Soapbox ← ABrandão.com ← Page 3

Book thoughts: Our Final Invention – the coming AI-pocalypse 2

Dec

8

2014

I recently just finished reading (listening to…) Our Final Invention – Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era by James Barrat . I was intrigued by this book when I saw it come across my Flipbook newsfeed. The book deals with a topic of particular interest to me being in the IT realm. The premise is that ...

Ten conspiracy predictions that may well be true… 2

Oct

22

2014

I’m typically not a conspiracy theory person, I’m pretty confident most things have a reasonable and justifiable explanation, but I too like to indulge my questioning side, and for fun (no I’m not losing it) ask what if?.. Now this posting isn’t unique, and if you think conspiracy theories are always bunk look here 10 ...

Why are we alone? the Fermi Paradox

May

25

2014

I came across an interesting read the other morning on my Flipboard news stream.. From Gizmodo The Fermi Paradox: Where the Hell Are the Other Earths? . Basically the Fermi Paradox in a nutshell says, in such a vast universe such as ours with so many potential stars and planets why haven’t we seen evidence of ...

How can planes “vanish” in 2014? 1

Mar

8

2014

UPDATE (10/10/2014): PBS Series NOVA did an interesting episode on this topic.. take a look here. Nova: Why Planes Vanish (Video) UPDATE (12/29/2014): Sadly another aircraft has been AirAsia Flight QZ8501, has gone missing, while this incident seems a bit less mysterious than MH370 , it again underscores the need for real-time GPS (Satellite live telemetry systems. ...

Planet Money podcasts rock! my favorite episodes!

Oct

10

2013

Why Planet Money Rocks! Planet Money (NPR) podcasts are awesome! the podcast on anything related to finance, economy, money with plenty of social commentary mixed in, are thoroughly entertaining, thought provoking ,downright frustrating and most of all enlightening. In my daily diet of podcasts, Planet Money are almost always universally excellent, the wide variety of ...

Do only sick older people watch the evening news? 6

Sep

20

2013

My daily routine after I get home from the gym or work, is to have a late dinner and then check out the evening news that I DVR’d . I don’t watch it live because I’m not home around 6:30p, so I just record it and watch it later, plus I can fast forward through ...

Benefits of quitting… 1

Jul

26

2013

So this week I came across an interesting Freakonomics podcast , which was actually just a re-broadcast that previously aired. The podcast was titled The Upside of Quitting the podcast goes on to explore from an economic angle the pro’s and cons of quitting, and challenges the old adage, Quitters never win, and winners never quit.. It ...

Nutrition and Longevity: a “fast” way to a long life.

Apr

11

2013

I ran across an interesting documentary on PBS recently Eat, Fast and Live Longer with Michael Mosley (watch is soon, free on-line video until 5/10). In a nutshell British journalist Michael Mosley goes about speaking with established researchers at US universities about the benefits of caloric restricted diets and how they can improve overall health and longevity. ...

Air show Photography 2

Apr

2

2013

One of the fun things I’ve done in recent years, was attend several air shows, not only to enjoy the entertaining displays of aerobatic military and civilian aircraft, but also to test out my photography skills in capturing really fast action.. I love taking action photography especially of sports,cycling, auto and motor racing, air shows, boating etc. There’s ...