If you’ve been losing faith in our judicial system, I have good news. Today I learned that one bank was actually charged with fraud in conjunction with the mortgage scandals of 2008. Abacus Federal Savings Bank was founded in 1984 to serve the Chinese-American community in New York City. In May, 2012, the bank and
Sunday, May 14 was our annual national Mother’s Day. In commemoration, the Writer’s Almanac published some background information about how we got here. Like so many milestones, it can be traced back to one determined person. Mother’s Day was first celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia in 1908 when a woman named Anna Jarvis held a
Disney’s California Adventure and Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme parks both have an audio-animatronic and video theater show entitled “It’s Tough To Be a Bug”. One of the show’s messages is how essential bugs are to our world (“We’re Pollinators!”). Recently I’ve found another reason why bugs are so good to have around. According to the
I have always been fascinated with the stars. Now technological breakthroughs are giving us tools to explore the star systems around us, despite the unfathomable distances involved. What we are finding is stranger than fiction. These include huge black holes, colliding galaxies, and planets with bizarre orbits. One source for information is Astronomy magazine http://www.astronomy.com.
When I was growing up in the 1960s, there was some speculation as to how that era would be remembered. Would it be the Nuclear Age or the Space Age? Now it’s become pretty clear it was actually the Transistor And Birth-Control-Pill Age. I was reminded of this because we’ve recently passed two milestones, according
I’ve been running as a sport since 1980. One thing I’ve learned as a result is not to limit myself; it’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it. I’m not the only one who feels that way. The men’s world record for the marathon (26.2 miles) is 2:02:57, set by
There’s an unusual way to celebrate Easter in the Washington, D.C. area. The National Zoo hosts a major annual event on Easter Monday, which is an unofficial holiday celebrated by African Americans in D.C. since the 1890s. This event is believed to have started because black housekeepers had to work on Easter Sunday, so they
For anyone out there who loves science, especially astronomy, and is fascinated by the size and diversity of the universe (like I am), Astronomy magazine has released the “27 Best Hubble images on its 27th birthday” (http://astronomy.com/news/2017/04/best-of-hubble-images?spMailingID=28849033&spUserID=NDYyNDk0Mjk0MTgxS0&spJobID=1024146748&spReportId=MTAyNDE0Njc0OAS2). Recall the Hubble space telescope was launched into low Earth orbit on April 24, 1990. With a 2.4-meter
Dog owners are quite familiar with the look their pet gives when it knows it’s done something wrong — a bowed head and very large, sad eyes. Biologist Nathan Lents, writing in Psychology Today, has a name for that look: the “apology bow.” But it apparently is more than an attempt to gain your sympathy.
A word for today — onymity. Don’t worry, it’s not an insult. The clue to its meaning is it’s the opposite of anonymity (not being named). Onymity simply means being named. So what? A recent article in the journal Science Advances is entitled “Onymity Promotes Cooperation in Social Dilemma Experiments”. This work reports on a