Crime Scene Investigation: Are You Guilty of Profiling?
It’s Labor Day weekend, and you’ve escaped the crowds in the city to spend time with friends on Long Island. After catching up on the latest news over a leisurely meal, you settle in on the couch downstairs, shrugging off the weight of a rigorous work week and settling into what promises to be a relaxing weekend. Read more »
Abracadabra! Why You Think Magic is Real
Poof!
The bunny disappears.
The scarf turns into a dove.
The man’s mutilated dollar is crispy-new.
Unless you’ve been put under a spell by the Harry Potter craze, you probably don’t believe these magic tricks are real. But-admit it-even when you think you’ve got it all figured out (you skeptic, you), the magician surprises you again. Read more »
Roadkill Collector
Every morning, you wake up at the crack of dawn, slug down a cup of black coffee, and take to the busy highways of North America. While other people zoom back and forth on their way to plush office jobs, you scrape the mangled carcasses of deer, raccoons, even bunnies off the roads all day long. This isn’t a job for just anyone-it takes a hero like you. It takes a roadkill collector.
You’re not likely to quit your day job to pursue a life of roadkill removal, but Discovery Channel star Mike Rowe makes it his job to try out such slimy professions. Why don’t you follow his example? You might say it’s because of the sweat and sludge, but cognitive scientists would say it’s because of your brain. Read more »
“The Honey Pot” – A Lesson in Creativity & Diversity
A number of years ago, Pacific Power and Light (PP&L), which serves many customers in the Cascade Mountains, was faced with solving an on-going problem that resulted in both an undesirable and unsafe job situation for the PP&L linemen.
In the Pacific Northwest, there are a number of ice storms in the fall and spring. These storms result in the accumulation of a significant ice load accumulating on the power transmission lines. If not removed, this ice will accumulate to the point that the lines will be over-stressed and break. The method used to remove the ice was to send linemen out into the field, have them climb the icy poles and towers and shake the lines with long poles hooked at one end. The linemen hated this job because it meant they would have to go into the woods, climb poles and towers, and shake the lines under extremely unpleasant conditions. A number of them were hurt when they fell from the icy poles and towers. Read more »
Simple Naked Singularities
“It’s pretty simple, ” my son Nicholas said matter-of-factly as he explained the concept of naked singularities. I don’t remember much else of the conversation except words like “black hole” and sucked.” And before your mind goes too deeply into the gutter a naked singularity is a space-time phenomenon, not something out of a middle school sex education class. Oh, I also remember pondering if I was smarter than an 8th grader (bet that same thought is bouncing in your head right now as well).
What struck me as my son talked about the topic of his science class project was his use of the word “simple” in explaining something that defies Einstein’s theory of relativity. Indeed, he made the phenomenon sound simple, though I suspect it is much more complex. He probably thought his old man’s brain would disintegrate into a dust pile if he went into any detail. He’s probably right. When it comes to naked singularities simple will do. Read more »
What Do You See?
What Do You See?
Old or Young Girl
-If you see an old lady, can you also see a young lady?
-If you see a young lady, can you also see an old lady? Read more »
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