This is a topic I’ve been hoping to someday write extensively on, and the truth is I’m not quite ready to do so. But I have an observation that is so startling and so much in line with my thinking on this issue that I thought I’d share it as a way of introducing the topic, as I continue to think about it and collect data. Continue reading How America Ruined Its Own Election System, and How to Fix It
Yearly Archives: 2017
Twin Cities Area Energy Transition Event
A citizens action group I’m a member of is hosting an event that I wanted to tell you about. Here’s the info: Continue reading Twin Cities Area Energy Transition Event
How to do amateur sky-watching. NOT!
In the very beginning, dad admonishes a kid with the phrase “nothing flies randomly…”
Then shit starts flying randomly. Continue reading How to do amateur sky-watching. NOT!
How to fix the fake-news problem.
Did you know that truck drivers in Puerto Rico did NOT actually go on strike during Hurricane Maria relief efforts? Or that a former Obama White House official did NOT actually confirm that they wiretapped Trump Tower? Or that the sexual misdeed accusations against former Senate candidate Roy Moore were NOT actually a setup? Or that the Nazi’s marching (and killing) in Chancellorsville was NOT actually a liberal false flag operation? Or, sadly, that it is NOT true that President Obama is running a “shadow government” in some hidden corner of Washington DC? NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT Continue reading How to fix the fake-news problem.
When investigating Trump, Look Both Ways
My advice to students I’ve had the chance to supervise is extensive, but includes the phrase “look both ways.” In that case, I refer specifically to library research. This worked better when most of our research was done using dead tree fragments. Here’s how it works. You find out about a book of interest. You go find it on the shelf in the library. Instead of just pulling it off the shelf and checking it into your carrel, you stop for a moment and look both ways. There is a good chance that the books right next to the one you found are by the same author, or about the same topic, or in some other way related. Indeed, you may have located a useful source, the one you sought, but didn’t know that the same author also did research in exactly the area you are working, wrote the classic tome on it, and in fact, that classic tome is what you thought your thesis was going to be on based on this great idea you had at the bar last night! Continue reading When investigating Trump, Look Both Ways
Cheap Books
Just in case you got an Amazon Gift Card for Christmas, here is a way to spend it VERY SLOWLY on cheap Kindle books, selected because of their potential interest to readers of this blog: Continue reading Cheap Books
About One in Five US President Dies, is Killed, or is Wounded in Office
Over one third are involved in something fatal or injurious to someone, themselves or another. A very small percentage leave office during their term because of their misdeeds.
Continue reading About One in Five US President Dies, is Killed, or is Wounded in Office
Garden Insects of North America: Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs, New Edition
BOOK NOTE: I interrupt this book review to note that Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman is currently available, again, as a Kindle book, for two bucks. And now returning to our regularly scheduled review.
Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs is not a pocket field guide. How could it be? There are over a million species of insects and probably a lot more (huge numbers certainly remain to be discovered) and of them, some 100,000 exist in North America. I’m actually not sure how many are represented in this book, but several thousand distributed among some 3,000 illustrations, mostly color photographs. Continue reading Garden Insects of North America: Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs, New Edition
Mark Zuckerberg named 2017’s Misinformer of the Year
Media Matters for America has nailed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, holding him to account for totally ruining civilization by not even acknowledging his responsibilities as a media mogul. Continue reading Mark Zuckerberg named 2017’s Misinformer of the Year
Cilantro: The most divisive herb known to human kind
We are a Cilantro eating family. In fact, if I want to ensure that Amanda likes something I cook, I simply add four pounds of Cilantro.
From the PBS Digital Studios series Reactions: Continue reading Cilantro: The most divisive herb known to human kind
A History of the Future by Peter Bowler
It is always fun to see a well done academic treatment of a subject of wide general interest. A History of the Future: Prophets of Progress from H. G. Wells to Isaac Asimov by Peter Bowler is such a thing. Continue reading A History of the Future by Peter Bowler
Trump Gives CDC List of Verbotene Wörter
The Trump administration has sent the CDC a list of words that they are verboten … er, sorry, forbidden, not sure why I keep reverting to the language of the FATHERLAND! … anyway, words that the CDC if forbidden to use in describing their budgetary needs.
The list includes these words: Continue reading Trump Gives CDC List of Verbotene Wörter
How to defeat your own clone, and other book deals
I interrupt this blog post to bring you the following important announcement.
I just noticed that the Fire 7 Tablet with Alexa, 7″ Display, 8 GB, (with Special Offers) is currently available for the price of four cups of coffee at Starbucks, or, just shy of $30. A functional eReader wth benefits of a tablet. I also use them when I need a tablet for high risk use, like as a remote control device for a robot or something. I have no idea how long this will last.
The “special offer” part is the standard Kindle thing where you get an ad, almost always for a book or something, as the sleep screen on the device. Harmless, saves a few bucks, and who doesn’t like seeing an ad for a book?
And now we return to our regularly scheduled post about cheap books: Continue reading How to defeat your own clone, and other book deals
Mysterious Space Object Has High Chance of Harboring Alien Intelligent Life Form
And by high chance, I mean, relatively high chance. Like, maybe, about 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. Which, for this sort of thing, is rather high.
Continue reading Mysterious Space Object Has High Chance of Harboring Alien Intelligent Life Form
Ajit Pai, Donald Trump, and the Republicans Killed Net Neturality Today.
There will be consequences. Continue reading Ajit Pai, Donald Trump, and the Republicans Killed Net Neturality Today.