A Doll Comes To Visit

You are a fifth-grade girl who comes home from school to find a doll on your front porch. The doll looks like you, is dressed like you, and there is something about the eyes. Who left it? Why is it here? And what makes this doll so special?

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With a Little Help From My Friend

Jim Jenkins is an ace detective who solves the most difficult crimes. Yet he always works alone. Or does he?

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The Boy Who Could Wiggle His Ears

Learning how to wiggle your ears is really hard. But you can do it if you keep trying. And if you learn to keep trying, no problem is too big. So if you can wiggle your ears, you can do anything!

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Why We Procrastinate

You really have to love a piece that begins “This article would have been much better if I hadn’t waited until the last minute to write it.” Why do we procrastinate?  The most logical reason is because we’re so afraid of success that we find ways to intentionally sabotage our work.  This is so common

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What is a Work Spouse?

In my lifetime, I’ve heard a lot of ideas about management and productivity.  But one that is new to me is the idea of a “work spouse.” We need to make one thing clear right away — this has nothing to do with sex.  A work spouse is simply a friend you can trust, respect,

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Do You Know What You Are Eating?

We hear so much about eating healthy as it is, the last thing we need is another food warning.  I don’t want to cause trouble, but I’ve just run across an article entitled “5 Shocking Things We Eat Every Day” on Realbuzz.com.  The five ingredients they list are — Arsenic — Arsenic is in the

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Why is There Mint in Your Toothpaste?

Have you ever wondered why mint is in your toothpaste?  Or for that matter, almost every dental product?  I didn’t either until I heard the March 16, 2018 podcast of NPR’s Marketplace. It seems until the twentieth century, few people brushed their teeth.  Then an ad man named Claude C. Hopkins came along.  He created

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Restoring Feeling in Lost Limbs

Having been in the military for twenty years, I’m very sympathetic to anyone who has lost a limb.  Great progress has been made in fabricating lifelike and functional prosthetics, but they still have one major disadvantage —  feeling.  There is no sensation in metal and plastic.  So the only way to control an artificial hand,

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How To Think Better

Who wouldn’t like to be better at solving problems?  Recently, I ran across something that might help.  It involves using “mental models” to think in different ways. A mental model is simply an explanation of how something works.  It can be a concept or framework in your brain, like game theory, that helps you understand

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Where To Get Your Crazy Socks

Maybe it’s because I’ve been working a lot with special-needs kids at my local high school recently, but  recent story caught my eye. John Lee Cronin is a young man with Down syndrome who loves unique and colorful socks.  His life took a new turn when he decided to study retailing and customer service at

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How To Talk To Plants

Have you ever heard of Sprout?  Google the word and you get a lot of different results.  But this definition is an agricultural application on Google’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform that enables you to communicate with plants. You may already know that plants can grow without soil.  It’s called hydroponics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics); basically, exposed roots are

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