Random Thoughts

Be An Expert- How To Simulate Your Own World Cup Projections

The World Cup is fast approaching and with it come no end to projections, estimations and forecasts about who is going to do what.  Using a Bayes analysis, once you reach the semifinal you have a 50 percent chance of being correct- just like flipping a coi ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 8 2014 - 6:00am

Burned Plan

“ The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves ….” Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Act 1, scene 2. Our fire problem has been a long time in the making. It did not happen overnight. We will not fix it overnight, perhaps we never will. Coeur d ...

Blog Post - Norm Benson - Jun 10 2014 - 5:50pm

The Elbow-Lick Of Death

ZOOLOGISTS ANNOUNCED THE discovery of a tiny, super-cute new primate which can kill a human by licking its elbow. I am not making this up.  The new species of loris found in the Philippines has a poison gland at its elbow, says the American Journal of Pri ...

Blog Post - Nury Vittachi - Jun 28 2014 - 11:26am

Going Deep With David Rees- Fun Science For The Family

"Going Deep" With David Rees premieres tonight on National Geographic Channel and if you have little time to decide whether or not to watch it, you are in luck because I can be brief- it's a good show. "Going Deep" is fun for all ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Jul 14 2014 - 7:51pm

Mike Massimino, The First Tweeting Astronaut, Leaves NASA For Academia

Mission Accomplished. Now it's time to go back home. After two space shuttle missions and almost two decades, astronaut Mike Massimino has left NASA for Columbia University in New York. During the final servicing mission of the Hubble Space Telescope ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 30 2014 - 12:57am

Happy 99th Birthday To The Inventor Of The Laser, Charles Townes

Charles Hard Townes (AP Photo) Charles Townes has a lot going for him; he just saw his 99th birthday and 500 people showed up to cheer for him. He has a Nobel prize and a younger wife- Frances is 98. Oh, and he invented the laser, which just about everyon ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Jul 30 2014 - 4:08pm

I'm Marvelous Now- Why I Stopped Being Awesome

George Clooney used to copy my haircuts. People who knew me in the 1990s always marveled at my classic, parted-on-the-side, immaculately coiffed style. It was retro, just like the term "marvelous' is today. Prior to that, I had a classic Caesar n ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Aug 31 2014 - 10:55am

How Chicago Almost Ended Up In Wisconsin

Given its rampant crime, corruption and money issues, a lot of residents of Illinois publicly wish they could give Chicago away. They almost never had it at all. The original proposed northern boundary of Illinois was a straight line from the southernmost ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 14 2014 - 11:30am

No Flatlanders Allowed: Haggis And Whisky Flavored Potato Chips

Mackie's at Taypack Ltd. has been around since 2009 but the joint venture between the Taylors, Perthshire potato farmers, and Mackie's of Scotland,  has finally figured out a way to differentiate themselves from Frito-Lay: they are making potato ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Sep 26 2014 - 5:31pm

Brain Plasticity Tradeoffs and Sascha Vongehr Musician

This may surprise, but Ludwig Wittgenstein, for many the greatest philosopher, or anyway the most eminent exponent of analytic philosophy according to Roger Scruton, maintained that music (!) was the most important to him, not formal logic or philosophy. ...

Blog Post - Sascha Vongehr - Sep 29 2014 - 3:09am