“2 F.B.I. Agents Killed in Shooting in Florida” (NYT): The sun had not come up yet on Tuesday when a group of F.B.I. agents assigned to investigate criminals who prey on children online… | Continue reading
Israel is mostly vaccinated at this point, yet the coronaplague is subsiding at only roughly the rate we’d expect for a country in lockdown. (Israel went into its third lockdown in December a… | Continue reading
Following up on Why do we care about COVID-19 deaths more than driving-related deaths? (March 26, 2020) … by shutting down for a year we’ve spent way more per life-year in our attempt t… | Continue reading
“Dem-led House, drawing a line, kicks Greene off committees” (AP): A fiercely divided House tossed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene off both her committees Thursday, an unprecedented punishm… | Continue reading
I enjoyed a new translation of Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, a standard work of Brazilian literature (published 1881 by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis). The protagonist becomes enamored of a ca… | Continue reading
The Super Bowl promises to be as jammed as ever. I recently received an email offering tickets starting at $5,500 per seat. (I explained this concept to the kids, noting that it would cost as much … | Continue reading
Canceled biologist James Watson’s DNA discoveries enabled the Arkansas Family Court (unlimited child support available; a better place to sue than D.C.) to determine that President Biden has … | Continue reading
My friend is fully recovered from COVID-19 (previous post). As part of his twin passions for minimum effort parenting and ensuring that his children go to an elite university (just like mom and dad… | Continue reading
If you’d been wondering what the New Yorker magazine and the New York Times were going to do with their “All Trump-Hatred All the Time” formats once the hated dictator was gone, h… | Continue reading
Let’s finish out January on a positive note by remembering that 12 years ago this month two pilots did what many of us have dreamt of doing ever since we got our first certificate … they avoi… | Continue reading
Add this to the times when one is required to show ID: jury duty. An example recent summons: In other words, simply being at home to receive the physical piece of mail and then returning to the cou… | Continue reading
This has been a tough months for fans of the Efficient Market Hypothesis. GameStop (GME) started out the month at less than $20/share and is now “worth” over $300/share. The market cap … | Continue reading
From a male-identifying friend on Facebook: Being a progressive does not mean simply giving people more money and stuff. It also means thinking in critical and integrative ways, connecting the soci… | Continue reading
A dentist friend (yes, even dentists need friends!) looked into becoming a COVID-19 vaccination center. She’s amply qualified to inject people (“so is a janitor,” says a med schoo… | Continue reading
Readers will be relieved to learn that this is the last in the series of New Hampshire and Maine coastal aerial photos. This batch goes from Portsmouth, New Hampshire over the rich kids’ Phil… | Continue reading
I wonder if we can track trends via Christmas/New Year’s cards. Out of roughly 100 cards, we received one with explicit pronouns. This was from a Ph.D. engineer (colleague of Dr. Jill Biden, … | Continue reading
Retracing yesterday’s morning flight, but southbound and in the afternoon. From Portland, Maine to Portsmouth, New Hampshire: From our Boston to Bar Harbor, Maine trip in a Robinson R44 helic… | Continue reading
A post in a helicopter pilots’ group: “Pandemic times” over the following photo. Nobody came up with my preferred reaction (“You have to say global pandemic”). Samplin… | Continue reading
A Berkeley, California friend’s Facebook post: given #B117 mutation, masked protection needs to be intensifiedI’m doubling down, with cloth on top of N95 (thx Mitt Romney)Also bought a … | Continue reading
Is LGBTQIA the most popular social justice cause because it does not require giving money? looked at the question of why individuals might love to wave the rainbow flag. What about employers, thoug… | Continue reading
Portland again! More importantly, after borrowing a car from the good folks at MAC Jets, lobster rolls downtown: From our Boston to Bar Harbor, Maine trip in a Robinson R44 helicopter. Tony Cammara… | Continue reading
Running out of exciting caption ideas for this series… Westport, Maine down to Portland: From our Boston to Bar Harbor, Maine trip in a Robinson R44 helicopter. Tony Cammarata was in back wit… | Continue reading
Our neighborhood has gone from Bleak Maskachusetts Winter to Yet Bleaker Maskachusetts Winter due to folks having taken down their epic yard displays, e.g., What about cashing in on the latest tren… | Continue reading
After departing Vinalhaven towards KRKD This photo is a favorite (steep bank in the helicopter to get the straight-down perspective): Enough power for your Tesla, near Westport, Maine (but where do… | Continue reading
