Would Saudi Arabia’s new city of Neom be more admired on Earth if it could be seen from Proxima Centauri? The Line in the Sand No doubt you have read about the new city of Neom being built by Saudi Arabia as its new-world city. It will be 170 kilometers long and incorporate skyscrapers and architectural monuments. Neom’s vision is the flowering of ...
The killjoys are on the march again. Ultra-processed is next to Godliness. Big Food Seems like you can’t read an article anywhere without being told that the reason that so many of us are obese or big is because we eat too much ultra-processed food. That’s got me to thinking and even, ultraly ruminating. Is a nicely turned steak with a carefully an...
Gravity is not a constant. What icon falls next? Weighty Matters Whadya know? New cutting-edge research seems to show conclusively that gravity doesn’t work like it’s supposed to. To wit, it is stronger at lower-than-average accelerations. Wow! That changes everything! For the skinny see this account. I can’t imagine a deeper revolution in physics,...
Barbie’s is the ultimate search to avoid shallowness and meaninglessness. She fails. Miserably. Superficiality is It “Barbie” the movie is turning out to be a big hit. How could that be for something that is all about superficiality and modern gender consumerism? I actually watched it twice so I could figure out what I am missing. And what’s with t...
Newfangled AI content means none of us has to be innovative. There’s a better way which doesn’t require anyone to be innovative. Its trash-talking. Talk is Cheaper I guess you’ve heard about ChatGPT? That’s the phenom AI-based chatbot that can fool just about anyone into thinking that what they’re reading was penned by one William Shakespeare, and ...
SCOTUS Goes Trans? I guess you saw that the Supreme Court just ruled in favor of a transgender student, siding with him in the use of the bathroom of the gender he identifies with? There’s those who will see this as a victory for human rights. There are others who will roll their eyes that it’s come to this. For many people LGBTQ+ is already...
Move It! What, is this guy bonkers or want? Probably. But then again…. Someone up there just gave you a month, or perhaps even more, to stay at home and in many cases do what you like. So why not take advantage of it? There’s not usually many offers like this in the normal course of the world. So yeah, I going to give you some ideas on how you ca...
Emotional intelligence is hot. Thousands of companies doing training in it. Maybe millions learning all about it. So EQs should be rising right? Well I don’t know of anyone who publishes an index of global EQ. My guess is that if they did, it would be declining. How can that be? Surely, we humans are on a one-way street getting ever nicer to one an...
So you know that robots are here to stay once you see an article about teaching kids the need to refer to them as “it”. How about “Sir” in that case? Your Honor perhaps? But why not “she” or “her”? Shouldn’t we be designing and making AIs and robots as males and females? Aren’t the genders different enough that they require their own manifestation ...
It seems that Americans, especially millennials don’t want to drive any more or own cars. Part of the problem is that the average commuter spends three times as much time in their annual commuting that they do on vacation. Hmmm but how about those Teslas? But I get it. Muscle cars are out; electric vehicles are in. Metrosexuals for EVs right? But h...
Did you notice the news about Scott Kelly, the US astronaut? His DNA changed while he was in space, 7% of it to be exact. Actually it turns out that the report wasn’t quite correct; in fact the way his DNA was expressed changed for 7% of it. Whatever, his body changed. How so? Well for a start he got 2 inches taller (but that was temporary). And ...
There’s nothing more feel-good than selfies right? Taken with friends, family, colleagues they are the paragon of amicability, friendship, togetherness. What’s not to like? Selfies are big. These days there’s whole articles about the best smartphones to take them. It's crucial right? After all these have become the core of their online identify for...
Well, whadya know? US worker productivity growth rose sluggishly in the last quarter (at 0.9%). So what? This is kind of boring stuff after my usual posts on quantum brains, love force-fields and the like. What could possibly be of existential interest here? Productivity growth is usually said to be caused by eye-glazingly boring phenomena such as ...
I just returned from one of my regular trips to China. Air quality worse, even more traffic. BUT a Cambrian-like explosion of bikes and bike-sharing (see Ofo) and now, lots more yummy takeout. Americans invented takeout right? How dare the upstart Chinese try to beat us at our own game? But they have: massively. China and the US are on different pl...
As a book writer myself I’m always interested to see who might want to read my books, or for that matter, any books. The bad news is that the book market is essentially flat, so doesn’t look like I’m going to make out with my book, even if it were a best-seller, which it’s not. The slightly better news is that e-books are growing a little faster bu...
We Americans are obsessed by celebrities. Many of them have lots of moolah. So I’m sure you took notice of the recent announcements that Leonardo DiCaprio has joined a Boston VC firm. Maybe you also happened to notice another recent announcement that Kobe Bryant had launched a $100 MM VC fund, with one Jeff Stibel. This is just the tip of the icebe...
OK so I went whale-watching recently, my token conversion to greenery. I actually saw several whales! Humpbacks actually. The interesting thing is that all the ones I saw were in pairs. Our helpful guide told us that these were always couples, male/female. But, she added disapprovingly, the male escort was always temporary; they have their way with...
All this stuff with new-fangled autos has become overwhelming. Self-driving cars, connected autos, car-sharing, electric vehicles, and so on. But the big question is, what does it do for me? Self-driving cars will change everything. It used to be all about thrills. Hmmm, if I have a high-performance car, I want to drive it myself. Don’t trust anyon...
I’m sure you’ve heard about the Vermont law that says that all foods that include genetically-modified ingredients must be disclosed on the label starting July 2016. Of course most of Europe doesn’t allow GM foods. China officially bans GM crops, although in fact the vast majority of them are in fact GM. So the movement to ban all GM foods is prett...
I guess you just saw that Hulk Hogan was awarded $115 million for having his sex videos publicly uploaded by Gawker? My thought on this is I wonder whether this will form the basis for a new career. Celebrity litigant? Sexpert? Another reality show? The Hulk has had a few careers so far, starting with his wrestling career. Naturally dropped out of ...
