NALANDA
Founded in 427 CE, Nalanda is considered the world’s first residential university, a sort of medieval Ivy League institution home to nine million books that …
GOLDEN FLEECE AWARDS
These are the first Golden Fleece Awards I’ve given for quite some time. That doesn’t mean that public officials have made less stupid decisions, or …
PERSON OF COLOR
A “Person of Color” has become a popular media term to cover all minorities, but that term is so general that it becomes somewhat meaningless. …
ROMAN CONCRETE
I have written several blogs on the mystery of Roman concrete, and why it appears so much better than the concrete available to us today. …
FOLK FESTIVALS OF BRITAIN
The weird and wonderful folk festivals of Britain are largely unknown outside of the rural locations where they are practiced. They are performed by the …
MEDIA STORM
The recent media storm about Advanced Placement (AP) courses in U.S. high schools triggered a concern I have had for many years. This particular recent …
OCEAN ACIDIFICATION
We have all heard about how climate change and pollution are affecting our oceans but rising ocean acidification has rarely been part of those discussions: …
POPULAR ETYMOLOGIES
“Popular etymologies are apocryphal” is the lead caption of an article I found in the latest edition of The Economist. The article looks at the …
Wi-Fi
“I spy, with my little Wi-Fi” is a cute title of an article that is quite frightening: Using Wi-Fi to track people inside buildings, when …
TRIPLE COOKED CHIPS
Triple cooked chips are one British chef’s answer to soggy, under-cooked potato fingers that almost all of us love. I’m not talking about French fries …