The idea of rent is quite old, going back thousands of years to the ancient world. It originally applied primarily to land, and meant that some people had ownership rights to the land and could demand payment (rent) from anyone who … Continue reading
My wife and I are both born in Massachusetts and met and got married there, but in 1981 an offer from the University of Michigan to fund my doctoral studies proved to be irresistible and we moved to Michigan. So … Continue reading
There is a venerable saying with much truth to it that the golden age of science fiction is 14. And it was certainly golden for me at that age. I could imagine myself as Kimball Kinnison, fighting the Boskonian menace … Continue reading
As someone who first got politically active in the 1960s as an anti-war activist, I have learned a few things about how to do this. And it starts with the observation that some amount of effort is required to have … Continue reading
One of the big stories of 2016 has been the two outsider candidates, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. They aren’t all that much alike, as it turns out, except in that they diagnose a problem of elite politicians who are … Continue reading
I recently had a conversation with Ken Fallon of Hacker Public Radio that resulted in me offering to discuss my YouTube video subscriptions. And since that is a good topic for Palain.com, I thought I would start here. Although my … Continue reading
Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe by George B. Dyson My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is for someone who is interested in the the history of computing, and in particular the early days around WWII … Continue reading
I recently discovered this podcast, though it is so popular I imagine many people reading this already know all about it. Night Vale is a fictional town located in the desert somewhere in the Southwestern United States, and the podcast … Continue reading
The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku My rating: 5 of 5 stars I loved this book, but then I like Michio Kaku in general so I was not … Continue reading
It has gotten to the point where pretty much every comment I get is spam. I was manually moderating the comments, in addition to employing filters, but I don’t really see the point any longer, so I am turning off … Continue reading
