Want to write on Facebook about “white privilege” and how “It’s for sure a white man’s world in America. … All you got to be is white in America to get whatever … | Continue reading
In a country where some people showed up only recently (see “Modern Immigration Wave Brings 59 Million to U.S., Driving Population Growth and Change Through 2065”), how many people are … | Continue reading
“Expecting Students to Play It Safe if Colleges Reopen Is a Fantasy” (nytimes), is by a 67-year-old professor whose paychecks are guaranteed to keep rolling in. What does Professor Kare… | Continue reading
My favorite kind of computer nerdism class is the lab class. Software development is a skill and the only way to learn it is by doing. A lecture from a successful programmer will not turn beginners… | Continue reading
I personally don’t think economic performance is relevant when evaluating coronaplague policy. In a world where people don’t care about anything other than Covid-19 death risk, what dif… | Continue reading
“Plan to release genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida gets go-ahead” (Guardian) is exciting to me since one of the best things that we could do for humanity would be to kill all o… | Continue reading
Let’s see what is left of the rights in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in a world shut down by old rich people anxious to avoid their date with coronadestiny. Everyo… | Continue reading
Masketologists have declared victory against coronaplague. If a population of humans is ordered to wear masks, coronavirus will pack up and go home. Example: “Identifying airborne transmissio… | Continue reading
“UCLA lecturer’s job in jeopardy after refusing ‘accommodations’ for black students”: University of California-Los Angeles Lecturer Gordon Klein faces an online petiti… | Continue reading
Anecdotal evidence that my cherished hope of summertime relief from coronaplague is illusory: a friend in Austin, Texas has developed Covid-19. If the virus can survive not only summer, but the Tex… | Continue reading
A friend recently flew Dallas to Boston on American Airlines (AA2579). He was accompanied by his 15-year-old son. Has American adopted my dream scheme and blocked off the middle seats except for fa… | Continue reading
A post from 2016, “Why don’t black lives matter?”: I wonder if the U.S. is now simply too populated and government too centralized for us to be confident that Citizen A will care about … | Continue reading
“Can Coronavirus Contact Tracing Survive Reopening?” (New Yorker, June 12) could be the poster child for “TL:DR”. Some high points: Massachusetts created a pioneering progra… | Continue reading
From some young people brave enough to spend months cowering-in-place at Mom’s house… “What Comes Next: How Harvard Must Combat Systemic Racism” (The Harvard Crimson): Our s… | Continue reading
“Understanding Spatial Variation in COVID-19 across the United States” (National Bureau of Economic Research): We also find that the severity of the disease is politically patterned: ev… | Continue reading
“Harry Potter Fans Reimagine Their World Without Its Creator” (NYT): When J.K. Rowling was accused of transphobia about two years ago for “liking” a tweet that referred to transgender w… | Continue reading
A Facebook post from the Great State of Maskachusetts: When the rules get stupid…I acquired a Chevy Volt last year. For the ones who don’t know it, this is a plugin/hybrid that can drive ~55 … | Continue reading
The Swedes who refused to lock down were the previous favorite targets of “scientists” and the media armed with forecasts of doom (see for example). Now that the Swedes are enjoying, un… | Continue reading
From New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, closed since mid-March: There is a link to a letter from two rich white guys: We must come together as a Met community to grieve and to reflect on … | Continue reading
Fight the plague by driving with the top down? Now that things are open in most states (not here in Massachusetts, though! We liked Months 1, 2, and 3 of Shutdown so much we’re going into Mon… | Continue reading
The author of Medical School 2020 said that he was going to be taking “bystander training.” I responded with “So you’ll know what to do if you see a car accident, like Tom C… | Continue reading
Confused by the Black Lives Matter protests? If my inbox is anything to go by, our millionaire white school administrators are here to help! From Rafael Reif, the president of MIT: The death of Geo… | Continue reading
I met with a cardiologist friend last night. He says that he is working roughly 60 percent as much as he was pre-coronapanic. “Where we would do five procedures per day, we can now do only tw… | Continue reading
One of the finest achievements of American cinema, Team America: World Police, features a group of heroes who have one yardstick for determining success or failure: the number of terrorists killed.… | Continue reading
