A Science Of Human Language - Part #10 In this part of the series, commenced here, I give some concrete examples from various languages of how words can cue the category from which other words were,…

Tangential Science: it's not necessarily science, but it's still funny. 1. The Japanese have responded to the persistent outrage of Greenpeace over their whaling efforts by seeking to enrage the anti…

This is not much of a surprise: In six out of ten countries including Argentina (57%), China (72%), Great Britain (62%), India (77%), Mexico (65%) and Spain (61%), the majority of people who had…

Although possessing an undeniable bias against consciousness and mood altering drugs, courtesy of the 1960s and 1970s, I was curious to see what progress had been made utilizing these same substances…

I'm out of town today, so I'm doing a break from my usual work.  Instead, I thought I'd share these tales of geek love.  First up is a nice fluff piece by Ashley Nelson, 4 Reasons Why Women…

Colonial Williamsburg is basically a theme park about colonial days in America, the time in the 18th century before and around the establishment of the United States. It can be somewhat kitschy[1],…

New Global Best-Seller "The Terrorist Hunters" is a new book by Andy Hayman, C.B.E., Q.P.M., former Assistant Commisioner of Scotland Yard, and one-time head of the Yard's head of Special Operations…

I watched a television program the other night called the "Power of Genetics".  Although it was obviously a few years old, just listening to it set my spider senses to tingling. There was the…

It's late, but still morning in my time zone: Agnosticism is not a creed, but a method, the essence of which lies in the vigorous application of a single principle. Positively the principle may be…

This is a funny question to ask.  Funny in that no one has ever asked this of me before, and yet a few moments of reflection reveal how utterly important such a question is. The simple answer is…

Tangential Science: It isn't necessarily science, but it's still funny. 1. Want a business card made out of meat and lasers? You're in luck! Meat Cards is having a contest to win one. All you have to…

Error Handling And Error Codes This article is a brief explanation of how errors can be handled in computer code.  The basic idea is that if an error arises then it should be obvious, and easily…

After The Dreamimg Stops.   Ever woke up with a funny, weirdor just different feeling after dreaming a certain type of dream? I can still feel some of the dreams I had years ago. I remember a…

Time for a job-hunting question.  Which programming languages can you work with?  It's not the same question as which languages you know, and can be a surprisingly hard question to answer,…

Metasequoia, a deciduous conifer, and one of the common fossils found in many of the Eocene sites of the Pacific northwest, flourished in Oregon's forests for millions of years. In honor of this…

Metasequoia, a deciduous conifer, and one of the common fossils found in many of the Eocene sites of the Pacific northwest, flourished in Oregon's forests for millions of years. In honor of this…

John Hawks reviews an article in the NY times, by Gina Kolata, on Grants for Cancer Research.  Here’s an excerpt from the original article: Yet the fight against cancer is going slower than…

Improvement makes strait roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius. - William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Proverbs of Hell #66

More species can live in a warmer temperature than an ice age. There are more species at the equator than the North and south poles. So why be concerned? Because of the ocean. Not the rise and fall…

   Its my opinion that the current economic conditions were brought on by high gas prices. I believe if we can consume less fuel we can stabilize the price of gasoline and our economy. If…