Google sent out a 3-page, single-spaced summary of their revised terms of service the other day.  Frankly, I’d rather read instructions for giving myself an enema. Plowing through the document’s legaleze is pointless. What voice do I have to make changes? None. Besides, Google as

Scientists have discovered a way to extract small electrical currents from humid air.  They hadn’t meant to do it.  A student failed to unplug one of their machines at the end of the day.  The next morning, researchers found a spray of microscopic tubes, one-thousandth the diamet

Language, which is vital to humankind, can take us down many paths some of which lead to self-delusion.  I learned this lesson in a philosophy class years ago in college. The professor opened the session with a simple question.  “Who can define the word chair for me?”  Eager to

Before he took his life to escape the ravages of ALS, a gentleman with a wicked sense of humor shared this thought about his neighbor:  She is a woman of strong opinions—most of them wrong. A little wicked myself, I laughed but felt guilty afterward. Even so, the witticism was apt.

Words matter, and the right words matter most of all, according to writer John Birmingham.  History bears this out. During World War II, Winston Churchill’s speeches galvanized Londoners with hope despite the German Blitzkrieg. Let us, therefore, brace ourselves to our duties, and

  Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” lists the attributes of a rational human being. Paramount is to keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…  That’s a tall order these days.  Robert Reich, famed economist and liberal commentator, lost his head recently. Furious