Something in the intensity with which Windrip looked at his audience, looked at all of them, his glance slowly taking them in from the highest-perched seat to the nearest, convinced them that he was talking to each individual, directly and solely; that he wanted to take each of them into his heart;…

8 months ago / 138 visits / 5 comments / 2 people like

At work, I will play a significant role in the upcoming strategic planning process. To many, that might sound dull, dry, and perhaps even depressing. To those who feel that way, you have my fullest condolences. Much has changed since the existing strategic plan was adopted and implemented. The COVI…

9 months ago / 256 visits / 4 comments / 2 people like

In an opinion piece written by Washington Post Opinion Graphics Reporter Yan Wu, Wu proclaimed that AI “is opening new pathways for creativity.” “Consider visual arts,” she continued. “Just as photography changed the course of art in the 19th century, AI image generators now stand to revolutionize h…

10 months ago / 142 visits / 3 comments / 1 person likes

Prior to 2019, July 2016 was Anchorage, Alaska's warmest month on record. Summer 2019 as a whole was even warmer than July 2016. The duration of the excessive warmth and extreme temperatures recorded during the summer would have been very unlikely, if not improbable, without human-induced climate ch…

5 years ago / 786 visits / 21 comments / 3 people like

The second of the most intense pair of heat waves ever to roll across the European continent is now departing Scandinavia and headed for Iceland and Greenland where it will finally dissipate altogether. On account of these unprecedented bursts of heat, the weather record book has been rewritten acro…

5 years ago / 723 visits / 12 comments / 4 people like

I typically refrain from writing political commentary here. But these are no ordinary times, at least in the United States. The January 29, 2017 edition of The Washington Post reported: Sharef once worked for a U.S. government subcontractor in post-invasion Iraq as a translator and a program manager…

7 years ago / 1 496 visits / 12 comments / 12 people like

In his Chronicles of England, Richard Grafton wrote, “Thirty days hath November…” Yet, thirty days is sufficient time for this transitional month to bring one from one season into another. November is the elegant bridge that leads from autumn to winter. As one walks across that bridge, autumn’s bril…

8 years ago / 1 041 visits / 6 comments / 10 people like

In his A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill wrote: Every nation or group of nations has its own tale to tell. Knowledge of the trials and struggles is necessary to all who would comprehend the problems, perils, challenges, and opportunities which confront us today... It is i…

8 years ago / 2 763 visits / 74 comments / 13 people like

One moment in early March, the ground was covered by snow. Despite lengthening days, the late-starting winter of 2015-16 struggled to hang on. But seemingly the next moment, all the snow was gone. Where snow and ice had once hugged the earth, the landscape blushed in the growing colors of spring. Ea…

8 years ago / 874 visits / 9 comments / 10 people like

In his “Autumn Hymn,” Richard Newell observed: Soon shall all the songless wood Shiver in the deepening snow… Instead, December 2015 unveiled an entirely different scenario. Large parts of North America, Europe, and Asia basked in unseasonable warmth. In North America, as wave after wave of warmth…

8 years ago / 1 086 visits / 15 comments / 9 people like

2015 has been a dark year for humanity. In January, we mourned the brave cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo who lost their lives simply for exercising their inherent right of free speech, along with others who died in related incidents. Now, as the year nears an end and the joyous Hanukkah and Christmas…

9 years ago / 1 129 visits / 20 comments / 21 people like

Lying along the waters of the Long Island Sound, Manor Park is filled with beauty. Among other things, one can capture the rising of a fiery red sun, boats anchored in pristine blue waters, gazebos that overlook the Sound, shimmering metamorphic rocks that were once part of the Appalachian Mountain…

9 years ago / 651 visits / 8 comments / 3 people like

Summer’s heat lingered well into September this year. The mercury soared to 97°F (36.1°C) on the 8th day of the month and 87°F (30.6°C) on the 18th. Yet, despite the sometimes furnace-like breath of stubborn summer, the days were growing steadily shorter. Each morning, the sun seemed to sleep a litt…

9 years ago / 934 visits / 10 comments / 6 people like

Near the end of August, my family and I went to the New York Hall of Science in Corona (Queens). This museum features some 450 exhibits and displays related to science, technology, engineering and math. Outside the museum, is a nine-hole miniature golf course with a range of holes designed to teach…

9 years ago / 592 visits / 4 comments / 5 people like

In 1878, Carl Sandburg wrote: The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. Nearly 140 years later on April 3, 2015, Sandburg’s descriptive poem transcended the paper on which it was written. The words leapt off the pages and a thick bla…

9 years ago / 781 visits / 7 comments / 11 people like