Random Thoughts

During Christmas holidays I tend to indulge in online chess playing a bit too much, wasting several hours a day that could be used to get back on track with the gazillion research projects I am currently trying to keep pushing. But at times it gives me pleasure, when I conceive some good tactical sequence. Take the position below, from a 5' game on chess.com today. White has obtained a winning position, but can you win it with the clock ticking? (I have less than two minutes left for the rest of the game...) In the diagram White is to move, after black blundered in a more or less even…

I rarely win when it comes to cultural language stuff. Before 1999, an attractive older woman, for example, was to me a "Momshell" and no woman had any objection to a portmanteau of mom and bombshell (if they heard it - but a woman should not hear it, or your charm goes way down) yet after 1999's "American Pie" film the vulgar acronym "MILF" became the default. I have maintained for decades that we are worse off for it. If a young man used it in my presence where the woman could hear, I'd correct him. Not in a mean way, just by explaining there is a term that doesn't make him seem crass.…

Let’s get something straight: your obsession with trans people using bathrooms is a distraction from the fact that most Americans can barely afford to put food on the table or pay rent. While you’re wasting time pandering to the most regressive parts of your base, the country is struggling. I’ve spent decades fighting for academic freedom and challenging the status quo, including within the trans community. I’ve called out unreasonable behavior when I’ve seen it. But here’s the thing—peaceably using a bathroom, washing our hands, and leaving is not unreasonable. This whole debate could…

Nearly 30 years ago, Minister Louis Farrakhan called for the Million Man March—a gathering of Black men to stand up for the power of Black people in reaffirming vigilance toward our civil rights and societal responsibilities. Now, as a Black transwoman, I see in the current government a need for similar action in Washington, D.C., for the transgender community, the LGBTQ+ community, Black people, Muslims, Latinos, and every other minority group. Rights are not a zero-sum game. Dignity is not like crude oil; using it to benefit one person does not deny it to another. Kindness and concern for…

It's commonplace for older generations to criticize the young. In my early career, an older fellow told me he wouldn't hire anyone who didn't know how to use a slide rule. Another only a decade older than me said he only wanted to work with people who had built their own crystal radio or some equivalent. You might as well have told me to use an abacus. Sure, all those things are cool, but not indicative of competence. A calculator doesn't make someone less intelligent. The definition of intelligence, and certainly competence, changes. I am regarded as intelligent but really I just have a…

Do you think the 2008 financial meltdown was caused by religious evil? I don't, I think it was caused by populism in Congress that made it a potential prison sentence to deny anyone a mortgage and guaranteed mortgages for unqualified people.(1)If you instead think it was evil, "Slaves of Satan" by Patrick R. Bell is a solid work. For the rest of us, well, maybe. It requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. The 20th century philosopher Bertrand Russell proposed if you create a closed system and introduce a contradiction anything can be proven. Dan Brown used this to fantastic…

December 23rd is 'Festivus', a not-real holiday invented by the father of George Costanza on the hit television show "Seinfeld", involving an aluminum pole, feats of strength, and, most fun, an airing of grievances.(1) It's the airing of grievances I want to address. I won't even bother with anti-vaccine beliefs, progressives cared little about that until 2021 when Republicans said what kooks on the left like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been saying about vaccines for decades - so it is just politics, they aren't suddenly on Team Big Pharma. There is no reason to harp on Republicans for…

A brief personal update as to what I have been doing.  There has been much interesting science news to discuss.   A possible galaxy comprised of not much more than gas and dark matter with no stars. Many other things in astronomy and physics.  Things I might normally write about.  So why haven't I?  Well, I am getting on with the day-to-day work of being a low level academic and scientist. Mainly I have a super full teaching schedule this semester with 13 semester hours worth of teaching.  Which requires a great deal of my mental concentration to do…

Fascism is a term that has been used to a point of near meaninglessness in the United States of America. The left tortured the meaning of it to apply it to George Bush to such a degree that its new meaning would also apply to Barrack Obama. This leaves us without a word for what Ron DeSantis is. To call him a Trumpist is to miss that he wants to be more than what Trump is but with half the wit (so 1/4 of the usual wit) and none of the smarts. (At least Trump understands vaccines). DeSantis’s party seeks to control education in the state and have any books that don’t meet his orthodoxy pulled…

In almost every case, someone being called a Nazi or Fascist on Twitter is being called such by someone who never knew any of those, and is probably a second or third generation descendant who didn't know any either. I had one grandfather who went across North Africa and one who occupied Japan but to my knowledge neither had any special claim to knowing about the Axis powers. Not knowing what they are talking about doesn't hold back anyone, not on social media nor in journalism, and that's a problem for public discourse and does a disservice to those who experienced it. As History Channel…