You’ve probably heard of the TED talks, those short lectures by brilliant people sharing startling or fascinating new ideas. You’ve probably even seen one or two of them on YouTube. You know there are probably some great TED talks out there, but you haven’t been willing to spend the time to track them down

There have been lots of changes lately; at work, at home, and with the children. Almost too many to track, and far too many to readily accommodate. But we muddle on, for we have no other choice. Today was the first day of school. The Girl is off to her first day of high school, and [...]

I would be a whole lot more inclined to support a political movement that called for limited government and greater respect for personal liberty, if that same movement wasn’t also committed to using the government to create and enforce laws that determined who I could marry, and what my daughter could and couldn’

My first full day in Australia began much too early. Thank you, jet lag. I also noticed that I had a bit of a sore throat, which I chalked up to spending 13 hours in a dry airplane the day before. Little did I know what that sore throat would evolve into….but I’m getting ahead [...]

As S and I staggered from the plane in Adelaide, feeling distinctly rumpled, we were greeted by our buddy J who was there to meet us. J is well-travelled, to put it mildly, but has been living in Australia for several years now, and more recently settled down in Adelaide, capital of the state of [...]

What do you get when you send five neuroscientists rafting down the San Juan river? Hopefully, some additional understanding of how omnipresent technology effects our brains. It was a primitive trip with a sophisticated goal: to understand how heavy use of digital devices and other technology changes how we think and behave

Depressing WSJ article on David Stockman, Reagan insider: Yes, Stockman is equally damning of the Democrats’ Keynesian policies. But what this indictment by a party insider — someone so close to the development of the Reaganomics ideology — says about America, helps all of us better understand how America&

For some perspective, the Patent Office is funded solely by user fees, NOT tax dollars. Moreover, since 1992 Congress has diverted more than $750 million in patent fees to cover budget shortfalls in other areas. That corresponds to an unwritten tax on innovation, but what’s worse, they’re killing the goose that

Dalton Ghetti carefully crafts the tips of pencils into amazing micro sculptures. These miniature masterpieces are a side project for the professional carpenter, who has been perfecting this art for the last 25 years. Dalton uses a razor blade, sewing needle, a sculpting knife, a steady hand and lots of patience to meticulo

This is really cool. Researchers tweaked an existing program that calculated energy-minimizing protein conformations so gamers could manually assist the program past potential dead-ends. But turns out human beings (or gamers, at least) can have special insight when looking at 3-D protein structures: For example, people were

The first leg of my voyage to Australia was a simple one. Just a short hop from Portland (PDX) to Los Angeles (LAX) on Alaska Airlines. In theory, this was going to be a cakewalk; the travel equivalent of getting your feet wet in the shallow end of the pool. Unfortunately I could not have [...]

Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov has taken old B&W photographs from World War II and painstakingly combined them with modern photos taken from the same perspective. The results are haunting and eerie, and very thought-provoking: See the photos at Gizmodo.

Rich Marini just left a comment over on flotsam that I think is definitely worth passing on. Rich has a blog called “Favorite Office Time Wasters” that you just might find entertaining, but in particular he’s just started a very ambitious project over there: Thought you might find my Lyric for Every Day of

Why, oh why, do I keep reading Warren Ellis? A paralysed Austrian man was eaten to death by maggots in his bed while his partner slept beside him, police said Wednesday.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I realize I got back last week. I realize that some of you…well a couple of you….OK one or two of you are waiting to hear about my adventures in the Antipodes. Unfortunately, there are certain realities that accompany taking a week and a half off, such as a bunch of work [...]

Australia is a wonderful, wonderful place. The people here have been–without exception–friendly, generous, open, and funny. Even though it’s winter here, or more accurately BECAUSE it is winter here, the countryside is green and beautiful. Scenic vistas pop up on every side. Rugged peaks, deep blue ocean,

APM stands for “Actions Per Minute” when playing championship-level Starcraft or Warcraft. These Korean gamers are in an entirely different class.

One of my mother’s favorite aphorisms went something like “It doesn’t matter how scared of childbirth you think you are, God has planned it so that once you’ve carried a baby for nine months you’ll willingly go through ANYTHING to get it out of you.” As she brought five children into the

I am wearing brand new shoes today. They are New Balance size 11 1/2, EEEE. I have wide feet. This makes purchasing shoes just slightly less convenient than obtaining mistletoe harvested at midnight on the solstice by a virgin using a golden scythe. But I digress. They are almost hiking boots, with high tops for ankle [...

SciFiWire has collected a list of the best tweets from user God_Damn_Batman. Some of my favorites: Joker’s face: make-up or permanent? Punch Test reveals nothing. Will try Concrete Dragging next. Two things criminals should know. 1. I assume you don’t have health insurance. 2. I break the most expensive bones fi

Ah, it’s that time again, when we celebrate the very best of the very worst sort of writing. Here’s one that, although not a winner, certainly deserves, um, recognition: As Holmes, who had a nose for danger, quietly fingered the bloody knife and eyed the various body parts strewn along the dark, deserted highway

Scientists at MIT and Harvard have invented self-folding smart fiberglass sheets that can crease themselves into origami airplanes and boats. Neato! One step closer to a “Soft Weapon”.

Time for some Friday fear-mongering. There are folks out there that think the BP drill site is located over a massive underground reservoir of trapped methane. If that methane should erupt, the resulting disaster would make the actual oil spill a tiny footnote. A massive release of methane would, first of all, kill everyone

I know the pictures of oil-soaked wildlife are heart-breaking, but what really frightens me about the BP spill is the average American’s capacity for complacency. via Ticklebooth

Today’s Scientific American online includes a fascinating short commentary on research being done by John Singleton and Andrea Schmidt at Los Alamos. I can’t claim to understand it, but they’ve apparently built an apparatus in which external controllers are used to drive electrons down a length of wire. Th

Rush Limbaugh is at it again. This time he’s making fun of schoolchildren that may go hungry now that school, the source of the only nutritious meal they may get, is closing for the summer. It’s bad enough that he encourages such children to start “dumpster-diving”, but far far worse than that is his

Are you in the market for a waterproof digital camera case? Then you should find out what kind of case Royal Dutch Navy sergeant Dick de Bruin was using when he lost his camera in the ocean near Aruba. The camera was recovered six months later and 1000 miles away, in perfect condition even after [...]

The look of the bottle immediately draws your attention: it’s frosted, not smooth like every other bottle in the cooler. The RedHook logo speaks for itself, but what’s this? A signature? A bold “Limited Release” printed right on the frosted glass? And then you read the fine print: 8-4-1 Expedition OA

“As she indulged, there were tentacles coming out of her mouth and desperately grabbing her face, clearly displeased with the turn of events.” Ick.

You will be amazed at what Paul Lung can do with a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil and a blank sheet of paper. These are NOT photographs, but drawings. Incredible.    Unbelievable Pencil Art by Paul Lung