Technology seems to have not changed during my life. It reflects a more gradual nature of time that occurs when you actually live it. I see it like arrive at a mountain to wondering why it doesn’t seem to move while you are standing before it. Shortening from the geological to human time scale gives [...]
KAUST made my life significantly better a few days ago. Before when I had to bicycle to campus (across the street) I had to stop, lift my tire up, get my back tire up, and then proceed. A work crew recently put a little six inch ramp that allows me to continue unabated. It really [...]
So this is my solution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that saves and improves lives. Make it a competition. The regions that behave best gets new roads and a dam. It provides an incentive and focuses on improving the countries. “the surge” was mostly about bribing anyway, so why not provide people with [...]
There I stood in the National Portrait Gallery looking at the famous portrait of George Washington. I was about to hand in my final papers for KAUST. This February 2008 and I had to make a decision. So I turned to my hero – 90 degrees to the right – where in the entryway to [...]
This is the view from my balcony. My view of KAUST is optimistic, but for other people than me. The lab I want to work in won’t be up until 2011, so I am getting a one year masters and finding a PhD elsewhere. It is better than my friend who had the rug pulled [...]
Last night I watched the first two segments of Ken Burns documentary The National Parks: America’s Greatest Idea and want to salute John Muir (pictured below). I admire him because he told President Theodore Roosevelt that he was full of himself on a private camping trip in Yosemite National Park and founded the Sierra Club. [...]
Parahawking is the most manly activity ever created. You hold two giant hawks – one in each hand – and use them to read thermals and go paragliding around mountains. Sure you could use thermal sensors or some more practical method. But it is a combination of falconry and paragliding. Tip of the hat to [...]
My plan is to graduate KAUST inside of one academic year (as in next May). After that I need to do something. If I want to apply to a PhD program then I must take the GREs, and deadlines are very close. They are like SAT/ACT tests for graduate school. I thought I had dodged [...]
I spent the last month stranded out on the Island, but am back in my old apartment – the fifth closest to campus. My walk has been shorted from twenty minutes to seven. Everything works. No more mold. I get to take a shower instead of sponge bath things! My apartment overlooks the town square. [...]
This is good television Drama: House (FOX), Lie to Me (FOX), Mad Men (AMC), LOST (ABC) Comedy: The Office (NBC), 30 Rock (NBC), It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (FX), Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO), Flight of the Conchords (HBO) News: The Daily Show (Comedy Central), The Colbert Report (Comedy Central), Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO), [...]
I have an idea for an alarm clock that could never go to production because of the certainty of lawsuits. It is simply an alarm clock that has the alarm off button attached to two wires dangling inside of a water bottle. You fill it up before going to bed. It will only turn the [...]
Because I am superior to you, I found a good opinion piece in the New York Times about the simple reason why the economy collapsed: too many smart people worked in finance. It is really about some guy at a bar who had credibility because he had a tweed jacket on while downing martinis. In [...]
The New York Times recently had an article about how the Large Hadron Collider might be doomed from the start because nature hates the idea of creating the Higgs Boson (what gives stuff mass) so much that it goes back in time to prevent one from every being created/extracted by a really high energy collision. [...]
So, Obama won the Nobel peace prize. His critics on the left and the right say he has’t done that much. I am sure Obama was surprised that he won it already. He should propose something truly revolutionary. My idea is a drastic plan to reduce our nuclear stockpile by cutting it in half every [...]
I went to the KAUST medical facilities for proper bandaging of my left middle finger that I slightly cut a bit off of and for cold medication. My finger is almost back to normal with the exception of a lack of fingerprints over a certain area. It was a wonderful place. The only thing that [...]