The Many Looks of Innovation
My first thought when I saw the “Drill Bike” was that this was something I probably would have tried when I was 14, and it would have gotten me in big trouble for burning out my Dad’s drill. Now, after 50 years of experience and formal engineering training, the thought of trying it at […]
Football Fun Fatal
Football is my favorite TV sport. I like the pace of the game, the athleticism of the players, and the strategy of offensive and defensive play calling. I am not alone. According to a January Harris poll, NFL football has been the most popular sport in the country over the past three decades. Football has […]
Where Bugs Come From
Apple’s splashy launch of iOS 8 was quickly followed by an update; the version level now stands at 8.0.2 and counting. There is a list of reasons, but the short version reads “bug fixes.” In the world of computer programming, the term “bug” is a familiar, albeit unwelcome one. Human brains have “lapses”, machines have […]
Split Brains
Your brain is split in two. You can thank Roger Sperry for pointing that out. Roger is the Caltech Professor who received the 1981 Nobel Prize for his observation that there is “functional separation in the cerebral hemispheres.” The rest of us know this as the Left Brain / Right Brain theory; we love […]
Butterflies and Burritos
According to Chaos Theory, a butterfly flapping its wings in Mexico can cause a hurricane in China. Most of us find that hard to believe. We are accustomed to scientific certainty, derived from proven cause or, for the less discriminating, well-documented correlation. We humans are a species with very little faith. This gives rise to […]
Robot Dreams
Some psychiatrists will tell you to keep a pad and pencil next to your bed, and write down as much as you can remember of your dreams the moment you awake. By doing so, they seek to get an idea of what’s really going on in your mind. Now there’s a better way, thanks to […]
Boarding Airplanes
Boarding an airplane should be a simple process. The window seats go on first, starting at the back of the plane, followed similarly by the centers and then the aisles. In practice, this doesn’t work. First, people are unpredictable and some take much longer than others. Second, and more importantly, the airlines have done their […]
Apps Creating Jobs?
If you were going to pick a career based solely on job opportunities, you might be tempted to choose “Computer Software Engineer”. Based on the latest government data, employment in this field increased almost 8 percent in 2010. There are now more software engineers than farmers in the US, and they will soon outnumber lawyers. […]
Distracted Drivers
With pot now legal in 18 states and the District of Columbia, the whole driver distraction issue may be irrelevant. Nevertheless, the National Traffic Safety Board recently tried for a nationwide ban on portable electronic devices. They were booed off the stage. We love our gadgets, and no one is going to deny us. Automakers […]
Weed Entrepreneurs
During the last major election, there was a lot of talk about getting the economy kick-started. Words like “innovation”, “education” and “entrepreneur” were tossed about with reckless abandon. By a rather narrow margin of the popular vote, the American people felt that Barack Obama was the best equipped to turn things around. Another result of […]
