I recently speed reread Plague Time – a book about evolutionary biology applied to infectious disease. The Tennesse Valley Authority (TVA) was responsible in the words of George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou to “hydroelectric up the whole darn state”, but really they did so much more. It is a lesson of what [...]
Ben, the futurist, reporting for duty! I was rereading the book plague time: the new germ theory of disease that I apparently finished reading on the 8th of June 2002. It offered inspiration for another of my entries, but this is about futurists getting it right. By the 1960 sci-fi writers go the portable handheld [...]
I remember two summers ago spending every day after a long day of work unwinding to Thriller by Michael Jackson. It is was introduced me fully to the wonder of vinyl records – a medium that is seeing a major resurgence in recent years. I am on the corner of 5th St. and 15th Ave. [...]
I could have been a stand-up comedian if I hated myself more. I could have been a farmer if I liked sunlight more. I could have been an astronaut if I’d not had asthma. The astronaut thing is more about we watching Apollo 13 and realizing that they would never let me fly. Part of [...]
There are a few things I don’t tow the democratic-farmer-labor party line. Crime is crime. Hate is inevitable in a situation involving assault, murder, and rape. It is also trying to look inside the head of somebody – which is impossible. You can’t raise the river and lower the bridge. It lessens the importance for [...]
This is how everything will happen in the future, once the cost gets down. Long time readers may remember that I once predicted that on-demand manufacturing is the next logical leap for us. Now some architects have found a way to make a giant abstact thingy they could have made otherwise. I think the future [...]
It is hotter here than in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. I have spent the day on acedemicearth.org watching lectures from Yale on game theory. I read a few books about it, but never went to far into it. I never spent time working out the math. It is so hot I don’t want to do anything. [...]
I was in car 22 to get into the music, art, comedy, and glow stick festival last Wednesday. I went with Ramzi and got to. I traveled 1000 miles according to google maps each way. I got to sleep in my old bed and recover my old space foam pad the night before heading down. [...]
I moved into my apartment a few days ago. This is the first time I have lived in a dense urban atmosphere. I am within a block of McDonald’s, subway, pizza hut, a liquor store, and the dinkytowner – which Jason says is getting closed down. It is mind blowing. I wanted microwave popcorn, so [...]
A friend at Northwestern told me about these birds that were trained to collect coins to receive a food reward. The idea being that we could eventually train them to clean up trash or do other tasks we don’t want to. These birds would fly beyond the test site and collect coins and coin-like objects [...]
I just got back from disc golfing this morning. Last night I went to a movie with subtitles, an Iranian film. Later today I will take a bicycle ride along the river road that sits above the cliffs cut by the Mississippi River to the U of M campus to see my apartment. A cool [...]
Affirmative action is becoming an issue with this latest supreme court nominee. She ruled recently on a case involving a white firefighter’s test for career advancement being thrown out so that a lower scoring black candidate could take the position. She ruled for affirmative action. Something I am against because it is hard to determine [...]
I graduated Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology with a bachelor of science degree in Optical Engineering, a minor in Language and Literature (English), and a Certificate in Semiconductor Materials and Devices. I am watching on CNN now King Abdullah talk with President Obama. They are in Riyadh. Abdullah actually comes to Minnesota for scheduled medical treatment [...]