If I were smart, I’d stay away from this one, because it gets complicated, but I just ran across this topic on the EarthSky News. The short answer to how big a black hole can get is 50 billion suns before the food that powers them crumbles into stars. (Like I said, it’s complicated.) The
It’s all downhill from here. The winter solstice — officially the first day of winter, although I have my own definition — is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Of course that’s in the Northern Hemisphere; in the Southern Hemisphere it’s just the reverse. Depending upon your time zone, the
Actually, no one is postive when Beethoven was born. He was baptized on December 17, 1770 in Bonn, in what is now Germany, and his birthday is thought to be December 16, 1770. Beethoven was a bonafide musical genius who gave us some of our best-known classical music and who ironically went deaf later in
You never know what you’ll find on the Internet. The most unusual website I’ve ever found is https://isitchristmas.com/ It answers the question “Is it Christmas?” in a very direct way. Be sure to check it on Christmas, although you will probably be disappointed.
You’ve heard a lot about 3D printers, but will there ever be the day when we can use them to print our clothes? A young lady named Danit Peleg thinks that day will be here soon. In a recent TED talk, she explains how a fashion school project let her to degisn and print some
The word barber comes from the Latin barba for beard, and even in early Rome they knew beards needed to be lubricated to be cut without pain. Water worked okay as long as it was held in place with soap. Special shaving soaps were being sold by the early 1800s. One of the first
Anyone who has ever owned a pet has probably wondered at one time or another what their companion has been thinking. How much do they understand? Do they have the same feelings, or do they just mirror our moods? I haven’t had a pet in fifty years, but my own theory is when an animal
“If a logger smiles in the forest with no one around to see him, was he actually happy?” — Jerry Adler One of our most effective forms of communication is non-verbal. I have a $1.50 paperback on my shelf from 1970 entitled Body Language. So it should be no surprise to hear that people
I’ll get right to the point on this one. I’ve just listened to a podcast about a woman whose computer files (over 5000 of them) were locked and she had to pay $500 to ransom them. Yes, there are cybercriminals who can remotely take over your computer, lock your files, and demand payment before you
September 26th was the European Day of Languages, an event this country would never think to have. But in Europe it’s an annual event which started in 2001. According to The Writer’s Almanac, it s purpose is “to celebrate human language, encourage language learning, and bring attention to the importance of being multilingual in a
