STEM

While I was out at a meeting, my meticulously neat wife armed herself with a feather duster, donned protective pink rubber gloves, and viciously, mercilessly straightened, organized, and dusted the desk in my home office. My desk was clean, but the results were suboptimal. Continue Reading →

LinkedIn published its "Top 10 Emerging Jobs" list on Tuesday and -- no surprise -- most of them are tech jobs. Coming in at number one is Artificial Intelligence Specialist. Continue Reading →

If you've ever played Pokémon Go, you know that Pikachu was just pasted on top of whatever you pointed your camera at. About a year ago, Pokémon Go creator Niantic announced that they had worked out how to let Pikachu hide behind real-world objects. The technique, called occlusion, was demonstrated in a video, not on an actual device. Yesterday, Google announced the tools to solve the problem. Continue Reading →

Machine intelligence, also known as artificial intelligence (AI) is going to have both an awesome and an unfortunate impact on our posterity. Let’s explore one possible way AI may impact the future of work, and how it may dramatically change how we train our workforce. Continue Reading →

Does 5G cause cancer? No. No one knows what causes cancer. There are scientific theories, some with extraordinary supporting evidence, that clearly identify carcinogens. But when I asked Dr. Michael La Quaglia, my granddaughter’s cancer surgeon, how a 2½-year-old gets pancreatoblastoma, he looked me straight in the eye and said, “If we knew, we could prevent it. All I can do is try to remove it. And, with God’s help, I will be successful.” Those words ring in my ears to this day. So, it is with a great deal of humility, personal experience and a strong belief in the scientific method that I submit to you a reasoned rebuttal to the meme that “5G causes cancer.” Continue Reading →

Our new podcast, “Think About This with Shelly Palmer & Ross Martin” premieres today on the Westwood One Podcast Network. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts or literally anywhere podcasts can be found. The official press release says, “Hosted by visionary business adviser Shelly Palmer and Blackbird CEO Ross Martin, this podcast will challenge you to think Continue Reading →

Porsche and Boeing have entered into a deal to “explore the premium urban air mobility market and the extension of urban traffic into airspace.” Said differently, they’re working on a flying car. “Porsche is looking to enhance its scope as a sports car manufacturer by becoming a leading brand for premium mobility. In the longer Continue Reading →

According to a note from TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will release its version of smart glasses in the middle of 2020. I have no idea what they will be called. Continue Reading →

Yesterday, I read an article on the MIT Technology Review website, “We aren’t terrified enough about losing the Amazon,” and I made it the top story of the day. A person whose political and ideological views are 180 degrees opposite from mine sent me a link to an article on the Forbes website, “Why Everything They Say About The Amazon, Including That It’s The ‘Lungs Of The World,’ Is Wrong.” I received hundreds of emails yesterday telling me that the media was misreporting the issue in the Amazon, and thousands of emails supporting the reporting in the MIT article. First, I apologize for not thoroughly researching the MIT Technology Review story. On scientific issues, I consider MIT a trusted source. I made the assumption that, as I do with my own essays, they fact-checked their work. At least in this case, my trust was misplaced, as it is now clear that the burning rainforest stories are a hot mess of facts, editorials, and agenda-serving factoids. [more...] Continue Reading →

Are we close to "the Amazon dieback?" It is the idea is that a certain level of deforestation will push the world's largest rainforest to a tipping point where spiraling feedback effects convert much of the forest into savannah. The Amazon rainforest holds about 17% of the world's carbon (trapped in its vegetation). According to conventional climate science wisdom, there is a deforestation tipping point. Once it is reached, the Amazon will become a producer of carbon, as opposed to a producer of oxygen. The results will be catastrophic at best, apocalyptic at worst. Get scared. Get angry. Get educated. Get involved! Continue Reading →