Losing a Lime I just read in the Wall Street Journal that researchers have been working to understand why the average human brain has been shrinking in the last millennia or so. There is an old joke about the dinosaur speaking at a convention of other dinosaurs. He says to the group, “The outlook is not good gentlemen, meteors have been striking the earth, the climate is changing for the worse, vegetation is disappearing…and we…
Ought v. Naught The Founding Documents The United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land and represents a refinement in the Founding Fathers’ thinking over a dozen or so years. It was published in 1789 and replaces the Articles of Confederation published in 1777. Those articles represented the first, loosely defined combination of what had been thirteen disparate colonies, and it was a stepping stone for this…
Drawing Blood Blood is a very unique and special substance which sits at the heart (pun intended) of life as we know it. With expressions like “life-blood”, we seem to openly acknowledge that blood is the essence of life. Some people fully comprehend the composition of blood and understand that it is not at all the same from one being to another. We often like to say that we all bleed red just like everyone,…
Ought v. Naught The Founding Documents The Declaration of Independence On July 4th, 1776, we all know that the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to sign this declaration from the thirteen founding colonies of what would become known as the United States. They had actually signed the Resolution of Independence two days prior as their assertion of independence and then went on to publish the formal declaration to announce and explain their basis for…
The Universe Speaketh All throughout my youth, I enjoyed school and learning. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t cry when it was time for school letting out for summer or the holidays. But I was clearly on the side of liking the learning process. I cannot remember all of my teachers through my grade school years, but I at least remember Mrs. Hunt, who was my fifth grade teacher in November, 1963 because I remember…
Ought v. Naught Reimagining America George Pratt Shultz lived 100 years and for 35 of those years was a leading force in the forging of America’s foreign and domestic policies. He held four different cabinet-level positions under two Republican presidents, holding a seat at the cabinet table for a dozen years from 1969 to 1989. He was on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors for Eisenhower, Secretary of Labor, Director of the Office of Management…
Talking to Old Friends None of us ever do a good enough job of staying in touch with old friends. Some try harder than others, but for the most part we all accept that life moves on and some people just drift away and disappear from your screen. We all segment our lives to some degree, but I suspect I do it more than most since I grew up as part of my mother’s traveling…
Giggity Gig One of the oldest nursery rhymes is To Market, To Market, which first appeared in print in 1805, but can trace its origins back to the “Old Countries” of Europe (in this case Italy and England), where it was heard repeated as early as 1611 and was partially recorded in 1598. Like all nursery rhymes, they are meant as songs to soothe children, so they are simple ditties that describe everyday events, in…
To Infinity and Beyond! Who doesn’t love Buzz Lightyear? The guys at Pixar created him for the original Toy Story movie in 1995. Actually, Buzz comes from a movie within a movie and is the toy character that comes from that inner movie. He was modeled after G.I. Joe, which I sort of understand, but never really caught on to even though I was a big G.I. Joe kid. His voice is from Tim Allen,…
The Conundrum of Education On MSNBC this morning, the topic of the inequity of education, especially in regard to the admission standards to Ivy League universities, was on full display. To begin with, they showed data from public universities (think University of Michigan or UCLA), what they call “Second Tier” universities (Oh, say like Vanderbilt or Washington University) and Ivy League or Elite universities (the obvious 8 plus a few extras like Stanford, Duke, University…