Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
Why Zebras Have Stripes
Have you ever wondered why zebras have stripes? I was catching up on my reading during my recent trip to California, and I ran across a blurb in the July 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine entitled “Patterns Puzzle Predators”. It begins by saying — “If a zebra zigs, with its stripes make a predator
How to Get Into Trouble Through Technology
I am back from a week in Southern California and the Disneyana Fan Club’s annual convention. (I never announce when I’m traveling for security reasons.) I’m still unpacking and trying to resume my usual routine, but I do have time to tell you a quick story. One of the club’s fundraising strategies is to have
Happy Birthday, Nikola Tesla
July 10 was the birthday of Nikola Tesla, born in 1856 in what is now Croatia. You may have heard of the Tesla coil, but he also was responsible for alternating current. Unfortunately, his business ventures weren’t always successful, and he died alone and impoverished in 1943. The PBS Newshour website has a feature “8
How to Clean Up the Oceans
According to Science magazine, (http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768), eight million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year. The ocean now has at least 700 pieces of plastic for every person on earth. Is there any way we could ever clean up this mess? A twenty-one-year-old man from the Netherlands has an idea. Realizing that plastic
Disneyana Fan Club Convention Flashback — Conserving Animation Art
This year’s Disneyana Fan Club DisneyanaMania Convention is now less than a week away, so today I’m excerpting parts of one of my favorite convention presentations. In 2006, Ron Stark of S/R Labs explained how to preserve and restore valuable collectibles, information that is always timely. For more information about this year’s convention, visit http://www.disneyanafanclub.org/content/disneyanamania-2016-wednesday-july-13-through-saturday-july-16-2016 This
The Dog Days of Summer
I’ve always heard of the “dog days” of summer, and I always thought, somewhat logically, that the expression came from the propensity of dogs to rest in the midday heat. But that’s not the case. According to National Geographic, the saying has nothing to do with dogs. Rather, it refers to Sirius the dog star.
Some Facts About the 4th of July
I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July. After the parades, cookouts and fireworks, I came across some interesting details about the holiday, courtesy of the daily email from The Writer’s Almanac — [July 4th] marks the day in 1776 when the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. The document was
Happy 4th of July!
To help celebrate “disloyalty to royalty” day, I am repeating my poem on patriotism from Some Poems About Life. The Patriot Jerry is a patriot, he loves his country dear. He waves the flag on July 4th, he makes his feelings clear. He fancies himself vigilant, his loyalty is defined. But when it comes
The Brave New World of CRISPR
Can you imagine an elephant sanctuary in Siberia? Wheat that is practically immune to mildew? Microbes that eat plastic? These may now be possible, thanks to a new tool called CRISPR-Cas9 (or CRISPR for short) that gives us the ability to literally rewrite genetic code for just about anything on our planet that has DNA.
In Praise of Unsung Heroes
A major problem with studying history is you have to dig to get the real story. So much gets left out of the standard history books. One of my favorite examples is Rosalind Franklin, whose pioneering work in X-ray crystallography enabled James Watson, Francis Crick, and their colleague Maurice Wilkins to discover the structure of