So I guess this means I have three Fediverse accounts: leo.social, @leo@twit.social, and @leolaporte@pixelfed.social.

Not to mention my long abandoned mastodon.social account.

And I always thought I was anti-social.

Hello. I’m reconnecting my micro.blog to leo.social. I’m also @leo@twit.social.

Roger Angell passed away yesterday at the age of 101. 

A long-time editor at The New Yorker, he was also the best damn baseball writer ever. His essay This Old Man from 2014 is a lovely paen to old age and features these words of wisdom from another old coot, Walter Cronkite.

Never trust a fart. Never pass up a drink. Never ignore an erection.

Truer words were never spoke.

I created this site in the midst of a pandemic. Now two years later, it’s over. Right?

Today mask mandates are lifted in our county and, despite cowardly quibbling from the CDC, most of the US. It seems the pandemic ends with a whimper, not a bang. Sunday’s mostly-maskless Superbowl was the party we’ve all been waiting for. And, yet, I’m not exactly ready to celebrate. Personally, I’m planning to tiptoe back, mask at the ready. I’d love to make a pyre in the backyard to burn them all, but what if there’s a new virulent variant? We still have Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ and Ω if we need them.

But, for now, I’m willing to say Mission Accomplished. Good job everyone. Let’s say a prayer for the nearly one million dead in the US, nearly six million worldwide (a chilling number) and get back to living. Save the remaining ivermectin for the horses, shall we?

Oh, and get your goldurn vaccine, will ya? For me? For all of us!

Yesterday my son showed up at the studio. I took the opportunity to interview him!

Henry (or Hank as he’s known now) has become a big-time Tik Tok chef with 1.8 million followers and nearly 30 million likes. Check out his videos and, as soon as he gets more, you can also buy his salt at salthank.com.

We tried to reproduce a photo from 27-years-ago at KSFO.

Father and Sons 27-years apart

Thanks to RailEuropeGroups from Club TWiT for the Photoshop! And here’s the clip from Sunday’s show.

I guess I’m kind of a proud father!

Yesterday I got the first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine!

When I arrived at Kaiser they threw me a curve. “Would you like Moderna or Johnson & Johnson?” I chose Moderna for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I think the mRNA technology is very cool. The process was quick and nearly painless. Afterwards I hod to wait 15 minutes, just in case I had a bad reaction. I didn’t. My arm hurts a bit today, but that’s the extent of the side effects. I expect worse after the second shot, April 14.

Now we just have to get the rest of my friends and family vaccinated and life can kind of get back to normal!

Just because someone believes in conspiracy theories, doesn’t mean they’re dumb.

From an article in The New Republic:

The University of Minnesota’s Joanne Miller and Christina Farhart and Colorado State University’s Kyle Saunders conducted a survey examining support for conspiracy theories, including birtherism and 9/11 trutherism. In a result unsurprising to those who follow this research, they found that higher levels of political knowledge actually deepened the likelihood that conservatives with low trust in people and major institutions would endorse right-wing conspiracy theories. In a section reviewing previous research on the subject, the authors explained that political sophisticates “have the ability to make connections between abstract principles and more concrete attitudes and are therefore more fully able to notice the implications of specific attitudes for their worldviews.” “Because politically knowledgeable people care more about politics and hold stronger political attitudes,” they added, “they are especially likely to want to protect those attitudes.”

The researchers conclude that “people will believe what they want to believe in spite of available data and evidence.”

A new study from CU Boulder (my son’s alma mater) and Harvard’s TF Chan School of Public Health points to a way forward in the pandemic.

The study says

“These rapid tests are contagiousness tests,” said senior co-author Dr. Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “They are extremely effective in detecting COVID-19 when people are contagious.”

They are also affordable, he added. The rapid tests can cost as little as $1 each and return results in 15 minutes.

Best of all, “testing half the population weekly with inexpensive, rapid-turnaround COVID-19 tests would drive the virus toward elimination within weeks.”

This is something we could do today to end the pandemic by Christmas. The FDA has already approved the tests.

For more information and some easy ways to get Congress off its butt visit rapidtests.org.

(NOTE FROM 2024: Yet another example of how the pandemic was mishandled. Due to foot dragging from the FDA, the tests weren’t in widespread use until 2022.)

I resemble that cartoon.

(UPDATE from 2024:) and here I am, moving my blog yet again!

I love Paul Graham’s essays. This one, from 2016, truly hits home.

Life is short, so it’s worth eliminating the time wasters. For one, defending yourself online.

Your instinct when attacked is to defend yourself. But like a lot of instincts, this one wasn't designed for the world we now live in. Counterintuitive as it feels, it's better most of the time not to defend yourself. Otherwise these people are literally taking your life.

But that’s just one of many powerful ideas in this essay. Please take 10 of your precious remaining minutes to read it.

One heuristic for distinguishing stuff that matters is to ask yourself whether you'll care about it in the future. Fake stuff that matters usually has a sharp peak of seeming to matter. That's how it tricks you. The area under the curve is small, but its shape jabs into your consciousness like a pin.

As I come to the waning years of my life, I want to make every minute count.

Relentlessly prune bullshit, don't wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have. That's what you do when life is short.

Normally I wait until Spring to start complaining, but I’ve gotten nothing else done this summer, so I’m going to start the campaign early. End Daylight Saving Time!

The august Academy of Sleep Medicine has finally proclaimed the truth.

The AASM supports a switch to permanent standard time, explaining in the statement that standard time more closely aligns with the daily rhythms of the body’s internal clock. The position statement also cites evidence of **increased risks of motor vehicle accidents, cardiovascular events, and mood disturbances following the annual “spring forward” to daylight saving time**.

“Permanent, year-round standard time is the best choice to most closely match our circadian sleep-wake cycle,” said lead author Dr. M. Adeel Rishi, a pulmonology, sleep medicine and critical care specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and vice chair of the AASM Public Safety Committee. “Daylight saving time results in more darkness in the morning and more light in the evening, disrupting the body’s natural rhythm.”

The AASM position statement on daylight saving time has been endorsed by the following organizations:

• American Academy of Cardiovascular Sleep Medicine
• American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine
• American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST)
• American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• California Sleep Society
• Dakotas Sleep Society
• Kentucky Sleep Society
• Maryland Sleep Society
• Michigan Academy of Sleep Medicine
• Missouri Sleep Society
• National PTA
• National Safety Council
• Society for Research on Biological Rhythms
• Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine
• Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine
• Southern Sleep Society
• Start School Later
• Tennessee Sleep Society
• Wisconsin Sleep Society
• World Sleep Society.

And, I’d like to add, by the Leo Laporte Sleep Society.

OK President Trump, you want to do something that would ensure your re-election in November? Stop the Insanity! What’s the use of being an autocrat if you can’t use your power for good!