occasional posts by risa aratyr
Risa Aratyr We’re off on a 33-day, cross-continental journey, my husband Roy and I. (I’d call it a “grand tour,” but I believe that term is reserved for a different continent.) Whether this is a brilliant idea or a questionable one, time will tell. It’s ambitious, certainly, especially for a couple of old folks like us. Broad … Read more On Holiday
Science . . . is an imperfect science. Scientists are people, after all. People bring their biases to work. In the work-place, personal biases affect hiring/firing, promotion, pay, what tasks are prioritized, to whom they are delegated, how productivity is assessed, which behavioral and interpersonal standards are applied, and job expectations. In the lab and … Read more Scientific Americans
Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood career – spanning decades and marked by more than 50 films – was on the down-slide by the time I came into the world. For me, he was simply the host of Death Valley Days. And a pretty bland host he was, too. Two years after DVD went off the air, Reagan … Read more Seeing is Believing
It’s not the time the Despicable D (hereinafter referred to as “45”) has been in office. It’s how much has happened in that time – how many appointments, hearings, nominations, confirmations, executive orders, policy changes, tweets, phone calls, purged government web-pages, firings, hirings, leaks, lawsuits, demonstrations, bills, interviews, judicial decisions, and altercations with the press … Read more Under Fire
In this time of extreme polarization, it’s no surprise to find two diametrically opposed views duking it out on news and social media. Over the airwaves, in Tweets and memes, in articles, editorials, and blogs like this, two camps are facing off and having at it. One exhorts us to keep it civil, the other … Read more Day 2