Saturday, January 31, 2015

Fwd: Fax

'Perhaps it is through this juxtaposition of ancient and modern that Japan and Israel, two of the most advanced high-tech producers in the world, share an anachronistic idiosyncrasy: the fax machine.


In most places, the fax machine has been consigned to the relic status of mimeographs machines and floppy disks, but both Israel and Japan continue to use that cutting edge 1980s technology well into the 21st century.

Yet in the two countries, the reasons for continued use of a device The New York Times described a decade ago as "technology that refuses to die" are starkly different…'

 

http://www.jpost.com/Business/Business-Features/Israel-and-Japan-A-fax-made-in-heaven-388350


Wednesday, December 17, 2014

One of the most famous speeches ever. (Shakespeare)

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

What is our obsession with bubble wrap?

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Fwd: Steffen in the news again

Jason Steffen is a P.H.D in Physics who used to sit in the cube next to me when I worked at L-3 Communications,  but he later took a job with NASA.  He has gained some minor fame for coming up with a better way to board passengers on airplanes.  This method was tested on a NOVA TV program, and I saw him on this program recently.

'I'm currently a research professor at the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) at Northwestern University. My research includes exoplanets, experimental searches for axion-like particles, dark energy, gravitation, and some other odds and ends. I obtained my B.S. in physics and mathematics from Weber State University (Ogden, UT) and my Ph.D. in physics from the University of Washington (Seattle).'