A few weeks ago, I noted in this post that I’d had some difficulty with a new laptop computer, given by a long-time friend as a gift. I’ve been thinking about the outcome of the repair situation, and decided to use it to address a more-general issue. Since that post, I had two visits by an on-site technician. The gift …
The Urge to Merge
I come across all kinds of interesting things in the course of my daily activities. Take this item from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which describes how and why mosquitos aren’t just crushed when they collide with raindrops—which are many times more massive than the troublesome insect. Using high-speed videography, they demonstrated that mosquito’s strong exoskeleton and …
Unintended Consequences
It seems that The Machines are much in the news lately. I’ve seen several articles on increasing uses for drones and other UAVs in domestic “security” applications, not to mention the prospects of arming them for bona fide warfare. On a much less violent front, we have this item from the Wall Street Journal, which describes how a seemingly innocuous …
Perceived Powerlessness?
The news in several places that the recently released movie, The Avengers broke the $1 billion mark for ticket sales (see here, for example) left me wondering, Why? What is it about this movie that has knocked earlier blockbusters (such as the Harry Potter canon) off their pedestals? I mean, I love a good movie, and may even set things …
Protective Coloration
A recent report from the California Academy of Sciences caught my eye, as it seemed to have implications for organizational dynamics. Summarized here, with a video of the interaction here, the report describes how a fish has developed the capability of imitating the look of an octopus that imitates the look of potentially dangerous fish, thereby allowing the octopus and …
What Would You Do If You Could Not Fail?
I came across this question recently via two different communications channels (Wired magazine and a YouTube video), both referring to the same person. That person is Regina Dugan, who—until March 2012—was director of the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, or DARPA. She left DARPA to move to Google, and faced lots of criticism for the way she allocated work to …
Functional Fixedness
What do a flock of starlings (known as a murmuration) and ferromagnetism have to do with each other? On the surface, probably nothing. Nothing, that is, unless you are a team of scientists with a perspective and approach that goes outside what their nominal area of study seems to call for. A team headed by William Bialek at Princeton University …
It Must Be Magic
A little item has crossed my desk twice in the past week. As is often the case, it came from two different correspondents, a continent apart. How and why such things spread is worthy of another post, but for now, allow me to point you to this: A little thought and some research that confirmed my hypothesis was very satisfying, …
A Thought for Today
The world looks with some awe upon a man who appears unconcernedly indifferent to home, money, comfort, rank, or even power and fame. The world feels not without a certain apprehension, that here is someone outside its jurisdiction; someone before whom its allurements may be spread in vain; someone strangely enfranchised, untamed, untrammelled by convention, moving independent of the ordinary …
Pedantry vs. Mastery
Unless I maintain vigilance, I tend to be rather rule bound. It’s a part of my personality that I’m not fond of, so I do my best to be aware of my response in situations. That’s why this quote, from A Word a Day struck me as being noteworthy: Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward rules. To apply a …