The New York Times has a fantastic series titled "Your Brain on Computers." I've only read a couple of the articles in this series, but they seem to discuss a tendency for our minds to be overwhelmed with the immense amount of stimulation from electronics, the internet, social networking, all those glorified gizmos of the 21st Century. The ( Read more... )

 I was walking right outside of the Milton Gates near my lab the other evening. There was a young lady in a motorized wheelchair strumming down the sidewalk in the other direction past me. By the time I thought twice about the fact that the sidewalk was blocked off farther down from her because of utility repairs, the girl had already saw the ( Read more... )

My research is frustrating. Power engineering is such an unfamiliar realm of study for me - still. My undergrad electrical engineering background did not really cover concepts of power very in-depth; very few undergrad electrical engineering programs do, unfortunately. The concepts of power converters and power system dynamics fascinate me. But ( Read more... )

Neither Gmail nor Facebook are working for me right now. I feel like a chicken with its head cut off right now. I wonder if this is what the end of the world will be like. Just a vast emptiness of server error messages and blank internet browsers. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll actually get to see some impressive fireball or tsunami or some other ( Read more... )

Thank goodness for the Chinese. They seem to be capable of picking up the slack when the US is incapable of being the renowned leader in science, technology, and commonsense that it once was.

China is putting more money into alternative energy development, and is putting FAR more money into developing 21-century infrastructure (e.g. high-speed rail ( Read more... )

Today was such a beautiful day in the city of Montreal.  The first day of the year during which temperatures were above 20 degrees (70F).  Seems like everyone in Montreal decided to emerge from hibernation at once on this gorgeous day.  So... what better to do on a day like this than to wander throughout the city and see it in its full beauty ( Read more... )

I've seen a lot of neat articles about integrating our highways, power transmission lines, and potential future transit railways into combined conduits that crisscross the country like a unified nervous system and skeleton that support our nation's infrastructure.  But, this has to be the coolest type of idea I've seen.  Glass roadways that ( Read more... )

Complex life discovered on distant planet
Now, I'm not sure if I'm understanding this correctly, but, from what I do understand, it seems that we have actually found life on another planet!  (Correct me if I'm wrong.)  I saw the last hour of this special, called Alien Planeton the Discovery Channel.  Scientists are planning to send (or ( Read more... )