Making Sense of Donald Trump (part 3)

The interesting thing about the election is that although it happened on one day, and the outcome was known that same evening, and it was weeks later before the outlines of what actually happened started to become clear, and the election itself is still not completely understood. This may at first sound puzzling, since the election happened two months ago. But to actually understand the election researchers need to look at...

Making Sense of Donald Trump (part 2)

So to understand the context in which Donald Trump is operating it helps to look at a few broader trends, as well as the election itself. It is fair to say the results of the 2016 presidential election surprised an awful lot of people. Trump had only an estimated 15% chance of winning, and so a lot of people who don’t understand statistics felt that there was no way he could win. And indeed, he had a very narrow path to...

Making Sense of Donald Trump (part 1)

Donald Trump has been president for a few days now, and people all over the world are trying to figure out what this means. A lot of focus has been put on Trump the person, trying to understand who he is, how he thinks, and what he’ll do. But I largely think this effort is misdirected. It treats Trump as a cause of recent events, and shifts the focus away from the context in which Trump is operating. What we should really be...

Fountain Pens

I am going to be reviewing a number of fountain pens in some upcoming posts. I have a sentimental reason for liking fountain pens. Back when I was a wee lad in elementary school I originally learn to write with block crayons. And then stick crayons. And then, sometime around third grade, we graduated to fountain pens. I believe they were basic Schaefer 1980s school pens. Nothing fancy. Steel nib with ink cartridges. And so...