The Next Normal
People love lists. With little effort, you can find the 10 best movies, TV shows, books, albums, songs, plays or cheeseburgers. The 10 best places to visit, live, retire, or attend college are only a few keystrokes away. And of course no list of lists would be complete without mentioning David Letterman’s Top 10 Lists […]
Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old? – Review
I have reached that point in life where my doctor starts many of his comments with “At your age….”. I have come to realize this is more than a mere figure of speech. Like most of my contemporaries, I began by trying to figure out “what” I was going to be (first a physician, eventually […]
Chasing the Ghost: Nobelist Fred Reines and the Neutrino – Review
Upon reading the title of this book, you might be tempted to judge it as too technical or perhaps too arcane to be of interest. If so, you would be missing out on a compelling narrative about an exceptional man and his lifelong quest to do something great. Chasing the Ghost – Nobelist Fred Reines […]
It’s Just a Game
I have never been much of a gamer, at least not since PacMan and Space Invaders disappeared from the arcades (shortly before the arcades disappeared from shopping malls, which was not long before shopping malls went out of favor). I have played Call of Duty a few times, but without my son’s Med Kit to […]
The Highlighted Route
It is in our nature as humans to plan. Some of us do it formally, writing down step by step instructions with a well-defined goal in mind. Others plan at a smaller scale, often thinking about step 2 after step 1 is underway. If you are out doing errands, advanced planning can save time with […]
Eat That Frog! for Students: A Review
I approached this book as a life-long learner, undaunted by the promised focus on students. From this perspective, the lessons apply to both college students and those in a career where progress requires keeping up with the latest knowledge. Eat That Frog! For Students by Brian Tracy is much more than just the time-management book […]
Our Curious Habits
As an engineer, I’m often accused by my non-engineer brethren of being overly analytical. I confess that I can’t help scrutinizing some things (well…most things) to try and figure out how they work. This can lead to satisfaction and a boost in self-assurance when things work as expected, and a compulsive drive for further analysis […]
The Science of Pretty Much Anything
In the late sixties, I spent several summers working in a gas station. I learned how to rebuild brakes, mount and balance tires, and perform basic maintenance and repair tasks. I also pumped gas. For those too young to remember, these were the days when you would pull into a gas station and someone would […]
Sentient Stuff
Those of us who have worked in the data storage industry often wonder how our computers match up to the processor we carry around in our own heads. Comparisons are difficult to come by – we can estimate the average number of neurons in a human brain (~ 86 billion), but they are quite different […]
The Last 5 Minutes
Before Greek physician Galen (129-210 AD) came along, it was widely believed that air circulated in our arteries. Galen was the physician to the School of Gladiators, which helped him realize it was blood flowing in there. We’ve learned a lot about bleeding over the ensuing millennia. According to the CDC, traumatic injury is one […]
