DUBNER: I think the true story was that they had these kind of fancy, mechanical pencils that cost much more than a regular pencil. And when the budget item was noticed in the NASA budget, someone flipped out and said, “Whoa, that’s a lot to spend for mechanical pencils!” And so...
“we will need to make sure legal requirements are at least similar across the board” Legal requirements are something engineers don’t like to think too much about: they get in the way of progress and are generally perceived as a pain in the nether regions. There are some disparaging id...
Engelbart’s entire career was based on an epiphany he had in the spring of 1951. He had just gotten engaged and was working at NACA, the precursor to NASA, in Mountain View, California. He’d come a long way from his Depression-era childhood in rural Oregon, where he’d spend his d...
The Boy Who Knew Too Much (1994) Bart witnesses the alleged assault of a waiter by Mayor Quimby's nephew, but coming forward will mean admitting to skipping class and facing the consequences. Lady Bouvier's Lover (1994) Grampa falls in love with Marge's mother, but must compete with ...
4. Bring the Joy Although it might seem like common sense, happy and excited people are more productive. How much more productive? Well, according to a study compiled by Professor Andrew Oswald, Dr. Eugenio Proto and Dr. Daniel Sgroi from the Department of Economics at the University of War...
some mistakes occur. For example, one DNA base in a gene might get substituted for another. This is called amutation(specifically apoint mutation) or variation in the gene. Because the genetic code has built-in redundancies, this mistake might not have much effect on the protein made by the...
the main and tail rotors. The transmission's main gearbox steps down the speed of the main rotor so it doesn't rotate as rapidly as the engine shaft. A second gearbox does the same for the tail rotor, although the tail rotor, being much smaller, can rotate faster than the main rotor....
Indeed, market and religious logic have spurred much writing on the issue of Islamic sartorial choice. Researchers have explored the paradox of women trying to practice modesty on the one hand and express overt vanity on the other, as observed among Arab women (Sobh et al. 2012). Here, the...
How much more could you get done if you completed all of your required reading in 1/3 or 1/5 the time? Increasing reading speed is a process of controlling fine motor movement—period. This post is a condensed overview of principles I taught to undergraduates at Princeton University in 1998...
How much did that site cost you? The cost of the web site can now be broken down to three: The domain name: $10-$30 per year. Web hosting package: about $100 per year. The services of the web developer. Letting the world know of your web site ...