Author Archives: Chris

Drug company cluelessness

Posted on September 24, 2011 by Chris

I’m reading Mukherjee’s “Emperor of all Maladies, a biography of cancer” and am impressed yet again by the clueless nature of drug companies. So often the drug companies resist developing a drug that turns out to be a blockbuster, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Science and Medicine | Leave a comment

How to run faster than you can run

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Chris

The world racing authorities have decided that women’s running records have to be set in women-only races. That is to keep them from being paced by generally faster men. What difference should that make? Another recent study cited in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Brain Hacking, Diet and Exercise, Science and Medicine | Leave a comment

“Debriefing” after trauma actually increases PTSD

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Chris

An interesting article in Scientific American about the change in how people are helped in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event. It used to be the standard practice (and still is, unfortunately, for some psychologists) to engage in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Brain Hacking, Neuroscience and Psychology, Science and Medicine | Leave a comment

Solving the question of free will

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Chris

Interesting article in the New York Times magazine about decision fatigue. The research suggests that any decisions you make take something out of you, which is why people can be wiped out after a day of shopping or making a … Continue reading →

Posted in Brain Hacking, Neuroscience and Psychology | Leave a comment

Musings on the physics of baseball

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Chris

I was just reading that Jose Bautista, the current MBL home run leader has popped 31 home runs, well behind the 50 or so that Mark McGuire was hitting by this time of year during the height of the Steroid … Continue reading →

Posted in Current History, Play, Science and Medicine | Leave a comment

Where reading is going

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Chris

Reader’s digest was a powerhouse of its time. It brought together the best of a certain type of published material, so that people could sample a world of articles (often in condensed form, one of the reasons the magazine was … Continue reading →

Posted in Publishing and Journalism | Leave a comment

The big sports competition: live versus fake

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Chris

It’s been a nice habit recently to get up early and watch Wimbledon tennis before work. So it was frustrating this morning to find that the Sharapova-Lisicki match was nowhere to be found. I finally figured out why. NBC is … Continue reading →

Posted in Current History | Leave a comment

A new advance for an old technology: steel

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Chris

I’ve long been fascinated by the process of making steel and the huge role it played in the economic history of the world, when inventions like the Bessemer process made it economical to produce steel on a large scale. A … Continue reading →

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Slash and crash

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Chris

Beautiful big boats shredding SF Bay and nearly pitchpoling. Yeah!

Posted in Adrenalin | Leave a comment

Climate change is now

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Chris

Summer is here, and in many places people are feeling the heat. But a Stanford study says it will get worse. The study says that in the near future, in many places, the coolest summers will be hotter than the … Continue reading →

Posted in Current History, Science and Medicine | Leave a comment