Category: Random

I went to a talk by James Randi yesterday. He used to perform magic as the Amazing Randi, although at 78 and recovering from a double bypass, he said he now merely aspires to be the Mildly Astonishing Randi. He is of course best known as a debunker of paranormal claims (though he said that…

The current media news is about Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of the Wall Street Journal. I don’t happen to read the Wall Street Journal. And newspaper readership is declining overall. So I think it is fair to ask: does this purchase really matter? Is the media spending a lot of time on it because it is…

First, a brief digression to a recent family experience. My wife and 4-year old daughter were looking through a children’s magazine. They came to a page of jokes. My wife read a few of them. Sample joke: “Q: What did the lamb do for her birthday party? A: She had a sheep-over.” My wife and…

I grew up in a small city next to a large city, and I have always lived in cities. My grandparents lived in small town (3000 people), and we often spent summers with them when I was a child. My parents now live in a rural area, in a town that has no traffic lights…

Putting on airs