Author: RTNM

A Tale of Two (Make that Three) Drummers “Please, if you would be so kind.  I want to ask you a bit of an unusual question.  Why do you bother to get up in the morning after all you have seen and experienced?  I have known many people who have simply given up after seeing […]

Some News About The Collatz Conjecture As many of you know, I spend a fair amount of time writing about and researching The Collatz Conjecture.  I have a computer running 24/7 whose only purpose is to find a counterexample to this insanely complex yet straightforward problem.  For those of you unfamiliar with the conjecture, it […]

Hayes I have a few thoughts on getting older. I know, I know…we all are aging. Time and entropy have a stranglehold on life on Earth. I am concerned with what happens when the order turns to disarray and the imperceptible daily changes accelerate. I am interested when we look in the mirror and ask, […]

Westworld What is the biggest unanswered question facing science?  For me, the answer is an easy one.  No one, not even your anesthesiologist, understands the first thing about consciousness.  Anesthesia is particularly interesting in this respect, the highly paid practitioners know that it works, but they haven’t the faintest idea how or why it works.  […]

Mr. Gaskell My grade school no longer exists.  My Junior High School was also torn down long ago.  My High School?  There is a nice lawn there now.  The last time I drove by, there was a gaggle of geese lounging about.  No worries, as long as they don’t send bulldozers into Harvard Yard, I […]

Federer When I was at Harvard, I was thrilled to take one particular class in The History of Science department.  It was taught by I. Bernard Cohen, the founder of the department.  Not only did he found Harvard’s world-class department in the history of science, but he also played a prominent role in the creation […]

Paterson I just rewatched one of my favorite movies.  It is about a guy who drives a bus in Paterson, New Jersey.  That guy, a man named Paterson, is brilliantly played by Adam Driver. This is not going to be a review of the movie.  There are lots of those out there, and they are […]

The Land Surveyor: Chapter One (This is the first chapter of a novel that will be published soon)   I am not greedy.  I give away almost everything that I get.  Of course, I have to keep a little to sustain myself, but I don’t need much.  I get more than you can imagine from […]

Simpleton Goodness (a piece of flash fiction) Simpleton Goodness, known to her friends as “Oh My,” gently and rhythmically moved her right pinky finger back and forth as she sat alone in the dark.  Contemplating her life?  Absolutely. Author’s Note: Stop, have you ever given it any thought at all about how in the world […]

Squam Lake (a piece of flash fiction) Kellen was dead, and that was a good thing.  She felt safe, as safe as a young woman prancing around the middle of Reverse Vampire territory could.  She thought she knew what was what (after all, she was a woman of the world, right?). Lucky for her, I’ve […]