Gone But Not Forgotten Did you notice that the Feds just announced that 23 bird and fish species have just gone extinct? Of course, that’s a real pity but its not as if there aren’t already millions of species on the planet. And its not as if there aren’t existing species whose populations are being decimated, like fish, insects, honeybees, birds a...
Prove it! Let’s not get into politics but I don’t have to tell you that election fraud has been occupying a lot of minds, whether or not it is occurring. And, clearly not just in the US. How about in every country with a voting system, democratic, quasi or not? Even if you don’t have any fraud, how do you prove it? Technology to the rescue, this ti...
Uncontainable? So, the “Ever Given” was refloated and the Suez Canal cleared. But isn’t that particular ship just too big for the canal? What happens if two container ships sink one at each end? Or are sunk by terrorists? Isn’t the canal just too narrow for the ever-growing mass of containers being squeezed through it? And note that the Ever Given ...
Mars as Destiny I guess you saw those pictures of the Perseverance rover on Mars, truly amazing feat of engineering. But what I also registered was seeing the desert that is Mars. Maybe there was intelligent life there that reduced it to a wasteland a billion years ago, or maybe not. But it looks like what Earth will probably look like in a while, ...
Yeah, I know. A group of swans is actually called a bevy, or, if in flight, a wedge. Not a flock, or some other name. You knew that, right? (I didn’t) Two down, plenty where they came from We have now chalked up two Black Swans (the pandemic, the Floyd Revolt) in nary a few months. Probably more on the way, soon. My question: when you get swarms of...
I’m thinking that you think you have a brain. Nope. Actually, you have two. We all have two brains. As in two hemispheres, the left and the right. They both do very different things, although there is some overlap. The left hemisphere does logic, process, rules and analysis. The right does envisioning, emotion, empathy and social stuff. So what? In...
I guess you are all aware of the US decision to withdraw from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Weapons Treaty (INF)? In defense of the decision its clear that the Russians have flouted it for many years. So, does this make nuclear war more likely, or less? Well, Putin just threatened the US with its new hypersonic weapons if the US puts more weapons ...
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...
You’ve no doubt heard that Venice is flooding due to climate change. Now we know that it’s also being flooded by tourists. As a result, the locals are leaving as the tourists ruin the city with too many people. A similar thing is happening in other tourist cities of the world. Santorini, the Forbidden City, Florence and so on an on. Tourism is rapi...
That sounds like an overly alarmist headline, right? So get this: “Hyper alarming’ study shows massive insect loss”. Apparently over the past 20 years insect populations have declined on average 50% and in some cases even higher. We’re all seeing it. Have you noticed that these days the number of love bugs plastered over your windscreen and headlig...
Did you get the flu? I was so lucky, I got it twice! So lots of stuff about influenza in the news. Other than that, how could you ever get excited about it? Influenza is a virus. Everyone knows that too. Nothing exciting there either, right? But what if there were many more of the little critters than we had imagined? What if they were literall...
Did you hear about the recent wedding of two people in their nineties (She’s 98. He’s 94. They Met at the Gym). Tells us that you can have love even when it might be thought you were past it. Put it in the sweet news column. It used to be thought that love was a spiritual phenomenon (as distinct from being a spiritual feeling). Then we discovered t...
Recently I posted on the huge impact noise pollution is having on human moods globally, including making us all incredibly crabby. (“Does noise cause global dysfunction in human mood?”). Coincidentally (?) the Washington Post followed my article with its own about noise pollution, even in the national parks (“Human noise pollution is everywhere, ev...
I’m sure you noticed (or maybe not) a little news item that deforestation in Brazil increased 30% in the last 12 months? So what? Does anyone care? Why should we anyway? There’s inconsequential reasons like forests create rain (through the action of emitting terpenes, inter alia) and stabilize terra firma. I have a more selfish reason; when you’re ...
Yep, it’s true. Some species of birds can actually distinguish between Monet, Picasso and other painters. They can even distinguish between art styles painted by unknowns. Can your dog do that? Maybe that performance beats 90% or more of humans given the same task? So if you want to get the skinny, and confirm that I didn’t make it up check out “Th...
Big data is really big. So is analytics. Our interns all want to get a job in those areas, so they can hit one out of the park. The big idea is that Big Data can help us uncover insights especially into how consumers act, so we can get them to buy more, and, to be fair, to better meet their needs. Big Data is transforming business, companies and ev...
Did you see the news piece about pollution at the bottom of the Marianas Trench? It’s the deepest place on Earth. Turns out that the crustaceans at the very bottom are 50 times more contaminated by toxic pollution byproducts than fish in the most polluted Chinese rivers. So congratulation humans! We have succeeded magnificently in polluting absolut...
Music streaming is hot. Everyone’s doing it. So why is it so popular? Well, the music is popular and varied, often relaxing. You can live in your own world. What’s not to like? Outside there’s a lot of hurly-burly and especially a lot of noise. Is music streaming a way to get away from the noise? We are all bathed in a constant tumult of noise, unc...
Dr. Stephen Hawking has just warned us against contacting aliens. I’m sure you have heard of him? He’s the famous cosmologist who has ALS and a doughty approach to life notwithstanding. He’s also known for being an iconoclast. He believes (as do I) that it is certain that there are numerous ETs out there. And he thinks we should do nothing to encou...
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...
