I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked at in the right way, did not become still more complicated. — Poul Anderson
January
Again I reply to the triple winds
running chromatic fifths of derision
outside my window:
Play louder.
You will not succeed. I am
bound more to my sentences
the more you batter at me
to follow you.
And the wind,
as before, fingers perfectly
its derisive music.
Affinities Can Kill You
Boy, 9, mauled to death by dogs in Yuba County — The Sacramento Bee
Hi everybody! It’s me, Lightning!
This article says that a 9-year-old (in human years) boy was killed by 3 pit bulls that belonged to his older sister. It says that his sister has an affinity for pit bulls because she thinks that pit bulls are not dangerous even though a lot of people say they are dangerous and that is not fair to pit bulls.
I don’t what an affinity is but it must be something that can kill you or your little brother.
Wait — my owner says “affinity” means something you like, like he has an affinity for pugs and because he has an affinity for pugs, all of his family members are still alive.
If you own a pit bull, you also need to have a pug to keep the pit bull in check.
— Lightning 
Happy New Year!
Time marches on!! We are all dying!!! We are coming to the end of our lives!!! Happy New Year!!!
2015: The Year in Books
These are the books I read in 2015, roughly in the order listed. The ratings are mine. They don’t represent a consensus of opinion.
Books of the Year: Hotel World by Ali Smith (fiction) and Humans of New York: Stories by Brandon Stanton (non-fiction).
Honorable Mention: Special Topics in Calamity Physics, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Disgrace, Lament for a Maker, Nothing.
A Problem Like Maria
I’m an engineer. If you ask me to solve a problem like Maria, I’ll solve it.
Aside
Confess, ye miscreants, sight unseen, the truth of what I have proclaimed, or meet my vengeance in the field of battle!
Lover of Life, Singer of Songs
I know the lyrics to a lot of songs . . . not current hits so much but if we’re listening to an oldies type of radio station, which we, the Epps family, are doing in the car right now, I pretty much know every song they play.
“I should be a singer,” I announce. “I would have a tremendous repertoire of songs.”
“But you can’t sing,” my son says.
“Hmmm . . . that’s a legitimate point that I don’t really have an answer for.”
EppsNet Book Reviews: Mindset by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.
Carol Dweck’s research is part of a tradition in psychology that shows the power of people’s beliefs. These may be beliefs that we’re aware of or unaware of but they strongly affect what we want and whether we succeed in getting it. This tradition also shows how changing people’s beliefs can have profound effects.
Dweck’s insight into fixed mindset (bad) vs. growth mindset (good) is powerful but there’s really not enough to it to sustain a book-length exposition without a lot of repetition and illustrational anecdotes, the problem with which is 1) they tend to be overly simple tales of triumph and failure with clearly identified causes; and 2) they ignore the inevitability of regression.
For example, two of the people Dweck identifies as exemplars of the growth mindset are Tiger Woods and Alex Rodriguez. Mindset was published in 2006, after which Woods’s career imploded in the wake of extramarital affairs with 100 or so women, and Rodriguez was suspended from baseball for cheating.
Among the companies singled out as possessing a growth mindset is Circuit City, which announced in January 2009 that it was going out of business.
Don’t get me wrong here, I think Dweck’s work is insightful and illuminating, I just don’t think it works well as a book. For a shorter introduction, try, for example, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids,” recently published in Scientific American.
Rating: 
Kidneys for Coders
Cognitive Dissonance on Muslims
How are these two ideas about Islam and Muslims, seemingly held simultaneously by a lot of people, not completely incompatible with each other:
- Islam is a religion of peace and Muslims are peaceful folks (e.g., Hillary Clinton: “Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people, and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.”)
- We must be careful not to offend Muslims because if we do, they will kill us (e.g., Hillary Clinton: “They are going out to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.”)
What am I missing?
Huckleberry Finn Banned Again
A Pennsylvania high school has removed Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from its 11th-grade curriculum after complaints from students who said they were made “uncomfortable” by the novel.
The school’s principal defended the decision to remove the book from the curriculum. “I do not believe that we’re censoring,” he said. “I really do believe that this is an opportunity for the school to step forward and listen to the students.”
He went on to add, “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.” Because if suppression of material you deem objectionable is not censoring, what is?
As Kurt Vonnegut used to say, “Have somebody read the First Amendment to the United States Constitution out loud to you, you God damned fool!”
Those Performance Reviews Were Supposed to be Anonymous
A Coupon for a Nonexistent Product
There’s a guy in the Personal Care department at Target handing out coupons for women’s hair brushes . . .
One woman takes the coupon and comes back a minute later to ask where that particular type of hair brush is located.
“We’re out of them,” the guy says matter-of-factly.
“Why don’t you just go home then?” she asks as she hands the coupon back to him and walks away.
“I can’t. But we’ll have more in later this week,” he calls after her. “It’s not like the coupon is worthless.”
Parsnip Puree
I hope there’s a special place in Hell for anyone who serves an unlabeled bowl of parsnip puree at a buffet.
Parsnip puree, which I’d never heard of before today’s lunch buffet, is indistinguishable from mashed potatoes, until you dish up a big spoonful, take a bite and say “What the hell is wrong with these potatoes?”
Merry Christmas, Starbucks
Hi everybody! It’s me, Lightning!
I heard that some people don’t like the Starbucks Christmas cups this year. People are silly. My favorite Starbucks Christmas cup was the one with a dog on a sled but the contents of the cup, that’s the main thing.
I don’t even mind that most of the time my pup cups have someone else’s name on them.
Merry Christmas, Starbucks!
— Lightning
Christmastime in Irvine
Why Do Bad Things Always Happen to Him?
Posted by a teacher on Facebook:
You don’t look good, in my opinion, making other people’s tragedies all about you . . .
Fight On Vader!
Yale Students Sign Petition to Repeal the First Amendment
The video below shows documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz asking Yale students to sign a petition aimed at repealing the First Amendment. Horowitz was able to collect more than 50 signatures in less than an hour in what he called an “unbelievable display of total stupidity.”