I know a lot of people who drink diet soda. During my Air Force career, I remember an officer who was an avid drinker. He told how he was once stationed at a remote location, and when word came that the BX had received a shipment of Diet Coke, he would take the unit’s pickup
What would the Earth be like without its moon? Songwriters and poets would have one less subject, and you probably would never have heard of King Canute since there would be smaller tides (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide). As the website EarthSky points out, most planets have small moons relative to their size, so in most cases it would
When in lived in Southern California (1982-86), I took advantage of an adult-education program at the local community college. One of the courses I took was about restaurant operation. I remember the instructor advising against ordering any chef’s specials. He said many times the chef would find a forgotten item in the back of the
We all know there can be a special bond between dog owners and their pets. But can there be health benefits, too? A study from Sweden, published November 7, 2017 in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests a correlation between dog ownership and a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and other causes. Research like this
Remember the song “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing”? There may be some truth to it. Could there be a link between human speech and music, and birdsongs? Is there a connecting biological process? Recently published research provides evidence that there is a common hardwiring in how songbirds and humans produce and understand sounds.
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. ” — Sir Winston Churchill Do you remember the Sony Betamax? (I still have one.) How about coffee-flavored Coca-Cola? These are obvious failures most people would like to forget. But according to an article in the December 2017 issue
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be car salesmen. Okay, that’s not how the original song lyrics went. But that’s what I thought of while listening to a podcast from National Public Radio’s This American Life. This episode is entitled “129 Cars” and originally aired December 13, 2013; it was recently rebroadcast. “We
If you’re fortunate enough to have a home-cooked meal for Thanksgiving, it will probably include the sweet potato. There is nothing like enjoying one of my childhood favorites, a sweet potato casserole topped with oven-browned marshmallows. Or is there? Many professional chefs are saying this is one dish we could all do without. The objections
When you are driving and come to a construction zone that requires traffic to merge out of a lane, what do you do? I usually merge into the first available open space. Frankly, it’s always bothered me when people speed down the soon-to-be-closed lane despite the signage, then merge at the last possible minute. That
A couple of days ago, I heard on the radio that Bill Gates is planning to build a futuristic community. As soon as I arrived home, I started researching. According to the article “Bill Gates Invests $80 Million to Build Arizona Smart City” by Matt McFarland (http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/13/technology/future/bill-gates-smart-city-arizona/index.html), it sounds wonderful — The community in Belmont