Buried in “Do Americans marry for love or money? Finally, an answer” (MarketWatch): those who have older models of either smartphone are 56% less likely to get a date, according to a re… | Continue reading
A friend’s daughter attends a suburban Boston high school in which political thinking is strictly orthodox. She threw a wrench into the works the other day, however, by wondering out loud to … | Continue reading
From “Philip’s Guide to Grad School”: Congratulations. You’re a grad student now at a prestigious research university. One of our colleagues was just like you once, an eager… | Continue reading
From our town mailing list… We just finished a 1000 piece puzzle and would like to trade it for another puzzle. You have one you are ready to give away? Our puzzle is: Nevertheless She Persis… | Continue reading
It’s National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, which, as it turns out is not devoted to reminding Americans regarding the importance of careful interpretation of radar data (see “The Man W… | Continue reading
While alive, George H.W. Bush made the news for being a child molester: “Woman Says George H.W. Bush Groped Her When She Was 16: ‘I Was a Child'” (TIME, 11/13/2017). Also a Presid… | Continue reading
“Louisiana School Made Headlines for Sending Black Kids to Elite Colleges. Here’s the Reality.” (nytimes): Bryson Sassau’s application would inspire any college admissions officer.A fou… | Continue reading
Despite having parents who are variously Jewish and former Soviet, our kids insisted on a Christmas tree this year. I started off with a basic steel American-made stand that required tightening fou… | Continue reading
I was too lazy to plug the phone into the Honda Odyssey and listen to an Audible lecture (on ancient Mesopotamia, by a professor who formerly played bass for the band that became the Bangles) on a … | Continue reading
From Professional Pilot magazine, “Middle East: A trip to this region can be a straight-forward, easy and rewarding experience for the well-prepared operator.” With todays longer range … | Continue reading
“On Being Accused” is Neil deGrasse Tyson’s response to “Two More Women Accuse Neil deGrasse Tyson of Sexual Misconduct” (Patheos). The opening sentence: For a variety… | Continue reading
What can we remember George H.W. Bush for? Is it fair to say that Operation Desert Storm was our last truly successful war? How about GHWB’s “Thousand Points of Light” speech in 1… | Continue reading
A bunch of my neighbors here in virtueland (Lincoln, Massachusetts) pull away from the virtue pack by devoting themselves to South Sudanese immigrants to the U.S. These folks don’t make the n… | Continue reading
Even the sourest Trump-haters will love United Tweets of America, a 2008 book that has taken on renewed significance. Order now for Christmas! | Continue reading
The Great Trials of World History and the Lessons They Teach Us, by Douglas Linder, wraps up with two California trials that dragged on forever and cost taxpayers more than $60 million in todayR… | Continue reading
One idea that we have these days is that DNA evidence and scientific evidence in general is the gold standard for a jury. One thing I learned The Great Trials of World History and the Lessons They … | Continue reading
This chart shows that, as of 5-10 years ago, the experience of living in California would involve finding an immigrant family in every fourth house (3 native-born families and then 1 immigrant). Th… | Continue reading
…. but 1+ million migrants per year is good for the U.S.? “Hillary Clinton: Europe must curb immigration to stop rightwing populists” (Guardian): “I think Europe needs to get a ha… | Continue reading
“A $2 Billion Question: Did New York and Virginia Overpay for Amazon?” (nytimes): Gov. Andrew Cuomo defended the deal, arguing that New York has to offer incentives because of its compa… | Continue reading
If you’re traveling today, God help you! I made it back to Boston from Denver via United Airlines on Wednesday. Buried in the fine print of a “Fare Breakdown” was “September… | Continue reading
According to The Great Trials of World History and the Lessons They Teach Us, by Douglas Linder, a professor at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law. My dim memory of Classical hist… | Continue reading
Thanksgiving weekend seems like a good time to ponder the big picture. Here are a couple of potentially helpful articles. From Newsweek: The United States has spent nearly $6 trillion on wars that … | Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! After listening to The Great Trials of World History and the Lessons They Teach Us, by Douglas Linder, a professor at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School o… | Continue reading
Some of my Facebook friends posted in outrage over a synagogue in New York City being defaced with graffiti by a guy named “James Polite” (you can’t make this stuff up!). To them … | Continue reading
