From a late April trip, our Hertz rental. Note the California plates, evidence that a modern-day Joad family escaped California’s lockdowns and 13 percent state income tax via a one-way trip:… | Continue reading
I was chatting with a friend last night. His son is a high school student in the New York City public school system. What’s the experience, 14 months into coronapanic and four months after te… | Continue reading
From my inbox: An Explanation of Benefits (EOB) has been posted to your *** Plan online member portal. To log into your account and review your explanation of benefits (EOB): Go to your Username (e… | Continue reading
From today’s New York Times, “Reaching ‘Herd Immunity’ Is Unlikely in the U.S., Experts Now Believe”: Early in the pandemic, when vaccines for the coronavirus were still just a gl… | Continue reading
From “Medical marijuana patients just got huge win as N.J. court says company must pay injured worker’s bills” (nj.com): The New Jersey Supreme Court dealt medical marijuana patients a … | Continue reading
Supposedly Sun n Fun was busy in 2021 (see “Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo ticket pre-sales soar to record highs despite COVID”, for example). EAA AirVenture (“Oshkosh”) sh… | Continue reading
Back in 1961, the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Eugene Wigner outlined a thought experiment that demonstrated one of the lesser-known paradoxes of quantum mechanics. The experiment shows how the strange nature of the universe allows two observers—say, Wigner and Wigner’s friend—t … | Continue reading
Every time there is an interaction between an American subject and an American police officer or officers there is a chance that the police will shoot and kill or cripple the subject. In addition t… | Continue reading
Notes from a recent Zoom talk by David Autor, an economics professor at MIT. Whenever Democrats are in charge of the economy, I think it is worth listening to the “experts” at Harvard a… | Continue reading
A friend has been selling NFTs and getting paid in cryptocurrency. He thought that he didn’t have to pay tax on this income until the cryptocurrency was finally cashed in for dollars. I did a… | Continue reading
I’ve been mostly in a news vacuum for the past couple of weeks (family trip to D.C. (grandma), Atlanta (aquarium, zoo, botanical garden, World of Coca Cola), Jupiter, Florida (beach, mini gol… | Continue reading
A friend’s daughter is tasked with developing a Web-accessible archive for a multi-year collection of material that has been generated by an organization within a university. All of the mater… | Continue reading
“Parents, Stop Talking About the ‘Lost Year’” (NYT, April 11, 2021) contains 7 occurrences of the word “experts” Teenagers and tweens will be fine, experts say — if adults m… | Continue reading
Our country is swimming in vaccines, partly shut down (state of emergency continues until morale improves here in Maskachusetts), and populated by Mask Karens. How is coronavirus still thriving? Ea… | Continue reading
Now that nearly all U.S. adults are on their way to vaccination (see Fact-checking Donald Trump’s predictions regarding COVID vaccine availability), it is time to get Americans to accept the inject… | Continue reading
I’m wondering if it is time to make a $5 coin suitable for tipping essential workers. The U.S. has a history going back to 1795 with $5 coins; just over 100 years ago, a $5 coin had a quarter… | Continue reading
If you were a school boy/girl/other in the Netherlands you would have learned about Willem Barentsz, who made three voyages to the Russian Arctic while Shakespeare was scribbling out The Comedy of … | Continue reading
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City, by Greg Grandin, has some interesting facts about Henry Ford that I want to jot down. Ford was 50 years old when he put to… | Continue reading
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City, by Greg Grandin, is on an always-timely subject: grand plans of rich scientists and technocrats encountering nature and hu… | Continue reading
Americans often think that the U.S. is relatively free from corruption because cash payoffs, they suppose, are less common here than in some poorer countries. A friend in the money world, though, p… | Continue reading
As predicted in How’s the Derek Chauvin trial going?, the jury agreed with the government and the rest of Derek Chauvin’s life will be at taxpayer expense, as planned, but in a prison rather … | Continue reading
Just Another Day in Vietnam, by Keith Nightingale, a retired colonel who was there, is mostly about ground combat in the Vietnam War, 1967. However, I recommend it to anyone interested in aviation … | Continue reading
The Ingenuity “helicopter” (would most folks call it a “drone”?) has done some hover work on Mars. Cost? $80 million to buy and $5 million/year to operate (Wikipedia). The g… | Continue reading
When the U.S. was founded, minimum voting age was 21. A man might start work at age 13 or 14 and therefore a voter would be someone who’d worked for 8 years and who would experience higher ta… | Continue reading
