I recently ran across a more positive way to look at immigration. Viewing this from the perspective of the individuals who are making the journey, many are girls and young women who are vulnerable to exploitation along the way. But there is an organization that’s trying to protect them. The Tahirih Justice Center, named after
Spring is always a bad time for tornadoes in the Midwest. I remember the devastating storm that hit Xenia, Ohio in the 1970s. Which is why a feature in the May 19th edition of EarthSky News caught my eye. I’m copying the basic information here. The complete article can be found at http://earthsky.org/earth/4-basic-questions-about-tornadoes? The photo
On April 20th, I wrote about the challenges of having to feed at least two billion more mouths by 2050 in “A Simple Way to Feed the World.” That way was cutting down on food waste. Here’s another. Granted, any topic dealing with eating bugs is a sure turn-off for most people, but an article
Last time I wrote about the origins of Friday the 13th. This leads to another subject — fears, or phobias. Fear is actually a normal protection, to keep us from doing really dumb things. The Psychology Today website puts it this way — Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn’t
I trust everyone has survived Friday the 13th? I’ve never been very superstitious, but I’ve been wondering how we got to fear this particular day. So I dug out the book An Uncommon History of Common Things (National Geographic, 2009, page 118). As one might suspect, the answer isn’t very straightforward. First, the Friday component.
For the past several years, we’ve heard a lot about post-traumatic stress and how it has ruined many lives, especially service people who have been through combat. But have you ever heard of post-traumatic growth (PTG)? Yes, there is such a thing. Psychologists Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun at the University of North
Do you have a dog? If so, do you care about its ancestry? Actually, I don’t have any pets, but I do love dogs. So a blurb entitled “King of the Canines” recently caught my eye. It’s in the “Explore” section of the February 2016 National Geographic magazine and it lists the 10 most popular
I suppose everyone knows about vaccination, but what I didn’t realize is that other species can practice a form of vaccination too. In the February 2016 issue of National Geographic, an “Explore Science” entry is entitled “Immunity For Insects”. Apparently vaccinations can also be passed from mother to young. We knew higher animals could do
No, I have not been drinking. But I’ve run across something so wild that I had to being it to your attention. Could our limbs have evolved from the paired fins of fish? And before that, from fishes’ gills? That was originally suggested in 1878 by German anatomist Karl Gegenbaur. But there was no evidence
I run as a sport, and have been since 1980. One of the byproducts I have noticed is I always seem to get my best ideas while running. I am happy (relieved?) to read recently that it’s not just me. In fact, it may go a lot farther than that. In an article on the