James The Wanderer
Professional Distraction
Thursday, January 17th, 2013Professional Distraction James the Wanderer January 17, 2013 (Professor LeCormier crosses the stage to the podium) Greetings to all, students, graduates, fellow faculty; today I wish to discuss distraction, as a practice, a goal, and a professional occupation. But first, a distraction! (EAR-SPLITTING SIREN noises, lasting ten seconds; several in audience cover their ears, some [...]
Gross Domestic Incompetence
Tuesday, August 21st, 2012Gross Domestic Incompetence James the Wanderer August 20, 2012 The economists speak of something called the Gross Domestic Product, a quantity intended to determine how much a nation produces, across all products and industries. The formula found in Wikipedia says GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports) It [...]
Debt as an Operating System
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012Author James the Wanderer My parents and grandparents went through the Great American Depression of the 1920s- 1930s. My parents were then children, and suffered somewhat; of course, when there was food at all the kids got their needs met first. And my grandparents became quite resourceful in staying fed / clothed / sheltered; on [...]
Acceptable Limits
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011Acceptable Limits James the Wanderer 12/06/2011 In engineering, quality control and such areas we speak of tolerances, limits and acceptable operations. What we generally mean is that THIS much (or only this little) variance is allowed if we are to stay within specifications: marketing has promised products that are this big, this strong and [...]
A Busy Day at the Career Fair
Monday, October 10th, 2011Author James The Wanderer Yesterday, I went to the Career Fair at the university. It was surprisingly busy; so much, that as in previous years, it is now split into two days. One day is the Science / Engineering / Math day, and the other is the Medical / Legal /Everyone else day. I went [...]
Revival
Friday, August 19th, 2011Author James The Wanderer We don’t need any more money, to lower the value of the money we already have. We don’t need any more Keynsian stimulus, QE3+, POMO, MOMO, fraud, waste and abuse disguised as economics. We don’t need any more government – we could stand with a great deal less than we have. [...]
Stretching the Idea: An Independence Day Essay
Sunday, July 10th, 2011Author James the Wanderer Let’s start with a little general chemistry: Na+ + Cl- NaCl Sodium plus chlorine gives sodium chloride. Beginning with a silvery, unstable metal and a greenish, noxious gas, they combine and produce a whitish-clear salt. A reaction occurs: two inedible substances combine to form a basic necessity of human life. Two [...]
God of Endings
Monday, May 30th, 2011James The Wanderer O God of endings, be gentle As you take my father to darkness and rest Two years of illness, pain and suffering Have left so little of the strong, fair man I still remember And what yet lives surely cannot endure much rough handling. O God of hospitals, be merciful, And ease [...]
Keeping the Evil Spirits Away
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011James The Wanderer Imagine that you are a scientist of some sort, heading out to do your investigations in the world. You come across a remote village where the natives are committing assault on a stone pillar with branches – beating a rock with sticks. You make polite inquiries, and are told that they are [...]
The Escaptionists
Saturday, February 19th, 2011Author James The Wanderer One can observe a disturbing pattern in many recent events. Matt Taibbi’s latest polemic in _Rolling Stone_ is a depiction of how corruption between Wall Street and Washington has allowed criminal mischief to go unpunished: “The rest of them, all of them, got off. Not a single executive who ran the [...]