The New Juice
No one is really sure why “juice” is a common slang term for electricity, but it’s a safe bet that it has no connection with the potential of grapefruit to generate current. Juice was used as a metaphor for life-force as far back as the 17th century, but it’s since been adopted by gossip, venture […]
The Technology of Abolishing Jobs
“I will be the greatest jobs President that God ever created.” @POTUS Donald Trump campaigned with this and won, partially due to the job-loss-induced frustration in places like the Rust Belt. Building a border wall and introducing import tariffs will help some, but they won’t fix the problem. Technology is the real villain, and many […]
The Smell Test
If you’ve ever owned a pair of Adadas shoes or worn a Rollex watch, you probably grasp the appeal of fake stuff. The Chinese are well-known for their addiction to fake stuff, although no one is really sure why. It might be simple economics (fake stuff is cheaper), or it could be the lack of […]
Placebo Power
There are certain philosophical questions that may never be answered, at least not to the satisfaction of a pragmatic engineer like me. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the sound of one […]
Winners and Losers
Our son (#23, center rear of photo) played basketball for a Christian High School in Colorado. Several of their league rivals were also Christian schools. Before every game, both teams would take a knee in the locker room and pray. The ensuing games were intense, competitive, and often close. Only one team won. After the […]
“My God, What Have We Done?”
Atomic bombs are in the news of late. Last year we marked the 70th anniversary of the first use of the A-Bomb on Hiroshima. A treaty intended to keep Iran from getting one is still being argued on Capitol Hill. All eyes are on North Korea, where Supreme Dictator Kim Jong-un grows ever closer to […]
U, Robot
Artificial people are not a new thing. To be clear, I am not talking about non-human legal entities, nor do I mean the sort of folk you meet at cocktail parties who can talk for hours without saying anything. Here I refer only to people whose creators are other technically skilled people. This notion of […]
Thinking Outside the Book
As I was growing up, we had a kindly old family doctor who would make house calls if you couldn’t come to his office (yes, I’m that old). When he retired, his son took over the practice and took care of me during my anxiety-ridden teenage years. There was a time when I had difficulty […]
Sampling Error
Sampling error is a useful tool in the hands of anyone who routinely gathers data, which is pretty much anyone. It has great value for two-year olds, who spend nearly all of their waking hours collecting data about the world. It is equally as valuable to adult scientists whose working hours are generally spent recording […]
Creep
If you’re an engineer, creep is the slow, permanent deformation of a body resulting from the continued application of heat or stress. If you’re a regular human, it might signify stealthy movement, or perhaps a detestable person. To a select few, Creep is a song from Radiohead’s Pablo Honey album. The fact that a creep […]
