In one of his legendary lectures on science, Richard Feynman said that the layman has “as much right as anyone else, upon hearing about the experiments — but be patient and listen to all the evidence — to judge whether a sensible conclusion has been arrived at.” He added: “The experts who are leading you…

The government shutdown and the arguments over just how much to grow government spending seem to prove the Shirky Principle. Have you heard of it? In 2010, Clay Shirky was giving a speech and, while talking about his book Cognitive Surplus, said, “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.”…

When Louis XIV’s ego demanded fountains for Versailles that sprayed a “god-like mist,” his engineers had to come up with these super-tiny valves and a new kind of compression system. Long after, those same innovations would find their way into early versions of the carburetor, where they were used to turn gasoline into a fine,…

Many of us have digestion problems, and some have them all their lives. Why do I know? Just walk up and down the aisle of your local pharmacy/convenience store. There must be hundreds of synthetic, high-profit products that purport to help your stomach. They are beautifully packaged, but most of them are worse than worthless.…

Do you use a computer… have a smartphone… use a credit card? Or maybe you just walk around in public occasionally? Then, without realizing it, you’re being manipulated to do things you might not want do, or not do things you might prefer to do. It’s all part of the grand scheme of manipulation called…

“If the 20th century ran on oil and steel, the 21st century runs on compute and the minerals that feed it.” So declared U.S. Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, Jacob Helberg, as part of the State Department’s announcement of Pax Silica, the new flagship initiative for artificial intelligence (AI) and supply chain security. If that’s…

Mold spores occur all around us, even in the air. Some mold growths we can see but many are invisible. They come in all colors — including black, brown, yellow, pink, green — and hundreds of different types. They can cause structural damage to the surfaces they attach to and release toxic gases in the…

Elon Musk has been talking about “Universal High Income,” which he says will eventually be paid to citizens once AI supplants everyone from their jobs. I found myself wanting to know more about the controversy surrounding government-supplied income, usually called “Universal Basic Income.” One research note led to another, and before long, we were in…

Modern warfare arrives with two dimensions. One is still the old war machine that now spends nearly a trillion dollars in upkeep each fiscal year, and goes abroad seeking new enemies so as to justify more expenditures on new and bigger weapons. It is visible and ongoing, although the mainstream media rarely talk about the…

Make yourself a New Year’s resolution to improve your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio for better health… and if you take the synthetic salicylate product known as aspirin, you must be careful, or you could be undoing all your hard work. Research proves without a doubt that heart attacks and strokes are greatly reduced, up to…