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The sneakers scam
Here’s what happened: American Express notifies my, by e-mail (I really like this service) that I was just charged $441 by adidas.com. Problem is, I did not order from Adidas; not this time, or ever. I call up AMEX and report the charge as fraudulent. They accept and send me a new card. I thought…
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Berlin Impressions, 29 Years Later
This summer 2018, I travelled to Berlin, Germany, for a conference. The last time I had been in Berlin was about two months before the Berlin Wall came down. My friend Brennan Novak, now a resident of Berlin, encouraged to write down my impressions, so here I am. My last trip, so many years ago,…
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Global Warming and (My) Productivity
Reporting on the results of an unexpected experiment … with unexpectedly global implications. After 20 years in the same house in Northern California, we installed whole-house air conditioning earlier this year. It seems that most of the apartments here have it, but not too many single family homes. Somehow the weather seemed to have gotten…
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How to lose the midterm elections in two easy steps — 2018 Democrat Edition
Step 1: “Abolish ICE!”What does Joe Average hear? “They want to have nobody guarding the borders at all! Everybody, friend and foe and gangs and foreign armies, can just walk in. Not only are those Democrats insane, that’s criminally endangering the country and all of us!”Step 2: “We need socialism!”What does Average Jane hear? “They…