While it’s all too easy to become pessimistic about the world, during the past few weeks, I’ve had the exhilarating experience of interacting with some very remarkable young people whose confidence and vitality were positively infectious. I’m the last person someone would describe as shy;... Continue

Historically, large suburban housing developments created on either open space or agricultural lands have utilized fairly routine site design and landscaping plans that meet the conventional aesthetic requirements of the marketplace. Front lawns, flowering shrubs, trees of a wide variety, lots of impermeable surfaces and... Continue

The word "war" used to mean something; its invocation shook the heart, set us atremble, brought forth tears and darkened our vision. "WAR!" The word itself seemed enormous and foreboding; after all, death always prospers during war. Its declaration was the biggest news of the... Continue

Two taxonomically distinct chimp families, common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) have been observed in both the wild and captivity. Superficially the two chimp families resemble each other, though bonobos are slightly smaller and less powerfully built and spend more time standing upright,... Continue

In our modern culture, longevity has come to mean a lengthy life, and modern medicine has added some veracity to the possibility of extending human life to perhaps hundreds of years. Diet, stress, exercise, antibiotics, genetics; at one time or another all of these have... Continue

In a world as old as ours, patterns of natural sound generally fall within predictable and repeated frequencies. Extraordinary natural events do happen from time to time that produce sounds of great amplitude or frequency or both; volcanic explosions, claps of thunder, avalanches and landslides... Continue

“Here, hold this.” The big guy with three days’ stubble and whiskey breath leaned just inches away from my face and shoved something hard into my ribs. “I’ll be right back,” he grunted. I noticed a big oily stain on the back of his denim... Continue

We tend to think of intelligence as something that can be acquired. However, intelligence is a primordial attribute of living things that predates any specifically human activity. Knowledge, of course, can be acquired by people, enhanced, embellished and expanded. Intelligence, on the other hand, is... Continue

My goodness, people are terribly clever. Really, we must be the cleverest creatures ever born, anywhere! After all, it’s we who created the iPod, the microwave oven, the combustion engine, can openers, deodorant spray, pop-top soda cans, four-blade razors and disposable diapers...you can’t get more... Continue