by Erik Dolson
Now THAT was a success. Planning the tides, the currents, time of departure, time of arrival … I’ll tell you, I have talent. A special talent, in fact …
Somehow, I got it all exactly wrong.
Not a little bit wrong, not off on the shoulder wrong, but current dead on the bow wrong, full flood, … Read more…
by Erik Dolson
This evening I plotted two courses from Friday Harbor to Victoria, B.C. I’ll take the longer one tomorrow, the last day of 2018, and maybe get there sooner.
The route around the southern tip of San Juan Island is 26.2 miles. The route around the north end of the island is 30 miles. … Read more…
by Erik Dolson
Marriott Hotels has selected me for a special, low cost vacation. Windham Hotels wants me to view a resort property and tell all my friends (both of you) how great it was. Credit Card Services is giving me a low, 6 percent interest rate on my Visa and Mastercard balances. To top it off, someone is going to give me better health insurance at NO ADDITIONAL COST!
All that by noon today. By bedtime, especially around the dinner hour, I imagine I’ll have received another four or five spam calls. Up until now I would … Read more…
By Erik Dolson
Merry Christmas.
It’s that time to turn away from the scourge of Trump and look for kinder, gentler souls. Recent news gives us many candidates, but we’ve heard enough about foreigners with names like Putin or Erdoğan or Assad.
Fortunately, we can focus much closer to home on Gary R. Heminger, Chairman and CEO of Marathon Oil, and the Koch brothers, David and Charles,
These oligarchs are or soon will be responsible for killing thousands of innocent people around the world, many right here in the U.S. These three, especially, are … Read more…
By Erik Dolson
Humor is how we communicate our intelligence.
Humor depends on something being out of context, that does not fit into “its” pattern.
Only a Brain that knows the pattern can tell when something does not fit.
Explaining a joke is not funny. Explaining “why” fits the something into another pattern. Those of similar brains who see similar patterns just “get it.”
Pieces out of context are not always funny. Chaos can be terrifying. Clowns.
Do animals laugh?
Of course, when someone does something out of context that they see as … Read more…
By Erik Dolson
There are patterns in the Universe.
The Brain is a pattern-recognition organ.
Universe rewarded genes that produced Brain.
Because Universe has patterns, Universe has Brain. A universe with no patterns, no physics, no gravity, no stars, of Entropy and alone, could have no Brain. A universe without brains could have no patterns. If Brain, then patterns. If patterns, then Brain.
But our Universe has physics. Intelligence is inevitable.
We are not the apex. We are not the only brains.
Humanity occupies a point so small as to be nearly invisible, … Read more…
By Erik Dolson
NASA Chief Jim Bridenstine said that Elon Musk smoking pot on a podcast was “not appropriate,” that it “did not inspire confidence,” and may have prompted a safety review of both Musk’s SpaceX and Boeings United Launch Alliance.
The companies are vying to ferry astronauts into space.
Here’s an alternate point of view, just for discussion. Maybe the NASA chief has it backwards.
by Erik Dolson
Told myself when I stepped foot on the boat last night that I was NOT (all caps, plus italics) going to work on the fireplace. There’s a list of projects from finger tip to elbow and the damn fireplace was NOT (all caps, plus italics) on it.
Sleep comes and goes. I could identify a half dozen reasons on any one night why I’m lying there awake … Read more…
Not much else to say.
By Erik Dolson
This is according to an article in The Economist: “In 2013-16 it produced more of the top 1% most highly cited papers in maths and computing, and more of the 10% most highly cited papers in stem, than any other university in the world … ” according to the article, which can be read here.
