Cool! Neural networking....definitely high brow stuff. Oh, and cut out the "just a PhD" crap! Anybody who's worked to build expertise in their field deserves lots of respect, and a PhD means enormous time and effort. I'm betting your work would make my head swim every bit as much as mine might make yours.
By the way, if you've got a background in nuclear engineering, you HAVE to check out the online comic "Nukees." Here's the first comic, from the Daily Californian in 1997.
http://www.nukees.com/d/19970121.html (The art work and story lines get much better, don't worry.) Delightful running jokes and skewering of various engineering types, as well as the whole academic environment.
About flying - yeah, I've heard that too, way on the other side of the country...and from airline pilots and other docs alike. Makes sense to me, too, because unfortunately there are way too many docs who A) think they know everything; B)don't like to take advice; and C) think they can do anything they want on first try. Arrogance doesn't do well when butting up against the hard laws of physics and the unpredictability of mother nature. Being a statistically oriented guy, when I found that civil aviation was relatively high risk way to travel, and that docs have a disproportionately dangerous flight record I decided to limit myself to AH. That way I can at least take off right after the auger!
By the way, Sim, since you *are* an MD, I've got this strange rash. . . .
Unfortunately, penicillin no longer works for that....