Have you ever heard of the Ig Nobel Prizes? Yes, they are satirical, having been established in 1991 by Marc Abrahams and the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, but they are real and taken very seriously in some quarters. According to the Improbable Research website, “The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements so surprising
Following politics can be very depressing these days because we seem to be suffering one crisis after another. I’m old enough to remember when approximately a third of the savings and loan associations failed between 1986 and 1995. Then there was terrorism and 9/11, a major economic downturn, and COVID, all against a backdrop of fentanyl
In my second year of college (at the USAF Academy), I decided to declare Latin American Studies as my major to capitalize on my high school Spanish. It was a unique opportunity to learn about a part of the world that was both exotic and close to home. The faculty was excellent. In addition to
Recently I saw a headline that really got my attention: Do any animals call each other by name? It’s quite possible. Scientists have discovered that young bottlenose dolphins create signature whistles that are individually distinctive. They use the whistles to find each other and can recognize other dolphins from the frequency and “shape” of the whistle. Also, researchers
Bears and rabbits are not supposed to be friends, but the story of how Sunny Bunny and Victor Bear became “best friends forever” is a tale of friendship, cooperation, and overcoming stereotypes. Sunny and Victor: Best Friends Forever, the children’s book that started my writing career, is available again on Amazon Kindle. https://www.amazon.com/Sunny-Victor-Best-Friends-Forever-ebook/dp/B0HCMP2JT6/ref=sr_1_1?
When I substitute teach, I like to tell the kids that during their lifetimes they will probably have more than one career, and at least one of those careers will be a job that hasn’t been invented yet (solar-collector repair on Mars?). The converse of this is the professions that do not have much of
The sad fact is mass shootings are all too common in this country. Each one takes a horrific toll on the victims, their families, and anyone close by. But is the impact even broader than that? I recently ran across an article that explores this in more detail: “The Death Toll of a Mass Shooting
Slang: a type of language that consists of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people. — Yahoo We’ve all used informal words that sound nonsensical. And yet they really are words that can be
There are many natural wonders in the universe. Start with the sheer size — estimates of the total number of galaxies range from 200 billion to two trillion, with each galaxy containing anywhere from 100 million to 400 billion stars. And then there are the mysteries. Just what are dark matter and dark energy? How
I’m sure everyone is familiar with what claims to be the world’s oldest profession, so I won’t mention it. My question is what could be the second oldest? I would vote for the forces of arms — militias, paramilitary, military, whatever label works. I was reminded of this by a recent article, “What’s the Oldest