Latest posts
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The Headlines and the Rest of the Day
A major story can fill the news while someone is deciding what to make for dinner. There are still groceries to buy, dishes to wash, and people to meet. Those things can seem oddly small beside whatever is leading the news. But they are also what a day consists of. Life still goes on, to…
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Just Give Me a START Button
All I want from a microwave is one button: START. Put the food in. Press START. Heat the food. Instead, I get power levels, presets, clocks, timers, and a control panel that looks like it needs its own instruction manual. I’m sure somebody uses all those features. Maybe there’s someone somewhere scheduling Tuesday’s soup like…
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Jedi or Sith on Your Five-Minute Break?
There’s a moment in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace when the lightsaber fight comes to a sudden stop. An energy barrier separates Darth Maul from Qui-Gon Jinn. Darth Maul paces back and forth, waiting for the fight to resume. Qui-Gon kneels quietly, almost as though he’s meditating. They’re both waiting for the barriers to open,…
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The Towel Rack Is a Detour
Picture a man finishing his shower and throwing his towel straight onto the floor. The towel rack is right there. He hasn’t forgotten it. He’s decided to skip it. When he hangs the towel on the rack, it slips off and ends up on the floor anyway. So he cuts out the middle step and…
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Rhythm Guitarists and Football Players
Imagine judging every football player by how well they throw a spiral. Some very good linemen would suddenly be having a difficult job interview. So why judge a guitarist by their solos? In plenty of songs, a guitarist spends far more time playing rhythm than taking a solo. The solo gets its moment, but there’s…
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Are Science and Statistics Doing the Same Thing?
Statistical inquiry and scientific inquiry have a lot in common. Both ask questions, work with evidence, and try to make sense of what they find. That resemblance raises an interesting question: are they doing the same thing, or does each contribute something different? Rather than argue it in the abstract, let’s test it on a…
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Infinity Is Infinite
Picture the number line. Start at zero and walk to the right. 1, 2, 3, 4. You can keep going, and there’s never a last number. Someone can always say “plus one” and you’ve got a new one. Now go back through zero and walk the other way. −1, −2, −3, −4. Same thing. No…
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Why Chicken Feet?
Most Westerners probably look at chicken feet and think there is no way they could taste good. They are just too off-putting. You see the claws, the bones, the shape of the foot, and your mind has already decided what the experience is going to be before you have even tried it. But then you…