Friends on Facebook are posting supporting for the Black Lives Matter protests going on around the U.S. A few brave souls post selfies from the (daytime) protests themselves (the vast majority pref… | Continue reading
A friend’s Facebook status: I just finished re-watching Star Trek (The Original Series).WOW… every single episode is uncomfortably misogynistic.EVERY. SINGLE. EPISODE. In response to a friend… | Continue reading
“Emergency COVID-19 measures prevented more than 500 million infections, study finds” (Berkeley News): Emergency health measures implemented in six major countries have “significantly a… | Continue reading
As a nation, we can’t admit our mistakes. We have never apologized to the Vietnamese for our role in the pointless and destructive Vietnam War. We have never apologized to the Russians for su… | Continue reading
“Uber Eats stops charging delivery fees to black-owned restaurants” (New York Post): In an email to customers late Thursday, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber Eats will promote black-owne… | Continue reading
An incredibly intelligent friend of mine retired early from his career as a patent litigator and abandoned high-tax New York City for no-income-tax Nevada. He’s now walking distance from abou… | Continue reading
Here is one Karen’s report on the extent to which Americans are complying with the new mask laws. This is based on a May 30-June 3 trip from Boston to Minneapolis via Cirrus SR20 (“only… | Continue reading
“My 14-Year-Old Isn’t Socially Distancing. What Should I Do?” (NYT, May 22)… Karen the reader: My 14-year-old daughter (who knows that I check her phone) went on what was supposed… | Continue reading
Folks seem to be debating the best way to define “A Karen”. What about this definition-by-example? I’m generally not an activist, but I just wrote to the University of Colorado Dean of … | Continue reading
Judging by the contents of my inbox, America is truly the land of goodwill and brotherhood. A typical recent example has a subject line of “Uber stands with the Black community”: I wish… | Continue reading
By touching off riots throughout the U.S., the incompetence of the Minneapolis city government has cost Americans who live elsewhere at least billions of dollars (insurance industry estimate; some … | Continue reading
All of my friends in the new work-from-home economy say that coworkers with newly unskooled children to manage are “useless”. Employers who fire their least productive employees, theref… | Continue reading
Nicole Vandelaar Battjes is the founder, CEO, and Chief Pilot of Novictor Helicopters, a Robinson R44 tour operator in Hawaii. Now she has launched a cosmetics company too! Nicol Cosmetics (pilot/f… | Continue reading
Loyal readers of this blog (i.e., both of you!) will recall that I have regularly asked whether the lockdown cure is worse than the coronavirus disease. I anticipated deaths in the U.S. due to the … | Continue reading
A couple of previous posts about coronaplague and Russia: “House call coronavirus testing in Russia” (March 23), pointing out that they seemed to be ahead of Massachusetts on testing… | Continue reading
From the Pottery Barn Kids, Burlington (MA) Mall: Happy Pride Month! | Continue reading
A friend used to be a military hero flying an exotic airplane for the U.S. Air Force. Due to the airline industry boom, a lot of pilots retired during the past few years, but now the Air Force hope… | Continue reading
Trigger Warning: A First World problem. A recent example of software engineering from the best and brightest of Silicon Valley is iCloud for Windows version 11. Want to see the picture that you jus… | Continue reading
In one of the most thought-provoking economics books of our times, A Farewell to Alms, Gregory Clark, discusses the concern that improved machines would reduce demand for labor. The answer during t… | Continue reading
Text from a pilot: A good friend’s daughter works at a local restaurant in summer breaks from college. They called her up and offered her $40 an hour to come and hand out the take out orders … | Continue reading
From the Daily Mail: Beauty queen wife of Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin files for DIVORCE on same day he is arrested and charged with George Floyd’s murder and says she is ‘devastated&#… | Continue reading
“Norway health chief: lockdown was not needed to tame Covid” (Spectator): the Norwegian public health authority has published a report with a striking conclusion: the virus was never sp… | Continue reading
Just as I was planning a trip to Minneapolis, the city is embroiled in civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd by four police officers (far more upsetting to me than Covid-19, actually).… | Continue reading