This morning, my wife was running errands and stopped at the local gas station to fill up. The corner gas station was hopping, and she waited her turn at the pump. A space opened, she pulled in, and began to pump her gas. Across the parking lot, about half-a-dozen young, African-American men were hanging out…
Continue ReadingI wear only four different pairs of shoes: muffy house slippers for around the house (except when, being an absent-minded professor, I forget to change before going out), New Balance running shoes that I try to put a few miles on each day, Birkenstocks for the summer, and for everything else, my cowboy boots. Now…
Continue ReadingAs an academic type, I’ve always considered the end of summer the beginning of a new year: preschool, primary school, secondary school, college, graduate school, and now, entering my 13th year as a teacher of college students. My whole life has been lived according to the rhythms of the academic calendar. Now, by the precedent…
Continue ReadingI am now officially a proud member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists! The LFHCfS is a project of Improbable Research, which also publishes the bimonthly Annals of Improbable Research and sponsors the annual Ig Nobel Prizes, among many other worthwhile endeavors promoting “research that makes people laugh and then think.” I am…
Continue ReadingI have finally begun the process of moving my main homestead on the cyber-frontier from my long time (and long neglected) digs at outopia.org to this easier to find place, kjpayne.com — outfitted with brand new Web 2.0 technology and capable of supporting all the bells and whistles. I have had plans for this move…
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