In my newspaper* today the columnist Mike Royko was quoted as saying, “It’s been my policy to view the Internet not as an ‘information highway’ but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies.”
Mike must not have seen a highway before he left us. Alongside those long ribbons of cement stretching far into the future [...]
President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the USSR not only had their red telephones so they could communicate on a moment’s notice, but also were “pen pals” of a sort. They scribbled notes to each other that were probably taken to their offices through diplomatic pouches. This was most likely the means [...]
Tagged Baikonur, Brezhnev, cosmonauts, Gagarin, JFK, Khrushchev, Leonev, NASA, Space medicine, Space Race, The InsiderIt must have been four years ago when I got an email from a guy named Vic. He was researching a story about the lumber industry in the Midwest to the Far West. In doing so he came across one of my family lines and then my name as a submitter of the information.
Vic [...]
And so the young are taught
Tagged Family History, genealogy, Great Depression, Leland Meitzler, Wendell Berry, WWII…in this country, we three knew alone knew of the very brave things the scientist accomplished. Of course, two Intel agencies knew, but it all took place over forty years ago, and most of them are dead or retired by now.
Having spent most of the day trying to give Itunes an address of my podcast, I am somewhat exhausted. What a complicated mess their web page is! I would rather file my 1986 income taxes again than tackle their web pages once more.
The podcast is a series of stories I tell from my book “Four [...]
Congress often passes laws that have unintended consequences. The sociologist Robert K. Merton wrote a paper about the subject as early as 1936. Some of unintended consequences are serendipitous, but others are negative or perverse. It seems that Congress has a way of introducing negative or perverse consequences.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was designed [...]
It takes a lot of perseverance to write a book. I should know because I have finished ten of the things. It would have been easy, so easy to lay a half-written book aside and promise myself I would get back to it some day. And then wait for that day to come. It never [...]
Tagged Cold WarGenealogy Blog, Family History, murder, Space Race, writing books, WWIIAnybody can write a book. Producing a book is very hard. It is right up there with producing a new product for a large company such as General Electric. I have done both and I am not sure which is more difficult.
A new appliance starts with the drawings and specifications. From these you have tools [...]
Often I write about how we are pieces of a movement that enriches the world. It’s the ‘Merican way. If you do your genealogy, you know that. Many Americans have enriched the world through medical research, industrial research and computer research among other ways. What do I mean?
Well, ours is the country large enough and [...]