questions, answers, thoughts, theories, observations, speculations, and assorted bits of information.
You can’t be 100% certain. Werner Heisenberg made this point in his experiments with subatomic particles. Heisenberg stated while you can approximate both the velocity and position of a particle at a specific instant in time, it is impossible to exactly measure both. The more tightly you focus in on one measuring one aspect, the less certain you can be about the other. Further, the simple act of measurement itself will alter the outcome. I …read more
I heard a great story by Jeff Brady on NPR while on the way home yesterday. It was about the work of two researchers from Dartmouth who found it odd that ski resorts seemed to report more snowfall than surrounding areas and and steeper increases in snow amounts on weekends. They also found that resorts close to major population centers exaggerated figures even more. These scientists were skeptical about this “weekend snow” effect, and started …read more
One of the best things I discovered in 2009 was Nike+. The ability of this tool to track and then present data about my running thoroughly captivates me. It actually makes running interesting. How far? How fast? How often? How can I do better? Every time I run, Nike+ is adding insight to all if these questions and more. So in 2010 not only will I be using Nike+ to help me train for …read more
Suppose your business sells something to a customer. Following the sale, you gather no information about them. Instead you send the customer out the door and off into the universe, hoping they will come back again someday. In the time that follows, you make no direct or indirect attempt to determine if the customer is happy with the level of service provided, feels good about the purchase, would be inclined to come back or will …read more
LinkedIn is a great tool for keeping track of your contacts, researching individuals and organizations, finding employment and employees, asking questions and getting answers, and better understanding the professional world. As you add followers, it can be a bit of a challenge to keep up with everything. Sure you can check out the weekly summary email of activity in your network, and you can periodically scan your home page to see what your connections are …read more
I have an idea that would help improve the health care system. This idea would dramatically speed the process of diagnosis, reduce unnecessary testing, more quickly identify effective courses of treatment and radically reduce the costs associated with the entirety of it all. I call it User Generated Health Care. The idea is simple as works as follows: You visit the doctor as the result of an unknown problem with your health, or the …read more
Born in 1890, William Lawrence Bragg was the son of a Sir William Henry Bragg, a professor of science and mathematics. So in his work, William Lawrence Bragg was simply carrying on the family business. In 1915 the two father and son shared a Nobel Prize for their work which involved using X-rays to analyze crystal structures. The work they did eventually helped scientists to identify the double helix structure of DNA – earning Crick …read more
What did you say?