Psychotic Knowledge

I was initially intrigued by an article called The Ascendance of Psychotic Knowledge until the jarring mention of (space?) aliens in para. 3, which was far too early to be completely sidetracked. The writers at Reality Sandwich are often more than a little flaky, but I still want to consider the nature of the author’s [...]

Vehicle Platooning

The Houston Chronicle reports (quite briefly) on Volvo’s new technology for creating an automobile road train system that uses wireless interconnectivity to join a series of enabled cars in autodrive behind a human-driven lead vehicle. The technology is also called auto platooning. Naturally, the gee whiz amazement factor extinguishes any possibility of actual critical analysis, [...]

Contempt for Death

Foreknowledge of death has been a perennial subject of contemplation for humanity, which is expressed in a variety of ways as we each wend our ways through life. In youth, a false sense of immortality often leads to heedless risk-taking. In midlife, crises typically occur as we become more fully aware of death stalking us [...]

Skyscraper Flattery

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, China is reportedly about to embark on the mother of all fan projects: copying the Burj Khalifa (formerly the Burg Dubai, just as the Willis Tower was formerly the Sears Tower). I’ve blogged before about copying the twisted building design but left the topic of skyscrapers alone [...]