of his party who has so far suggested he consider dropping out. Ms. Pelosi, 84, a lon … | Continue reading
From the United Nations, October 17, 2023: UNFPA estimates there are 540,000 women of reproductive age living in Gaza, among whom 50,000 are currently pregnant, and 5,500 are expected to deliver in the next month. From the United Nations, July 9, 2024: 🔹In 9 months, some … | Continue reading
Frontiers of Journalism: “Wildlife Protections Take a Back Seat to SpaceX’s Ambitions”. A New York Times investigation found that Elon Musk exploited federal agencies’ competing missions to achieve his goals for space travel. The investigative team first figured out that blasting … | Continue reading
One common demand from the encamped righteous has been that colleges bring in more students from “Palestine” (example in Oregon; state-sponsored NPR gives us an example from New Jersey). If we look at photos from Gaza, however, we don’t see people who dress and act like American … | Continue reading
France, the second largest economy in the EU, has voted for central planning and to maximize low-skill immigration (the glass ceiling for female leaders that Marine Le Pen hoped to shatter was apparently made from Florida-style hurricane laminates). That’s the right of voters in … | Continue reading
The question of Where are the gardens and museums created by the Silicon Valley rich? remains open. If any of the tech elite, many of whom claim to be Buddhist or Buddhist-adjacent, wants to build something delightful for the peasants, an 85-acre Buddhist garden in Portugal could … | Continue reading
Loyal readers may remember my proposal to Save lives by limiting cars to 35 mph? (apply coronalogic to other situations in which human lives are at risk) Maybe European readers can tell us if this is the month when Europeans begin to follow the Science. Back in 2022, Autoweek sai … | Continue reading
After four years of celebrating Joe Biden as one of America’s smartest and sharpest residents, the New York Times watched one TV show and decided that the former Savior of our Democracy was too feeble-minded to run for reelection (but it is okay for him to be Commander in Chief o … | Continue reading
Today it has been one year since we lost Alex Here are the memorial tiles that a few of us got together on, installed at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky: He loved engineering and cars, so it seemed fitting that he be remembered at this temple of American e … | Continue reading
The British voted for Brexit and Conservative rule so that they wouldn’t be replaced by low-skill migrants. Rather than say “Sorry, asylum is no longer available in the UK,” the government that they elected presided over record-high immigration, but no longer of skilled carpenter … | Continue reading
Below are some photos of Vilarinho das Furnas Dam, a 310′-high concrete arch dam on the Rio Homen in northern Portugal. People are trusted to walk across the dam, drive across the dam, etc. 24/7. We didn’t notice any gates, security personnel, etc. after walking down from Campo d … | Continue reading
Loyal readers will be familiar with my love for Calvin Coolidge (great biography by former WSJ reporter Amity Shlaes, incidentally), born on this day in 1872 and our President from 1923-1929. Coolidge did not stray too far from what the U.S. Constitution says that Presidents shou … | Continue reading
Question for Europeans and Mercedes nerds: Can a new Mercedes have aluminum wheels without visible lug bolts (I’ve been told that Mercedes uses bolts rather than the conventional nuts)? Sixt rented me a 2024 E 300de at the Lisbon airport with the exterior covered in dirt/grime. T … | Continue reading
As noted in Where are the gardens and museums created by the Silicon Valley rich? we seem to be undersupplied with public physical infrastructure relative to the number of super rich Americans. Jeff Bezos was happy to spend about 400 million dollars recently on a sea-level house … | Continue reading