Author Archives: Bob Welbaum

More We Can Learn From Dolphins

We all know dolphins are smart, right?   The latest research claims they love to talk about their problems.  As reported on the website New Scientist, dolphins have a special type of language they use to tackle problems together. According to the Dolphin Communication Project, a research and conservation organization  in Port St. Lucie, Florida, dolphins

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Original Poem — Happy Birthday, Chris

  Happy Birthday, Chris  Luck — The accidental way things happen without being planned. The cake said “Happy Birthday, Chris.” I said “Who is Chris?” My wife mumbled, “Someone at the office.” Opportunity — An appropriate or favorable time or occasion. Then the truth came out. She had ordered two cakes by mistake, and didn’t

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Why Do We Kiss?

I imagine we all take kissing for granted in our romantic lives, but according to a recent report in the February, 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine, kissing is a fairly recent development in human history.  This conclusion is based on a study from the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University and the University of Nevada,

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Happy Birthday to the Detective Story

One of my favorite authors in Edgar Allan Poe, not because I like horror, but because he wrote my favorite poem, “The Raven”.  So it caught my eye when I read that April 20, 1841, was considered the first appearance of the modern detective story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by…   Edgar Allan Poe.

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A Simple Way to Feed the World

If current trends continue, we will have at least two billion more mouths to feed by 2050.  That’s in addition to the almost 800 million people who are currently underfed worldwide.  How are we going to manage this without a global catastrophe? Actually, there is a simple way — eliminate food waste.  I’ve been seeing

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The Science of…Crying?

I remember teaching a high school English class on Friday afternoon.  Since it was Friday, they were allowed to pick and analyze songs on the Internet.  One girl selected a tearjerker entitled “Why Tears Fall.”   At the end of this discussion, one of the boys piped up, “I know why tears fall —  gravity!” Although

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The Flip Side — Hiding From Aliens

Recently I wrote about how the best place for finding alien life might be an exoplanet’s moon. But there is a flip side — what if we decide we don’t want alien life to find us?  Contacting us first means they assuredly have the more-advanced technology.  Maybe much more advanced.  Would they be friendly?  And

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