Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
Are You Lying?
The world runs so much better on trust. Unfortunately, according to a 1990s study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the average human tells up to two lies a day, Yet try as we might, no one can tell for sure when someone is lying. Not that we haven’t tried. Psychologist William Moulton Marston,
Longevity and the Brain
“Your brain’s health may be the most powerful indicator of how long you will live.” I’m at the age where an article about longevity really gets my attention. So the National Geographic piece “How to take better care of your aging brain” by Michael S. Sweeney really caught my eye (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/longevity-life-brain-care-health-age?). The article’s conclusion is
Poem: Why Did It
From the “I Wish I’d Written That” department, I thought this was funny. From the Poetry Foundation: “William J. Harris is an emeritus professor of American literature, African American literature, creative writing, and jazz studies. He taught at the University of Kansas, Pennsylvania State University, and Cornell University, among other universities. He lives in Brooklyn,
The White Side of Black History Month
For a different twist on Black History Month, have you ever considered the other side? The white side? For example, have you heard of White Men For Racial Justice? Usually, any organization that has “white” in its name is a hate group, but that is definitely not true here. This is the case of people
Make the Rule of Compounding Work for You
Anyone who has ever had a mortgage knows about compound interest. And hopefully, you know enough to take advantage of compounding when you save. If you’re not familiar with how compounding works, consider the Rule of 72 — To calculate the time an investment will double, divide 72 by the interest rate. For example, If
Changing Politics With The Dignity Index
“Are you frustrated by the hate and negativity? You’re not alone. That’s why we developed The Dignity Index, an eight-point scale that scores speech on its power to unite or divide.” We have a problem. In the past five years, threats against members of Congress have increased ten times. According to Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow at
The Evils of Stupidity
I’ve always thought Congress would do a lot of good if it would simply make stupid behavior illegal. In that spirit, have you ever heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and dissident during the Nazi era who, when viewing what was happening around him, decided that stupidity is worse than evil. Think
Escaping in Plain Sight
I’ve always claimed so much of our past never makes it into the history books. This is especially true for stories about slavery. This being Black History Month, a recently published book gives another example of the ingenuity of slaves. William and Ellen Craft were a married couple, enslaved in Georgia but determined to escape
Helping the Blind to Swim
Ever since I saw a man in a wheelchair at a urinal in an airport restroom, I have never begrudged accommodations for people with special needs. This is also why some recent news from Egypt caught my eye. What if you like to swim, but your vision is severely limited? Last July, the local government
Another Mystery of Life
From the fertile minds of scientists comes another off-the-wall question: Exactly what is the nature of the universe? Or even more out of this world: Could we really be living in a hologram? This topic has come up due to a recent experiment. Physicists used Google’s Sycamore 2 quantum computer to create a “baby” wormhole. The