Category: Off-Topic
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Armchair epidemiology
This is one of those times when a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous and frustrating thing. I’ve had some formal training in epidemiology, virology and public health policy and worked as an intern in a high profile medical research lab but never pursued this as a career. My most recent formal education comes…
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Enough with the immigration lies
Introduction: My background with immigration is working with construction, agricultural and fisheries businesses in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania that use immigrants for the majority of their work force. I know dozens of these workers who came here legally on work visas and are still waiting for their extension paperwork. Ironically, some of them…
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Personal Christmas Trivia
Another off-topic post. Personal Christmas trivia: in 1971 John Lennon recorded “Happy X-mas (War is Over)” in NYC with the Harlem Community Children’s Choir that was meant as a celebratory song. It was meaningful to me in relation to the ending of the draft. Phil Specter released it in the US in time for Christmas…
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Sidetrack: amateur sports ethics
This post is triggered by an unfortunate national news item that happened here in southern New Jersey. I do occasionally publish an off-topic post here. For what it’s worth, I consider myself to be a student of sports ethics. Yes, it is a ‘thing’ with some useful books on the topic. but mostly a topic that…
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The nation’s most shocking midterm election result: NJ2
I’m proud that our Money Island marina community has become a model of racial and cultural inclusion just a few miles from a south Jersey KKK stronghold. Yet tonight’s election result shows that we still have a long way to go before we stamp out discrimination from this community. The most shocking election result in…
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Online support groups; the concept revisited
My business was boosted incredibly by online support groups for decades. In fact, I can easily say that my past businesses like Medsave (sold in 2008) and OnlineAdviser / OnlineNavigator (no longer active), would not have been successful on building to tens of thousands of users in the 1990s and early 2000s without this online peer…
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Cumulative effects of coastal flooding
How I concluded that my township would go bankrupt and what I’m doing about it This blog post is written on the eve of hurricane Harvey’s expected strike on the lowlands of the Texas gulf coast. It is written in response to a peer CPA’s inquiry yesterday on how I concluded that the combined effect…
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The education divide in political leadership
This presidential election cycle, more than any other event or time period in my lifetime, has highlighted the growing divide between people with different levels of formal academic education. The battle is playing out now in my home state and, I think, deserves more discussion despite the obvious risk of backlash. I consider myself to be…