Past Articles

The Army is experimenting with a new form of anethesiology, using nerve blocks to keep pain signals from traveling to the brain, thus eliminating the need to provide mind numbing morphine in the operating room. Procedures can take place with the patients fully awake. This from the latest issue of […]

There is a new way to outsource, use young rich Europeans who are on vacation, to fill the ranks of headset wearing telemarketers. With hundreds of employees yakking into headsets, Tecnovate’s New Delhi office looks like a typical Indian call center, except for one thing: Nearly 100 of these workers […]

A man in Salinas, California named John Cerney creates his own genre of billboard-sized art in fields throughout the Imperial Valley. He doesn’t like to display his creations, gigantic realistic photographs mounted on plywood, indoors. He would say no to even the inside of cavernous MassMOCA, in North Adams. No, […]

Don’t you hate these? This just about sums it all up, doesn’t it? 

My house in the snow in January, 2005, in South Deerfield, MA.  

Last night on PBS Fidel Castro was in the spotlight. Footage included Castro’s embracing of the Soviet Union, the bearded one leaning over a conference table to light Breznev’s cigarette. In 1972, Castro set one of his many impossible goals for the young communist nation. First he wanted to have […]

My neighbor used to have a boat. He loved this little sticker that was on the back of the boat. “I love that guy,” he said. The nugget below is from boingboing.net Folkloric history of those “Calvin peeing” car stickers. This site explores the evolution of those annoying and ubiquitous […]

Outside GoNOMAD’s office on a Monday morning January 2005. Ready to start the week. 

Got into the office early today, so I could write some blog and catch up on the weekend’s email. What a trove of treasure awaits me here, every single day. Katherine Tanney, who wrote a piece in the Times Magazine that I admired here, gave me kudos on my taste […]

Nuclear power is set to make a comeback. To some hardcore Greens, this is good news. One longtime trustee of Friends of the Earth, Hugh Montefiore, has stated that he believes the solution to global warming is to make more use of nuclear energy. Ditto for Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore, […]

I spoke with Gary Blumenstein, who lives in Hawaii. Back in 1993, he registered a domain name. Then he spent more than 10 years in defense department supercomputing, often meeting in windowless rooms all day long. He told me that he was glad to be in this business, where pleasure […]

Came in from the cold, muffled up, bracing the winter winds, to meet Melody, a friend visiting from Colorado. She was warm and charming and we enjoyed a well made fire. Later we talked about Social Security, her business being financial planning. She explained that from the 7.5% we pay […]

Last night’s PBS viewing brought an evocative show about a pair of canoeists. One was a white guy, American, and in the front of the boat was a black South African. They wend their way down the Lethoso River, and all of the while the black man is talking about […]

In Egypt if you are a rich young woman who gets pregnant out of wedlock, there is a simple solution: you have an abortion, you get your hymen “refurbished” and your parents marry you off to the first unwitting suitor they can find. An article in the NY Times described […]

Who doesn’t have a fond memory of old Johnny? While nobody really knew him, we all felt like we were his pal. Yesterday’s New York Times had a piece on Carson’s relationship with The Big Apple, where for ten years he played host to Truman Capote, Tony Randall, Mayor John […]

A get together with beers and a weak assortment of cheesy hors d’oeuvres brought out the men and women of hidden tech, a group of stay-at-homes who gather to commiserate and network every few months.There was a web designer, a handsome twentysomething from Brazil, who works with his partner in […]

Lawrence Lessig, of MIT once again makes a whole lot of sense writing about the band Wilco in the February issue of Wired. He posits that the band, led by its “quiet, haunted leader” Jeff Tweedy, has turned the paradym of music downloading on its head…and come out on top. […]

Went up to Wendell to watch the Patriots trounce the Steelers. Good fun. A room heated by wood, toasty like a sauna…and a scientist who had just gotten her PhD. Her name was Heather and she wanted, actually, to go back to school some more. She is an ecologist, studing […]