“Michael Bloomberg: Why I’m Giving $1.8 Billion for College Financial Aid” (nytimes): Let’s eliminate money problems from the admissions equation for qualified students.America is at it… | Continue reading
“Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Proclamation Targeting Some Asylum Seekers” (nytimes): A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to resume accepting asylum claims from mi… | Continue reading
I’ve been enjoying The Great Trials of World History and the Lessons They Teach Us, by Douglas Linder, a professor at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law. One of the trials c… | Continue reading
The life of a software expert witness involves quite a bit of “hurry up and wait.” Thus did I recently find myself in Easton, Pennsylvania waiting for things to move in the Federal Cour… | Continue reading
A Facebook friend with a Ph.D. in Physics posted the following as her status: All six US science Nobel prize winners this year are immigrants.Last year, all six US noble [sic] prize winners were al… | Continue reading
“What the Lion Air Pilots May Have Needed to Do to Avoid a Crash” (nytimes) contains a lot of good cockpit photos and illustrations explaining the combination of manual and automatic fl… | Continue reading
“How to Date a Lot of Billionaires” (nytimes, 11/10/2018): The Matharoo sisters never intended to become a cautionary tale about the perils of social media influence. They were born and… | Continue reading
“7 Women Accuse Dartmouth Professors of Sexual Abuse in Lawsuit” (nytimes): Seven women are suing Dartmouth College for sexual assault, harassment and discrimination they say they exper… | Continue reading
I got the cold shoulder from a couple of aviation companies when I invited them to come speak and demo in our three-day FAA Ground School class at M.I.T. Maybe it is Boston’s typically miser… | Continue reading
I’m wondering if the Amazon HQ2 deals show how to implement a planned economy without having to acknowledge that one’s country has transitioned away from the market. Planned Economy v1.… | Continue reading
“The Subway Bomber’s Journey to 42nd Street, Captured on Camera” (nytimes, November 5, 2018) is a little shocking for showing just how many security cameras are running in our cities th… | Continue reading
“Amazon Announces New York and Virginia as HQ2 Picks” (nytimes): Amazon could receive more than $2 billion in tax incentives across the two top locations, the company said in its announ… | Continue reading
Today we observe Veterans Day. In addition to remembering those who died in previous wars, let’s consider our arsenal for the next ones. The F-35 was used in combat by the US for the first ti… | Continue reading
We went to the New England Air Museum today, home of a beautifully restored B-29, and met two former B-29 crew members. One is 92 and one is 94. Both were navigators, which meant a lot of radar wor… | Continue reading
The Lion Air 610 mystery/tragedy seems to be mostly solved. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane, which uses a de Havilland Comet (1949; also BBC)-style hydro-mechanical flight control system, has a touch… | Continue reading
Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau says that Canada welcomes any refugees or asylum-seekers that the U.S. rejects. “Central American Migrants in Mexico Want Buses to US Border” (nytimes) s… | Continue reading
The professor in Why You Are Who You Are: Investigations into Human Personality cites research that personality is highly heritable and disordered personality characteristics are even more heritabl… | Continue reading
“Schneiderman Will Not Face Criminal Charges in Abuse Complaints” (nytimes): After a six-month investigation, prosecutors said Thursday that they would not pursue criminal charges again… | Continue reading
We in the temperate zones of Planet Earth have been waging war on folks at the Equator for the past few hundred years. We dig up dinosaur blood and coal, set it on fire, and fill with atmosphere wi… | Continue reading
A friend’s new two-refrigerator kitchen: | Continue reading
We have a new (better?) Congress as of today. The Uber driver who picked me up recently in “North Bethesda” (Rockville!) happened to be an immigrant from Venezuela. His parents and sibl… | Continue reading
A California Democrat on Facebook posted a link to “College students say they can’t send in their absentee ballots because they don’t know where to buy stamps” (Business Ins… | Continue reading
… but not Mexico? “Barbra Streisand Can’t Get Trump Out of Her Head. So She Sang About Him.” (nytimes): How are you feeling these days?I want to sleep nights, if we take the Hous… | Continue reading
Folks: What are your election outcome predictions? So much of the ballot in our town is taken up by candidates running unopposed that I haven’t put much effort into considering Massachusetts … | Continue reading