I woke up this morning, the first day of my winter holiday, thinking, while still in that quasi-dream-wake state, about the origins of life. This is what you get when going to sleep listening to biology books.

When I was about 11 years old I learned two lessons: Sea-Monkeys were not really aquatic primates and marketing departments lie. The second was a good lesson to learn.

In 1976 I learned what a googol was through a clever Richie Rich mystery. 21 years later the founders of a search engine botched the spelling of the word when they registered their new domain name, but I think they might approve of the villain’s words on the comic’s cover - NOTHING CAN STOP THE '“GOOGOL” NOW!

Richie Rich comic book covers often showed what the creators imagined what the greatest wealth in the world could buy. In 1976 that included watches that could play music or make telephone calls. 42 years later, in some ways, I am living like the imagined richest kid in the world could.

The new business models enabled by the Internet is highly effective platforms designed to manipulate us. We offer ourselves up for manipulation every day. Even if you think you are immune, the people around you are also being exposed to these manipulation platforms, and they have a very real vote in your life.

Potato vine flower under the microscope.

Looking at my network traffic reminds me that almost all North-South traffic is encrypted these days.

Activating IPv6 on my eero Wi-Fi network.

Sometimes a walk across a college campus can be a great productivity enhancer.

Look in a mirror. There is a good chance you are looking at more than one “person”. It turns out that human chimeras exist. In fact, there are many different degrees of chimerism, and it is far more common than you might imagine. You may very well be one yourself.