When the Past Is Prologue Humans don’t see threats until they’re kicking at the door. But that does not mean you can’t put a crisis to good use. Chance rules the world. As Nassim Taleb showed in “The Black Swan” and other books, low probability events can create high impacts. But the threat to the […]
When the chickens come home to roost (4/12/12)
Nobody Here But Us Chickens Solely within hospitals, antibiotic-resistant infections hit 2 million Americans a year, according to an article today by Gardiner Harris in the New York Times. They kill about a hundred thousand. One of the more famous infections, MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, kills perhaps 20,000 every year. Where do all these […]
Your cell phone is a biological part of you (11/11/11)
Your Hand, Your Cellphone You’re an ecosystem – a complicated one. Your cell phone is just one component of it – and an inescapable part of your biology. Fortunately, it’s one you can control. A recent UK survey from 12 separate districts found bacteria on 92% of cell phones – and only 82% of human […]
A simple way to save 10,000 lives (each year – 4/15/11)
Driving The National Safety Council estimates that 28% of car crashes, about 1.6 million a year, are due to drivers using cell phones to talk or text. There are about 34,000 deaths while driving each year. Please do the math. Some say the numbers are lower, but you’re still talking perhaps 10,000 deaths – […]