I’m sure you’ve heard some version of the old phrase, “not being able to see the forest for the trees”. There are many such aphorisms, so—clearly—one’s inability to see big pictures owing to focus on details is not a new phenomenon. I came across an inverse view of this recently. A two-gigabyte image of Mt. Everest and its environs recently …
What Controls You?
Much as I am loath to admit it, I must acknowledge that I’m not always (or even usually) in conscious control of my own behavior. I strive to bring forth my best, but there are times when my response to a given situation just seems, well, over the top, and usually in a negative way. Other times, I find myself …
Should It Be Done?
If you’ve been following these posts, you know I’m a technophile. Over time, I’ve become interested in technological utility in addition to loving technology for its own sake. That’s why when I found this, describing the provision of information from a car’s computer onto the windshield, I found myself stopped. I faced a conundrum: While understanding how the information presented …
Reading
Just a quick one for today, while I compile material for a more-extensive post: “A man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” –Mark Twain, American writer Questions: None. Just think about the ramifications.
More Signal, Less Noise
News this week included a report that planet-searchers have found a “super-Earth” orbiting a star just 42 light years from “regular “(but still impressive) Earth. [Given that distance, Bob Murphy, a colleague and friend, has suggested that we name the planet “Douglas Adams”, author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in which that number has keen significance as the “Answer …
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 …
Memories and (In)Accuracy
About four or five years ago, I found myself issuing caveats to others when describing something I remembered—or thought I did. The caveat was usually along the lines of, “I think I remember”, or “I’m not sure if I remember this or just think I remember this.” Call it the onset of entropic consciousness, or just aging, but there it …
Communications(?)
At times unfortunately for those with whom I communicate by any of several channels, I tend to be something of a purist in things grammatical, punctuational, and just about every other kind of -al that might apply. I acknowledge that English (and particularly American English) is a living language, but I still insist (quixotically, at times) that there must be …
Do It Differently
I came across this interesting item last week, which describes how a person’s world view was changed by way of technology. It got me thinking about how wedded many of us are to doing things the way we have always done them, or how others have always done them, or, in some cases, not doing something at all because to …