“Video and audio are the hottest media,” writes Clive Thompson, a reporter for the tech magazine Wired. ( “Every Word You Say,” by Clive Thompson, Wired, May 2021, pg.15,)  I have to agree.  My Write Away blog is approaching its 11th anniversary and enjoys a respectable numb

The Japanese have a notion in art called wabi-sabi.  It espouses the theory that because nature is transient and therefore imperfect, artists should incorporate imperfection in their pieces.  Sometimes that flaw may appear as a small asymmetry, a roughness in texture, or austerity i

A recent article in Business Insider pit the brains of humans against whales and the whales won.   That was two hundred years ago when Sperm whales learned to avoid the fishermen’s harpoons by swimming against the wind that powered the schooners.  History records that out of  80

The young woman was standing on the curb a short distance from the grocery store, her shopping cart overflowing with purchases. She was muttering to the air in angry tones, so I intended to skirt around her, presuming she was one of the mentally ill who inhabits our streets. Something

While 2020 may have been a rough year for politics, science has made startling breakthroughs beyond a Covid-19 vaccine.  Take fertilizer, for example. A product necessary to produce crops, it may contain toxic chemicals that endanger the planet. Now researchers at the Rich Earth Inst

I chose to give up my car a while ago.  Losing my transportation, together with the advent of the pandemic, has forced me to experiment with grocery deliveries.  I’m a slow learner.  Sometimes, one avocado arrives, or two, but never the third that is necessary for my guacamole. 

Whenever I get into trouble on Word Press, the platform for my blogs, I call my technician and ask him to fix it.  If he can’t, he goes to a site where technicians hang out and share information.  Usually, someone has a solution. This open-source watering hole has been a staple th

Each morning, my hand mirror gives me two versions of myself. On one side, I get an enlarged view. On the other, I see myself as others do. At my age, neither offers a flattering option. Frankly, there are days when I welcome the Covid-19 edict to wear a protective mask. Not only is c

Thanks to hackers who spirited my personal information into the dark web, I’m getting weird emails. Some of the senders write revealing details about me as if we’ve known each other for years. “Delete that stuff,” my hardware guru advised. “They’re crooks pretending to kno

My love-hate relationship with technology continues.  Recently, I rejoiced over an announcement that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has invented some fascinating methods to conquer lethal bacteria.  Hurrah! New frontiers!  New ways to arrest illnesses without debilitating chemical tr