Kevin J Moriarity

The latest Fox News talking point is that the Democrats have redefined the word "recession" and refuse to declare that our current economy is in one. I'm shocked! The party currently in power doesn't want to advertise we're in a recession. Scandal!  Technically we are in a recession. GDP has dropped 2 quarters in a row. You wouldn't know it on my street though. People are remodeling homes, upgrading landscaping, taking delivery of new cars (2 new Teslas on our street in the last month or so!). Everyone I know is still employed.  What would you do different if Biden held a press conference and declared we are in a recession? I wouldn't change anything in my life. I maintain it wouldn't change most people's daily behavior. The people who care the most are in the political class. The right-wing political geeks would react with glee. Their ads in the midterm elections are going to be about the "Biden recession" anyway, but a formal announceme

 From the Duluth Harbor webcam.

Ingenious: A True Story of Invention, Automotive Daring, and the Race to Revive America by Jason Fagone My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is about the X Prize -- specifically for the 100 MPGe car. The author follows four of the contestants and chronicles their challenges, failures and successes. But it is also about quite a bit more. The book is about a spirit of inventiveness and practicality, Yankee ingenuity, that is being lost. Fewer of us make physical, tangible things. And our world needs better, energy efficient things more, much more, than it needs social media software, internet advertising, or financial innovation. How did we get here? The author offers an observation on page 190: "Then something sad happened. In the eighties and nineties, in the name of budget savings and short-term profits, the engines of American invention forfeited their powers. NASA ramped down, struggling to find a mission that made sense in the absence of the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan and Geo

I live in a smallish Midwestern city and like most cities, we have festivals. Our summer festival is this weekend and it’s called Windmill Fest. You might ask yourself: why windmill? [Tiny history tangent coming!] In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Batavia, Illinois was the US, and perhaps the world, windmill manufacturing giant! There were 3 windmill factories in town. This year is different. This year the festival is fenced in. Previous years you could enter the festival from anywhere on the perimeter of the grounds. No longer. There is now a fence surrounding the entire festival. There is one, and only one, entry point. Plus, the city has told us that all bags, including purses, will be inspected prior to entry. I don’t blame the city, or the police department, for increasing the security at the festival. It’s simply a commonsense reaction to crazy people with high-powered weapons in our midst. Is this how we want to live? Were we asked? How come the rights of the minorit

 Here are a couple of shots of the pedestrian bridge over the Fox River at Batavia, Illinois.