Talk about thinking outside the box! In 1954, Leland W. Sprinkle and his son were visiting Luray Caverns in Virginia. His guide’s explanation of how stalactites could make sounds when tapped gave him an idea. (It was either that or the sound made when his son struck his head on a rock.) Over the next
We’ve made a lot of progress in the last several decades with smoking cessation. Since the 1964 surgeon general’s report on this habit’s dangers, smoking rates have fallen nationwide, with only 15 percent of adults still smoking. Smoking among some groups has plunged 62 percent. But there is a problem. The groups with the greatest
If you live in China, the Internet is tightly controlled. CNN estimates about two million people monitor what people post ( http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/07/world/asia/china-internet-monitors/index.html); other sources say there are 100,000 censors. How obvious is it? The Internet Surveillance Division of the Public Security Bureau in Shenzhen Province actually has two cartoon mascots to remind Internet users that
If you like to watch the heavens, there are some exciting events in the future. First, On August 21, 2017, there will be a total eclipse of the sun. It will pass through 12 states in the U.S. (14 if you count tiny corners of Montana and Iowa), beginning at 9:06 am PDT in Madras,
In case you missed it, Google Trends recently researched the hardest-to-spell words in the first four months of this year. Their analysis identified what words was searched most often when people typed “how to spell ___” into the Google search engine. The results were tabulated by state, then published in this map. According to a
When we think of civil rights, we tend to focus on our own (considerable) struggles. But other countries have had periods of turmoil, too. Consider Canada. Viola Desmond was a businesswoman who owned a beauty salon and school. She was traveling across Canada, looking to expand her business, when her car broke down in New
In preparing for another major trip overseas this summer, I thought back to November 2012, when I was in Athens, Greece. This was a marathon trip, paying homage to where it all started by running on the Olympic course from the Plains of Marathon to the Olympic Stadium in the heart of Athens. Athens was
There is a lot we don’t know about autism. I’ve been in classrooms with autistic kids many times and an as clueless as anyone. But every once in a while there’s a breakthrough story that gives us hope. One such story is Life, Animated, a documentary movie about Ron Suskind and his son Owen. At
The Writer’s Almanac reminded me that what is remembered as the Tiananmen Square Massacre happened on June 4, 1989. On that day, Chinese troops stormed the square to end demonstrations that had actually begun months earlier. Thousands of supporters from three dozen universities staged hunger strikes and sit-ins in the name of democracy. The Chinese
Did you ever think about how many of our common expressions involve our stomachs? We occasionally talk about “gut-wrenching decisions” and “butterflies in the stomach.” These thoughts are so prevalent that some are beginning to wonder if there isn’t a link between our guts — specifically the trillions of tiny organisms that live there —