Putin is using thermobaric weapons in Ukraine. A thermobaric bomb, or a “vacuum bomb” is a two-stage weapon. In the first stage, a cloud of aerosols made up of droplets of flammable material is disbursed. In the second stage, the cloud is ignited. Since the aerosols can move around and, in certain cases, into buildings, …
Pity Ota Šik. Šik was a Czech economist who worked in the Novotny and then the Dubček governments during the 1960s. He advocated for a “third way”, or socialism with relaxed price controls and elements of private enterprise. The hard-liner Novotny stymied his efforts. Dubček supported them, and they became an important element of the …
A few weeks ago, I got beers with a professor of infectious diseases at a hoity-toity medical school in the City whose kids used to go to school with mine. He spoke about the pandemic; I spoke about shaking down rednecks. We both spoke about our pain-in-the-ass kids. After some pleasantries, I asked, “Hey”- “Hey, …
When people in the Homeric poems really screwed up, they would sacrifice hecatombs. For example, when Odysseus travelled to the underworld, he met the shade of Tiresias. Tiresias told him that Odysseus had gotten on Poseidon’s bad side by blinding his son, the Cyclops. If he wanted to make that right, he should put an …
Readers who have negotiated with suicidal friends and loved ones are familiar with the “what’s next” argument. Why off yourself now? Your chances of dying eventually are good. Once that happens, you will have all eternity to be dead. And once you are dead, you won’t be able to see what happens next. Senator supports …
I have written previously about The Third Policeman, by Flann O’Brien (Kerrymen are reminded that the blue text indicates a link, and that if you click on a link, things happen). Nominally, it is about a man being punished in the afterlife for a murder, but in substance it is a bunch of comic pyrotechnics, …
One exception to the striped New York State rule is an ecdysiast who used to live in my park in central New York. In early 2020, I noticed that she had a Biden-Harris lawn sign on her lot. Downstate skews democrat and leftish. Upstate skews Republican. This resident was a small blue island in a …
When I worked in the corporate world, people used to say, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.” Occasionally, a really pissed off secretary or Lady Lawyer would say, “If you want something done well, give it to a busy woman”. The idea was that, if someone wasn’t busy, that was …
-Excellent. How long will it take to cure? That’s me, responding to a photo that an installer texted me today of a newly-poured pad for a new home that I ordered in February. The home was supposed to arrive from the factory the first week of November. Now, it is due next week. –8220 days …
You can relax. Governor Hochul has requested an additional $996m additional funding for the state ERAP program from the federal Treasury Department. Your ERAP request will be granted shortly. Just kidding. I have requested ERAP funding for my resident who owes $3,000 and received $877 in funding. Ditto, my resident who received $7,500 and then …