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qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm: the seemingly random sequence of letters that make up a standard keyboard from top left to bottom right. Who would choose these letters, and why? The answer goes back to the first commercially available typewriter. The first typewriter had a keyboard about as low-quality as you can get, and it was prone to horrible jamming if nearby keys were pressed at the same type or too quickly. The band-aid solution was to move characters that would commonly be pressed together a couple spaces apart.

The company E. Remington and Sons was interested in purchasing the “Type-Writer,” so inventor Christopher Sholes needed to find the layout that would produce the least amount of jams. With help from Remington mechanics, a layout very near modern QWERTY keyboards was devised. Once Remington had bought the rights to the product, they tweaked the layout until they had the modern QWERTY layout.

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Homer Simpson of the American sitcom The Simpsons. Completely incompetent, humorously obese, and a terrible parent to boot. Ironically, he works the highly technically demanding job of a nuclear power plant supervisor. His millionaire boss, Mr. Burns, could care less about the quality of the jobs his employees are doing. While The Simpsons is fiction, and Homer is not representative of the vast, vast majority of nuclear power plant employees, there is still an important lesson to be learned from Homer.

In the era of robotic automation, many jobs will be replaced. However, there are some that just can’t be done by a computer. The touch of an expert is sometimes required to do what needs to be done. Unfortunately, Homer Simpson holds one of these jobs. As jobs are replaced, employers need to ensure that they don’t become lax on their employees’ credentials, as Mr. Burns has failed to do.

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Republican nominee Donald J. Trump’s victory in the 2016 election was a surprise to many, and it’s not hard to see why. His unspecific plans, the fact that he appeals to white supremacists, and his occasional complete inability to demonstrate any capability to lead the nation all look very worrying to those that oppose his policies. But yet, he was still elected President. The simple fact is, Donald Trump ran on a platform of American nationalism. Globalist Democrats and Republicans alike pushed back hard against Trump, because he falls far out of the usual spectrum of American politicians’ views. This is also why he won the votes of so many working class voters. Many Americans are very proud of their country, and so by appealing to that pride in ways that not many other candidates did, he got working-class votes. This is most notable in the Rust Belt, where normally Democrat-leaning states went red. In short, American politicians are falling out of touch with the working class. Donald Trump’s election shows how to get back in touch with them.

NYTimes – Why Trump Won: Working-Class Whites

Harvard Business Review – What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class

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Fettuccine Alfredo is a delicious Italian dish made from fettuccine pasta, butter, and Parmesan cheese. Typically, American versions of the food use a creamy Alfredo sauce in place of the butter and Parmesan. It has a very tasty combination of cheesy and creamy flavors, and it has an easy recipe too. Here’s how to make Fettuccine Alfredo at home.

Ingredients

• 24 ounces dry fettuccini pasta
• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 pint heavy cream
• salt and pepper to taste

• 1 dash garlic salt
• 3/4 cup grated Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add fettuccini and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. In a large saucepan, melt butter into cream over low heat. Add salt, pepper and garlic salt. Stir in cheese over medium heat until melted; this will thicken the sauce.
3. Add pasta to sauce. Use enough of the pasta so that all of the sauce is used and the pasta is thoroughly coated. Serve immediately.

Fettuccine recipe

An alternative link for the more visual home cook

California is the most populous state in the United States of America. It shares a national boundary with Mexico in the south. It has one of the more distinct cultures in the States, being home to hippie culture and the “California myth” of beaches, surfers, and endless summers. It has a very strong musical scene, especially in the Bay Area. Highly influential ska and punk bands like Operation Ivy, Rancid, and Green Day all call the Bay Area home. California influences culture across the U.S. and the whole world.

Recently, I’ve been reading the book Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic future where the melting of the polar ice caps has put parts of the world underwater. Extreme poverty is common, and the remaining islanders have found work in scavenging oil tankers for metal. One of these islanders is Nailer, a boy quickly growing too big to crawl through the tankers’ vents. Luckily, he and Pima, a fellow scavenger, find a wealthy businessman’s daughter adrift after a storm, a discovery with the potential to help them out of poverty or get them killed.