This youtube-hosted video is a very engaging and entertaining quick view of queuing theory that provides an eminently practical everyday application. Questions: Are you aware of what criteria you use when making decisions? If so, what are those criteria? Are your criteria based on emotions or logic? Do you always use the same approach to making decisions? Is …
Doing What’s Important
Today’s gleaning of the news brought with it an item in the Houston Chronicle that pointed up a terrific way of thinking about past glories, recognition, and future endeavors. Charles Bolden, the NASA Administrator, first chided the staff at Johnson Space Center and other citizens of Houston for their complaints about not having received one of the now-retired Space Shuttles, …
Testing Authority
A study by scientists at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has concluded that supraluminal velocities are impossible for single photons. This apparent confirmation of Einstein’s dictum that the speed of light in a vacuum is an absolute limit puts the kibosh on the possibilities for time travel–or so the team’s lead researcher, Du Shengwang, would have us …
Is Failure an Option?
Failure seems to be much in the news lately. Over the space of just a few days, I came across several interesting items in the New York Times (What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?), the Harvard Business Review (Three Ways to Turn Setbacks into Progress), and a blog post from The 99 Percent (Why Success Always Starts with …
New Heavy-launch System: What Will We Use It For?
After too much time, effort, and political wrangling, Charles Bolden, the NASA administrator, has announced to the world the design for a new heavy-lift Space Launch System. Nominally designed to take over the Space Shuttle’s duties with respect to servicing the International Space Station, it is also being touted as our ride into the next chapters in the U.S.’s (and, …
Perceived Powerlessness
As I write this, the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. is feeling more than a bit of what Earth’s dynamic systems can evince: Hurricane Irene—while weakening from its higher-powered status—is causing major disruptions to various ecological systems and those wrought by humanity, as well. Whole areas of Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware are being evacuated, and the mayor of New …
A Failure to Think Critically
Several weeks ago, a friend asked me what I thought about the advent of Comet Elenin, a long-period comet discovered in late 2010. What he found noteworthy was that the comet would be closest to Earth (perigee) during the Jewish High Holy Days this year, which occur over a 10-day span, late September into early October. He expressed some concern …
Connectivity Withdrawal
Our Internet connection went down last night, as a result of a huge lightning strike to our ISP’s central distribution site. We found this out upon returning to the office after a much-needed one-hour respite from professional activities. I can’t speak for the rest of the group, but my immediate reaction—other than a technological “I-wonder-what-happened?”—was a huge yawn. At the …
Poor Decisions and Awful Consequences
The fact of and the effects from the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011 horrify everyone. The impotence of humans in the face of such forces should provide ample evidence that we humans are not as powerful as we like to think we are. The hubris that we tend to bring to our technological endeavors particularly was …
The Kick-off Pep Talk
This is a new entry into the blogosphere. I’ve had a lot to say for a long time, but no forum in which to say it. Owing to my having added a new suite of activities to my professional repertoire, I now find it not just desirable, but necessary to create my own forum; hence, this blog. In it, I …