Ever since my long-ago youth, I wondered how I could determine if what I described as, say, blue was the same thing that someone else described with the same word. Was it possible that despite our common-sense approach that said that we all were using the same terminology, we really weren’t communicating at all? This specific conundrum came up in …
Assumptions
Take a look at this short video called, appropriately for this post, Assumptions: Entertaining, to be sure. But there’s more here than entertainment. As much as I try to avoid it, I find it virtually impossible not to go into a situation without preconceived notions or assumptions. Such poor going-in positioning may have to do with the person or people …
Another “Giant Leap…”
Felix Baumgartner’s October 14, 2012 leap of faith from 128,000 feet above the Earth is already history, but I’m moved to comment on it from several perspectives. I had followed his odyssey from its inception, when I originally thought that it was simply a stunt to advertise the sponsoring organization, Red Bull. OK, it was an advertising stunt, but as …
Overdesigning
SpaceX has done it again, albeit with a bit of difficulty. They launched a Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon module to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). The launch itself was perfect off the pad, but just about 90 seconds into the flight, one of the vehicle’s nine engines malfunctioned. The Dragon docked successfully with the ISS today, but …
Sci-fi? No; reality!
This video/animation of the launch-through-landing of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), aka Curiosity, was initially produced in 2011, long before the successful landing of Curiosity on Mars. Except for the juvenile need to include sounds where no sound could carry (i.e., outside the two planets’ atmosphers), this is exceedingly well done, and worth about five minutes of your time. The …
Can’t Do A Thing About It
Living as I do within 100 miles or so of Yellowstone National Park, its geological instability is very present to me. Loosely speaking, the volcano upon which Yellowstone sits erupts—on average—every 640,000 years. The last such megaexplosion was…just about 640,000 years ago. Statistically, we can expect another such megaexplosion any time now. Geologically speaking, “any time now” covers a lot …
Crossing Boundaries
Have you ever been in a situation where—despite all your best efforts—some circumstance completely beyond your control crept into your carefully constructed reality, changing things for the worse, or even just forcing you to take some action that hadn’t anticipated? I got to thinking about this as a general phenomenon this morning upon seeing this item that shows that half …
Expectations
Although the guidelines have been available to a subset of interested parties since 2011, it was not until late May 2012 that the broader community became aware of and accepted “…guidelines established by NASA to protect lunar historic sites and preserve ongoing and future science on the moon.” Designed to maintain the historical and scientific integrity of these historical sites—such …
High Expectations, Disappointing Reality. Or is it?
Apple has successfully transformed itself from its origins as a computer manufacturer into a consumer electronics innovator, manufacturer, and marketing whiz-bang machine. Witness the often blocks-long lines that await receipt of newly announced products. It’s gotten to the point that just about anything Apple announces sets off a speculation and purchase frenzy unequaled with most other such products. And so …