Today I Learned

Reflections (band), Live at the Skyway Theater 2014, via Wikimedia Commons This keeps happening, and I love it! I wanted to talk about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, but I like having two topics which tie together in some way. That’s why I sometimes simply search on a word or phrase, then see if there’s anything I find new and interesting. That’s how I learned about the Icelandic band Mammút, for example. In this case, I searched on the word ‘reflections’, and found th

Flag of Russia, via Wikimedia Commons Everyone seems to need a villain. For many, that villain is Russia. I won’t go into the long, complex history, or discuss how our current geopolitical situation evolved, but I do wonder about the degree to which people have an enemy because they want or need one. Several years ago, I posted about Theory X and Theory Y, where X assumes that people are inherently unmotivated and need to be actively ‘managed’, while Y assumes people are gene

Dr Anthony Fauci, beside Trump (the best of us, beside the worst), via Wikimedia Commons Donald Trump’s first presidency was a global embarrassment, starting with the so-called ‘Muslim ban’, and ending with the January 6th insurrection. And then, in 2020, came COVID-19. This was a major global event, and there was no perfect course of action. There were a lot of bad ones, though, and Trump selected many of them. Selecting Alex Azar for Health and Human Services was not necess

Artificial Intelligence Icon, via Wikimedia Commons Everyone is so out-of-touch. Are they? Really? And, if so, why might that be? Many people think it’s an age thing, but I don’t. I remember several variations on the idea that someone who is not a ‘socialist’ (or ‘liberal’, or ‘républicain’) at twenty has no heart, and one who is still such at forty has no brain – I didn’t think much about it when I was young, but now believe that it’s utter bullshit. I have come to realize t

Cyclospora cayetanensis, via Wikimedia Commons I was surprised to learn that Waldo is actually Wally, and that he’s only been around since 1987. I first heard of him as an adult, but always assumed that he had been around for years before that period where he appeared to be everywhere. Just like Robert F Kennedy, about whom I have written several times. Most recently, I described the changes he made to the Food Pyramid, but I have also discussed his anti-vax views and his app

Appointing incompetent loyalists, via Wikimedia Commons I’d really like to describe the Trump administration as an example of Weaponized Incompetence, but I really can’t. Intuitively, the term seems to fit, but it already has a definition in the psychological literature. Setting Trump aside for the moment, the term refers to strategically avoiding responsibility by pretending to be incapable so that someone else helps, takes over, or stops delegating tasks. Over time, the per