Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
How Smart is Your Dog?
Most people consider their pets to be members of their family. This is especially true for dogs. What’s more, many owners feel they know what their dogs are thinking and can communicate with them on a basic level. That’s why I was intrigued by the article “Top 10 Smartest Dogs: Find Out if Your Pup
When to Listen to the Animals
How many times have you read an account of a natural disaster and thought, “I wish we had better warning systems”? Our weather and monitoring instruments, sophisticated as they are, still have serious limitations. We can’t predict earthquakes, for example. And yet much better warning systems do exist. It appears animals’ senses are finely tuned
An Alternative to the Household Battery?
How many times a year do you change a battery somewhere in your home? From smoke detectors to remotes, there are enough electrical devices in our lives that keeping a supply of several different types is virtually a necessity. And then there is the disposal problem… That’s why news of a study published on April 30
Could You Report an Earthquake?
News flash — If you have an Android phone, you can actually detect earthquakes. Google has created an Android Earthquake Alerts system by using smartphone accelerometers. Between 2021 and 2024, the system has detected over 11,000 earthquakes and issued more than 1200 alerts in 98 countries. The results have been as effective as seismometers and,
A Pun So Bad It’s Good
Why is a koala bear a marsupial and not a bear? Because it doesn’t have the right koala-fications. Since this subject has come up, here are some facts about koalas. According to the San Diego Zoo, koalas are mammals, and they do resemble teddy bears with their round, fuzzy ears. But they are definitely marsupials,
Did You Enjoy Your Shorter Days?
Something you may have missed (and I’m a bit late in mentioning) is that timewise three recent days were shorter. Wait, what? Yes, it seems July 9, July 22 and August 5 were unusually short. We like to think our days are 24 hours, but the real world is never that simple. Earth’s rotation is actually
How We Got Potatoes
The ability to analyze genomes has given us great insight into the evolution of many animal species, including us. But have you ever wondered how plants evolved? Recently, scientists have discovered how one of our favorite food plants came to be. By using advanced genomic tools that are now available, researchers have deduced that random
Back in Print (and in time for Christmas)
Katie loves Christmas. Getting presents is nice, and playing in the snow with her friends is fun, but what she likes best are all the pretty decorations. When her family moves to Arizona, Katie can’t find any friends in her neighborhood, and her mom says it probably won’t snow, not even for Christmas. No snow?
The Real Tooth Fairy
If you are looking for a feel-good story, The New York Times recently found one. It seems the tooth fairy is real. Her name is Dr. Purva Merchant and she’s a pediatric dentist in Seattle, Washington. Which brings up the question, how did she get the job? It started with her boyfriend-now-husband who in 2004
Is Anyone Worried About Doomsday?
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, nuclear war was considered a real possibility. Every home-improvement show I remember attending had at least one contractor selling fallout shelters. But with the end of the Cold War, we don’t have to worry about that any more, do we? Actually, there is one organization