It was the height of the Cold War and every time the United States tried to pull ahead in space, the Russians got there first. Americans were afraid, and Sputnik was to blame. Sputnik, the first orbiting satellite, meant that the Russians could spy on America and there wasn’t a darn thing the USA could do about it. We raced to get an American in orbit but the USSR beat us there too when cosmonaut…Read More
Of the billions of people who have lived in the last few thousand years, it’s not hard to make a case the Leonardo da Vinci was one of the smartest. Born of poor parents and self-educated, he managed to turn the Renaissance on its head with his endless stream of inventions, artwork, scientific research, sketches and smart philosophies. He is the very definition of a “Renaissance Man” with his extraordinary output and often astonishingly forward…Read More
Did you know that the very first pickup truck hit the market back in 1927? Yup, it was the “Model T Runabout with Pickup Body” and it cost a cool $278.00. From that very first year, the combination of a cab for driver and passengers, combined with a flat bed – or flatbed with sidewalls – has proven a useful and popular configuration. According to Statista, there were 3.7 million pickup trucks sold worldwide in…Read More
I’ve had kids in college for a couple of years now and have visited them on a number of different campuses. Prior to that I attended three colleges (yup, three degrees) and have lectured at more than a dozen other colleges. Suffice to say, I’m reasonably familiar with the world of higher education, even if it’s been a while since I attended class. As a parent, the experience of attending college becomes an adventure balanced…Read More
It’s hundreds of years in the future and society has collapsed. The new world is populated by a mix of humans, robots and half-robot cyborgs. Iron City, the center of the film, is awash in dangerous cyborg bounty hunters who roam with official approval, they’re “Hunter-Warriors”. Floating high above the impoverished city is the tech utopia of Zalem, a mysterious place where none has visited but everyone is rumored to live a life of comfortable…Read More
One of the more interesting facets of parenting is watching your children go through different phases of their personal hygiene. Little kids reject cleaning their teeth and won’t bath unless it’s fun and involves toys, clueless as to why everyone else shuns them (possibly a slight exaggeration). Later, the lazy teen years hit and they don’t do much in the way or morning or evening ablutions because, well, they’re tired and busy with other things….Read More
Just when we thought we’d figured out how to address global warming, it turns out that the sun has gone rogue and in less than a century it’s going to destroy Earth and eventually expand to the size of our solar system. We can’t build enough space stations to save mankind and we can’t colonize another planet since that’s going to be destroyed all too soon. Instead, what if we built thousands of massive rocket…Read More
I know, the phrase “learn economics” or, for that matter, “learn entrepreneurship” sounds like the worst possible foundation for a fun game. And yet, if you think about it, quite a few games, from Monopoly to Settlers of Catan, are built around basic economic principles of scarcity, supply and demand, and investment risk assessment. Ironically, Monopoly was originally created to show the evils and dangers of capitalism and monopolies, but that’s not really the game…Read More
I can still remember as a teen the common belief that pickup trucks were for people who couldn’t afford cars. Perhaps they really were more utilitarian back then, lower priced and without any frills, but in reality, I spent almost no time in pickups as a kid, so it’s entirely possible I was completely wrong even back then in 19<cough>. In any case, just as all cars have advanced in their technology and creature comforts,…Read More
It was back in 1941 during the tensions leading up to the US entry into World War II that a small car company was formed to deliver “General Purpose” vehicles. GP was easily pronounced as “jeep” and that’s the most common explanation for how Jeep got its name. And they’ve been making solid off road vehicles since 1941. It’s even emblazoned on their steering wheel to remind you of the colorful history of the brand….Read More
One of the best things about being a lifestyle blogger (or parent blogger who also covers lifestyle topics, however you want to spin it) is that we get lots of opportunities to eat and drink stuff. From beverages to treats, dinner out with the gang to try a new menu or venue, to condiments and ingredients sent to our house to see if we like ’em, it’s all pretty darn sweet. Or, in this instance,…Read More
One of the great challenges of parenting is to educate your children about health and lifestyle choices. Like everyone else, children don’t want lectures, they want practical and realistic advice and guidance and accurate and pragmatic facts. Like it or not, they’re also going to ultimately make their own decisions, particularly as they hit the high school and then college years. My family is healthier than most in our lifestyle choices and eating habits, but…Read More
Every film fan has their favorites, a list of movies they can watch endlessly. The film might be a comedy, a drama or an action film, but they’ve become “feel good” movies where you have positive associations with both the film and your previous viewings. More serious film fans, however, also have films that they enjoy because of how profound they are or because they’re just so masterfully assembled, true examples of visual storytelling. The…Read More
Driving a completely electric vehicle is a different experience if you’ve spent your whole life with the internal combustion engine. No gas stations, no quick top up to get you that last 20 miles, and no 500+ mile road trips in a day. Instead, there’s a constant drumbeat that keeps reminding you that you need to find a charging plug or even a power plug and allocate the time for the vehicle to charge up….Read More
This is really no news to me at all, nor should it be to you, but now the government of Japan has come out and said that the increase in vision problems amongst its youngsters is due to smartphones and portable game machines. Well, yeah. “The proportion of primary school and high school students whose vision is [less than 20/20] has reached a record high” according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and…Read More