We can’t shake the conviction that using actual quantitative analysis – the numbersS – in making energy decisions would help the world along on the road toward making sense. Take for instance nearly everything that’s said about energy policy in opinion pieces in the media. It’s no place for opinion, this energy transition stuff. The […]
Citizen Columns
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Posted inThe Bethel Citizen
AFCI news
Vaccinations. Mainers can rejoice that we are among the top few states in the percentage of residents having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The current eligibility age is 50, and the state is expecting significantly more vaccine, hoping to open vaccinations in mid-April to those 16 years old and over. But […]
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Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, The Bethel Citizen, The Franklin Journal
Movie Review: The Courier
“The Courier” would have done well to open last month, before the cutoff date to qualify for the Academy Awards. I doubt it would have gotten a Best Picture nomination, and Chadwick Boseman is such a lock for a posthumous Best Actor Oscar for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” that nobody would care if Benedict Cumberbatch […]
Posted inThe Bethel Citizen
AFCI news
COVID-19 INFORMATION. There is still lots of breaking news on the COVID-19 situation – especially, now, how to get vaccination appointments. We have gathered the latest news to keep on our website for reference. We keep it updated daily – so visit www.agefriendly.org, if you still have questions about the disease, vaccination appointments, and after […]
Posted inThe Bethel Citizen
Education: Indulging in history
Sometimes columnists indulge themselves. As an historian and bibliophile, I want to write about history books, and encourage you to read some. But the usual suspects, political, economic, and social history, aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Nor are they necessarily the best ways to see the past. Let’s look at some other kinds: histories of […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, The Bethel Citizen, The Franklin Journal
Movie Review: Chaos Walking
It was weird two weekends ago when the movie theaters in NYC reopened and this movie was playing on all the IMAX screens. I thought the dazzling animation (and Disney branding) of “Raya and the Last Dragon” would have put that film in such prime real estate, but for whatever reason, theaters thought “Chaos Walking” […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, The Bethel Citizen, The Franklin Journal
Movie Review: Raya and the Last Dragon
“Raya and the Last Dragon” was the first movie I saw in a New York City theater in nearly a year. No testing the waters with small-scale releases for us, we got a major Disney animated feature on the first day theaters were reopened. And I’d like to take this moment to thank the staffs […]
Posted inThe Bethel Citizen
Education: Science Again
Readers of this column may recall my trouble with physics: Newton, Einstein, Hawking, et al. I needed physics for the mathematically challenged. Eureka? (Archimedes, an ancient physicist.) Well, perhaps. Frank Wilczek’s Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality (Penguin, 2021) is reader-friendly. Example, anecdote, and philosophy don’t exactly coat the pill of mathematical physics, but they keep […]
Posted inThe Bethel Citizen
AFCI news
Have you visited the AFCI website (agefriendlybethel.org)? There you’ll find – among many other things – the current flyer listing all AFCI programs; our Resource Directory, a handy resource for local and statewide services; and the last several AFCI columns in the Bethel Citizen. What’s new on the site is the home page’s “Hot off […]
Posted inThe Bethel Citizen
Education: Capital
The foundations of economics are massive. The Wealth of Nations is quite readable; fortunately, Das Kapital is available not only in English, but in an elegant one volume abridgement (Oxford, 1995). Nine decades after Smith, Karl Marx’s view of the world was grim. Smith had seen as more or less “natural” much that Marx decries […]