The necessary starting point for gun control is an understanding of the reasons why people want to have guns. — Why do people want to have guns? Some people feel they need a gun for self-defense. The threats they fear come in many forms. Many fear home invasion, especially if they have small children. They fear robbery, either at home or when they are away from the house. They usually…

Unisex restrooms with enough stalls will make the battles over transsexuals in public restrooms go away. — At outdoor events, conflicts about who should be able to use a particular restroom rarely arise; a row of port-a-potties (though often disgusting) averts any such conflicts. In Europe, restrooms are often unisex; they have a row of closed stalls and handwashing facilities. In small shops, there’s often just a…

Although Alpha Go defeated the world’s best Go player, that isn’t the end of the story. — It would seem at first that since Alpha Go defeated the world’s best Go player (and since Go is the most difficult of board games), that’s the end of the story — that there’s nothing interesting left in “human versus machine” when it comes to Go. But Go has a…

I firmly support the Democrats because the Democratic Party is still the best bet for curing what’s wrong with our country. But there’s an awful lot that troubles me about it. NancyPelosi is firmly supporting the Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar in his Texas primary despite his opposition to abortion rights…

If Vladimir Putin does not come to his senses, we are doomed. — No one can win a nuclear war. Once the first bomb explodes, civilization will be gone within days if not hours. The problem is simple: if a nation has nuclear weapons and it or any of its allies is attacked with a nuclear weapon, retaliation in kind is irresistible. It…

How You Might Preserve Your Digital Legacy — How can we preserve our digital legacies over the long term? I propose the establishment of an enterprise whose mission is that preservation. There are two separate but compatible reasons to create an enterprise: to bring in money and to provide a service that ought to be available but doesn’t…