Category: Politics, Religion & Money

This weekend and beyond will see significant traffic delays at the busiest of all the Mass Pike interchanges, due to work on long overdue bridge replacement and repair. I’ll be using the interchange today, before this weekend’s highway chaos, to pick up a bookcase I ordered. It’s intended for the space downstairs where the piano had been.^*

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2025/05/27/drivers-can-expect-major-delays-from-mass-pike-construction-over-the-weekend/

Last summer, it was raining heavily when I was on a Route 90-to-95 offramp, driving to one of my 28 weekday radiation treatments at the hospital. As I went around a tightly curved overpass, a sporty, late model Audi sped past me. The driver lost control on the wet pavement, he skidded, then spun around 90 degrees before stopping sideways. The car’s front end was sticking into my lane, but I had no difficulty in maneuvering to prevent an accident.

As I swerved around the Audi I saw that it had high performance tires with a very low profile — tires that typically do not do well on wet roads. My tires are the Michelin CrossClimate2, known for their exceptionally good traction in rain and snow. I credit the Michelins more than my driving skill in avoiding an accident. In my mind, that singular incident justified the CrossClimate2’s premium price.

That traction comes with an extra cost, however, and that’s mileage. The CrossClimate2 has relatively high rolling resistance, which I knew when buying them. Compared to the Bridgestone tires that came with my Camry, I’m losing about 10% in gas mileage. An acceptable tradeoff for improved traction, as since retiring I’ve been driving only about 4,000 miles/year.

I don’t know when I’ll be getting my next (and perhaps final) car, but I like that Toyota will be making all future RAV 4 models as gas-electric hybrids. I’m not ready for an all-electric car, and I doubt I ever will be. Primarily because it will be many years before America’s power grids are ready for a nation of mostly all-electric cars.

There is something else about EV’s that concerns me. Their weight adds significantly to the damage they can cause in a collision with other cars and, especially, with pedestrians. Another concern is the environmental tradeoff in how frequently their special tires need replacement, as explained here by CNBC.

^* No bookcase yet. Argh. Tomorrow!

The latest installment of American Experience explores the hits and misses of Polaroid’s inventor-founder Edwin Land.

Watching the documentary, as the timeline progresses it becomes obvious that Land was stuck in the mindset of photography as a chemical process. So was Kodak for that matter, despite having conducted the first tests of digital photography.

My most significant takeaway from ‘Mr. Polaroid’ was learning about Meroë Morse. While saying that, “of course he loved his wife and two daughters,” the point is made that Land was “married to his work,” which included Morse for almost 25 years.

It’s easy to infer that Land’s feelings for Morse went beyond her being a highly competent and trusted colleague who made significant contributions to the company’s success. In contrast to Land’s deadpan expression in his Polaroid photos, Meroë shines in this attractive test photo.

It would be a stretch to say that Polaroid’s decline began with Morse’s untimely death in 1969, but not that much of a stretch. Edwin Land isn’t alone as a Boston CEO who was as responsible for his company’s demise as he was its past success. Other CEO’s of failed technology companies include DEC founder Ken Olsen, DG’s Edson de Castro, and An Wang at his namesake company, Wang Laboratories.

Twelve years after the death of Amar Bose, his namesake company is still in business. So he’s an exception to the Boston rule, with a caveat. Bose sank an estimated billion dollars into a pet project that ultimately went nowhere. After its founder’s death, the company sold off the technology.

https://www.extremetech.com/cars/259042-bose-sells-off-revolutionary-electromagnetic-suspension