Author Archives: Anton

without questions there can be no answers

Is there a standard Unix shell command to pause for a given amount of time? One wouldn’t use this from the prompt, of course, but it might have its uses in scripts. Mine is to open a large number of … Continue reading

Posted in neep-neep, pets | 2 Comments

who’s ringing my doorbell at this hour?

Yester evening a neighbor’s car engine caught fire, and I gave him my extinguisher. Just now he came by to replace it.

Posted in California | Leave a comment

where was Waterloo?

I have twice raised the question: “In what country was the battle of Waterloo fought?” Waterloo is now in Belgium, but that state was created fifteen years later. Well, I finally bothered to go looking for an answer to the … Continue reading

Posted in history | 1 Comment

hypothesis

Somewhere in MS Word’s infinitely deep dialog boxes there must be a checkbox whose default setting is Do what I explicitly asked you not to do.

Posted in neep-neep | 1 Comment

data integrity

It appears that I precipitated the exposure of a multiple hoaxer on Wikipedia. In Line of succession to the British Throne I noticed that “The Earl of Amersham” had been inserted and, four minutes later, removed. Curious, I looked up … Continue reading

Posted in heraldry | Leave a comment

policies and proxies

Putting on my constitutional minarchist hat for a moment . . The White House and its apologists have often claimed (successfully) that the US Constitution does not restrict its actions outside US borders. I argue in response that, since the US … Continue reading

Posted in constitution | Leave a comment

what, more links?

Medical Guesswork (Business Week) The navel and the WTO antidote, by Sauvik Chakraverti a slightly naughty chuckle When Bigots Become Reformers: The Progressive Era’s shameful record on race (Reason) Arnold Kling: Bleeding-Heart Libertarianism an annoying conversation that every libertarian has … Continue reading

Posted in economics, medicine, tax+privacy | Leave a comment