Search Results for: cyber

More on cyberthreats

Cyberthreats? They’re an undercurrent throughout the newspapers and other print media, broadcast news, and the internet itself. The most ominous part of the discussions we find there? The subtext…an almost universal sense that even experts don’t know where things are … Continue reading

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Disaster management: cyber-threats

Cyber-threats? Nasty. Different. And a focus at this year’s World Conference on Disaster Management. Let’s start with some background  – a little more than usual. Struggling to cope with volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, drought, and storms? Looking for advice? Wondering … Continue reading

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Existential threats, and human superpowers.

To be human these days is to have a lot to worry about. News media play into this mindset. Joel Achenbach’s recent post, appearing in yesterday’s print edition of The Washington Post Magazine, provides a particularly thoughtful and comprehensive example. … Continue reading

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The right kind of national conversation.

“Leaders spend 80% of their time on problems, and 20% of their time on opportunities. They should reverse that ratio.” [1] The Pareto principle (or more informally, “the 80-20 rule”) has been around for a long time, though not always … Continue reading

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Look to the little grey cells.

“It is the little grey cells, mon ami, on which one must rely.”– Hercule Poirot (speaking literally under the authority of Agatha Christie). Streaming video has made binge-watching a thing. But covid-19 has taken binge-watching viral[1]. Deprived of dining out, travel, … Continue reading

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Keep your eye on the (climate-change) ball.

“The trick is this: keep your eye on the ball. Even when you can’t see the ball”– Tom Robbins In today’s all-covid, all-the-time world, coronavirus images such as that shown here have replaced the happy-face as the emoticon of choice. … Continue reading

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Open access journals. Part 3.

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”– Exodus 20:16 KJV “In war the first casualty is the truth.”– attributed variously, in slightly different forms. “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard … Continue reading

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What scientists want.

“Lastly, I would address one general admonition to all — that they consider what are the true ends of knowledge, and that they seek it not either for pleasure of the mind, or for contention, or for superiority to others, … Continue reading

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July 4, then and now.

“…And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”  – concluding words of the Declaration of Independence Here’s … Continue reading

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“Human flight” on the 21st-century Real World? 2. Think like the Wright brothers, not like Samuel Langley.

Wilbur and Orville Wright lived at a time in history when inventors of every stripe were feverishly building flying machines. Americans were particularly focused on the efforts of Samuel Langley, then Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. It was widely assumed … Continue reading

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