I must admit that I never knew much about Three Mile Island, other than that it was the famous site of a nuclear plant, that something had gone wrong in the 1970s, and that no one had actually gotten hurt. I was thus rather surprised to not only hear about
This week, we looked at relief offered by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (https://fema.gov), to a variety of disasters over the years. FEMA has provided food and water, as well as numerous other type of assistance, to people affected by Hurricane Helene, which passed through (among other
Hurricane Helene (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Helene) caused massive of damage when it passed through the Southeastern United States in the last week, including massive flooding in parts of North Carolina. Hurricanes are large and deadly, and it's thus no surprise that President Joe Biden was
This week, we looked at power plants around the world, and specifically at nuclear power plants. My interest was piqued by a recent set of stories describing how Microsoft is investing in the re-activation of Three Mile Island's nuclear power plant, in order to generate enough electricity for
I must admit that I never knew much about Three Mile Island, other than that it was the famous site of a nuclear plant, that something had gone wrong in the 1970s, and that no one had actually gotten hurt. I was thus rather surprised to not only hear about
This week, we looked at relief offered by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (https://fema.gov), to a variety of disasters over the years. FEMA has provided food and water, as well as numerous other type of assistance, to people affected by Hurricane Helene, which passed through (among other
Hurricane Helene (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Helene) caused massive of damage when it passed through the Southeastern United States in the last week, including massive flooding in parts of North Carolina. Hurricanes are large and deadly, and it's thus no surprise that President Joe Biden was
Level up your Pandas skills, one week at a time.
Thanks to everyone who attended this month's office hours! It's always great fun to chat with you folks. I'm enclosing the video here, as well as the Jupyter notebook + Python file (with Streamlit app) I used. Plus, since we discussed my trip to Taiwan,
Do you have questions about Pandas? Join me for my monthly office hours! Come and chat about any questions or problems you have. Or just come to chat; I'm always happy to talk. This session is only for paid BW subscribers, including members of my Python+Data program.
[Administrative note: This month's Pandas office hours will take place on Sunday, September 29th, at 7:15 p.m. in Israel. I'll send full info, including a link to the Zoom session, tomorrow. Come and ask any Pandas-related questions you have!] Elections are about choosing a
You've probably heard that the US is holding elections on Tuesday, November 5th – not just for president, but also for a variety of other federal, state, and local positions. The US, more than many other countries, allows and encourages people to donate not only to their favorite politicians
Yesterday, I wrote that the Federal Reserve was almost certainly going to lower interest rates, and that there was discussion over whether they would lower them by a quarter point or half a point. In the end, the Fed lowered rates by half a point (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/
Inflation is coming down around the world, and central banks are lowering interest rates accordingly. The most important central bank, the US Federal Reserve, is expected to announce the first reduction in interest rates in four years. Today's Washington Post says that experts are divided on whether it&
This week, we looked at the price of gasoline in the United States – both because it has declined over the last year, and because it is often considered a major factor in presidential elections. The New York Times reported on the lower gas prices just yesterday (https://www.nytimes.com/
Americans pay close attention to gas prices, and complain bitterly about them – even when those prices are far below what people in less-wealthy countries are paying. Kai Ryssdal, the Marketplace (https://marketplace.org/) anchor, has sometimes said that people are sensitive to the price of gas not just because they
This week, we looked at broadband Internet availability in countries around the world. The topic was inspired by a three-part series, "Breaking Ground," that Marketplace broadcast last week (https://www.marketplace.org/collection/breaking-ground/) about the obstacles that the United States now faces in expanding broadband access. I
When we bought our apartment in 1999, Modi'in was called Israel's "city of the future." Never mind the silly tagline; even then, we had a number of features that did make it more modern (futuristic?) than many others: Underground power and phone lines, planned
This week, we celebrated (mourned?) the start of the school year in much of the northern hemisphere, looking at trends in education for various countries and regions in the world. There's no end to the questions that we can ask about education, ranging from the financial investment to