Random Thoughts

As a freelance scientist, I find my Friday to-do lists are particularly eclectic.  A little backstory: I work as a freelance a) science writer and b) programmer in order to support A) my family…

So my friend's setting up her wireless network and asks me about names, and I randomly spout off the phrase "unicorn tentacles". Cause that's a great name for a wireless network. Then I started…

Political scientists from the University of Missouri say that the general public knows very little about foreign policy, and what they do know is based primarily on "rhetoric" from whatever president…

According to one historian, the anti-government rallies that made their way across the country last summer, known as tea parties, may explain more about Americans than their views on high taxes and…

Today, I learned from the Wall Street Journal that "frying cuttlefish" is Cantonese slang for being fired. As a result, cuttlefish fishing trips are deliberately misnamed squid fishing trips, to…

The recent financial meltdown was perhaps the biggest economic crisis since the great depression, and a team of economists says that current macroeconomic models used to diagnose and treat the causes…

Ignoring all of the likely reasons why Africa may see more civil wars in the future, a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that global warming…

While most of the proposals put forth to address climate change so far have called on governments to play a more active role in society, perhaps one of the best things they could do is promote free…

In today's political hotbed of ideological divisions there seems to be no end to the catch phrases that are used to convey some sentiment regarding the evils of government.  A popular bumper-…

Call it contrarian stubborness, but I believe there remains that print journalism a critical aspect of American society. That said, what's journalism? Matt Bowden, in the October issue of The…