I love xkcd.com. It’s a thought-provoking, often hilarious, sometimes sobering stick figure strip. The strip was conceived by Randall Monroe, who describes himself thusly: I’m just this guy, you know? I’m a CNU graduate with a degree in physics. Before starting xkcd, I worked on robots at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. As of [...]
Tag Archives: Science
Breast Cancer and Elective Mastectomies – If You Knew You Had a Faulty Gene, Would You Delete It?
I am 46, and I have been getting a yearly mammogram every year since I turned 40; six mammograms, and so far each one has been normal. Breast cancer doesn’t run in my family, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling apprehensive every time I have to step up to the machine, and it doesn’t [...]
Everything You Need to Know About Electrostatic Discharge in One Funny Video
Having worked with electronics through instruments companies or the semiconductor industry most of my professional career, I am keenly aware of the potential impact of a minor static shock on electronics. Static is more technically called ‘electrostatic discharge’ or ESD. From my very first job I was introduced to the concept of grounding straps, anti-stat [...]
Here Are Just Some of the Other Benefits of Sex
Sex is great because … well, if I have to explain THAT then I probably can’t help. But aside from the obvious benefit of being sex, there are numerous health benefits … and the folks at Greatist have detailed them out with links to some of the studies. Here are a few: • It can [...]
Random Cool Math Fact – The Monty Hall Probability Problem
If you have ever taken a course in probability you have likely heard of the ‘Monty Hall Problem’, based on the name of the host of the show ‘Let’s Make a Deal’. On my current work project this week someone on the technical team inadvertantly offered such a choice without knowing or understanding it … [...]
In News That Surprises No One, 2012 Was the Hottest Year Yet
By now most of the debate about global Climate Change has settled down not to IF there is climate change, but WHY. Of course there will always be tin-foil hate wearers, but the science is pretty clear as noted above. One side of the debate says that the rapid acceleration timed to match the industrial [...]
New Yale Study Using MRI Brain Scans Links Fructose to Weight Gain and Obesity
A new study from Yale University published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and reported at Bloomberg details something that has been gaining more and more scientific support: fructose has a significant link to weight gain and obesity. I have been compiling links for several months now about all of this stuff, including [...]
The LED Lighting Cost Savings ‘Myth’ Addressed
You have heard the story by now – LED lighting is the ‘next new thing’ … just like you were supposed to change to (mercury containing) compact fluorescents a few years ago, now you should be switching over to LED lighting as pricing has dropped a bit. Right? Wrong! Well … it depends, really. Why [...]
Cool British Video Reminds Us of the Difference Between ‘Climate’ and ‘Weather’
“Another 10 feet of snow fell on Buffalo last night … derp … so much for Global Warming” – it is something most of us hear in one form or another on an annual basis, and makes us choose between (a) shaking our head and walking away, (b) hitting the person upside the head with [...]
Photograhic Periodic Table Now as Papercraft 3D Sculpture
We’ve come a long way in our learning aids in the last while, haven’t we? Up from Lincoln’s doing his lessons with a hunk of coal on the back of a shovel to animated periodic tables of elements that play songs by Tom Lehrer to boot! And speaking of the periodic table (see what I [...]
My Bag: Ham Radio Edition
Hurricane Sandy, the derecho and the upcoming winter season has had me thinking about what I carry on a daily basis. It also prompted me to consider what I might add to it to be better prepared. In HAM lingo, we refer to this as our GO bag– the bag that serves in an emergency [...]
Election Maps – “Why Is the Map All Red if Obama Won?”
This isn’t in any way a political post, it is just a reflection on how the visual display of information impacts out perception. Look at the image above; it might seem inaccurate to say, based on the image, that ‘most of the country voted for Romney’. But that image is based on land mass, and [...]
Physics Wins, as 32 Out of Sync Metronomes End Up Synchronizing
This is a really cool video that operates on a principle of physics: that the transfer of momentum will result in alignment of motion. In other words, as the metronomes tick, they are transferring force to the table, and due to the design of the table that force is dampened and dissipated through the table [...]
D-Star Breathes New Life into Amateur Radio
D-Star is the newest mode I have recently added to my Amateur Radio arsenal. I bought an Icom ID-31A D-star, radio which I will be reviewing here soon, but I wanted to share a little about D-star and why it’s a cool mode before I did the review. The History of D-Star D-star is a [...]
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Andrew: My father would like this because it's a very nic...
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cgavula: One clarification (I think) on the Uvo system: Yo...
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