During past school year, I tutored math and language arts in a local fifth-grade class, so when Public School Success Team (PSST), the homegrown 
non-profit that ran the tutoring program, decided to encourage a continuing flow of student enthusiasm over the summer, I volunteered to lead a course. Conducted al fresco in my backyard, it consisted of six weekly sessions in close textual analysis. I called it Curious Readers.
My plan was Read More
On July 14, the UC Davis Olive Center, part of that school’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, released a paper reporting that 69% of randomly selected imported Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) brands had “defective flavors such as rancid, fusty, and musty” and “did not meet international and US standards.” This compares to a failure rate of only 10% for the California-produced EVOO they sampled. The North American Olive Oil Association (NAOOA), a trade organization that represents the foreign producers whose oils flunked the UC Davis exam, promptly released a statement claiming the tests were flawed.
What is Zorbing? Well, the website states: Imagine yourself suspended inside a clear inflatable plastic ball of about 3 meters in diameter. And when you’re securely in the place, the ball is rolled down 150-meter long slope. (No brakes, no steering, just you and gravity).
I could not imagine myself thus, but Read More
LeBron James, 25, is arguably professional basketball’s biggest star. A member of the Cleveland Cavaliers since jumping straight from high school in 2003, he has led the Cavs to playoff berths for six consecutive seasons. In addition to his basketball salary, he makes many millions each year from endorsements. In December 2007, James was ranked first in the Forbes “Top 20 Earners Under 25″ with annual earnings of estimated at $27 million. He is a very wealthy young man with more lucre to come.
His contract with the Cavaliers Read More
Geological epochs are defined by the major events that separate them, as when green algae in primeval seas put oxygen into the atmosphere and made animal life on earth possible. Has human technology become one of these epoch-defining events?
Elizabeth Kolbert, a New Yorker staff writer who is aware and knowledgeable about the discussions and unwarranted controversy about whether man has contributed to changes in and to the earth, has written an article for Yale’s Environment 360 website that addresses the naming of the geological epoch we are current in. She asks:
Is human activity altering the planet on a scale comparable to major geological events of the past? Scientists are now considering whether to officially designate a new geological epoch to reflect the changes that homo sapiens have wrought: the Anthropocene.
An-THROP-o-cene. What’s in a name is not a trivial concern. Read More
Try this experiment? Write a declarative sentence using the word “anymore” that does not include a negative. You are not allowed to split the word into “any more” as in:
“If there are any more interruptions, I shall clear the courtroom.”
I’ll wait while you cogitate…
The vast majority of you will not be able to.
Their destination was Oakland, where they would be met by their widowed 61-year old mother. She had decided Read More
If you bet on the Final Four (or on almost anything), the bookie’s odds always include a built-in percentage for the house. Last year I calculated the Las Vegas Final Four edge at 9.8%.
This year the edge is so big (20.8%) that something must be wrong!
If so, then the first two rounds of March Madness may promote more US-Islamic tolerance than all the State Department visits Hillary Clinton can schedule.
Two young men, Read More
I received an email this week with the subject line: Census violating our privacy rights?
It included this comment:
Personal questions are asked by the census taker, [but] I answer only “2 persons live here”. That is all. I consider that anything more is invasive…In past years we have had census takers in our face, in our house, persuading us to give all sorts of info which we refused. Everything from how much money to how many bathrooms. As I recall, the constitution grants the census only the head count.
Actually, this is incorrect. Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution includes:
The actual Enumeration shall Read More
