Hitler’s Jet Plane: The ME 262 Story (by Mano Ziegler, a Luftwaffe pilot, included with Kindle Unlimited) has some interesting parts, especially regarding just how brave a person would have t… | Continue reading
Second post regarding the book Nerves of Steel… Earlier: Captain Tammie’s life in the Navy (first review of Nerves of Steel)Captain Tammie is the anti-SullySouthwest 1380 crew speaks at Oshko… | Continue reading
A post from Donald Trump, edited by Facebook: I’m not sure how the identify of the president who takes over in January 2021 is relevant to a post regarding a coronaplague vaccine, but it is c… | Continue reading
Suppose that you’re slightly fatter than the ordinarily chubby American (average BMI of 27, which is “overweight”). Maybe your BMI is 28.5, for example. Would it make sense to cho… | Continue reading
To the Swedish MD/PhDs, e.g., Johan Giesecke and Anders Tegnell, most of the world’s reaction to coronavirus is irrational panic. To the Karens with whom I am friends on Facebook, hiding in a… | Continue reading
It was free last year, but you had to show up for a Boston January. This year we’re doing it all via Zoom (so anyone in China can watch!) and the price remains consistent with the value: our … | Continue reading
A variety of friends on Facebook (mostly identifying as “women” and in their 50s) have been posting their concern regarding the wicked Swedes running out of ICU capacity, implicitly due… | Continue reading
A scientific analysis of the effects of California’s Santa Clara County’s mask order of April 17. Source: Karl Dierenbach | Continue reading
From the world’s leading expert on how information presentation affects decision making, a new book: Seeing with Fresh Eyes. A new book on information design is either extremely timely, if yo… | Continue reading
From a recent Costco excursion, a 29-hour 28-CD audiobook by Barack Obama: It is impossible to imagine a better Christmas gift for your friends, who can wrap themselves in 29 hours of bliss and com… | Continue reading
Maskachusetts is the 3rd most restricted state in the U.S. (WalletHub ranking). Florida is ranked #11 for freedom. Yet the latest map from covidexitstrategy.org, which our state officials use to de… | Continue reading
A variety of Facebook friends today posted their respect for Chuck Yeager, who died yesterday at age 97. Some had been in meetings with General Yeager when he was serving in various high management… | Continue reading
Playing to Win, a short Michael Lewis book that is free to listen to for Audible subscribers, is a fascinating look into a strange corner of the U.S. economy: the $70 billion/year travel sports ind… | Continue reading
As Toucan Sam likes to remind us, Barack Obama said “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” but our new insurance company apparently did not get the Presidential memo. It i… | Continue reading
Today is National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, marking 79 years since we entered World War II in order to fight Totalitarianism. Here in Massachusetts, as part of our governor’s more-than-50… | Continue reading
Today is National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, marking 79 years since we entered World War II in order to fight Totalitarianism. Here in Massachusetts, as part of our governor’s more-than-50… | Continue reading
“Health Care Workers Plead With Americans To Take Pandemic More Seriously” (NPR): Health workers and hospitals already strained by the pandemic are increasingly making direct appeals to… | Continue reading
In their righteous muscular efforts to “control” coronavirus, some state governors and city mayors have ordered restaurants shut down, except for outdoor dining. In response, restaurant… | Continue reading
Text message exchange with a couple of 24-year-olds: Me: We can come over now.Them: We are at the gym!Me: You’re always there. I am amazed you haven’t gotten coronaplague yet!Them: Haha… | Continue reading
… does this mean coronapanic is over? Some items that haven’t been seen for 8+ months were simultaneously in stock on December 2: What happened? | Continue reading
Previously on this blog: Godforsaken Sea, a book about a round-the-world solo yacht race. This year… “‘Just terrifying’: Vendée Globe sailor rescued after yacht breaks in ha… | Continue reading
The local 9th graders were sentenced to watch Hidden Figures by their English teacher. Immigrant Dad’s running text message commentary: Watching the movie “Hidden Figures” about B… | Continue reading
From the always-fascinating Nicole Vandelaar Battjes (previously featured here)…. a gender reveal event that stars a Robinson R44 helicopter. (I love Nicole so much that I refrained from comm… | Continue reading
“LA County Supervisor dines at restaurant hours after voting to ban outdoor dining” (Fox 11, LA): Just hours after Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl voted to ban outdoor dining… | Continue reading
