Ken's Blog

Today, in an office building, I used a restroom which required a numeric code to enter. Conveniently, the required code was taped to the door, as you can see in the photo below.

As I typed in the five digit code, I pondered the logic of this arrangement. It occurred to me that the only people who would not be able to use this restroom are blind people.

My first thought was that this feels like another new policy from the executive branch of our federal government. According to the policy, allowing blind people to access to public restrooms would be considered too woke, so it must be prohibited.

I am scheduled to give a keynote at a technical symposium tomorrow. So, having prepared my slides, today I decided to try out my talk on my class of NYU students, since the topic is well aligned with the topic of our class.

I gave the talk to my class, and it was received well enough. But then one of the students asked a very thoughtful question.

To answer his question, I needed dive more deeply into the topic. And in the course of doing that, I ended up saying important things that had been in my head, but had not been in my slides.

Fortunately, there is a Zoom recording of today’s class. So this evening I am going through that recording, and incorporating these additional thoughts into the slide deck.

And I realize how wonderful it is to practice what you want to say in front of actual people. Had that student not asked that thoughtful question, and had I not been challenged to respond in kind, my talk tomorrow wouldn’t be nearly as good.

I am on the planning committee for the annual conference of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. We met today to plan our next conference.

Needless to say, it was weird, because we are living in weird times. Goals that used to be understood as positive, like slowing climate change, or helping poor kids to grow up to become scientists, have suddenly become political, even toxic.

At one point somebody mentioned that this year is the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country. Given the political climate, nobody was sure exactly how the AAAS should celebrate that.

I proposed a motto: “250 years. Well, it was a good run.”

People seem to like that, but I don’t think they are going to use it for the conference.

With this latest AI assisted offensive stunt, the creep has now managed to alienate Catholic voters. That’s actually a net positive for the country.

If enough voters realize just what a lowlife he is, and by extension his spineless enablers in Congress, Democrats will sweep the midterm elections.

We might actually be able to Make America Good Again. Fingers crossed.

If someone had gone into hibernation for six years, starting in 2019, and just now suddenly woken up, they might be surprise by how different the world is.

One thing they would immediately notice is that millions of people, including the people that they knew before they went to sleep, are meeting over Zoom all the time, instead of meeting in person. These same people would never have even heard of Zoom in 2019.

But what would probably seem even more startling to our awakened sleeper is that nobody seems to notice that this fundamental change has occurred. If asked, people will likely say that reality is the same old ordinary boring reality, just like it always has been.

And yet to the person who had missed the last six years, this will all seem like some kind of crazy episode of Black Mirror. All of reality has changed, but all of the people have changed with it, so nobody even seems to notice.

Today I went to my favorite purveyor of fine chocolates. The nice lady behind the counter warned me that prices might go up soon “because of things”.

Those were her exact words. It seems that the chocolate itself is imported, and therefore they have little control over the prices.

I complimented her on her studied choice of words. How, in the course of a pleasant conversation over chocolate, do you speak about the unspeakable?

In such situations, a little verbal ju jitsu may be called for.

Here is a partial list of the NSF grants that have recently been terminated by the idiotic six year olds who are pretending to run our nation’s executive branch.

If you go down the list and try to make sense of it (which might be a fool’s errand), what stands out is what appears to be a deep contempt for any Americans who might be trying, despite economic challenges, to get a better education for themselves and their children.

The message that comes through, loud and clear, is a glaring distain for the United States of America and its citizenry. How odd that the greatest threat to our country is actually sitting in our nation’s capital.

Sometimes, what is needed is stillness, and quiet, and a space between things.

I am one of those people who often goes to the Wikipedia to find out what notable people were born on the current day of the year. It’s amazing how much you can learn if you just pick an interesting person and go to their Wikipedia page.

Once there, you might start to follow the links, and before you know it you’re way down the rabbit hole. It’s usually a very satisfying journey.

I know that there are people who have exactly the opposite habit. They turn to the Wikipedia to find out what notable people have died on the current day of the year.

The Wikipedia is very accommodating, whatever your tastes. For any given day of the year it lists both the notable people who were born on that day and the notable people who died on that day.

It seems to me that this might be a defining psychological trait. Are you a person who is more curious about what lives were started, or a person who is more curious about what lives were ended?

In either case, I wonder what that says about you.

Recently I have come to appreciate the New York Times for a surprising reason. Yes, it’s the newspaper of record, and yes their reporters work very hard (sometimes against great odds) to uncover the real story.

But there’s something else — something that I used to take for granted. It’s the fact that the New York Times does not care that I am reading it.

There was a time when that would have seemed like an odd statement indeed. When you pick up a newspaper, the newspaper doesn’t change just because you’re reading it.

But newer forms of media, like my Google feed, are obviously watching me as I am reading. When they see that I have read about something, they immediately present me with similar things to read.

Which to me seems backwards, because the last thing I would want to do after I have read about something is to read about the same thing again. To me that’s the definition of boring.

I would much rather use my time exploring something new. Call me old fashioned.

So I really appreciate that the New York Times is indifferent to my reading habits. Whatever I choose to read or not read, the contents of the paper stay the same.

It’s as though they actually believe in an objective idea of truth. Now isn’t that something?