Dealbreaker #1: She's Extreme, Even for Conservatives

In Richardson ISD's June 18th runoff election for its District 2 seat on the Board of Trustees, I'll be voting for Vanessa Pacheco. I won't be voting for Sherry Clemens because of dealbreakers like this: she promotes extreme propaganda like "The Mind Polluters."

A Very British Scandal (TV 2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

A Very British Scandal (TV 2021): Argyll v. Argyll, the trial of the century, 1963. The marriage and divorce of the Duke and Duchess. Both unsympathetic characters, at first exploiting each other cooperatively, then at each other's throats, literally. Deliciously scandalous. B+

TIL: An Old Saying in Police Precincts

Source: Precinct Saying.

In college, I read Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." In it he popularized the term "paradigm shift" for insights that forever change the framework in which we view the world.

An example is Copernicus's upending of the Ptolemaic cosmology with a helio-centric model. Just think: before Copernicus, the term "solar system" didn't even exist. Now it's second nature to all of us. Another example is Einstein's upending of Newtonian gravity with general relativity. Just think: before Einstein, the word spacetime didn't even exist. Now it's...well, still not second nature. Relativity is still impossible to wrap our minds around, even a century after Einstein, but it has fundamentally changed science.

Thomas Kuhn's work had a big impact on my formative thinking. That's maybe too portentous an introduction for what I'm about to say I learned today, but I'll say it anyway. In all the commentary on Uvalde, one comment (actually a Tweetstorm) has the potential of causing a paradigm shift in my worldview of law enforcement and public safety.

Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022): If you're not a fan, you'll be lost in all the characters and subplots. If you are a fan, you'll laugh and cry. You'll love the sets and costumes. There are twists and turns and head fakes to keep you guessing. Is this the last Downton Abbey? B+

When is a Park Not a Park?

The City of Richardson is beginning a project to build a 5 million gallon ground storage tank. Where? Well, I can tell you nearby streets. I can even tell you approximate GPS coordinates. What I can't tell you is whether or not the tank is going to be in Point North Park. What I can tell you is that a city-owned playground will have to go. So will trees. Maybe they'll be moved. Maybe new trees will be planted. And after all is said and done, some of the land that many visitors to the park always considered to be part of the park will be sacrificed to a water storage tank.