2010 July: "Gusher" -- British Petroleum and five US states have a problem.
BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a problem. It's causing significant environmental and economic problems along the US Gulf coast. Solutions will be expensive, difficult to implement, and slow in coming.
2010 June: "Black Tie" -- An informal discussion of formal logic.
Conversation can be "derailed", if that is the right word, by an unexpected answer to a question. Unexpected, however, doesn't mean wrong.
2010 May: "Physics, Math, & Information" -- Musings about cosmology, et al.
What is the universe made of? How do we know? It depends on who you talk to. Lots of people have had things to say about this fundamental topic of cosmology and existence. Here are some informal musings about this mind-bending topic.
2010 April: "It's the Scope, Creep!" -- About software development and what users really want.
Writing software is difficult and too often unpredictable. Clients tend to have skewed perceptions of the difficulty involved and usually are willing to pay for only what they have agreed to -- i.e. the "scope" of the project. How do you keep clients happy, projects on track, and get paid well? That's the right question!
2010 March: "On the Edge" -- My annual return to the Edge Foundation's World Question.
The Edge Foundation's World Question for 2010 is "How is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?" As usual, this year's collection of 172 answers are thought provoking. I've provided a few dramatically summarized examples (that I hope are not too out-of-context), with some additional comments of my own.
2010 February: "Off by One" -- A rant about innumeracy in everyday life.
I've recently encountered a number of examples of people misunderstanding (and, therefore, mis-using) mathematical concepts in ways that I find about as comfortable as fingernails on a chalk board. People who agree with me will find this amusing and perhaps interesting. Those who don't agree with me will wonder what I'm going on about.
Diabologic articles published during 2010; 2009; 2008; 2007; 2006; 2005;