What A Difference A Day Makes!

My mother passed away very suddenly at 11:30 this morning. What a difference a day makes! At 7 a.m. this morning, she was fine. Last night at 11 pm, I got a call from Lourdes saying that she had had a difficult evening, nausea, a little vomiting, a little trouble breathing. But by the time they called at 11 p.m., she was doing much better, very comfortable, even smiling and conversing with the nurses.

A Sign of the Times

One of the signs of our times is without a doubt the unprecedented collapse in the real estate market during the last few years. Since 2007, many homes have lost about 40% of their pre-recession value. This was the direct result of so many people losing their jobs all at once due to so many companies downsizing or even going bankrupt all at once due to the historic credit crisis brought on by the subprime mortgage debacle.

In Defense of Flogging

On July 4th, I wrote about the crime problem and its facade of being a path to cheap freedom through easy wealth as the first part of my tribute to Independence Day and our traditions of liberty. My unorthodox tribute was inspired by what I considered a rather shocking story in last week’s news concerning crime in America. Much to my surprise the story took a surprising new twist this week so I now present Part Two of my tribute to the spirit of American independence. (And, no, I am not referring to the Casey Anthony acquittal.)

Where Freedom Is Cheap

Freedom is cheap, sometimes, and in some places. This may be the first time many of you have heard such a sentiment. We typically celebrate the opposite: freedom is very expensive and has been purchased time and again with the blood of our service members. It was certainly originally purchased for us at the hugely expensive price of our Revolutionary War, expensive not just in blood but in money. We went hugely in debt and spent the better part of the 19th century paying it off, mostly to France which financed most of our war against England. But on this 235th birthday celebration for our nation and our freedoms, I did something that, on the surface, may seem a little out of spirit for the holiday.

The Chronicles of Tau

I was wondering if I’d have a topic suitable for hailing in July and it turns out I do. Thursday being piano day, I thought it was particularly appropriate that I stumbled onto this fascinating video on YouTube, a video that proves you can marry art and science. There is so much math in music that I thought it would be of interest to all of you to see a music video that was produced entirely with a mathematical algorithm based on tau.