Republicans like things just the way they are, but if D.C. residents (over half of whom are black) insist on being represented in Congress like other Americans, then they prefer to tack D.C. onto Maryland. Of course they do. Because D.C. statehood would add two new senators, who certainly would be D[...]
Archive for May 3rd, 2021
Antiviral drugs: A primer
“Unlike broad-spectrum antibiotics, which can be used to treat a wide range of bacterial infections, drugs that work against one type of virus rarely work at treating other viruses.” That, in a nutshell, is why we don’t have a penicillin for Covid-19. Also because “viruses ar[...]
How to find “deep work” time
“For busy people,” this BBC article says, “finding time for uninterrupted work may feel utterly unrealistic. But there are methods we can use to optimise what limited ‘deep work’ time we have.” Read it here. “Deep work” means, I think, thinking or reading or a[...]
States’ rights … to be reckless
The phrase “states’ rights” used to refer to southern-Democrat segregation policies. Now it refers to Republicans-everywhere fecklessness. Conceptually, states’ rights is a subset of federalism, which has to do with the allocation of power between federal and state government[...]
May 3rd, 2021 - 2:40 pm § in Economics
Consumers face rising prices, shortages
Cash-hoarding, homebound consumers piled up lots of savings over the last year, government stimulus payments added more (for some), and now — according to surveys and the economic data coming in — they’re in a mood to spend it. Bam. Forward motion, hit wall. Home prices (if you cou[...]
May 3rd, 2021 - 2:19 pm § in Misc.
“You’ve Got Mail!” … but how much longer?
Verizon has sold its media assets, including AOL and Yahoo, to Apollo Global Management, a large publicly-traded investment firm (details here), CNBC reported on Monday, May 3, 2021 (read story here). In the internet’s early days, AOL became the most widely used internet access provider, but t[...]
May 3rd, 2021 - 1:26 pm § in Misc.
Bye bye, Microsoft default font
In today’s earthshaking news, Microsoft is sacking the long-running (since 2007) default font in its Office™ programs (e.g., Word, Excel) in favor of … fashion. Actually, I didn’t know “Calibri” (a made-up moniker) was the default font. My Office™ documents alwa[...]