An interesting observation: The security guards at Ames act far more friendly when I ride in on a bike than when I’m in a car. I say the same things in the same manner (I believe) but the guards are far more jovial when I’m on a bike. There could,... [Read More]

The NewSpace 2013 conference gave me a lot to think about, but more than anything, it hammered home the fact that while we would like to think otherwise, humans are driven by their visceral feelings. At the conference, I listened to several talks and had many conversations where space exploration... [Read More]

I find the history of technology fascinating. It’s especially satisfying because more than any other area of history I can see patterns repeated over and over again with relatively little change through time.  One of these trends is the ability of small, incremental innovations to lead to a discrete technological... [Read More]

Tl;dr: For the most part this post is a ranty consumer advocacy warning about my experience with Time Warner Cable, but I attempt to tie it back to regularly scheduled blog topics with a bigger point about accountability at the end.  At the end of June, I received an Internet... [Read More]

Saturday Stories! Incendiary flying animals as weapons are apparently not new  Speaking of things that seem way over the Tinfoil Hat Line - but we'll see. NIAC funded projects: very cool, but still an example of government picking winners and losers I'm surprised the supreme court isn't getting in on... [Read More]