A Facebook user posted “Canadian expert’s research finds lockdown harms are 10 times greater than benefits” (Toronto Sun) regarding an academic paper by Dr. Ari Joffe, a specialis… | Continue reading
An attorney friend has been a subscriber to the White House mailing list. After receiving her first email from President Biden, she unsubscribed: If the government wanted to keep a database of peop… | Continue reading
From the Bar Harbor Airport we proceeded southwest to the Deer Isle Bridge (cost $900,000 to build in 1939, $17 million in today’s mini-dollars): And for the sailors, North Haven and Vinalhav… | Continue reading
A medical school professor friend was denied Global Entry at Logan Airport when returning to Boston from a Christmas holiday in his native France (remember to listen to public health advice from th… | Continue reading
Departed BHB just before sunrise, south through Somes Sound and then around the east side of Mound Desert Island: The Jackson Laboratory, a great place to stop for mice: And then on to the main tow… | Continue reading
Message in a discussion group from an (East) Asian immigrant: My town is half Indian. Everyone is “Love is love”, “BLM”. I want to see their daughter fall in love with a Dalit boy. Readers: How are… | Continue reading
From a woman in her 50s who has spent nearly her entire life in government-funded jobs: I put an American flag on our front porch. Today’s the first day in years I’ve been proud to be a… | Continue reading
Bass Harbor to Southwest Harbor: Northeast Harbor, a not-intolerable place to suffer through a summer 2020 COVID quarantine: From Northeast Harbor to the core of Acadia National Park and the Park L… | Continue reading
From our local public library’s new and featured books section: And, upstairs in the children’s section: Given the demographics of this Boston suburb, it may not be the right time to #R… | Continue reading
… well, the Washington, D.C. area at least. From the FAA: It is still possible to go IFR into three airports: But VFR pilots are denied the use of their aircraft during this most joyous of da… | Continue reading
“Smokers in N.J. Are Eligible for Vaccine. No Proof Needed.” (New York Times): Faced with soaring rates of coronavirus infection and more doses of vaccine in freezers than in arms, New … | Continue reading
Castine to the causeway from Trenton to Mount Desert Island, home of Acadia National Park: Down the west coast of Mount Desert Island to Bass Harbor: lL From our Boston to Bar Harbor, Maine trip in… | Continue reading
A 6th grader: “I like middle school because the teachers are actually helpful and they’re not Black Lives Matter and Rainbow Flag-oriented 24/7.” Related: Teaching 5th graders who… | Continue reading
My friends on Facebook are delirious with joy that Washington, D.C. is being closed off to ordinary people and that more 26,000 U.S. military troops are guarding the Capitol against potential domes… | Continue reading
For those who need the style and prestige that only driving a minivan can yield… the Toyota Sienna is all new for 2021 and contains much exciting technology (see Electric AWD implemented by T… | Continue reading
Aerial photos of Castine and the Maine Maritime Academy: From our Boston to Bar Harbor, Maine trip in a Robinson R44 helicopter. Tony Cammarata was in back with a door removed and a Nikon D850. Ins… | Continue reading
In Virtual reality and augmented reality: the technologies of the future (March 2019) I asked Is it fair to say that “VR/AR is the technology of the future, and always will be”? The future arrived … | Continue reading
This is the weekend when many Boston-area commuter rail lines cease to run (NBC). And MLK Day is a holiday so rail service won’t be available today as well. Black families that have been lock… | Continue reading
From May 2020, A typical American hospital during coronapanic: The author of Medical School 2020 gave me an update on his training hospital. They have roughly 1,100 beds. They have admitted 24 Covi… | Continue reading
Foliage season in the art center of Rockland, Maine and north to Rockport and Camden: Camden, Maine (#1 prettiest according to Downeast magazine!) and up to Belfast: From our Boston to Bar Harbor, … | Continue reading
One of the scarcest commodities during coronaplague is honesty. Rich white Americans love to say that they are advocating the lockdown of poor Black Americans and the closure of schools for Black c… | Continue reading
Suggested by a friend who ran one of the most successful investment funds in the U.S. for 20+ years…. “The Bit Short: Inside Crypto’s Doomsday Machine”: The upshot [from looking a… | Continue reading
Readers may recall If COVID-19 vaccines weren’t tested on likely COVID-19 victims, how do we know that they will reduce COVID-19 deaths? (December 27, 2020) in which I pointed out that the vaccines… | Continue reading
Saint George to the Knox County Airport (KRKD): Lunch stop at KRKD, home of the Rockefeller-grade Owls Head Transportation Museum. Thanks, Downeast Air, for the crew car. Monument to lost sailors n… | Continue reading