I managed to find a copy of McElligot’s Pool, one of the not-banned Dr. Seuss that the publisher has shredded and that is forbidden to sell on eBay: Avert your eyes from the hateful language … | Continue reading
A European eyeglass retailer published a screen time index based on data gathered in mid-October 2020 (i.e., during coronapanic). Americans were champions at watching TV, dominating all other natio… | Continue reading
Happy Spring Flying Season! For those folks who use grass airports they presumably are likely to be wet and therefore will require a soft field landing. This is part of training for a Private certi… | Continue reading
George W. Bush, September 20, 2011 explained the motivations of those who had waged jihad against the U.S.: Americans are asking “Why do they hate us?”They hate what they see right here… | Continue reading
“Laboratory Modeling of SARS-CoV-2 Exposure Reduction Through Physically Distanced Seating in Aircraft Cabins Using Bacteriophage Aerosol” (CDC, April 14, 2021): Aircraft can hold large… | Continue reading
I like to limit my TV viewing to content targeted at 5-year-olds, generally streaming and ad-free. However, the kids sometimes hear about a big tennis tournament that is going on and ask to see par… | Continue reading
“After Working at Google, I’ll Never Let Myself Love a Job Again” (NYT), by Emi Nietfeld (Harvard CS graduate): I bought into the Google dream completely. In high school, I spent time h… | Continue reading
We’re escaping to the Florida Free State for the Maskachusetts school vacation week (April 18-25). A journey of 1,000+ miles is the best way for the kids to get a “mask break” (un… | Continue reading
Dr. Jill Biden’s colleagues (the “experts”) say “India Worst Hit Country in the World”: The TIME article: India became the country with the world’s second highest numb… | Continue reading
(those who identify as) White males need not apply… “United Sets New Diversity Goal: 50% of Students at New Pilot Training Academy To Be Women and People of Color”: United Airline… | Continue reading
In a Clubhouse discussion back in February, an immigrant to the U.S. from China said that, in her opinion, our roughly nine months (so far) of #BLM and #SocialJustice was the primary driver behind … | Continue reading
During my travels around the U.S. and in conversations with people from various European nations, I’ve come to realize that COVID-19 could be considered primarily a mental condition in that t… | Continue reading
As noted in Testing the first jets, the early jet engines were designed to last 25-35 hours (Germany’s) or 125 hours (England’s). Today’s jet engines rely on exotic materials and … | Continue reading
COVID-19 isn’t necessarily bad. From the NYT: Lenox Hill, one of the city’s oldest and best-known hospitals, repeatedly billed patients more than $3,000 for the routine nasal swab test, about… | Continue reading
An event planner whom we know says that she’s been super busy late. “People had planned backyard weddings, but they’re illegal so they’re going to pay to hold them here.R… | Continue reading
Since the 17th century (see Francis Bacon), people who call themselves “scientists” have been using the scientific method: Make an observation.Ask a question.Form a hypothesis, or testa… | Continue reading
What is the most sensible scientifically informed response to a virus that attacks the obese and unfit? Sit at home next to the fridge for a year. Could this kill us? “Inactivity Drives 1 in … | Continue reading
Continuing the Passover-Freedom theme… what is the actual price tag that Americans put on freedom? “The Curious Case of Florida’s Pandemic Response” (Atlantic) suggests that the v… | Continue reading
From the Vermont Department of Public Health: If you or anyone in your household identifies as Black, Indigenous, or a person of color (BIPOC), including anyone with Abenaki or other First Nations … | Continue reading
Only 10 percent of the USPS’s new delivery vehicles will be election (Green Car Reports): U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy confirmed to lawmakers Wednesday that electric versions of the tr… | Continue reading
According to Wikipedia, Ahmad Al Aliwi Al-Issa immigrated to the U.S. in 2002, complained that non-Muslims were unreasonably subject to “Islamophobia”, and killed 10 of his fellow Ameri… | Continue reading
Snowflake (SNOW) is valued at $62 billion and had 2020 revenue of $265 million with losses of $348 million (i.e., they lost more than 100 percent of revenue!). The company was at one time worth mor… | Continue reading
It’s still Passover and I hope that readers of the Jewish persuasion are enjoying their matzot! Nothing like a week of Matzah to make you appreciate Wonder Bread. It’s also April Fools&… | Continue reading
The CDC sped up its tally of deaths in 2020 and now says that American deaths in 2020 were 16 percent higher than in 2019 (CNBC). COVID-19 is now highlighted as the third leading cause of death. If… | Continue reading