Category Archives: General

Optimal Human Group Size

Posted on July 2, 2009 | Leave a comment

I like to keep an eye on the Schneier on Security Blog. Usually there’s some interesting information. While the post I am commenting on here does not seem like a natural security topic — it rather seems the security aspect was forced on it — it is a very interesting post simply for its theory about optimal human group sizes for various scenarios and social situations. While I am certainly no expert on this, the numbers given sound very reasonable and correct based on personal experience. Continue reading →

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Recycling Mysteries

Posted on July 17, 2008 | Leave a comment

For the last two weeks in a row the recycling pick-up truck in my town, New Britain, CT left our carefully sorted plastic bags sitting on the street. New Britain recycles only #1 and #2 plastic. So we always make sure to only put these two kinds in the recycling. In the past this was not a problem but apparently they changed their policy, or rather, they are enforcing it more rigorously.

Today my wife called the Public Works Department and found out that only plastic food containers are recycled, not plastic bags. Never mind that it is the exact same material HDPE #2. Here’s a list of types and an explanation Continue reading →

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Chemical Engineering at UD Ranked 10th in Nation

Posted on April 29, 2008 | Leave a comment

UDaily reports that the chemical engineering graduate program has been ranked 10th in the nation, tied with the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

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A new Look, A new Plug-in

Posted on January 14, 2008 | Leave a comment

It was time to change the face of my blog again, therefore, a new theme — Fast Track — by the same author as the first theme I used. And another plug-in too. In addition to adding the post ratings, I thought it would be nice to just get a count on the post views as well. Fortunately, there’s a handy plug-in for this as well: WP-PostViews. Note that in order to avoid counting your own access to the page, you must be logged-in because logged in user access is not counted.

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Just Added: Point Rating Plug-in

Posted on January 12, 2008 | 1 Comment

It is a welcome (indirect) feedback, that I recently see more and more traffic on my site, especially, as a consequence of Google searches. This tells me that I must be doing something right. By writing about problems that people care to find out about. This is great and exactly what made me start this blog in the first place. Continue reading →

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Bubble Variability

Posted on April 4, 2007 | Leave a comment

It is a well known fact that the personal space, or bubble, of many people in the US is rather large. If people from other countries with smaller bubbles, e.g., Europeans, step closer than 3 feet towards a local, oftentimes the local person gets uncomfortable and takes a step back to reestablish the bubble.

It is very interesting, however, that the bubble can shrink quite dramatically without the affected person appearing to be too concerned about it. Continue reading →

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Why Optimality?

Posted on March 8, 2007 | Leave a comment

As the tagline says, it is the quest for optimality in an imperfect world. Will the quest ever end? Probably not. What is it all about? Discussing life around us to see how it could be made better, this can include anything from improvement ideas, to workflows, to, to, to … you name it.

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