Category: Goof

There was a sudden rumbling noise, and mild shaking lasting a couple of seconds, max. As it was happening, at least two different co-workers called out "Earthquake!", cheerfully. Immediately I went to the usgs.gov site to make sure - and it was this one. I was chuffed - finally! You see, I moved to the… Continue reading First earthquake →

Since I'm leaving the bigcorp I'm also leaving the bigcorp's gym, so I bought a three-year membership to 24-Hour Fitness. (I hope that this does not show insufficent optimism about the startup's chances - if we have our own gym in our own large corporate campus before three years from now, I guess I'll just… Continue reading Card “activation” as a survey tool →

The cool thing about traveling is that you meet people totally unlike yourself. That almost makes up for me sitting here waiting in Las Vegas for the flight that's three hours after the connecting flight I almost made.... The Twins On my flight from San Jose to Chicago, my seat assignment was a middle seat… Continue reading Traveling companions →

Having already revealed myself to be a grumpus about language, let's do one on the quantitative side of the aisle so that no one thinks that I'm not broad-minded in my grumpiness. This one comes to me via BoingBoing. It's a Wired article purporting to show you that the dangers of terrorism are way overblown,… Continue reading The odds of living through tomorrow: 100% (from past experience) →

I usually try to suppress my persnickety Mr. Language Person tendencies, but here I go.... "Defuse" and "diffuse" are different words. They've got a lot in common, because they each have precise physical/real-world meanings, though they're both more often used metaphorically. "Defuse" originally referred to removing the fuse from a bomb, rendering it harmless. Metaphorically,… Continue reading Defuse/diffuse, rein/reign →

Like when driving away from my financial institution after making a large deposit, I think to myself, happily, "That's like money in the bank!" Or like when contemplating some disagreeable mode of death, and thinking about how determined I am not to go out that way, I think "Over my dead body!" Or like when… Continue reading Overly literal metaphors →

Don't you love it when a Wikipedia article gives you interesting pointers to exciting things that happened in, say, February 2004....?

Way back in the 70's, science fiction writer Larry Niven made the following prediction (and built some plots around it as well): there's a technological race between artificial human organs and organ transplantation, and if transplantation wins, then a connection with capital punishment is inevitable. In fact, transplantation needs will become a force for more… Continue reading Capital punishment and organ transplantation →

I loved this lead-in sentence from a Slate piece on the (retired) military's revolt against Rumsfeld: "It's an odd thought, but a military coup in this country right now would probably have a moderating influence."

First of all, I must rate the WebmasterWorld conference on the most basic needs: Wifi 9/10, power 5/10 (outlets at the edges), coffee 5/10 (far away and infrequent). The opening talk was by Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Point (which I've read), Blink (which I haven't)), and unfortunately for me, it was all rehashed Tipping Point. Still,… Continue reading WMW Day 1, Malcolm Gladwell talk →