Wolfram Donat
Wolfram Donat is tallish, with four limbs and hair attached in generally the correct places. He lives in Anchorage, Alaska with his wife, son and a menagerie of animals. When not working in IT or writing, he tends to sit around in his underwear eating fudgesicles and dreaming of being a superhero. He has been a contributor to www.hot-psychology.com and writes for various other publications.
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Articles by Wolfram Donat
May 14, 2007
I am walking a little funny this morning. There are places on my body that are not bending the way they should, and there are other places that aren’t supposed to bend that are flopping like overdone spaghetti.
Like many Americans, my wife and I are attempting to get back in shape. Having the ou...
November 08, 2006
In a stunning move, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resigned today. Citing disgust with the Republican Party, Rumsfeld was heard to mutter, “If those damn vote-buyers can’t hold on to Congress, how are we supposed to hold on to Iraq?” Rumsfeld’s resignation comes on the heels of a major shake...
October 10, 2006
I am writing to you from Anchorage, Alaska, quite possibly the only place in the United States that might be in danger should North Korea decide to unleash nuclear terror upon America. Although analysts disagree whether or not a nuclear test was actually successful yesterday, it is generally agreed...
September 25, 2006
Once again, I am floored by this country’s priorities. Every day I become more and more convinced that “Jackass” describes not only the stars of the movie, but also its intended (and willing) audience.
Just when I think that America can’t sink any lower when it comes to glitz, glamour and mindle...
September 06, 2006
There is a disturbing trend that has been developing in medicine for the past few years. Perhaps you’ve noticed it too. You can’t watch a spate of commercials on TV anymore, even on the Cartoon Network, without encountering this phenomenon.
I’m talking about the tendency to label diseases and ...
September 04, 2006
Not everybody liked him, it’s true. He could be abrasive, I suppose, and he wasn’t without controversy (remember when he fed the croc while holding his infant son in his arms?) Some would argue that he bothered the animals more than anything else, and that harsh Australian accent isn’t music to ev...
August 18, 2006
For the past two days when I turn on the news, I have been inundated with reports about John Karr’s reputed confession concerning the beating and murder of JonBenet Ramsey. It was on CNN in the morning, both Thursday and Friday. It pre-empted Anderson Cooper. Dateline was scooped. If there was a...
August 11, 2006
Two jobless guys have built a new, incredibly powerful microscope in a living room and landed jobs and research grants at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The technique, called photoactivated localization microscopy, is also referred to as PALM to make it easier for the average American to p...
August 07, 2006
In a move destined to impact more than just the price of a barrel of oil, British Petroleum announced today that they will be progressively shutting down portions of the Prudhoe Bay oilfield in northern Alaska due to “excessive corrosion” in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
The pipeline, which runs fro...
July 13, 2006
Today I was explaining to a co-worker that scientists have been conducting tests on geckos to measure their ‘sticking power,’ as it were. They have looked at their toes (the geckos’ toes, not the scientists’) under microscopes to see just how they do what they do. They have experimented with giving ...
July 13, 2006
Long ago, far back in the mists of time, kangaroos weren’t cute, koalas weren’t cuddly, and there existed a beast so terrible, it has been called the Demon Duck of Doom.
12 million years ago the giant thunder bird Bullockornis roamed the wilds of Australia. It shared its territory with fanged ka...
May 12, 2006
The scientists at the International Polar Year Project don?t look for needles in haystacks, but they could. They?d probably be pretty good at it, too. After all, a needle is only about 1/500,000,000th the volume of a haystack. On the other hand, a 1.5-ton beluga whale is less than a trillionth of...
February 08, 2006
When I was growing up in Southern Arizona, my friends and I had a ritual that has probably been around since humans formed tribes: If somebody new came to town, we avoided them. Once they had been around a while, had proved their worth and had lost their novelty, then they could be gradually integ...
January 29, 2006
I like my privacy. Call me strange, but I enjoy knowing that someone isn’t looking over my shoulder, watching everything I do, perhaps judging and even making decisions on my future based on what TV shows I’m watching or what e-mails I’m writing. I think I’m not alone in this, either. I tend to b...
November 26, 2005
You want a cure for the common cold? Cancer got you down? Scientists have other things on their plates – namely, the fact that hamsters suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, in a manner similar to humans.
SAD, the modern term for ‘cabin fever,’ is characterized by a general feeling of...
November 15, 2005
I have never been one to put a happy face on things. I am a cynic, through and though. The other day, however, I realized that despite my usual predilection for pessimism, I need to take some time and thank our current administration. In the tradition of Thanksgiving, I took a moment and wrote do...
November 01, 2005
(Washington) – The Bush administration today announced a bold new relocation plan for the inmates currently being held at the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba. “Basically,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, “we’re going to send them to the moon.”
Elaborating further, he outlined plans cu...
October 26, 2005
Have you got an itch to do something unique? Do you want a vacation and the pictures to go with it that none of your friends will be able to match? Are you insanely wealthy? If so, then have I got just the thing for you. For the insignificant, miniscule price of only 200 million dollars, you and...
October 18, 2005
My wife is being unreasonable again.
She has a habit of grasping the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes, and shaking her head slowly. A few moments later, she will slowly rub the middle of her forehead. This is normally immediately after I have come up with some brilliant idea or another, su...
October 18, 2005
I received something of a shock today. I was informed that one fifth of my genes don’t belong to me.
Notice I said ‘genes’ and not ‘jeans.’ It’s not a typo. There is no ownership dilemma with my Levi’s. The genome sequences in my DNA, however, are apparently another matter.
According to a st...
October 16, 2005
I am a male; therefore, I am obsolete.
At first blush that may seem a bit extreme, but with a little thought, one can see that it is nonetheless true. To paraphrase a famous quotation, man?s technology is rapidly outpacing his humanity, and every new advance in the biological sciences takes him f...
November 30, 1999
First of all, let me just say that I am ecstatic that no matter what time of day or night it is, I can turn on any station on any television and receive breaking news in the Anna Nicole Smith case. The last update I received was that Anna Nicole Smith is, indeed, still deceased, and the running tota...