The ol’ laptop is running on its last legs. The monitor contacts are flickering. The battery lasts about ten minutes without being plugged in. The boot-up cycle is about five minutes long, and shutting down takes almost as much time… Continue Reading
Freakonomics asks, why don’t more companies hire assassins to kill their competitors’ CEOs? It’s a delicious question, impetuous and brilliantly amoral. After all, when the CEO of a company dies, the stock tends to decline in value rapidly. Thinking about… Continue Reading
Nearly fifty weeks ago, I wrote about how very, very strange and corrupt it looked when Hillary Clinton received nearly fifty thousand dollars in campaign donations from a single family in Daly City, California that reported an income that barely… Continue Reading
It’s a strange thing when Republicans are openly and aggressively lobbying for offshore oil drilling. Not that they were ever opposed to it; it’s just that in the political environment I’ve been used to for my entire adult life, Republicans… Continue Reading
There’s a proposal that the state sell off some of its more valuable real estate holdings to make up for the budget shortfall. For instance, San Quentin State Prison is 275 acres of waterfront land on the north side of… Continue Reading
Capuchins are small monkeys endemic to the rain forests of Colombia, Venezuela, and the Central American isthmus. They look like the fellow to the left, an adult male, who is about two feet long, not counting his long tail. Cute.… Continue Reading
As if leaving a half-trillion dollar budget deficit for the next administration wasn’t enough. This morning, President Bush signed into law a $300-billion bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He had threatened to veto the bill because it included… Continue Reading
Today’s earthquake got me thinking. If a really bad quake hit, and the house got knocked down, or all the stuff in it got burned up, what would my reaction be? I’d be bummed, of course. But assuming that The… Continue Reading
Americans are, at last, driving less. This is almost undoubtedly due to the continued increase in the retail price of gasoline. Things have even declined moderately recently, but I still paid $4.20 a gallon at Costco today (California is usually… Continue Reading
I bought a couple of new suits yesterday. The Wife insisted and forced me to go to the Men’s Wearhouse, and it was a good thing she did, too, because she’s right that I needed some new suits to wear.… Continue Reading