Category: Science and Technology

Relooking and Rethinking the Arts

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New Technologies and Approaches Lead to New Perspectives

The van Gogh Effect

Many of you are probably aware that something of a phenomenon launched last year with some high-tech based shows around Vincent van Gogh and his work. One such exhibit opened, finding much commercial success and attention. As such things go, several more variations opened all around the country. There must be at least a half-dozen of them now, with spin offs coming along built around other artists.

We were curious enough to sign up for one a few months ago in a city not too far away from us,

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A Sampler of Some Fine Writing and Thinking

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Enjoy These Varied and Well-Done Writings

 

Such a Buffet

As much as we all curse the internet (often with good reason), one has to admit it makes available to us an astounding volume and variety of information, thought, wonder, and amusement. Sure, a lot of what is out there is an embarrassment to our species. But there also is quite a lot worthy of our time and attention.

Allow me to share with you a few I have enjoyed of late. I hope you will as well.

Plants Communicate – A Lot

We have known for some time now that the plant world is no near as inanimate as once thought.

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Tantalizing Tidbits of Technology

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A Half-Dozen Technology Good News Stories

 

Checking Back in on Some Old Friends, and Some New Ones

From politics to climate to pandemics, we have no shortage of discouraging or downright scary reading. As I do from time to time, I thought we might all enjoy a little change of pace today. As regular readers know, this site has regularly dedicated space to hopeful advances in science and technology.

Often, I have cited promising new advances that are in the “we hope so, but too early to tell” category.

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People are Confused About COVID Guidance?

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 Really, Folks? The Guidance Has Been Pretty Consistent. Changes Match the Changing Virus

The Snivel We Hear

 OK, snivel is admittedly a snarky word to start off this conversation, but it really does seem to me that a lot of people, the media in particular, is regularly crying out that there is so much guidance from so many sources, always in a state of flux. As a result, people are confused and don’t know what is expected of them.

To which I say, Poppycock. Yes, there is a lot of information out there,

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The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

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This Week the Blackberry Died – A Lesson for Everyone

Remember the Blackberry?

By the time you read this, any Blackberry phones out in the world using the Blackberry operating system will have died a quiet and ignoble death. Effective January 5, Blackberry pulled the plug. They still have a few units out there using Android systems, but essentially, they are out of the smart phone business.

In the very earliest stages of enhanced electronic communications – what eventually became smart phones – the Blackberry was the top of the line by far.

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What Would You Put in a Time Capsule?

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The History of These is Fascinating

 

Why Do These Things?

They seem to have some popularity throughout the ages. One could even say they are… timeless.

Time capsules have been in the news lately. Not one, but two were found under a statue of Robert E. Lee that was recently removed in Virginia. Here in my hometown, one was unearthed a few months ago, also from a site that once hosted a statue of a civil war figure.

It is not hard to find news items and historical write ups around the world and through the ages of such capsules being implanted,

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Let Us Reflect in Wonder & Hope for the James Webb Space Telescope

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“We’ve Never Done Anything Like Any of This” – A Project Engineer

Son of Hubble

The Hubble Telescope has been the most amazing, gratifying, useful thing of modern science. Off to a rough start with lenses imprecisely ground (an error resulting in one part of the team using meters, the other using inches. Imagine that.). But all was well once an equally amazing rescue mission was launched,  installing “contact lenses” on the telescope, with perfect results as an outcome.

I hit the Hubble web site and similar sites regularly, still amazed at the science and the beauty just waiting for you almost every day.

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Why the Chip Shortage is So Important

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This is a Vulnerability. It is Also a World-Class Opportunity

 

A Chip! A Chip! My Kingdom for a Chip!

All due apologies to William Shakespeare and King Richard III for the borrowed line above. It seems to fit exactly how a lot of people feel about this global shortage of computer chips we have all been hearing about over the last few months.

The shortage truly is global, in both geographical terms and in terms of what systems are affected. People are waiting for months to get a new car because automakers cannot get the chips needed.

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Sharing Some Good News

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Synopsis and Links to Encouraging and Inspiring Articles

Cheer Up!

Goodness knows we have had more than our share of discouraging or unnerving news of late, especially in the political realm. OK, also in the social realm, climate, weather, medical, economics….

We could use some good news.

Take heart. I am about to share a short synopsis with links of six recent stories that offer hope and encouragement. Most are based in science or medicine, but a couple are just about folks who decided to have lives well lived; in one story,

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Is There Anything in Transportation Better Than a Train Ride?

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No. There is Not Anything Even Close.

A Life-Long Love Affair Continues

I suppose I tipped my hand a bit in the opening lines for this post. I do indeed love just about everything related to trains. There have been times when AMTRAK tested that love mightily (more on that later, with  good news).

Much of my life has been spent in one form of transit or another. A lot of it in airplanes (sometimes landing with them, sometimes jumping out before they landed). More miles than I can count on roads and highways,

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