First Blog

You're on the road in your brand new self-driving auto. You turn the auto-switch on.  Ahhh... You grab a beer or two while you drive along. Your self-driving software is just a bit erratic - reasons unknown. You are pulled over by the "self-driving" police. Can you be arrested for DWI?  If no, you are covered. Yes! If yes, you have an excellent defense. (The gendarmes can never know which the switch.) -------------------- Where are the complaints?   Every hacking ad I see depicts a male, often wearing a hoodie, as the evildoers.   Never a woman.   Why are they not complaining?   Where’s the demand for equality?

The Democrats’ Russian collusion inquiry is largely philosophical:  “They are looking for a black cat in a darkened room where there is no cat?”   The more theological among them cry out, “I found it!”* * Similar analogies have been attributed to many. --------------------------- Tips on going to a restaurant when you are on a gluten-free diet: Be sure to insist on your chef is also gluten-free.  The latest biological evidence proves gluten is highly contagious. --------------------------- If you need a good laugh, check out https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-fortune-cookie-messages/ The funniest?   “If you eat something and nobody sees you eat it, it has no calories.” Here are of my few cooked in my own kitchen:   Fortune Not Found: Reboot Restaurant Beware: Chef flunked Cooking 101 Happiness today?   Nope? Your date loves to watch you slurp wonton soup. Caution: This table in is never cleaned. We have no (live) bugs in our salads. Strychnine used here.

I guess everyone knows this by now... The only way to eliminate corruption in government is   to control the press. 

You think of a good idea.  You try the new idea. The new idea fails totally. A. You can say, "This sucks," and dump the new idea. B. The politician with the same idea cannot.  They will double down and say either it does work or will work, and especially, we need more money to make it work better.  The hapless politician has not the luxury of dumping something they create.  So, why? 1. Why?  Because opponents will excoriate them, and people will believe them, and then not vote for them. 2. Why? Because people are simplistic computing machines accepting everything at face value. 3. Why? Because our education system simply does not teach critical thinking but superficially jumping to the next fad. 4. Why? Because the colleges don't teach anymore. They merely transfer talking points.  5. Why? Because college teachers are busy with their research or fear repudiation by irate students. 6. Why? Because their parents hover above their kids trying to protect them at

You could say that Trump needs the Squad as much as the Squad needs Trump. Symbiosis can happen when two parasites unite for their mutual survival. Nasty, but when directed to politics can be disastrous. In business, it can be beneficial.   In religion, it is conflicting. In the home, it is debilitating. Xenophobia is more common than the common cold.    E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E.

Keep your brain working .  It is your best asset. Use it every day.   ·        Read a book. ·        Challenge a colleague. ·        Know your investments. ·        Understand your profession. ·        Talk to your kids. ·        Learn something you don't know. Examples. Do you know how to cook? (Experience) Do you know how your microwave works? (Requires a little physics) Do you know how IP addresses work? (It's not hard.) Do you know what Artifical Intelligence means?  (It's easier than you think.) Do you know why those big jets take off? (Simple ideas when you understand pressure) Do you know what love is? (Difficult, if possible) Do you understand when earthquakes will occur? (Nobody does) Do you know why the stock market goes up or down? (Ditto) Do you know how to teach? (Just plain difficult)

No matter your politics, this may resonate - but with different sounds.  Pity the nation conflicted between rights and wrongs. Pity the nation where every wrong is another’s right. Pity the nation that confuses emotion with reason. Pity the nation that talks but does not listen. Pity the nation that uses swords rather than words. Pity the nation that uses words as swords. Pity the nation that treats aliens as citizens. Pity the nation that treats citizens as aliens. Pity the nation that has lost its way. --- after Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Suppose you know something and are presented with the answer to a question or situation about it. You know the answer - in another form. Then, to verify you need to convert your knowledge to the new but equivalent form.   If you cannot do this, you are marked wrong.   But still, you know the answer!   Knowledge skills in any situation, especially tests, require at least two stages: understanding the question or situation and knowing the answer, and then identifying or discriminating the possibly given correct answer, even if you know the answer in another form. So, true knowledge has at least two phases.   Knowing and Converting .   Our entire school system is based on knowing. Our entire testing system depends on converting. ---------------------- As usual, there is no limit to the suffering to be endured by the many to assure good feelings of the few. Indeed, it is the suffering impressed that makes their good feelings even better. --------------------- If you stand fo

What many thugs in ANTIFA have learned is that violence has a taste. And they like the taste, the taste of brute power.  A historical event, this taste has been enjoyed by many groups for millennia. You don’t need much motivation after your initiation to inflict pain and fear. That taste is so satisfying. In reality, ANTIFA probably is comprised of a mixture of true believers with violence prone parasites. It makes an interesting combination of those believing in radical change explaining to violent thugs that what you do is OK.  Both sides go home most satisfied.  

The Cracked Egg . Did you know that eggs meant for the grocery market undergo an automatic acoustic sensor test to determine if they are cracked.   Takes only a fraction of a second.   Cracked eggs are then rejected and ejected. (No, they are not sent back for repair.) ‘Tis a shame we don’t have acoustic sensor tests for people to make a similar determination.   But our cracked types are allowed to plunder on, offering little and taking a lot. --------------- Contrails. Did you know the contrails of jets may cause more global warming that all other sources combined?   And it’s getting worse. https://urldefense.proofpoint. com/v2/url?u=https-3A__weather .com_science_environment_news_ 2019-2D06-2D28-2Dair-2Dcraft-2 Dcontrails-2Dglobal-2Dwarming& d=DwICaQ&c=u6LDEWzohnDQ01ySGnx Mzg&r=mbbwiLKJmVf9GVoMN0YFR07k SNz_FRSQwQFzSWbMq4Y&m=EoTbr_hL iCwE-JrR-lHAn-UNyuy4KvbBN2LJhv _XX5I&s=KPo0Josc5m_hp8xQu-_h0R UHwxCtXcvo831g91Fltnk&e=    ---------------

Spite is a terrible thing.  As a verb, it is to  deliberately   upset  someone or cause them  problems .  Many of us secretly spite one another, but knowing it is wrong, mask it in some principle or other. Examples. A. He rejected promotion to his disliked colleague’s application because he thought his problem-solving skills were inadequate.  The spite is the rejection. The principle is the strength of or value to the company. B. She revealed her neighbor had been arrested for driving under the influence, because she said our neighborhood should maintain the highest standards.   The spite is the revelation.   The principle is those high standards.   C. “Life’s unfair,” is a principle often used to demonstrate a measure of spite toward someone down and out - while you are not. The Scarlet Letter , a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850, is a lesson in social spite. One example more.  The cat drank from the dog's water dish just to spite it.  No pr