Liberal Arts Blog — Thursday is the Joy of Music Day
Today’s Topic: The Singing Paradox: How Can So Many “Bad” Singers Sound So Good in a Group?
Put together a bunch of men and women who adamantly insist they “can’t sing” into a group, say on the dance floor…
Thinking Citizen Blog — Wednesday is Climate Change, the Environment, and Sustainability Day
Today’s Topic: Lead Poisoning II: the Miracle and the Whistleblower (Clair Patterson)
Last time, a few notes and charts on the symptoms and global toll of lead poisoning, as well as a timeline of decontamination in the…
Liberal Arts Blog — Wednesday is the Joy of Science, Engineering, and Technology Day
Today’s Topic — Orchids II: Epiphytes vs Terrestrials, Wide Distribution, Ancient History
Last time, the anatomy of the orchid (sepals, pedals, column, and lip) and a little cultural history (the national flower of multiple countries). Today…
Thinking Citizen Blog — Tuesday is Economics, Finance, and Business Day
Today’s Topic: Periodic Review of the Basics — from the Garden of Eden to the Soviet Experiment
A major theme of this blog is the inseparability of ethics, economics, history, and politics. Another is the usefulness of the Orion…
Liberal Arts Blog — Tuesday is the Joy of Literature, Language, Religion, and Culture Day
Today’s Topic: Framing the Basic Units of Life — Days, Activities, Breaths
We live day to day. We live activity to activity. We live breath to breath. Different religions have different ways of framing each…
Liberal Arts Blog — Thursday is the Joy of Music Day
Today’s Topic: John Sebastian and the Lovin’ Spoonful (1965–1969)- “Summer in the City,” “Daydream,” “Do You Believe in Magic?”
As a naive Catholic high school student in the 1960s, I missed all the drug and sex references in rock…
Thinking Citizen Blog — Thursday is Health, Health Care, Health Insurance and Global Health Policy Day
Today’s Topic: First Malaria Vaccine Approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) — How Big a Deal?
Malaria kills about 400,000 people a year. 94% of these are in Africa. 67% are children. Over…
Thinking Citizen Blog — Wednesday is Climate Change, the Environment, and Sustainability Day
Today’s Topic: Lead Poisoning: Global Incidence, US history, Symptoms
Vitruvius (80–15BC) wrote of the dangers of lead over two thousand years ago. So did the Greek physician Dioscorides (40–90 AD). Nevertheless, as recently as 2016, lead poisoning…
Liberal Arts Blog — Wednesday is the Joy of Science, Engineering, and Technology Day
Today’s Topic — The Miracle of the Orchid — Diversity, Anatomy, Symbolism
I used to think the orchid was an extremely rare, exotic flower. I just found out that on the contrary orchids are “one of…
Thinking Citizen Blog — Tuesday is Economics, Finance, and Business Day
Today’s Topic: Supply Chain Problems: Port Congestion, Truck Driver Shortages, Warehouse Capacity
If only there were just one supply chain problem! But there are many and they “are feeding on one another.” (first link below) “Part of the problem…
