Last week Andrea Schwalm wrote a great post about the Solar Decathalon in Washington, D.C. I was really tempted to make the field trip, but rationality took hold and I decided against another trip to D.C. this year. (Read about the last time I drove to D.C., for what I call The Accidental Holiday.) Instead […]
Continue ReadingThis past weekend my son and I spent time at the 18th annual Lotus World Music & Arts Festival, and we both agreed that the single most engaging piece was Strange Fruit. Lotus is better known for its music acts. I loved dancing with the Swedish hip-hop boys, Movits!, I was swept away by the […]
Continue ReadingWho: Everyone in the whole world is invited. This event typically attracts music geeks and those who love a fabulous street party. What: The name gives the basics: a world music & arts festival. You may think the artsy name Lotus refers to the flower. It’s true that the logo uses the flower image, but […]
Continue ReadingSunflowers grow so easily where I live that the plants volunteer every year where the parents dropped their seeds the summer before. The variety in my garden springs up eight to ten feet with leaves bigger than my hands. They’re very dramatic, and I love them. But, early in the summer my sunny garden plot […]
Continue ReadingLast week Madelyn Pugh Davis died. She is best known for the 174 scripts she wrote for the I Love Lucy show. Her career as a screenwriter spanned decades, through the mid-1980’s. Davis was born in 1921 in Indianapolis, where she edited her high school newspaper. She earned a journalism degree at Indiana University, and […]
Continue ReadingOnce upon a time, long before parenthood was on my radar, when I was young, single and training to be a city Metro driver, a crotchety old-timer on the fleet taught me to smile at each and every passenger who stepped onto my trolley.
Continue ReadingThis bird Moe takes species confusion to a whole new level. He’s definitely not a cat. He isn’t even a mammal!
Continue ReadingPhilosopher turned astro-physicist Janna Levin thinks a lot about the origins of the universe. She’s written a non-fiction book, How the Universe Got Its Spots, in which she contemplates whether or not the universe is finite or infinite, or if indeed our universe is one in a multiverse. Janna Levin, mother of two young children, […]
Continue ReadingSometime last week I saw a friend’s Facebook status: “crocus siting!” What a thrill to read. So, of course, I started looking for mine.
Continue ReadingIf you live anywhere near a lawn or, worse, the woods, especially if you have ever seen a lawn ornament, beware. Garden gnomes are waiting for their opportunity to invade your dwelling.
Continue ReadingQ. What do Russian peasants and a Swedish radiologist have in common? A. They have experienced reversible metabolic hibernation. In the case of the peasants, they self-induce a hibernated state throughout the winter on an annual basis to avoid starving to death. In the case of the radiologist, she was trapped in icy water for […]
Continue ReadingPicture this: A beautiful, 16-year-old girl, a bright A-student, a good kid, my daughter. Her main extra-curricular activities are the marching and jazz bands, and now she’s been dating her first love, another band geek, for almost one year. He’s adorable, funny, and a true gentleman. What a relief that my girl is sweet on […]
Continue ReadingWhat this sci-fi geek loves most about hibernation and winter denning is there is considerable research being done with the intention of applying similar metabolic changes to humans to help them cope with space travel.
Because there are physiological and psychological advantages to snoozing through multi-year-long trips, induced hibernation may be just the thing for future astronauts.
Continue ReadingWonder Woman, the Amazon warrior princess, defined female power decades before Xena became a pop-culture phenomenon. As beautiful as she is strong, Wonder Woman is also known for her extraordinary mental powers, including wisdom, profound scientific insight, and fluency in all languages, including Martian. (Who knew? A little quick research revealed she’s also been known to speak caveman.)
Continue ReadingA Present for Milo takes full advantage of the iPad’s interactive playground, perfectly blending story, animation, sound, and game-like exploration. The good news for readers is Milo is helping define an emerging art form, the story app.
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