- A paper from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has concluded that time travel is impossible. That’s going to put a damper on a lot of my recreational reading. Actually, fiction about time travel has changed over the years. It used to focus on the grandfather paradox and now it focuses on what’s called alternate-universe theory. My very favorite paradoxical time travel story is one called “All of You Zombies,” by Robert Heinlein, one of the greatest science fiction writers ever. I also love “The Immortal Bard,” by Isaac Asimov, because I came across it when I was in ninth grade. It’s not paradoxical, but I love it because it pokes fun at English teachers, and my ninth grade English teacher read more into other people’s writings than I was (and still am) quite sure they ever intended to put there.
- Roberto Alomar didn’t get into the Baseball Hall of Fame because he was a NY Met. When he came to the Mets, he got old, all of a sudden. But before that, he was a great second baseman and based on his record before he got to NY, he does deserve to be in Cooperstown.
- Shutting down the manned space flight program will do bad things to the economy in certain parts of Florida and Texas, but I’ll bet you our taxes don’t go down at all, unless we’re the people who wind up without jobs because of it.
- It’s too late for what already exists, but I propose going forward that the color of all clothing be descriptive. I get that sage is green and khaki can come in different shades of tan. All of that is fine, but the people who make Under Armor clothing make shorts in a color called “bureau.” I don’t know what that is, and I bet the only people who do work for Under Armor.
- I hadn’t seen it before, but here’s another way to make the payments on a car lease look much smaller than they actually are. No money down and X amount per month, let’s say $69 for example for a compact car. But there’s a 25-cents-per-mile charge for each mile driven. Twelve thousand miles a year, which is about average, would make the lease cost an additional $250 a month.
- My dermatologist gave me a simple suggestion on how to decide whether I need sunscreen. If my shadow is taller than I am, it’s okay to go without.
- You never ever need to shovel two feet of 100 degrees, so I will deal with this and not complain until it’s cold enough to snow.
- I got a Groupon offer for up to 88 percent off on laser hair removal. It didn’t seem like much of a bargain to me since I’m at least 88 percent bald already.
- Amazon.com has a recommendation feature. Sometimes it’s ingenious and sometimes it’s annoying. One annoying thing is that when you sign in it asks if you want to see your recommendations. If you say yes, it shows you some of them and you have to click on another link to see them all. If I want to see my recommendations, I want to see all of them. Second, it sometimes recommends what I just bought. For example, I just ordered supplies for my ink jet printer and Amazon’s recommendations now include ink for my printer, starting with recommendation #2. I don’t need it because I haven’t run out yet, and I won’t order any at least until the ink I ordered Friday arrives.
