Put people together and you're sure to find trouble. Families, husbands and wives, siblings, cousins, politicians; no matter how you find them, people always have trouble getting along. Human society reflects just how terribly difficult it is; when large groups of people organize, it often... Continue

People like to take care of living things, like plants or pets. Watching plants or animals grow and change stimulates physical and emotional reactions only possible between living things. A pet rock may be attractive and a cute idea, but little more. I've grown exotic... Continue

As living beings we naturally gravitate to other animate things, like plants and pets that become companions in our homes and lives. The feelings we have for inanimate objects can become strong as well; possessions gain value--sentimental, economic, historic--and we protect and ensure their safety.... Continue

There seems to be a persistent impression that the City of Sonoma has run out of land for new housing. If we're talking about tens of acres of undeveloped land for tract housing, that's correct, but Sonoma decades-ago rejected construction of large-scale tract-housing development on... Continue

It's come to this; shopping, food preparation and cooking are so burdensome that corporate America has concluded a smart profit's to be made from a niche target market, namely, those adults who are unwilling to eat frozen dinners or have Grub Hub deliver restaurant take-out... Continue

Much is being made at present about the effects of screen time, particularly on children. Screen time, of course, refers to the time spent engaged with one's smart phone, iPad or laptop, which by all accounts has skyrocketed to epidemic proportions. Issues of attention deficits... Continue

Now that the election is over, we can attend to other matters of gravity. Literally. Gravity is so ever-present in our lives we rarely think about it, except perhaps, when we slip and fall. The effects of gravity are well understood, beginnings with Newton's apple... Continue

With the discovery that micro-plastics have been found in human stool samples we can now confirm that the scourge of plastic has thoroughly permeated the world's food chain. It's unknown if the plastic discovered in the human gut has been ingested directly or through eating... Continue

I left the City Council candidate's forum at Andrews Hall last week feeling uncomfortable. It's not that the candidates did not conduct themselves well or acted inappropriately; to the contrary, as a group they were polite, friendly, good-natured, well-spoken and heartfelt. Yet, as I walked... Continue