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Mentour Pilot
Porter discovered a YouTube channel called Mentour Pilot , and we both quickly became fascinated. Petter Hörnfeldt, a...
sursumcorda, 5 September 2026 |
The Ghost Wing
Someone on Facebook captured the hippocampe ailé (winged seahorse) in the winglet of an Air France jet. That's what...
Old Glory Is Not an Emoji
It's time to stop half-staff flag abuse. I've nothing in particular against Dolly Parton, but the decision to lower flags to half...
A Cheer for Almond Paste
I love almond paste. It was a late-in-life acquired taste, introduced to me by my mother-in-law, who fed us marzipan in several forms at...
For All My Karen Friends
It hurts to have your name stolen. I'm not talking about identity theft, horrific as that is, but something deeper, more personal. I...
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? - Inflation Edition
When people call for the Fed to fix housing inflation, I often smile because the Fed is a prime cause of housing inflation (and...
Politics Is Not Always Serious
For most of my voting life I've been reluctant to talk about for whom I have voted. Even when I've discussed politics, I believe so...
The Florida Citrus Tragedy
When we moved to Florida more than 40 years ago, the heavenly smell from an orange juice factory frequenly wafted over our new house. As...
The Italian Accent
When I was young, it was more acceptable than it is today to mimic the speech of people who speak English with a recognizable accent....
Sign Language in the Museo Galileo
On our last day in Florence, Italy, we visted the Museo Galileo , a museum of the history of science. So many amazing...
When the Science-Nature Collaboration Turns Adversarial
When Billboards Are a Pleasure
Buc-ee's not only has low-priced gas, decent food, and the best restrooms on I-95, it also rivals South of the Border for billboard...
A Little Fun with Gemini
Gemini is very good at photo identification, but I wasn't expecting much from this one. I didn't need the identification, but...
Trust, but Verify -- On Using AI in Our Work
Trust, but verify. Wikipedia informs me that President Ronald Reagan's trademark phrase was a Russian proverb (доверяй, но...
Eulogy for a Political Opponent
When God lays his hand on a man, I take mine off. — Thomas H. Benton This . I'm too moved to comment further....
Gemini Rocks Photo Identification
I'm coming to think of Artificial Intelligence as a Swiss Army knife: not one tool but many, our job being to discern the one best...
Unexpected Morning Blessing
It is my habit to walk in the early mornings, taking laps around our pool; they're short, but they add up, and the predawn time is...
When Stereotypes Meet Reality
Although we occasionally checked in with the home front while we were overseas, for three weeks we had very little exposure to news...
Happy 250th Birthday, America
The flag still stands for freedom, and they can't take that away. You know you're aging as fast as the country when you tell...
Heat, Part 2
I'm not unsympathetic to those who are genuinely suffering in the heat. I spent the first 30+ years of my life in the Northeast, where...
Heat
Now that we're back from three weeks in the Mediterranean region, people are wondering how we survived Europe's heat wave. The answer is...
Commercial Pilot!
Our resident pilot-in-training has now obtained his Commercial license! Despite what it sounds like, that doesn't mean you...
A Small, Symbolic Gesture
It was a small gesture, but it felt so good. The government gave us these for free, and they've been stashed in our closet...
Meeting Each Other in Real Life
I've been out of the country for three weeks, and I never look at Tik Tok anyway, but I hear that it has been blowing up with European...
Everyone's Gone to the Moon
I've often said that the 1960's were a miserable decade. Not for me, personally: a healthy family life protected me from dangers I only...