In my upcoming memoir, I write about a Southern Baptist missionary I met in the 1960s, while living in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).  She was a savvy woman, devoted to her work and endowed with a terrific sense of humor.  Although I was an atheist, we became friends and from her, I

It’s not true that “Money can’t buy you love.”  It can.  Charities are eager to love me.  Contribute to one and I hear from any of their neighbors who are within shouting distance.  Each time I contribute, I’m aware I’m added to a list which is sold to other non-profit

Recently, I spent a terrible morning trying to keep up with various upgrades on my browser, on my e-books platform for Apple and for the site where I launch my blogs.  “Upgrade” is the most annoying word in the English language, in my opinion.  Demands for them never seem to sto

Crispr is a technique that has added a large body of knowledge to our understanding of the human genome. (Click) (Click)  It is a gene-editing technique which allows human DNA to be altered in the hope of ending deadly diseases like cancer and sickle-cell anemia. Two women worked tog

My morning began, as it usually does, by taking the pulse of Facebook. England’s royal wedding got most of the comments, which didn’t surprise me.  What did raise my eyebrows was a gentleman’s remark, someone who is usually supportive on women’s issues.  “Just can’t

After the 2008 financial crisis in the United State —  the result of Wall Street bundling bad mortgages together and selling them as investments — writer Michael Lewis wrote, The Big Short, a best seller about what happened.  Primarily, he focused on the few canny invest

I’ve done some hand wringing about robots, wondering about the degree to which they will change our world. Take self-driving cars, for example.  Who is responsible if a self-driving car has an accident.  The designer?  The manufacturer?  The automobile owner? Or, can we blame a

In 1936, Aldous Huxley observed that if democracy is to work, one must govern with the consent of the people.  (“Modern Despots,” by Aldous Huxley, reprinted for a 1936 article in Harper’s, February 18, 2018, pg. 37.)  Thanks to gerrymandering and the Electoral College, who co

Four years ago, I wrote a blog in which I quoted 29- year-old Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, as saying young people were smarter than anyone else.  (Click) By my math, he turned 34 on May 14 of this year, and when I read his recent testimony before Congress, I had to smile. (Clic

Writer Geoff Dyer recounts a lunch where George Orwell’s wife, Sonia, and her husband’s biographer, Bernard Crick, almost came to blows over whether the famous writer did or didn’t shoot an elephant in Burma. (Nothing But,” by Geoff Dyer, Harper’s, May 2018, pgs. 73-74.)  A