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The term robot is attributed to the author Karel Capek through his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), which includes a factory that makes artificial people called roboti (robots) from synthetic organic matter.1Most of us think of robots as mechanical contraptions, but the robots in R.U.R. were artificial humanoids grown from a process that produced living, thinking beings. Human-driven automobiles contain sensors and control systems that enhance safety, driving comfort, and ease of navigation. Lest you think that these musings are mere flights of fancy from my feeble imagination, I note that others have termed the emergence of AI as the \"technological singularity\" and view that emergence as not being far in the future.20 If we create true AIs, it is likely that some of them will reside in robotic systems, and some of those will be humaniform.

[...]some events will inspire significant controversy surrounding the judging. [...]viewers worldwide will be riveted to their television sets during much of the Games. [...]who could forget the Jamaican bobsled team12who first appeared at the 1988 Calgary Games and have appeared in five other Olympic Winter Games since, most recently at the Sochi Games in 2014.

[...]I'm down to two, and I'm seriously reducing the number of paper copies of new journal articles that I print. Every place that I've ever worked in a technical capacity had its vast trove of graph paper in all of its myriad forms: linear, semi-log, log-log, polar scales, Smith charts, and numerous other types. The pencil could be sharpened to a point, exposing the graphite, and allowing one to write on paper, leaving information in the form of graphite tracks. Offices, in those days, had vast quantities of pencils of various kinds, as well as multiple pencil sharpeners.4I don't remember when I last saw a pencil sharpener at work. [...]there were templates commercially available and common in offices that would allow one to trace out common shapes used in science and engineering. Slide rules were instruments with a fixed wooden part, a wooden slide, and a glass slide that served as a cursor. By adjusting the position of the sliding part relative to the fixed part, and by judicious use of the glass slide, one could perform various mathematical operations, including simple arithmetic (multiplication and division; addition and subtraction with some effort), as well as more complex operations, such as roots and powers, trigonometry, and logarithms and exponentials. Most slide rules were rectilinear, but circular slide rules were also available and could be used to perform other types of calculations. Because the most common type of slide rule had a rectilinear sliding rule, they were often referred to as \"slipsticks.\"

My feelings are mixed when it comes to in-betweens. Some seem quite positive, others less so but necessary, and still others downright bad. They are bad when they seem to be cop-outs, a lack of decisiveness, or an abundance of expediency that reeks of timidity, preventing bold steps required by a situation—at least the bold steps that I think are required. Not to say that compromise in human affairs should not be pursued, at least when a good bargain is better than none at all. Fortunately, few situations offer stark choices between pure good and unadulterated evil, exceedingly rich and desperately poor, or between life and death. Not all choices, even tough choices, rise to the level of Chamberlain-like ignominious appeasements that fall somewhere in-between the extremes of peace and war. Everyday life presents us with much less fraught extremes to bracket our options.

The world has been turned upside down with the novel Coronavirus pandemic. The most effective approaches to prevent the spread of the virus have been social distancing and wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), which has significantly changed our approach to life. Most of our daily activities have been altered, including medical appointments. My physicians have recommended that I cancel or postpone medical appointments that are not critical. To the extent that I am able, I have followed their advice.