Read This If You Can
Mention meteorology and many of us think of “TV Weather Barbie” pointing to an animated map showing numbers, arrows, and colorful shapes while speed-talking about why it might rain. In spite of this unfortunate cliché, women (and men) who are true meteorologists are highly trained scientists with sophisticated tools. You and I might plan our […]
A Black Box for Everything
“The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.”
-John Wooden
The Canonical Weekend
A former boss of mine had a well-rehearsed response for any employee who complained they had too much work. There are twenty-one 8-hr workdays in a week, he would say; three in each of the seven 24-hour days. If you are only using five out of those twenty-one, you are clearly just lazy. Although the […]
Stuff Happens When You Fool Mother Nature
Butter is milk fat that is rapidly converted by the body into people fat. Butter had been around for 4000 years with no real competition until 1869, when French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès horrified American dairy farmers with his patented, lower-priced spread known as margarine. Frantic political lobbying and prohibitive licensing fees ensued. Margarine was blamed […]
Building a Brand
Andrew, Katrina, what’s in a name? A hurricane by any other name would still be as devastating. If you want to get the public to pay attention, branding is key. A big part of branding, Shakespeare notwithstanding, is the selection of a name. The names Kleenex, Scotch Tape and Advil are so recognizable that we […]
The Paleo Question
“Biggie Sizing” our fast food was a brilliant marketing ploy. The profit margins on that extra dollar are huge. Whether or not this BS is also responsible for biggie sizing our waistlines is another question. It definitely was part of the argument against the excessive amount of fat in our diets, an argument […]
EV Anxiety
In April of 2012, Nissan sold 370 Leaf electric cars. Toyota sold nearly 37,000 Camry’s. My cousin and a good friend of mine, both of them motorheads, each have a Leaf. They are terrific cars; the only maintenance is to rotate the tires every six months. If we are going anywhere more than […]
Energy Demand
I drive a 2008 Prius, not because I am on a personal campaign to save the planet, but because gas is $4 a gallon and there are other things I would rather spend my money on. I am always a bit amused when my friends in their all-electric Nissan Leaves (nobody in my neighborhood can […]
Green Railguns
Even the U.S. Navy is going green. With all the press that the Tesla is getting lately, it was easy to miss Uncle Sam’s latest foray into electric propulsion. In an effort to preserve the world’s dwindling resources of gunpowder, the Air Warfare and Weapons department of the Office of Naval Research recently demonstrated […]
