Ali Hassan

This picture was taken in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. There were lots more signs exactly like this all over the trail. Personally, I think it’s a sad day when people think “the great outdoors” needs to have warning labels affixed to it. I’m also irked by the appalling redundancy in the sign’s wording. Aren’t all cliffs, by definition, both hazardous and dangerous?

And in this sort of situation, if a person can’t determine for themselves that there is a hazard, shouldn’t we just let events run their course?

I’ve just finished reading Al Gore’s book on climate change, and I have to say that I was not particularly impressed. I hadn’t expected a great piece of literature, and I wasn’t wrong. But I’m not going to pick holes Gore’s turgid prose style (though I do wonder if the text was even looked at by an editor). My problem is with Gore’s representation of the scientific data on global warming. [ more … ]

It’s been fifteen years, so I can’t tell you why I chose to buy A Momentary Lapse of Reason rather than Nevermind, but I did. A regrettable decision.

I have more than 12,000 e-mails in my inbox. Apparently this is bad.

This is a story about the single most frightening experience I have ever had.

It takes place in the summer of 1995-96 when I was working in a lab at University. One of my lab-mates, Doug, came up with the idea of trying a parachute jump. Doug had managed to organize a “great deal” on the jump ($140). Looking back, doing this on the cheap doesn’t seem so smart. But I’m always game for a challenge so I said “sure, why not”. [ more … ]