Keith Relf

The Yardbirds ...

The band started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton (1963–1965), Jeff Beck (1965–1966) and Jimmy Page (1966–1968), all of whom ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone magazine's 2011 list of 100 greatest guitarists.

But still I liked the singer, Keith Relf, the best. Died when he was just 33.

Andrew Weissmann

Andrew Weissmann talks about what can/should be done , now that the Democrats will have control of the House and Senate ...

Election results

Yay! So many wins for the Democrats. Even in Texas. Even in Kansas. And Iowa too. I don't know what kind of difference this will make in our lives, but it seems like things can only get better, given how bad they are right now.

Haley Stevens

There's much in the news about Michigan representative Haley Stevens' decision to vote for a Republican instead of Abdul El-Sayed in the upcoming election. Many Democrats are really angry at her and find her sudden switch imcomprehensible.

I don't know why she changed her mind, but I can think of one reason why she might have.

As a congressperson, Stevens represents a large Jewish constituency with whom she has maintained a close relationship.

A lot of Jewish people in Michigan are worried about the rising tide of sentiment against them. It was not long ago that there was an attack on a synagogue there (Attack on Michigan synagogue was Hezbollah-inspired 'act of terrorism,' FBI says).

Some of the campaign rhetoric by or for El-Sayed has been anti-Israel - he has often implied that giving foreign aid to Israel (but not other countries?) is taking money away from people in Michigan. And then there's the video ad for El-Sayed by The Young Turks (Hasan Piker's uncle) in which Israel is blamed for high grocery prices in the US (The Wall Street Journal: Blaming the Jews for Everything in Michigan).

And Haley Stevens' fiance is Jewish also, which probably added to her decision.

I can see people being mad because she changed her mind at the last minute. She's ruined her political career and El-Sayed is doing even better in the polls, but she made the choice she wanted to make. That's her right.

Finally, an example I came across today of how Israel has become an issue in this Michigan election. A reporter from CNN asked both El-Sayed and Stevens whether they believed Israel had a right to exist. El-Sayed would not answer the question directly, but (1) implied Michigan's tax dollars were going to Israel instead of Michigan, though aid to Israel is under 1% of the total federal budget, (2) said Israel is committing genocide and apartheid, which is only true if you make up new definitions for those words, and (3) described a future Israel he would accept ... a one state solution ... that would end Israel as a Jewish state.

Democrat fail

First there was the choice of flawed candidate Graham Platner.

Then, in Alaska, Democratic operatives have tried to trick voters into voting for someone they didn't mean to choose (The New York Times: Inside Democrats' Secret Effort to Stack Alaska's Ballot).

And then there's the El-Sayed campaign ...

El-Sayed has put out an ad using Tucker Carlson and other MAGA figures as spokespersons against Mike Rogers (Newsweek: Abdul El-Sayed Woos MAGA Voters With Ad Touting Conservative Praise) ...



Andc there is also an ad for El-Sayed in which people at the grocery store blame US aid to Israel for high food prices in the US. The ad was created by The Young Turks (Yahoo: Inside the origins of the Pro-El-Sayed Grocery prices ad) ...

Abdul El-Sayed blames Israel for the price of your eggs and bananas, even though he knows that higher grocery prices are only due to supply, energy and inflation factors. Shame on anyone voting for a candidate who uses Antisemitic talking points to win an election. https://t.co/pk5lQweZAf

— Joel M. Petlin (@Joelmpetlin) October 25, 2026

The defense for this taking of the low road by my own political party seems to be "victory at all costs". In other words, the ends justify the means.

I think this is loathsome.

RIP: Patrick Stewart

So sad to see that actor Patrick Stewart has passed away :(



I was aware of him way before his roles in Star Trek and The X-Men (and The Avengers). He was in the BBC tv movie I, Claudius (1976) ... I had to watch as I had read the books I, Claudius and Claudius the God. And I saw him in Excalibur (1981) and Dune (1984).

But I will always like him best as Captain Picard of the starship Enterprise. He was an example to me, so wise, always doing what was right.

Here is the end of the last episode of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, titled All Good Things..., in which Captain Picard joins the crew's poker game for the very first time ...

Election results explained

Results of the Israeli election explained by The Free Press and Haviv Rettig Gur ...

CA billionaires tax

Billionaires shatter spending record to fight California wealth tax

What a bunch of whiners and cheapskates! I've already voted by mail, and voted for the one time tax on billionaires (Proposition 40).

Here is Gabriel Zucman, a French economist and professor known for his research on global wealth inequality ...

Voting in Israel

Live election results

Tommy Shaw

Styx, Blue Collar Man, Tommy Shaw singing, 1978.

