OK, so I’m still catching up on my reading. Between the novels and technical reading that I do (about 150 journals and four books a month, plus tables of contents of a hundred or two other journals), I try to read non-fiction. And, I don’t always get to the books when they first come out.
Continue reading Low-hanging Fruit?
If you are like me, you have ideas that you want to share with the world each and every day. (OK, sometimes each and every hour…But, I digress.) The concept of starting a new enterprise is terribly exciting- and daunting. One of the primary ways you (and I) can keep it from being overwhelming is to prepare your business plan. Wait—don’t rush off. Before you can do even that, you must determine what it is you plan to do- and if you really are prepared to take the enterprise to a certain level.
Continue reading Introducing the next gazillionaire…
Counting Social Security and Medicare, the US Government spend 20 cents of every dollar to fund the Defense Department. And, worse yet, almost a nickel of the total budget is assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan. And, the $ 700 billion defense budget is the same as China, France, Russia, Japan, Germany, India, Canada, Israel and NINE (9) other countries spend … combined together.
Continue reading Budget Malarkey
Years ago, we found multiple uses for a microbe that we had been manufacturing. It would increase the amount of synthetic snow, so less refrigeration power was needed to “powder the slopes”. The same microbe, when injected into Elm trees arrested a disease that was devouring the entire population. Unfortunately, by the time we were done with our studies, there weren’t enough trees left to support a commercial product.
Continue reading Shh. We really don’t want to talk about this.
We hear it all the time- government kills jobs. Mostly because the Citizen’s United decision lets anyone with money say what they want on TV and radio- even if it’s an outright lie.
Continue reading Let’s Kill Jobs!
You know how everyone tells you that social media is critical for success in today’s business market. Well, I will, too- but for completely different reasons. And, with a more focused result in mind.
Continue reading You, too, Roy?
You know the military is really keen on drones. It offers them unique possibilities to track (and kill) enemy combatants without putting any troops at risk. Of course, it also provide the opportunity to err and kill civilians. Or, to kill civilians who may be contiguous to the enemy the military wishes to eradicate.
Continue reading Look. Up in the Sky. It’s a bird. No, it’s a plane. Really- it’s a drone!
Shell-shocked. That in a nutshell describes the American citizenry nowadays. OK, not the 1%-ers, but everyone else. They may be employed, but they know someone who’s been laid off. They are working more hours than before- and not being paid for them- because they fear they will be laid off, too. Their salaries have been stagnant. Home values- that’s an oxymoron. The middle class folks may be paying more for their health insurance and for higher deductibles, too, which means even less available income.
Continue reading Shell-shocked
I’ve written about 3D printing for medical applications. And, we are making progress. But, the biggest issue precluding their become a reality to produce viable organs is the need to provide blood and nutrients- i.e., perfusion. That’s why folks have developed scaffolding systems (for information on scaffolding, click here) to develop the network of blood vessels necessary. Once that threshold is crossed, organs like the bioartificial kidney would be possible (as described here). The issue is generally that constructing these hollow channels into blood vessels tend to leak or rupture at the structural seams.
Continue reading One small step. One critical step.
So, there’s even more information we can learn from the Teresa Sullivan situation. (There was a four part series on management lessons we can draw upon from the UVA/Sullivan fiasco that started on 16 July.) It seems that the Virginia governor has learned something, too. That it’s high time that the Board of Visitors for UVA- as well as the other state universities (George Mason, Virginia Polytech, James Madison, and William & Mary), plus a slew of state colleges- to be populated with educators!
Continue reading A Codicil to the UVA Saga
