Situation Number One: Planet Fitness, today. I'm waiting for a guy to finish hogging the pull-up machine so I can do my one set and move on to the next exercise. I'm standing 10 feet from the machine, trying to make it obvious that I'm waiting to use the machine. But the guy is oblivious, … Continue reading Situational Awareness, My Lack of
Maybe the office printer had jammed up for the third time that day. Maybe he'd just been replaced by a robot. Or maybe he had just watched this classic scene from Office Space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjsSr3z5nVk Whatever it was, something inspired Jeffrey Yip to start a business that allowed people to vent their anger in an eco-friendly way. … Continue reading Rage Against the (Fax) Machine
It's one of my favorite weeks of the semester, one I've written about before. Students are presenting their vision boards and it has been great getting to hear what their short-term and long-term goals and dreams are. One of the students thought it would be fun to throw in what her results were from having … Continue reading My Spirit Animal Is a Turtle – What’s Yours?
I think at this point the statute of limitations has expired. So it's time to come clean. When I was about 18 years old a friend and I went to Zern's Farmers Market in Gilbertsville, PA just for something to do one Saturday night. As we were walking past the record store, I caught a … Continue reading Returning to the Scene of My (One and Only) Crime
It's a question that artificial intelligence researchers are asking themselves with greater urgency. If one of the goals of AI is to allow humans to converse with computers in a way that is as natural, intuitive, and frictionless as conversing with people, then AI systems need to master irony, sarcasm, ambiguity, humor, and puns—aspects of conversation that … Continue reading Can Computers Be Funny?
I wonder if it gets harder and harder each year for men's suits designers to top the previous year's designs. And if it does, if the only option left is to "jump the shark". While the definition of jumping the shark has its origins in the world of TV (the point in a TV series … Continue reading It’s That Time of the Year Again – Crazy Men’s Suits from the Wall Street Journal
I am once more grateful to the Twitter account of Marketing Birds for posting these entertaining clips. Enjoy. Here's an ad for an eyeglasses company featuring a soccer player. I guess when you are a soccer player, you think anything round is a soccer ball... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35JQxTe3yLA Here is a clever video from 2014 that looks … Continue reading A Few Short but Entertaining Videos/Ads
I've always been intrigued by people who seem to be blessed with an amazing memory. My aunt seems to have an unlimited memory for people's birthdays and phone numbers. A former colleague at Villanova was able to recall the names (and details) of students he taught 40 years ago. And then there's Joshua Foer. Foer had … Continue reading How I Improved My Memory by Playing Connect 4 Using My Mouth
A woman in Ipswich, England, a small town about 60 miles north of London, filed a report with the Ipswich Borough Council, claiming she has been woken on an almost nightly basis by a tinny, distant rendition of ‘It’s Raining, It’s Pouring’. Here's what it sounded like (you've been warned): Early one morning, after being … Continue reading Warning! This Post Might Give You Nightmares…
I never thought twice about it. Of course it's awesome that Amazon tells you what else you may want to purchase based on what you've just added to your cart. Or that Netflix will recommend a movie based on your past viewing experiences. Or that grocery stores print out coupons that are related to the … Continue reading The Power, and Peril, of Personalization
Borden's Blather 