Recent Posts
- Daylight Saving Time: A Century of Moving the Hands and Getting Nowhere
- Take the Extra Minute to Rest: The World, Upside-Down
- Bologna: The Meat That Sounds Like a Lie
- The AI Gold Rush: What Happens When Everyone Strikes the Same Claim?
- Why Are the Oceans Salty? Because People Have Been Peeing for 10,000 Years, Obviously.
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Tag Archives: history
Daylight Saving Time: A Century of Moving the Hands and Getting Nowhere
Every year, twice a year, we participate in one of the strangest government sponsored rituals of modern civilization. We change the clocks. Today, we fell back to Standard Time, dutifully moving the hands of our clocks backward one hour. Somewhere, … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Science, Society
Tagged accident, agriculture, Biel Mean Time, Congress, daylight, Daylight Saving Time, debate, DST, energy, heart attack, history, school, science, Standard Time, Sun, Swatch Internet Time, technology, time, time zone, UTC, War Time
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Bologna: The Meat That Sounds Like a Lie
There are foods we celebrate because they represent the pinnacle of human culinary achievement. There is chocolate. There is pizza. There is a perfectly cooked steak. Then there is bologna, the meat that looks like a giant pink hockey puck. … Continue reading
Posted in Culture
Tagged bologna, cancer, devon, fleischwurst, food, fritz, health, history, lunch, lyoner, mortadella, National Bologna Day, nutrition, October 24, parizer, polony, sausage, science, World Health Organization
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Paleolithic Software and Molecular Magic: The Biohacks of 2126
In response to my A Second Look at Life Expectancy: What the 1918 Flu Tells Us About the COVID-19 Pandemic, I received a fascinating question: “The 1918 flu had no ICU, no mRNA platform, not even a flu shot. We … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged 1918, 2020, 2126, biohack, biology, COVID-19, epidemic, flu, future, history, immunology, immunotherapy, influenza, longevity, medicine, mRNA, pathogen, psychology, science, Spanish Flu, vaccination, virology, virus
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A Second Look at Life Expectancy: What the 1918 Flu Tells Us About the COVID-19 Pandemic
My recent article on the evolution of life expectancy generated a fascinating series of questions that I will attempt to address in the coming weeks. One reader pointedly asked about the historical U.S. life expectancy chart. If you look at … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged 1918, 2020, COVID-19, epidemic, flu, Germ Theory of Disease, history, influenza, life expectancy, longevity, medicine, miasma, mortality rates, mRNA, pandemic, pathogen, science, Spain, Spanish Flu, vaccination, virology, virus, World War I
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Beyond Plastic: Rediscovering the Materials That Served Humanity for Millennia
When I recently wrote about our civilization quietly poisoning itself with microplastics, one reader asked a perfectly reasonable question: “If not plastic, then what?” It’s the right question. We’ve become so accustomed to plastic that many people can’t imagine life … Continue reading
Posted in Science, Society, Technology
Tagged cast iron, ceramics, chemistry, cookware, glass, history, microplastics, nanoplastics, plastic, pollution, public health, science, silicone, steel, technology
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Juneteenth and the Dangerous Lie
There are holidays that celebrate victories. There are holidays that celebrate sacrifices. And then there are holidays that exist because humanity made a terrible mistake. Juneteenth belongs to that last category. But for many, Juneteenth has already been neatly packaged … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Economy, Society
Tagged African Americans, America, Civil War, emancipation, farming, freedom, history, industry, institutions, Juneteenth, oppression, religion, serfdom, slavery
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A Civilization Poisoned by Progress: From Lead Pipes to Microplastics
History rarely repeats itself perfectly, but it often rhymes in chilling ways. We often look back at the giants of the past and wonder how a civilization so advanced, so structured and so dominant could simply dissolve. No collapse comes … Continue reading
Posted in Science, Society
Tagged dystopia, economy, extinction, future, history, Imperial Rome, lead, microplastics, nanoplastics, plastic, pollution, public health, science, technology
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How We Forgot the True Meaning of Decoration Day (and Found a Great Deal on Mattresses)
There was a time when Americans looked at a field full of graves and thought, “We should bring flowers.” Now we look at a three-day weekend and think, “Forty percent off patio furniture!” Progress is a mysterious thing. Mostly, it … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Holidays, Retail
Tagged Civil War, Decoration Day, history, marketing, mattress sale, Memorial Day, remembrance, sacrifice
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Hug Your Cat Before It Plots Against You Day
Last November, amidst the noble surrender of Chaos Never Dies Day, I stumbled upon a dark whispered necessity, a holiday so vital to the survival of the human race, that I promised to research it further, the “Hug Your Cat … Continue reading
The Language of Law Enforcement: Talking About Law Enforcement with Respect
As a Public Information Officer with a search and rescue team, I spend a fair amount of time speaking to community groups about what we do and how we work alongside our served agencies. My job is to be the … Continue reading
Posted in Language
Tagged communications, history, language, law enforcement, public outreach, respect, slang
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