Random Thoughts

Today I turn 45 years of age. Overall, physically I do not feel much different from, say, 15 years ago. I consider myself lucky, since I am generally in good health. Never have I had to sleep in a…

How much actual on-task work do you do on a typically work day? The myth is everyone produces 8 hours of useful, targetted work in an 8.5 hour work day (with unpaid lunch). Staying in the office…

You can read this story two different ways. Enjoy science and beer, the combination meant to be together. Or Unpaid scientists give lectures at pubs, and don't even get free beer. Science pubs?. Sign…

Do you live for moments where "you're so absorbed by the task at hand that you lose track of time and place"?  Some call this 'the zone', psychologists call it Flow, and I'll pointlessly coin a…

Why I believe in marriage equality or no marriage at all.   I have to admit that gay marriage was once an issue I was against, for the reason that I felt it was an issue which unnecessarily…

I used to work in chemical thermodynamics for quite a while. No doubt, I have heard of the informational entropy but I have always thought that it has nothing to do with the entropy in chemical…

 It is accepted wisdom that an increasing marginal rate on income taxes serve to balance inequality in our society, while also funding the massive entitlement programs created at the federal and…

I'm not sure how many of you out there have Facebook - quite a few, I assume, given their huge participation numbers - but on a frequent basis they introduce changes designed to help us.  …

Wakefield and the vaccine wars suck up the air. So much attention on one man. On hammering away at each other over whether Wakefield's the saint or Deer. Or who's the greatest sinner. There can be…

A question occurred to me the other day, which was to consider how science might have developed differently had humans possessed different senses.  As an example, humans are significantly visual…