As you probably know, I’m a member of the doom squad: I believe we—humanity—are not going to muster the political will to take effective action against global warming. I’m the type of person who needs to have a plan for the future, so I’ve got one for handling this (all…

…and it always was — If you are lucky and open-minded, you’ve probably read a book that changed your life, or at least changed your mind. I recently read a pair of books that, together, changed mine. Here is the lede: I was a huge believer in electric vehicles (I drive one) and solar and…

Global Climate Change — It’s the Cows’ Fault — Oh yeah. People want to blame global climate change on humans. But we’re not to blame. It’s the cows what done it. Face it, the cow is the most successful mammilian species on the face of the earth. There are many billions more of them than would be here naturally…

You should not feel guilty about not doing enough — I feel guilty about not doing enough. Not doing enough to mitigate global climate change. Not doing enough to end racism in our time. Not doing enough to alleviate poverty and hunger. Not doing enough to save democracy. But I shouldn’t feel guilty. You’ve heard the justification, “I’m just too…

Eating my words … mummmummmumm… — Two years ago I posted a piece arguing that Susan Sarandon was right in saying that we might as well vote third-party because the public would never wake up and get involved with politics, on the liberal side, until things got very, very bad. (My interpretation of Sarandon’s comments.) Today…

I was reading this recent article, When did programmers decide to throw good technical design out the window? by Chris Hornberger, and it surfaced a thought that’s been gelling in my head lately: Why is there no concept of a software product ever being complete? I spent most of my…

But do they, really? — This is the age of women kicking the butts of men, at least in the movies and on TV. I mean physically beating the crap out of them. Like, for example Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Scarlett Johansson in Lucy, Ultraviolet, Elektra, Alita: Battle Angel. Of course, these characters all have…

Everyone (??) is so excited about drones delivering our packages. Imagine that: I click the drone delivery option on Amazon and 30 minutes later, “ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!” a drone is hovering outside my front door, a package descending to my QR-code-marked landing zone. Hot coffee from Starbucks, minutes after I order it…

If you are one of my 170 followers, or you are a new reader, thank you for reading me! I have been on Medium for a little more than two years, and here is a little bit about it. I make my living by writing—writing Javascript, that is! I am…