A friend wanted to be dropped off in Bend, Oregon and not witness the inevitable mask disputes of commercial airline travel. We loaded up the extra seats with family members for the following route… | Continue reading
The stock market has been up lately, perhaps in response to the Biden-Harris electoral victory. I wonder if this makes sense. Democrats promise a bigger government. The companies that are well situ… | Continue reading
What about my May 2020 dream Plague-proof Florida and Texas with shaded outdoor classrooms? “Classrooms Without Walls, and Hopefully Covid” (NYT) says that it is vaguely alive, but the … | Continue reading
“The Rich Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism” (NYT): Heirs whose wealth has come from a specific source sometimes use that history to guide their giving. Pierce Delahunt, a 32-year-o… | Continue reading
President George H.W. Bush died two years. He left office more than 27 years ago. As far as pilots in New England are concerned, his most important legacy is Prohibited Area P-67, centered on the f… | Continue reading
Our hotel in Bowling Green, Kentucky had a stack of the WKU student newspapers. From “A ‘monumental moment’: What a Kamala Harris vice presidency means for young POC”: Ameri… | Continue reading
“Government Model Suggests U.S. COVID-19 Cases Could Be Approaching 100 Million” (NPR): The actual number of coronavirus infections in the U.S. reached nearly 53 million at the end of S… | Continue reading
One of our young customers got it into his head that we should stay in Bellagio. We indulged him for two nights and enjoyed some of the architecture, e.g., the Conservatory, but the hotel felt crow… | Continue reading
After an agonizing two-day post-order wait, an iPhone 12 Pro Max has arrived from Verizon. My main interest in this new phone is the purportedly improved camera (the super wide “0.5x” c… | Continue reading
“Pope Francis: A Crisis Reveals What Is in Our Hearts” (NYT): With some exceptions [here’s looking at you, Sweden!], governments have made great efforts to put the well-being of t… | Continue reading
We’re more than a year into coronaplague. Saliva-based tests were developed back in the spring of 2020. At least here in Maskachusetts, children need COVID-19 tests before they can return to … | Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! What are we thankful for this year? Let’s leave out the obvious “family and friends being healthy” (partly because it is obvious and partly because… | Continue reading
A round-up of Thanksgiving policies in the Land of Liberty (TM), COVID-19 edition: “Oregon Gov. Kate Brown Encourages Residents to Call Police on Neighbors Violating COVID Rules” (Yahoo… | Continue reading
As readers of this blog may recall, I’m a big enthusiast for reengineering our environment so as to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses such as coronaplague: Plague-proof Florida and Tex… | Continue reading
We recently rented a 2021 Volvo S60 from Enterprise. Many of the controls have migrated to a central touch screen and there are just a handful of buttons in the center plus some labeled-only-with-i… | Continue reading
Imagine today’s parent buying a bicycle shaped and themed like Evel Knievel’s motorcycle… to be ridden over jumps with no helmet. Some more photos from the (excellent) Evel Pie: | Continue reading
One of the pilots behind the most impressive recent demonstration of airmanship in the airline world gives us an interesting window into the life of a U.S. Navy pilot in her book Nerves of Steel. S… | Continue reading
A friend owns a three-unit building in San Francisco, occupying the top floor himself. The two tenants underneath have fled. One lost a job and the other kept the job, but decided to lose the Calif… | Continue reading
Photos from this week’s visit… “With all of the trash along the side of the road [I-880], this really looks like a Third World country,” noted Senior Management. Not sure th… | Continue reading
South Dakota’s governor Kristi Noem is infamous for failing to #FollowScience and order her subjects to wear masks (though she might argue that she was merely following World Health Organizat… | Continue reading
From a November 17, 2020 visit to Muir Woods… Nature is rarely as simple as A, B, or C, especially in the “Queer Woods.” Preservation of these trees from the commercial saw is mos… | Continue reading
Here’s a 6-year-old’s summer-to-fall transition plan from 2015: The text: Summer to fallClose the beachClose the summer fun!Close the camp!Close the sleepovercamp!Close the picknick!Clo… | Continue reading
From a physician friend, “Government’s 14-day quarantine policy is ‘fundamentally flawed’, groundbreaking report finds” (Telegraph): The 14-day quarantine introduced b… | Continue reading