We all want to know if there really is life after death, and so-called near-death experiences have been a popular subject in our culture. Does your life really flash before your eyes when you think you are dying? A recent study published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition takes a new approach to evaluating these
I’m going to make this one simple. If you want to know what is wrong with our education system, I would recommend Podcast #562, “The Problem We All Live With” which originally aired July 31, 2015 on the National Public Radio program This American Life (https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/562/the-problem-we-all-live-with). “Right now, all sorts of people are trying to
Somewhere along the line, you’ve probably heard that spicy meals can cause strange or unusual dreams. Is it true? Maybe. This is discussed in detail in an article entitled “Can Spicy Food Really Cause Weird Dreams? The Answer Is Complicated” by chili lover Cari Romm on the Science of Us website (http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/01/can-spicy-food-really-cause-weird-dreams.html?). According to Ms.
There has been a lot of talk recently about presidential executive action. One of President Obama’s actions late last year was to designate two new national monuments in Nevada and Utah (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/28/507314596/obama-designates-two-new-national-monuments-in-nevada-and-utah), which, like most presidential actions these days, was considered very controversial in some circles. If you disagree with this type of government action
Another of those questions we don’t think of every day — do your heart and brain communicate? Recent research suggests there’s definite link. University of Sussex researcher Sarah Garfinkel has found evidence that the beats of your heart — and your awareness of that rhythm — shapes everything from anxiety to racism to stock trading.
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner, Doubleday, 2007 This was a very depressing book to read. According to Weiner’s account, all the horror stories you’ve heard about the CIA are true, and then some. Apparently the Agency has never been good at what I thought its main mission was —
For longer than I care to remember, we’ve been hearing some very partisan claims on social media about rating presidents. Who was the worst? Most historians have a very strong candidate — James Buchanan, our 15th chief executive (1857-1961), the president just before Abraham Lincoln. In fact, there is a new biography out entitled Worst.
Here’s something I’m sure you’ve been wondering about for a long time. If you see a lot of movies, you may have noticed many villains have British accents, even when no one else in the cast is British. These range from Peter Ustinov’s Prince John in Disney’s animated Robin Hood (pictured) to Anthony Hopkins in
An email from a college classmate just jogged my memory. I was in an inaugural parade! It was in January 1969, and Richard Nixon was about to take office, being elected by promising to end the Vietnam War. I was in my third year at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA), and mine was one
A thought for this inauguration day — Have you ever studied Abraham Lincoln’s pose at the Lincoln Memorial? Specifically, notice his hands. His left hand is a tightly clinched fist, while the right hand is resting relaxed on the chair arm. This suggests there are two equal components of American leadership — strength and compassion.