What lies ahead While the initial responses of the president, the president-elect, and the defeated candidate have been encouraging, I have no doubt that strenuous times lie ahead. For one thing, globalization and climate change are going to continue unabated. Mr. Trump has no governmental track record, so I do not know how will he […]

On Nov. 12, 1936, the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge opened as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in Washington, D.C., giving the green light to traffic. On this date: In 1787, severe flooding struck Dublin, Ireland, as the River Liffey rose. In 1866, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, the first provisional president of […]

I hope you are paying attention, citizens of Brunswick and Topsham. A federally mandated legal process is playing out in the meeting rooms of our two town halls that could affect the economic viability of many businesses in our towns and affect the taxes we pay as well. It’s a section 106 process. People are […]

A few weeks ago, famed innovator Elon Musk released his vision of the future where humanity colonizes Mars. It’s an inspiring idea, and in the news release that accompanied the announcement he explained why it was important to him: “Life needs to be more than just solving problems every day. You need to wake up […]

The polls were wrong. The pundits were wrong. As repeatedly noted in this column, it was a mistake to rely on the polls. The population samples they use are badly constructed and their methods depart widely from the rules of statistics. They are overused, with polling going on every day. And many people do not […]

The freshman team at the University of Washington in 1934 included three rowers who were on the boat that won the gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Germany. Their astounding feat was brilliantly told in Daniel James Brown’s best seller: “The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold […]

Willard Dix is one of the crankiest observers of the college admissions process I know; he’s also one of the smartest. He worked at Amherst, his alma mater, then advised college-bound students at a private secondary school in Chicago. He now blogs about higher education. I asked him on the phone the other day about […]