That’s what Mark Twain called New Year’s Resolutions. Can we prove him wrong?

Escorting my veteran father back to Normandy.

As the world gets weirder, how can we get smarter? Did you learn, “neither a borrower nor a lender be?” But then you took out a mortgage and bought bonds, and became a borrower and a lender. There’s always something new to learn about money. And now—drum roll—cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin. Ethereum. Tether. Binance. Dogecoin. Apecoin. Literally … Continue reading Can You Hide Bitcoin Under Your Mattress?

I had originally planned to talk today about two things: one, my experiences with money growing up in India and two, some new developments (like cryptocurrency) on the money scene today. I tried out a draft on some sharp listeners. Too much, they said. You’ve got two talks there.  So I split it up. Here … Continue reading Your Money or Your Life

Love, Logic, and Ethics in the Age of Algorithms KUUF February 20, 2022 Roberta: Hello. I am Roberta the Robot. I am a guardian-bot. My speech is synthesized. I have cameras in my eyeballs. I can simultaneously scan all of your pictures in the little squares on the screen and see how you are reacting. … Continue reading Dear Robot, Will You Marry Me?

Lessons from the nation’s largest health care system.

Truth and Lies, Remembering and Forgetting Tomorrow is Memorial Day. What are your plans?             A family barbecue? Going to a parade? Sleeping in? Taking the shutters off the summer cabin?             In a former fashion era, Memorial Day was when ladies could wear white shoes and linen dresses for the season. Like Easter with … Continue reading In Search of a Personal Link to Memorial Day

A Modest Proposal on New Rules and Routines for the US Congress (and Other Unruly Groups of People) Love Your Enemy?  How? A Modest Proposal For Kearsarge Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, February 14, 2021 Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), author of Gulliver’s Travels (1726) is also famous for his Modest Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People … Continue reading Love Your Enemies. How? A Modest Proposal

Presented by: Betsy Woodman