Illustrated portrait of American author, astronomer, and farmer Benjamin Banneker (1731 – 1806), mid to late 18th century. Credit: Getty Images I should’ve saved this for Black History Month, but it’s too good a story to hold onto. Benjamin Banneker was a naturalist, mathematician, astronomer and almanac author. He was a landowner who also worked as a surveyor and farmer. But the most amazing part is he
If you travel a lot, you may have noticed hotels are cutting back on their amenities, like those little bottles of shampoo. But one amenity is still popular enough to be continued despite the cost — little bars of soap. Fine, but think for a second — they’re small, but not small enough to be
What is the greatest April Fool’s prank of all time? There have been some really good ones, but if you’re looking to compare, the National Geographic website has an article “Explore 6 of History’s Most Infamous Scams and Hoaxes” by Ronan O’Connell at https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/most-infamous-scams-hoaxes?. Personally, I’m not the prankster type, so I’m spending the day
The current record for human longevity is 122 years, held by Jean Louise Calment who died in 1997. Living to age 100 is quite an achievement, and only a handful become super-agers at 110. So has the maximum human lifespan been reached? Some think we may still have a ways to go. A team lead by
When paying property taxes, how many property owners have wondered “I wish I could tell the city/county/township how I want this money spent”? Now there is a way — participatory budgeting. First tried in 1989 in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, with participatory budgeting ordinary citizens have a say in how public money
The world runs so much better on trust. Unfortunately, according to a 1990s study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the average human tells up to two lies a day, Yet try as we might, no one can tell for sure when someone is lying. Not that we haven’t tried. Psychologist William Moulton Marston,
“Your brain’s health may be the most powerful indicator of how long you will live.” I’m at the age where an article about longevity really gets my attention. So the National Geographic piece “How to take better care of your aging brain” by Michael S. Sweeney really caught my eye (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/longevity-life-brain-care-health-age?). The article’s conclusion is
From the “I Wish I’d Written That” department, I thought this was funny. From the Poetry Foundation: “William J. Harris is an emeritus professor of American literature, African American literature, creative writing, and jazz studies. He taught at the University of Kansas, Pennsylvania State University, and Cornell University, among other universities. He lives in Brooklyn,
For a different twist on Black History Month, have you ever considered the other side? The white side? For example, have you heard of White Men For Racial Justice? Usually, any organization that has “white” in its name is a hate group, but that is definitely not true here. This is the case of people
Anyone who has ever had a mortgage knows about compound interest. And hopefully, you know enough to take advantage of compounding when you save. If you’re not familiar with how compounding works, consider the Rule of 72 — To calculate the time an investment will double, divide 72 by the interest rate. For example, If