When I was growing up my mother used to say, “Don’t do anything you’d be ashamed to see reported on the front page of the newspaper.” I took the warning seriously which may account for why my life may seem boring to others. What matters is that I sleep well. Given the dullness

Sometimes I want to shake sense into the young or anyone who lives in the land of “what if.” It’s a terrible place of longing, dissatisfaction and of continually looking to the future for a solution to the present. On Facebook, recently, a young man wrote about his broken heart.

Recently, I met with a financial planner to update arrangements for my final years. I must say, preparing to exit life requires more paperwork than coming into it. Happily, I passed inspection on all points but one: I’d left no instructions for the disposal of my ashes.  I admit, I

Of all the generations that went through the 2008-2009 economic downturn, the Millennials, ages 18-33, have suffered the most. That’s according to a recent survey by Money magazine, which notes these young people are not only saddled with college debt, but are facing a weak employme

Contrary to popular misconception, the majority of homeless people aren’t the drunks we see sprawled across sidewalks. The majority are women and children. Kathryn Edin, a researcher who lived among the poor for many years, draws this conclusion in her block buster study of poverty

Want your son or daughter to be admitted to the university of his or her dreams? You can if your child lives abroad and you are willing to spend between $15,000 – $30,000. For that sum, a consultant will pad an admission packet with a false history and false recommendations. Acc

I went to a conference last weekend, one of those all day affairs that starts with coffee and bear claws, is followed by a high caloric lunch and ends with coffee and cookies in the late afternoon. To my right, at my table, sat a portly woman with a pleasant face. She was biting into

Scientists are beginning to think that play, rather than competition, is the ruling principle of the universe. Play, in this case, means an entity’s free exercise of its powers for no higher purpose than because it can. (“Do Atoms Play?” by David Graeber, The Baffler, excerpted

Now that big data collection is here, there’s no way to put the genie back into the bottle. That’s what Craig Mundie, Senior Adviser at Microsoft thinks. He suggests people who spend time arguing about how to control data mining are looking through the wrong end of the telescope.

“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen.” This line from Thomas Gray’s, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” exhorts us to honor the lives of ordinary people. While Fate may turn a blind eye upon the many, the poem reminds us that Nature bestows a gift to each of