Single Factor Fallacy
Some of the responses to my recent blogs illustrate a tendency that illustrates a particularly human foible – the tendency to attribute a problem or a success to a single factor. I recently suggested...
View ArticleLegislative Foibles
The Utah State legislature completed its usual two month annual session last week. In the course of two months, the legislators increased just slightly the funding for education, but not enough to even...
View ArticleSongs in F&SF
As most of my readers know, at least in some of my books, people actually sing… and the lyrics almost always have sections that rhyme. For some writers, apparently, this can be a problem. I was...
View Article“Market” Economies
As economists have observed for years, countries that don’t have “market economies” tend to have severe economic and social problems, but outside of textbooks, and even inside them, there’s a problem...
View ArticleNon-Starters
Why aren’t things improving in the United States for more people? Some recent studies give a seemingly simple answer with extraordinarily complex facets – because anything that would make a meaningful...
View ArticleContempt of Business?
In a recent review of one of my books, the reviewer stated that, for a “United Statesman,” I was remarkably contemptuous of business. The reviewer was not an American, obviously, and his views suggest...
View ArticleThe Vision of Tomorrow?
Do the people of the United States have anything close to a common goal for the future of the country… or of the world? From what I’ve observed, there is a welter of conflicting goals, and the vast...
View Article“Good” Fiction Writing
There’s currently a kerfuffle over the “Hugos,” otherwise known as the World Science Fiction convention’s annual awards for best writing, art, etc. The uproar lies in the fact that one group agreed on...
View ArticleHelicopters and Profitability
All too many years ago, I was a Navy pilot who flew helicopters both for odd utility missions and then for search and rescue off a carrier. Back in those ancient days, the first “big” helicopter I flew...
View ArticleWagging the Dog
Last week Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team, issued a blistering attack on the NCAA, declaring that college basketball was “horrible” and...
View ArticleArticle 2
A few days ago, I turned in the manuscript for the tenth Imager Portfolio book, tentatively entitled Treachery’s Tools. Tor has indicated that it will likely be published sometime in the summer of...
View ArticleApril Question
I’ve had trouble reading some of the sections on your website with my smartphone. Have you thought about making the site more mobile friendly? This is actually one of several questions I’ve had along...
View ArticleWhen Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed
Yes, I know that’s a quote and rip-off from Walt Whitman’s elegy on the death of Abraham Lincoln, but it also expresses my feelings about the lilacs in my front yard. I confess that I love the scent of...
View ArticlePerspective on the Hugos
The fallout continues, at least in some quarters, about the controversial, but very legal, “ballot stuffing” of the nominations for the World Science Fiction Convention’s annual awards – the “Hugos.”...
View ArticleShowing Up
In a previous blog, I mentioned a student who failed an art class, simply because he never showed up – and because he never showed up, he never did any work. Failure to show up goes far beyond...
View ArticleCreativity or Parasitism?
There’s a lot to be said for green plants. From water, carbon dioxide, and a handful of chemicals, they grow, reproduce [often producing edible fruit or vegetables in the process], and eventually die,...
View ArticleEditors
If at times I feel that, with regard to critics and readers, writers can’t please everyone, all I have to do is to think about editors, who often get blame they don’t deserve, and seldom get the credit...
View ArticleMay Question
Where do you get all your ideas? Pretty much from everywhere, but a high percentage of ideas are derived from what I read. My wife jokes that the postman heaves a sigh of relief after leaving our...
View ArticlePolice Brutality
I live in a large town transitioning into being a small city. When we moved here over twenty years ago, murders were so rare, generally less than one a year, as to be remarkable. Now we have them far...
View ArticleEducation – A Few Things I Don’t “Get”
Earlier this week, the Salt Lake Tribune published a story about college athletic scholarships, and the story revealed something new to me. A full-ride athletic scholarship generally covers tuition,...
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