Hello, fellow humans. How are you doing? Feeling OK? This whole Corona Virus deal has been rough, especially for the elderly and financially disadvantaged. I get it. And I want to help. As an expression of my gratitude to all the people whose labor and consumption have made me the wealthiest person in the history...
Those of us with “investment portfolios” — i.e., money that’s supposed to magically replicate itself without us doing anything except surviving — were elated this week when the wise elders in charge of America decided to reverse an impending stock market crash brought on by the bungled management of the Corona Virus pandemic. In less than...
I’m a fan on Twitter. You’re one of the smartest people I know and, coincidentally, I agree with just about everything you say —
9/15-21: CLIMATE WEEK AT MICHAELKONIK.com The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power’s main public relations initiative — when it’s not justifying secret expenditures from a union slush fund — is to convince the world that it’s a “green” company focused on renewable energy sources. That image plays slightly better than “mega-polluting utility contributing daily...
We would like to stress that the following proposal could never work in real life. It’s an impossible fantasy that could never work in real life. Never. Like Medicare-for-All. Since ridding our thoroughly corrupted political system of money appears to be an idea slightly more ludicrous than reducing our war-making budget, we’ve been forced to think...
Long ago, more than 2,500 years in the past, the city of Sybaris flourished on the heel of what is now Italy. Situated on a bustling line of Greek trade, Sybaris was where seagoing merchants unloaded their precious cargo for distribution along the Western coast. The customs and tolls from the Greeks’ inexorable enterprise made...
Franklin Canyon Park, in the storied borough of Beverly Hills, has been used as a popular filming location for decades. Exterior shots for The Andy Griffith Show, Twin Peaks, On Golden Pond, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, It Happened One Night — all were photographed here. These days, about 25 movies are filmed in Franklin Canyon annually. Producers...
His Chinese title was Mang-tze: Mang the Master. Just as European scholars changed his philosophical predecessor K’ung-fu-tze into “Confucius,” Latin-trained historians of the West called him “Mencius.” He spent most of his adult life (378-289 B.C.) counseling princes and kings, teaching them to rule like philosophers instead of barbarians. In his final years, he composed — or...
If you’re still in the camp that believes a near future dominated by artificially intelligent machines is nothing but a dystopian daydream, consider this: Not long ago, an artificially intelligent computer program called AlphaZero, hooked up to industrial-strength, Google-supplied processors, was given the rules of chess. That’s it. By playing countless games against itself, billions(?),...
Kids who can’t (or won’t) sit still and be quiet aren’t normal. They have a disorder. They have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It’s a serious disease that requires serious treatment. And if you don’t believe us, ask any pediatrician with a prescription pad. Since they’re desperately unwell, these ill children require medicine. Two of the best...
Hope RekindledThis past week has given us more hope for our diseased republic than any other time in 50+ years of paying attention. Observing and participating in a long-overdue peaceful uprising, occupying the streets, feeling the righteous energy of people of all ages, colors, faiths, and wealth (or lack thereof), has…
Used traditionally, in most Western music the bass keeps time churning out fat quarter-notes based on the root of a chord. Ba-dum-dum-dum-dum. On his addictive new recording Tines of Change, the visionary master bassist and composer explores his instrument’s under-utilized sonic possibilities. The concatenation of squeaks, grumbles, twitters, growls, whistles, knocks, cries, howls, and, yes, nice...
