Articles by Dennis E. Powell

Dennis E. Powell is crackpot-at-large at Open for Business. Powell was a reporter in New York and elsewhere before moving to Ohio, where he has (mostly) recovered. You can reach him at dep@drippingwithirony.com.

You are viewing page 11 of 33.
Feb 01, 2023

Risky Business

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 5:10 PM

As part of Dennis E. Powell’s twentieth anniversary remembrance of the second shuttle disaster, we are republishing this crucial investigation into NASA’s space shuttle safety practices that he wrote for TROPIC, the magazine of The Miami Herald, on April 9, 1989.

link | Post a Comment | reactions: 1

Obviously, a Major Malfunction

First came the bang. Then . . . silence. A story about catastrophe and coverup.

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 5:00 PM

As part of Dennis E. Powell’s twentieth anniversary remembrance of the second shuttle disaster, we are republishing his groundbreaking piece on the earlier Challenger disaster that was the cover story for TROPIC, the magazine of The Miami Herald, on November 13, 1988.

link | Post a Comment | reactions: 1
Jan 25, 2023

A Quarter Century of Linux

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 4:13 PM

The Linux operating system for Intel-architecture personal computers wasn’t exactly new when I switched to it. There were already a number of publishers — I choose the word carefully; you’ll see why — who were offering their own versions, which were similar in some ways yet mostly incompatible with each other.

link | comments: 1 | reactions: 2
Jan 18, 2023

Your Lyin' Eyes Go Mainstream

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 8:09 PM

There used to be a joke — well, we said it was a joke — among photographers: when shooting family groups and weddings, put the inlaws at the ends of the line of people. It would then be easier to crop them from the picture if things didn’t work out.

link | Post a Comment | reactions: 2
Jan 11, 2023

Getting Nothing for Something

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 8:21 PM

Once per generation, it seems, those who have any money at all go berserk and, soon thereafter, bankrupt. It happened in 2000, plus or minus about three years, and it’s happening again now.

link | comments: 1 | reactions: 2
Jan 04, 2023

Thanks for the Nudge, Apple!

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 9:55 PM

The IOS update that killed my original iPhone SE was the last straw. I was done with Apple. They’d already skated far out onto the thin ice when they killed the excellent Dark Sky weather application and replaced it with their more-is-less Weather application, which took what was once quick, convenient, easy, and comprehensive — Dark Sky — and replaced it with a jumble of information, often not the information being sought, on a too-busy screen. It would have been forgivable if they had provided a setting that restored the look, feel, and functionality of Dark Sky. They didn’t. They never do. Apple knows best.

link | Post a Comment | reactions: 1
Dec 28, 2022

Bring Back Mister Magoo!

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 5:22 PM

Something I’ve long hoped would become a family tradition may have finally begun to sprout. It goes back nearly 20 years. That was when one cold and lonely winter night I happened on a broadcast, on one of the cartoon channels, of “Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol.” Much to my surprise, I remembered all the words from all the songs. It had premiered in 1962 and was broadcast each year afterwards until it wasn’t anymore. It was wonderful and, as I realized as I sat there in my Connecticut home with tears in my eyes, still is.

link | Post a Comment | reactions: 2
Dec 21, 2022

Christmas Diluted Almost to Extinction?

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 9:43 PM

Was it the pandemic? Or has society’s decline increased in velocity? Or is it just me? Christmas is close, but it doesn’t feel like it. Some of that has to do with the pandemic, I suppose, at least around here. The vague sense of being under siege remains, and the Christmas music doesn’t seem to have returned to stores, broadcasts, and elsewhere.

link | Post a Comment | reactions: 3
Dec 14, 2022

The Moon, Abandoned

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 10:25 PM

If you’re less than 50 years old, your entire life has taken place in the time since a human being walked on the moon. This to me is a scandal. It is our nature to explore and from new places explore further, not to touch a new place then scurry home. It isn’t entirely unprecedented — probably the most famous example is when the Vikings sailed to Newfoundland, discovered that their watches were off by half an hour, and retreated. It should be noted that there aren’t any Vikings now, though it is believed that their origin, Norway, still exists.

link | Post a Comment | reactions: 1
Dec 07, 2022

The Blue Light Is Not Special!

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 10:05 PM

Have you ever encountered law enforcement — local police, state trooper, whatever — at night? If you have, and you’ve been in a locale where both red and blue flashing lights are involved in police activities, you might have noticed that blue light seems brighter and is not friendly to your eyes.

link | Post a Comment | reactions: 1
You are viewing page 11 of 33.