Not With a Bang

I’ve been a fan of science fiction since age nine. To me, the appeal isn’t the gung ho action — the alien invasion/interstellar war/space opera stuff — although some of that is great fun. Nor is it the softer, more philosophical side of the genre — tales about time travel, alternate universes, artificial intelligence, or [...]

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“That Which Providence Hath Destroyed”

In 2002, the BBC conducted a poll to determine the 100 greatest Brits in history — as chosen by the British public of 2002. The results were skewed accordingly. Princess Diana placed third, one place ahead of Charles Darwin. Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson was number nine, trailing John Lennon, number eight. Although the top 10 [...]

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Teddy and Edwin

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), the 26th President, was passionate about protecting wildlife and preserving the environment — a radical position in his day. During his presidency, from 1904 to 1908, Roosevelt established five national parks, 18 national monuments, 150 national forests, and 55 game preserves. While he was in office, he quadrupled the amount of federally [...]

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You Can’t Believe Your Eyes

Sometimes, you can’t believe your eyes. That’s because the human visual system is so sophisticated, and so good at showing your brain what’s out there, that a clever illusion can trip it up. As one vision expert explains, “The visual system is not very good at being a ‘physical light meter,’ but that is not [...]

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South of the Border

The 1960s was a truly eventful decade. The Vietnam War, the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK, the Apollo missions, the moon landing. The music scene was pretty lively, too: mainstream pop, rock and roll, country, R&B, folk music. And, in the middle of it all, there was a spurt of Latin music, courtesy of [...]

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Hi Jolly

This is the story of Philip Tedro, a man of half Greek, half Syrian descent who, in the mid-1800s, became lead camel wrangler in the U.S. Army “Camel Corps.” Yes, for a brief period prior to the Civil War, camels were used by the U.S Army. It was just an experiment, and it didn’t last, [...]

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Linguistic Minutia

American English is a fascinating and entertaining language. Regional dialects vary widely, and they range from the odd to the humorous, depending on who’s listening. Being a wordsmith type of person, I enjoy interesting tidbits of linguistic minutia.  To get into this topic, let me define two words. One is phonology, the science of speech [...]

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Lewis and Clark et al

While I was in the Pacific Northwest a few months ago, I was reminded constantly of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806. In the “Upper Left,” statues and historical markers about the journey are everywhere. To be honest, most of what I knew about the expedition, I learned in elementary school: that they were [...]

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Mt. Mazama

A few weeks ago, I sent this email to my grandkids who are old enough to read… ————— Dear Katie, Kelsey, and Maddie, I learned something really interesting on my trip to the West Coast, and I wanted to tell you about it. If you don’t think it’s interesting, then your brain isn’t in straight. [...]

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Spinoffs

NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, doesn’t get the respect it deserves. The agency was created in 1958 “to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.” Quite a mission. NASA space flights always get most of the attention, but in the long run, the real payoff is in the practical [...]

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