Many of you know that whale oil was used for nighttime lighting in our homes – long before electricity and also before people discovered that oil from the ground, which was discovered after …

A few weeks ago, I tuned in to the weather report. There was a rumor that it was a) going to turn bitterly cold and b) we were going to have lowland snow. Now, I enjoy snow like many people. …

I’m certain that many of you have seen a lot of conservative politicians and conservative radio talk shows talk about the rise in fake news. They complain that the news is, basically, unfair to …

Most of you probably understand when one starts a company, unless you are especially fortunate and have a key customer provide you with funding to accomplish whatever task the customer wants, that …

When we think of big, nothing approaches the scale of the size of the universe. Even if we could travel at a high percentage of the speed of light (186,000 miles/second) it would take 15 billion …

There is a TV show called “Hoarders.” It is about people who have a mental disorder that does not allow them to get rid of anything. You will see someone (usually the real estate agent …

There are things I’ve witnessed in a doctor’s office. None of them were life-threatening, nor improper. They were just funny. First item: My wife does an annual exam (a mammogram) of …

Our constitution framers, who had a great deal of experience with out-of-control governments in Europe, decided that our citizens here in the U.S. should have the right to arm themselves – …

I was thinking about how dramatically the pharmaceutical companies have saved millions of lives – allowing us to recover (and live) quite a bit longer than we might have before modern …

My wife and I decided to stop off in the Fiji Islands on our way back from Australia to the west coast of the U.S. For those of you unfamiliar with Fiji, it is in the far Pacific Ocean between …

OK, over the years I’ve had many different opportunities to get nice orders for my computer company. Here is one actual story, which may be hard to believe. We were in contention for a …

OK –  getting into the Christmas spirit. How do you know it’s time? No. 1: Shopping becomes a contact sport. Now you never ever want to get between a bride-to-be and a …

Just for fun, I thought it would be interesting to look at human activity so stupid, so futile, and so empty of thought, that it should be a learning experience for us all. Let’s start …

There is a difference between intergalactic and interstellar travel. The first is travel between galaxies, while interstellar is travel between one-star system (with planets) and another. …

I’ve been fortunate enough to have traveled all over the world for my computer business. Here are a few stories about those travels. Who is the Duke of Edinburgh? I was walking down a …

In March 2018, I wrote about theoretical physicists’ view of time relative to our Universe (Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time"). This week I decided to write about time …

We are quite fortunate here in the Pacific Northwest in that we don’t have as many problematic bugs as say the Northeast or the Southeast. Mosquitos: While we do have them in our region, …

Most of us are glad the election is over. I know over 50 million people didn’t like the outcome, while about 75 million did like the outcome. Rather than taking sides (and telling you who …

In over 40 years of high-tech work, I’ve watched some great leaders and some not so great. Here are some observations of what I’ve seen. You have to be willing to do it all: …

We have a small family of eagles living in the woods behind our house. Almost every day they come down to the pilings on the water in front of us to fish. I thought about life by watching these …