Before the internet and Wikipedia, when I needed information, I dialed the reference librarian at my local library.  The materials I needed could be wide-ranging.  How to spell pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is one example.  Or, I might want to know the population of

Someone on Facebook asked the question, “What’s the one food you won’t eat.”  I replied, “animals.”  Soon, a few “likes” attached to my comment.  Some vegetarians were cheering me on.  Or, maybe they were folks who wanted eliminate meat from their diet but haven’

Do you know your trustworthiness score?  Did you know Facebook has given you one?  To avoid accusations they are purveyors of fake news,  the company now uses an algorithm to determine a member’s credibility.  Twitter, reportedly, is moving in the same direction.  (“Facebooks

Is globalization good or bad?  Will it create a kinder, gentler and more equitable world?  Or, will nation-states be forced to live under the tyranny of a universal cabal?  According to Randall Schweller, professor of political science at Ohio State University, Donald Trump and his

I recently upgraded my computer.  The new hard drive resides in a box the size of a deck of playing cards. When my installer finished his work, he stood back, with his arms folded.  “You’re going to love this,” he assured me.  “It’s so much faster.” Sadly, “faster”

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been adapting to a new computer.  Some mischief-makers attacked my old one.  The new machine has a hard drive the size of a pack of playing cards, and it’s faster, too  The bad news is, I never entirely committed all my passwords  to paper,

Scary as it sounds, we humans have the capacity to change the course of evolution.  That’s the opinion of Jennifer Doudna, one of the discoverers of CRSPR technology.  (The Ultimate Life Hacker,” by Gideon Rose, Foreign Affairs, May/June, 2018, pg. 158.)  CRSPR is the ability t

With Congress expressing so much concern about Russian interference in the 2016 election, it’s surprising to read the U. S. Senate  turned down a proposal to spend additional money to secure our voting system.  Certainly, we have fallen behind in maintaining both it and the nation

A former student of mine, now in his early 60s, visited me for coffee, recently.  We tried to avoid discussing politics, but it was the elephant in the room. Eventually,  my “young” friend admitted he found the antics in Washington, D. C. depressing.  Knowing he was a liberal D

Recently, I got entangled with a company’s phone representative for whom English was a second language. Both her grammar and her accent made communication difficult.  Finally, she brought her supervisor on the line.  His, too, was hard to understand.   “Do you live in the Unit