Anyone who blogs has persistent commenters. Last year my "top" commenter was one David Lloyd-Jones, a Canadian who took exception to a great deal of what I wrote (although not everything he read). Lloyd-Jones found me via my series of my business dealings in China in the early 1980's. He himself has had an interesting …
You Can Let 'Em Play with Elves, Just Watch for the Pickup Game
Emily Brown Stone lets her kids play with elves at Christmastime (and presumably the rest of the year): One of the great debates around Christmas time for Christians is whether or not to encourage or allow the belief in Santa Clause. I have friends and family on both sides of this debate so I want …
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My Advice for a PhD Topic
One of my colleagues at the SimCenter: National Center for Computational Engineering threw out the question of what PhD topic to choose. My response was as follows (he's from Iran, thus my reference to the 1979 Revolution): The ideal of the PhD topic--which has been held in front of me ever since undergraduate days before …
Will The Chinese Repay the Favour on Height Restrictions?
Washington, like old Beijing, has height restrictions on its buildings: An increase in the supply of leasable square footage in the district would solve the problem. But D.C. real-estate developers are constrained by a 113-year-old federal law, the Height of Buildings Act of 1910, under which no city building can be taller than the width …
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From Hard Currency to No Currency
What a difference two decades makes: Predicting the imminent collapse of the U.S. dollar, a Russian lawmaker submitted a bill to his country’s parliament Wednesday that would ban the use or possession of the American currency. Mikhail Degtyarev, the lawmaker who proposed the bill, compared the dollar to a Ponzi scheme. He warned that the …
If They'd Known He Was a Republican, They Wouldn't Have Honoured Him
Abraham Lincoln, that is: A public university in President Abraham Lincoln’s home state of Illinois is adorned with a plaque that states Lincoln – arguably the most famous and influential president in American history – was a Democrat. Lincoln was a Republican. History is such a stinker sometimes...
It's Back to Gay Apparel at Christmas
After Hallmark stepped into it: Critics took to Twitter and Hallmark’s Facebook page, accusing the company of making a political statement by using the word “fun” to replace “gay.” Some Facebook commenters said they would never again buy Hallmark merchandise and that the change amounted to the company rewriting Christmas classics in the name of …
An Interesting (?) Exchange on Health Care
Recently a friend of mine posted the following on Facebook with the following caption: "He says Vladimir Lenin, founder of Communism in Russia, believed socialized medicine was the key to a socialist government". To which I added the following: At the other end of the Soviet Union, the health care system--such as it was--was a …
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Yes, the Founding Fathers Hit the Tavern
Sad to say, however, it's closing during the government shut-down: An iconic Philadelphia restaurant has been forced to close its doors and turn away booked parties because of the government shutdown. City Tavern at 3rd and Walnut Streets in the Old City section of the city has been told it must close until the U.S. …
Iron Women and Wooden Ships, A Winning Combination
The tyranny of GPS and synthetic materials is broken on the Pacific: It took a thousand or so miles of sailing with the long, powerful waves of the Pacific Ocean for Hannah Jenner, a rising star in ocean racing, to get comfortable in this year’s Transpacific Yacht Race. Jenner, a 31-year-old from Britain, is used …
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Positive Infinity 