Catching up on my reading, I ran across an amazing story from the 9/11 tragedy. When the Twin Towers fell, people began running for their lives. Since this was the tip of lower Manhattan, people on the south side were quickly trapped at the waterfront. Their salvation came from the flotilla of more than 150
Robert Iger is executive chairman, chairman of the board, and former CEO (2005–2020) of The Walt Disney Company. He has also served as president of ABC Television (1994–1995) and as president/COO of Capital Cities/ABC (1995) until it was acquired by Disney (1996). Iger was then named president/COO of Disney in 2000 and succeeded Michael Eisner as CEO in 2005. During his 15 years as CEO, Iger
The Cala Gonone Aquarium in Sardinia, Italy is reporting a female smoothhound shark has given birth despite having been in a tank with only another female for the past decade. As reported by Newsweek (https://www.newsweek.com/baby-shark-born-all-female-tank-could-scientific-first-1622272), this may be a scientific first for this species. Not that this phenomenon is completely unknown. It even has a
Listening to the media coverage of the Iraq withdrawal, one of the most heartbreaking stories was the interview with the widow of the last servicemember killed. This had an special impact on me because twice in my military career, I had to tell families that they’d lost a loved one. When a death or injury
What is the upper limit of human lifespan? At one time, reaching the age of 100 was considered to be a remarkable achievement. Yet by 2050, the United Nations estimates there could be as many as 3.7 million centenarians in the world, a major increase from just under 600,000 today. (I hope I’m included; I would be
Do you need more evidence of how polarized the country is? I have just read that political works currently hold the top spots on the New York Times best-seller list of hardcover nonfiction books. At the very top is American Marxism by the Fox News host Mark Levin. According to the description on Amazon.com, “In American
Although yesterday was the first day of school, I wasn’t quite ready for my summer to end. But when I saw a friend in community-based learning was going to be out today, it was “Uh-oh, I’d better take this.” Things are closer to what passes for normal this year. We’re back to seven periods a
It’s fun to play games, and much of that fun can come from winning. If it’s a simple game, like checkers, it’s easy to keep score. For every checker you capture, your opponent loses one. Simple! This straight-forward approach is called a zero-sum game: “an advantage that is won by one of two sides is
There’s a lot about our brains we don’t understand, but one fact is for sure — our grey matter is very efficient. According to an article on the Live Science website, the human brain can run all day on just the energy in two bananas. Wouldn’t it be great if our computers were that efficient? There just
Of all the adaptations forced on us by the pandemic, I’ve found one that really takes the cake… er, prize. Perhaps the worst part of the pandemic is the cutoff from human contact. From routine family visits to special events like weddings and graduations, we haven’t been able to get together. The worst is when
