Many years ago, WC was involved in the negotiations for the purchase of large tracts of Alaska real estate. Through a series of mergers, leveraged buy-outs and bankruptcies, ownership of the real estate had wound up in the hands of a corporate raider from New York named Victor Posner,1 who came to Alaska with his…
WC is chasing a solar eclipse. WC promises not to do this again any time soon. Photos will be attempted, but it’s not something for which a photographer can practice in advance. If any decent shots are obtained, they’ll be posted here. At the same time, WC’s chosen observation site, 7,500 feet up in the…
President Trump created something called the American Manufacturing Council. Until yesterday, its members included Merck Pharmaceuticals. But yesterday, the CEO of Merck, Kenneth C. Frazier, resigned from the Council, saying, Less than an hour later, our President tweeted, There are several things to note about Trump’s response. First, Trump doesn’t even acknowledge Frazier’s point. He ignores what WC…
Commentary / Law / Trump
The University of Virginia was founded by, among others, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and Chief Justice John Marshall. No other university in the United Staes can claim three presidents and a SCOTUS Chief Justice among its founders. Jefferson thought it important enough that he had his role carved on his gravestone. Friday, a…
One of WC’s neighbors has this signpost in his front yard. Yes, he is a librarian. What a terrific summer reading list. Identification of the various destinations is left as an exercise to the reader. All of the books referenced – well, maybe not the Rick Riordan novels – are worth your time.
WC admits that Personal Audio isn’t your typical patent troll. Unlike most patent trolls, Personal Audio actually had a product, although that product failed a long time ago, and the concepts that Personal Audio tried to patent were incorporated into an actual product. It’s just that the scope of the claims were overly broad. That…
California Quail – the state bird of its namesake – are the most common quail of the American West. From Western Utah to the Pacific, outside of mountainous terrain, you can hear the silly, nasal “put way do” calls and see them scurry along the ground. While they lost a lot of range to agriculture,…
WC doesn’t want to sound like a cranky old man, but what has happened to Americans’ critical thinking skills? Recently, President Trump slipped General Kelly’s leash long enough to tweet out ad hominem attacks on Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn). Senator Blumenthal had said, “Politicizing the Department of Justice for personal ends, I think, is a disservice to the…
WC and Mrs. WC chased reports of an Indigo Bunting and a Blue Grosbeak at Fort BoiseWildlife Management Area on Saturday. We dipped on the birds – for the second time, in fact – but there was one aspect of the trip that didn’t escape us: a symphony of stinks, a miasma of malodors. Start…
The Washington Post has documented 29 Trump lies in 26 hours, untruths at a rate of greater than one an hour. That was before Trump boasted that Mexico’s President had telephoned him, agreeing to pay for Trump’s Wall, a transparent lie. And before Trump claimed the Boy Scouts had telephoned him to congratulate him on his…
Despite hurtful criticism of WC’s attempts to explain quarks, and Randall Munroe’s brilliant upstaging of those lame efforts, WC returns to the subatomic bestiary, with news about neutrinos. Neutrinos occupy the third row of the table of fermions. Because they are electrically neutral – by definition having no electric charge – there are only three…
One of the things that makes birds endless fascinating to WC is the whole matter of bird nests. Some birds get by with a scrape on the ground. Others build elaborate shelters to incubate their eggs and raise their kids. In the latter group is the Cliff Swallow. Cliff Swallows are very widely distributed in…
