Here’s a way to turn a negative into a positive. Not standing during the National Anthem is essentially a negative thing, a protest easily misinterpreted as rejecting all sorts of things people hold sacred. Instead, how about expressing a message symbolically? One way would be to hold both hands over your heart, a sign of hope Read More …
ThinkableOrNot.com. Finally decided on a name for my new website. Wasn’t easy, as chronicled in three previous posts (parts one, two and three). Some names I liked a lot, like thinkerer and heystack, were unavailable — or available for some exorbitant fee. We’re talking thousands of dollars. Friends were asked to pick their favorite from a list. Opinions split. Read More …
Sometimes I think we need an English to English translator. Regionalisms … Street Talk … Academic and technical language … You’d have an app that could reword anything from pop music lyrics to Shakespeare in ways you’d understand. Or vice versa. Need to sound super-educated? Or just clever? App would do that. Could call it Read More …
To recap, we all get Googled, so it makes sense to help people find your best you. To that end, I’ve been brainstorming ways to put my full name in a web address, likely through buying a fresh domain. PeterMucha.com is taken, and I’m not looking to buy it from the Mississauga, Ontario, man who Read More …
The creative process out to be simpler. Sometimes, the right answer is just coming out and saying something. But naming is tricky. A product or a brand name wants to be unique, which tends toward the unfamiliar, while being memorable, which tends toward the familiar. You also want something short and easy to say, better Read More …
Look, I’m not a brand. Far from it. But, for professional reasons, I realize it’d be useful to have more of an online identity. Those agents who got a draft of my children’s picture book, what did they likely do? Googled me. Well, they sure learned a lot about a mathematics professor at UNC Chapel Hill. He’s all Read More …
UPDATE Jan. 27, 2015: Physicist spells out a way to make footballs “shrivel to completely flat after cooling.” ORIGINAL POST The New England Patriots could have legally rigged footballs to wind up underinflated. Patriots head coach Bill Bellichick spelled out much of this scenario in a news conference much of the media apparently failed to understand. He Read More …
Let the resurrection begin. After 25 years at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and two more at Philly.com, I finally totally on my own, ready to share, ready to dare, ready to stare .. at the walls, if you know what I mean. Over the last six or years since I last blogged, I’ve learned a lot Read More …
While cooking spinach for an omelet, i thought: Why can’t this stuff grow on trees? Indeed, when you think about it, tree leaves might be the most abundant “vegetable” there is. Except you can’t eat them! Just imagine if some tree like a maple were genetically engineering so that its leaves were nutritious and tasty! Good grief! We’d increase Read More …
More than two million homes are expected to be foreclosed this year. What a waste. All because the owners can’t affort the particular payment on that house. Hmm. So what if we switched the people and the houses? Orchestrated a kind of mortgage musical chairs? Take Joe. Can’t afford his $600,000 house. But he could afford the Read More …
We’ve all heard of appetite suppressants, or drugs that reduce desire. But what if the “gotta have it” process is a two-part thing? One chemical process produces desire. But it’s a separate deal that makes us feel rotten when the desire isn’t satisfied. After all, you don’t feel rotten as soon as you desire, right? Read More …
String theorists investigate the possibility that the universe has more than three dimensions of space and one of time. Positing more dimensions (usually curled up in tiny spaces) yields equations that, in some sets, describe facets of the universe very well. Problem is, as I foggily understand it, is that the possibilities are so astronomical (excuse Read More …
OK, guilty as charged! If you’re not talking, I am. Which means no silences. This is crazy. It’s tough to talk and think at the same time. It’s tough to listen and think too. So talk a little, then wait. A good listener will soon say something smart!
Now I know this will sound a little … nuts / spacey / new agey / silly … you take your pick. But I had an interesting experience today. While in a store, I felt myself get quiet. Now I’m not saying relaxed or peaceful. Or mindless or egoless. No, I was just my normal self. Read More …
The other day my daughter, or someone she was reading, likened the future of newspapers to the fate of milkmen. They couldn’t imagine the service would fade away, but it did. Radio dramas were once popular, too, but they’re now a relic too. But in these examples is kind of buried a lesson for newspapers: Read More …