First Blog

Repair then and now. I recall listening to a lecture by the great physicist Richard Feynman* where he talked about his teen-years, neighborhood repair business (1930’s) for radios and the like.   He said mostly he just looked for a loose wire or burned tube.   Presto, he fixed it.   He could repair because repair was easy and because he was real smart.   I recall the (very) old Maytag washer/dryer commercials on TV featuring a repairman lamenting he never had any work, because Maytag’s never broke down.   Great add. Great reassurance in the beginning age of home machinery.   I recall myself in the 60’s of stripping my TV of its tubes and taking them to the local drugstore where they had a tester.   Burned ones were replaced and the screen glowed again. Beyond that required an an actual TV repairman - expensive! Today, note whenever you buy anything electronic or mechanical, the seller offers to sell you insurance policies against damage and breakage. Sooooo… What do you wa

The four modes of the washing machine: load, wash, drain, and spin. The analogy to modern life is unmistakable. Right now... This country is in its spin cycle.  Good or bad, we accept or reject premises but cannot change them.  When evidence is found for, detractors reject. When evidence is found against, detractors reject. It goes round and round. It NEVER stops. The "double down" option, these days the only option, confirms the spin cycle.  It merely increases the rate. Whatever you say or believe is subject to spin, your spin, their spin, or someone's spin. It is the Descartes' vortex of opinion, the black hole of views.  You can only be sucked in, further and further and further. There is no graceful exit from the spin.  While in this cycle you get dizzy but yet delirious.  Your best judgments are suspended. Your common sense is distorted. Your very flesh is twisted to conform to the spin's angular momentum. Truth is just one causality of the spin.