Oh, welcome to America (especially if you are reading this from overseas). The land of lawyers and suing. (Forget the old schoolhouse taunts- the one that works here is “My lawyer is bigger than yours!”) And, now we have yet another outrageous reach… Let me tell you the story.
Continue reading Land of the Free? Or Land of the Sue?
I began my blog about 2 years ago (1 June 2010). I did so for a few reasons. The first reason was to meet as many people as I could, to explain things as I see them, and share my knowledge. It’s the curse of being an ex-academic; one who teaches, researches, publishes, and engages in discussions with knowledge-seeking folks.
Do you ever wonder why some of these folks in the Middle East, Idaho, or Chechnya decide to become terrorists? What makes them consider killing innocent children, women, and men- and losing their own lives?
Continue reading Can we tame the terror card?
I was listening to Science Friday today (ok, this was written on 9 March) where my friend, Ira Flatow, was interviewing Barb Stuckey. She wrote a book, Taste What You’re Missing, where, among other things, she writes why food tastes so pitifully bad on an airplane.
Continue reading You call this food?
Time management. I must have taken more than 50 courses. Given that background, one would think I’m an expert. Yeah, right.
Continue reading Time, Time, Time, is (not) on my side…
So, Janine Ripper offered me up with another award– another 7 links challenge, different from the first such award for which I had to respond. And, before I got that request out of my queue, Shawn R. Snyder provided me with yet another challenge (Inquiring Minds Want To Know). Given those nominations (dares?), I have prepared my responses accordingly.
Continue reading 7 & 7 (no, not the drink)
I’m sure by now you know that I’m a reasonably religious fellow. (No, I did not say I was reasonable; I said that my religion is a basic foundation of my life 🙂 ). And, given that, I believe that the Supreme Being (SB) created this world in 6 days. Now, let’s not worry about the literal sense, since the Tora defines a day as evening and morning. Given the fact that there were no luminaries at first and the world may or may not have been spinning, that first day could have been a millennium or a 1000 millennia using our chronometers.
Continue reading Helicopter. Ego. Growth.
I saw a wonderful play the other day. “New Jerusalem” performed at the Theater J. (Kudos to Ari Roth, the creative Artistic Director, who is often attacked for taking non-traditional stands.) This is a retelling (of sorts) of the interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza (1656) that led to his excommunication; a discourse between traditional belief and modern thought, faith and philosophy- in other words, a very modern dilemna.
Continue reading Was Spinoza Wrong?
Many of my friends wonder what this kosher thing is all about. Some think the beef is better than regular meat, others think some rabbi waves a magic wand to make the meat kosher. Let’s get real. Kosher “meat” (as opposed to dairy; all vegetables are kosher) is pretty simple- there are prescribed birds and proscribed animals. Four legged animals must have a cleft hoof and be ruminants (‘chew their cud’ is the more common term). Fish (anything from the sea) must have fins AND scales. And, there’s a list of birds we can have (chicken, duck, etc.). The animals have to be killed immediately and have their blood drained. Those are the basic rules. There’s action afoot to include some other rules, but, to be honest, I doubt they’ll truly catch on. But, that does not mean there haven’t changes.
Continue reading A Kosher Company?
I’ve broken into my queue for this message. This Sunday (25 March 2012) is a special day. Good Deeds Day. You have probably never heard of it- yet. It began in Israel in 2007. As the brainchild of Shari Arison. Who, you say? The scion of Ted Arison and Mina Sapir; the two founders of the Carnival Cruise Line. A British-American cruise line now, but not when it was founded in 1972. It has now become the world’s largest cruise line with 21+% of all cruise passengers travelling on one of their lines. (Carnival not only includes Carnival, but Holland America, Seabourn, Princess, Costa, Aida, and Ibero- plus an airline.) Continue reading We interrupt this message…
