Tonight was week seven of Radnor's Citizen Police Academy, which my son and I are participating in. Next week will be our final class, followed by a graduation ceremony the following week. I plan to write a reflection on the experience after all is said and done, but I wanted to briefly write about one … Continue reading Learning Under the Influence
Month: April 2017
The Curious Incident of Our Dog in the Night-Time
My wife woke me up at 2:30 this morning with the words, "Nellie's gone." Mary had gone downstairs a few minutes earlier to let our dog Nellie out into our backyard. However, Nellie did not come back pawing at the door in her usual time frame, so Mary went outside to call her in. Unfortunately, … Continue reading The Curious Incident of Our Dog in the Night-Time
Happiness, According to Wikipedia
Nikhil Sonnad, a reporter for the online site Quartz, wrote a fascinating article tracking the evolving definition of the word "happiness" at Wikipedia. Part of what I found fascinating was not only the changing definition of happiness, but also a sort of behind the scenes look at how the editing process works at Wikipedia. The earliest … Continue reading Happiness, According to Wikipedia
The Amazing Make-A-Wish Foundation
I was reading the Philadelphia Inquirer today, and a story about a local boy's dream to deliver a weather forecast on the Weather Channel and meet his hero, weatherman Jim Cantore, caught my attention. 11-year old Ryland Mishura from New Jersey, has a rare genetic disorder called isovaleric acidemia, and his mom had sent an … Continue reading The Amazing Make-A-Wish Foundation
Choosing My Religion*
I've always wanted to attend an outdoor, Easter sunrise service, and given how nice the weather was forecast to be, it seemed like today would be the perfect day to do so. However, we could not find any local Catholic churches that were having such a service, but there was a church, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian, … Continue reading Choosing My Religion*
Dan Ariely’s Suggestion on How to Break a Bad Habit
Dan Ariely, a noted behavioral economist at Duke University, and author of several best selling books, shared a way to break a bad habit in today's Wall Street Journal. A reader had written in, asking Dan how he could break a soda drinking habit. Ariely referred to a study from 2005 by Reuven Dar of … Continue reading Dan Ariely’s Suggestion on How to Break a Bad Habit
A Better Way to Learn?
Olga Khazan of the The Atlantic recently had an interview with Ulrich Boser, author of Learn Better. Boser shares some tips on what are some effective strategies for learning new material, and what are some ineffective ways. For example, Boser notes how useful it is to explain a new concept to ourselves, quiz oursleves, or teach someone … Continue reading A Better Way to Learn?
Let’s Get Back to the Games We Played as Kids
Tonight my wife, son, and I played cards, rummy to be specific. As we were playing, it brought back memories of some of the games I used to play as a kid. Since we were playing cards, the first one that came to mind was a game called "knuckles". I don't remember the exact rules, … Continue reading Let’s Get Back to the Games We Played as Kids
Another Day, Another Win for Offline Communication
In yesterday's post, I shared the results of a study that concluded that "the nature and quality of this sort of connection (Facebook/social media) is no substitute for the real world interaction we need for a healthy life.” Well today there was an article by Vanessa K. Bohns on the Harvard Business Review web site that … Continue reading Another Day, Another Win for Offline Communication
A New Study Confirms: The More You Use Facebook, the Worse You Feel
There was an interesting article on the Harvard Business Review web site today, titled "A New, More Rigorous Study Confirms: The More You Use Facebook, the Worse You Feel", by Holly B. Shakya and Nicholas A. Christakis. The authors note that thousands of studies have concluded that most human beings thrive when they have strong, positive relationships with … Continue reading A New Study Confirms: The More You Use Facebook, the Worse You Feel
Borden's Blather 