Dear Internet, I am not sure whose idea it was to make me choose impossible to remember passwords making it inevitable that I will forget them – but it was a silly idea. But not nearly as silly as letting … Continue reading →

I don’t know why but Pat Robertson is suddenly on my TV and he and his co-host are taking it in turn to say things like: I am sensing that one of our viewers has a torn meniscus but God … Continue reading →

Regular readers know that I am a big fan of Better Explained in which Kalid makes mathematical ideas accessible. Today’s installment: Integration is just multiplication when one of the operands is changing. Most people grok integration as area under a … Continue reading →

If you have ever had a computer problem and googled it, you’ll know that the advice you find will be mixed. When I couldn’t get my hp photosmart 3750 printer working with my mac I tried several zany ideas. Download … Continue reading →

In 2002, Santa Clara passed an initiative that raised a fee $20 per year per household for open spaces and recreation. It passed by a clear majority. Fast forward and a group (I think their official name is Mr and … Continue reading →

And so can you (with the LA Times’s handy-dandy online budget balancer) Here’s how I did it (I cover the last billion with borrowing): See the whole thing here.

Here’s a civic dilemma for you. Santa Clara wanted to set aside some open space for recreation and the general enjoyment of the people and put an initiative on the ballot to raise the funds. It passed. But the California … Continue reading →

Just how beautiful is everyone’s second favourite planet? The BBC has the answer: a lot.

The Edge has an article describing research into how the brain reconstructs the passage of time from imperfect clues from the senses. This is the problem of temporal binding: the assignment of the correct timing of events in the world. … Continue reading →

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