And here is Styx again, Too Much Time on My Hands, Tommy Shaw singing, 2020 ...

Dr. Alex :)

I've been watching his medical videos and get his daily health newsletter, but he is now also launching a recipe thingy as well.

Upcoming Israeli election

Haviv on the election, addressing why Gaza is not an issue ....



Here is the whole interview with Haviv and The Free Press (CBS) on the election ...

RIP: Tom Skerritt

Sad to see that actor Tom Skerritt has passed away. I remember him from a number of movies.

I think the first film I saw him in was The Turning Point, which I only watched because ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov was also in it :) ...

The Turning Point is a 1977 American drama film centered on the world of ballet in New York City .... It stars Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft, along with Leslie Browne, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Tom Skerritt. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards ...



But, back to Tom Skerritt. The next film of his I especially remember, is, of course, Alien. I went to see the movie with my friend Steve - my sister and his wife were both too scared to go ...

Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott .... It follows a commercial starship crew who investigate a derelict space vessel and are hunted by a deadly extraterrestrial creature. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto.



The next film was The Dead Zone ...

a 1983 American science fiction thriller film directed by David Cronenberg. The screenplay, by Jeffrey Boam, is based on the 1979 novel of the same title by Stephen King. The film stars Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Martin Sheen, Anthony Zerbe, and Colleen Dewhurst.



The next one was Top Gun but you all know about that, so, on to Contact ...

a 1997 American science fiction drama film co-produced and directed by Robert Zemeckis, based on the 1985 novel by Carl Sagan. It stars Jodie Foster as Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway, a SETI scientist who finds evidence of extraterrestrial life and is chosen to make first contact. Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, Tom Skerritt, William Fichtner, John Hurt, Angela Bassett, Rob Lowe, Jake Busey, and David Morse co-star.



There are many others, of course, but these are the ones that stick with me. He was a good actor. He will be missed.

Lovely to See You

Moody Blues, Paris, 1970, Lovely to See You, written and sung by Justin Hayward. One of my favorites.

Brett McGurk

I've just watched a really interesting and disturbing interview with Brett McGurk, a diplomat who served under presidents from Bush through Biden. He has been making the rounds in the news because he has a new book out - Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7th Hostages

McGurk points out that the one thing which always seems to get left out of discussions about the war in Gaza is the role of Hamas and its leader, Yahya Sinwar. His main concluding message is that Hamas must not remain in power in Gaza, and Hezbollah must not remain on Lebanon's border.

Ezra Klein: relationships with AIs

In Terminator 2, Sarah watches her son interact with a Terminator, an AI/machine, and realizes the relationship between them is one of the safest and most reliable her son could have ...



And in an episode of Star Trek, this idea is tweaked as Commander Riker tries to explain to Data, an AI/machine, why he was deceived by a human being who pretended to be his friend ...



Ezra Klein delves into this subject with sociologist Sherry Turkle in his latest podcast. She seems to really hate the idea of people creating emotional relationships with AIs (or anithing else that's not a human, including animals), but I see real benefits to that.

Pope Leo

On no. I hope he gets better.

Heartbreaker

The song, Heartbreaker, was written by the Bee Gees in 1982 for Dionne Warwick, and the version that the Bee Gees sing was not released until 2006. BTW, Barry is one of the most prolific of songwriters, beaten only by Lennon and McCartney.

The Bee Gees' songs make me feel sad. When my cat Data was dying of bladder cancer, I had borrowed disks of the Bee Gees' greatest hits from the library and listened to them all the time while I was taking care of him, to help me get by. I miss Data ...

In the War Room

A really interesting conversation between Haviv and Elliot Kaufman of The Wall Street Journal about a new book from Kaufman and Yonah Jeremy Bob titled In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis.

Tuesday Afternoon

The Moody Blues at La Taverne de l'Olympia in Paris, 1970.

Also 1970 and the same song, but here it was one of sixteen songs they played at the Isle of Wight Festival in the UK ...

Two interviews

On This Week with George Stephanopoulos there were two interesting interviews. One was with Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton, a Methodist theologian and minister ...



And there was also an interview with President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy ...

Mathpocalypse

Star Trek NG, The Royale, Captain Picard and Commander discuss Fermat's Last Theorem.

OpenAI Just Carpet-Bombed Mathematics

In the growing chorus of mathematicians revolting against AI companies, Hugo Duminil-Copin, who in 2022 received the Fields Medal, math’s highest honor, has perhaps put mathematicians’ concerns most vividly. In an essay published just before OpenAI announced last month that it had solved one of seven grand mathematical challenges known as the Millennium Prize Problems, he wrote that AI proofs “nuke the mathematical landscape, making it increasingly difficult to inhabit after each blast.”