Fun and/or Interesting
755 articles filed under Fun and/or Interesting.
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Fun and/or Interesting
The Surprising Ways Brands Protect Their Intellectual Property
Do you know the difference between a trademark, copyright, and patent? Did you know that it is possible to get a trademark for a color? Check out this fascinating article from The Hustle here.
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Fun and/or Interesting
Wealth Building Advice for Copywriters (or Anyone Else)
Here’s a short interview I did recently with Jade Trueblood, the Director of Training at American Writers & Artists Institute. In introducing it, she said that though my advice was geared towards copywriters…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Eating for Longevity
My friend BS came by the other night to see how I was doing. The conversation turned to our mutual health scares and what he has been doing since he had his own near-death event. One thing he’s doing is paying…
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How the World Will Look to Your Kids and Grandkids
I’ve always thought that the answer to racism would be miscegenation on a universal scale. Likewise with religious intolerance: Make it a universal law that you can get married only to someone of a different…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Julien's Guide To Spain's Greatest Red Wines
From Bonner Private Wine Partnership: Julien talks about the best Spanish reds…
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Fun and/or Interesting
How World War II Transformed French Cinema
Click here for a short explanation of how WWII changed everything, including the way movies were made in France.
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Fun and/or Interesting
What Black Americans Really Think About Voter ID Laws
I actually did this… I asked two of my progressively minded friends why they believed voter ID requirements discriminated against African Americans. They both gave me the same answer – the one you see in this…
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This Week’s Must-Be-Fake News
New York is going to place convicted pot dealers at the front of the legal pot business line. According to the NYT, the state has set up a $200 million fund from which licensees will take out loans to start…
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This week’s head scratcher
* This week’s head scratcher: Bank of America is testing a program to help Black and Latino buyers get mortgages. If you qualify (if you have Black or Brown skin), you can get a zero-down, low-interest-rate…
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Fun and/or Interesting
It’s Fun! It’s Challenging. But Is It Making You Smarter?
Everyone I know that’s over 50 plays some sort of brain game to keep their thinking strong and their memory clear. I do the NYT crossword, Spelling Bee, and Sudoku. I also play chess and other word and logic…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Why Forgetting Your Keys Isn't Dementia
Like many septuagenarians, I sometimes worry that I’m sliding into dementia because my memory seems to be getting worse. I’m forgetting names, where I put my keys, and the titles of movies. Not to worry, says…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Unexpected Wildlife Encounters In Rancho Santana
We are in Rancho Santana this week. K takes me on a walk along the beach or through the woods each day. There are creatures here that you don’t encounter in South Florida. Like this tarantula.
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Fun and/or Interesting
Ketchup With Your History
* Ketchup With Your History – How every ketchup but one became extinct. Read about it here. * Hope for Curing Opioid Addiction – Early trials of a new procedure (the insertion of two electrodes into the brain)…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Do wine aerators really work?
In this video from the Bonner Private Wine Partnership, Julien Miguel puts them to the test.
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Fun and/or Interesting
The 10 Best US Airlines
From The Points Guy website… “There are a lot of ways to measure an airline’s success. [These include] on-time performance, reliable scheduling, the affordability of airfares, excellent elite perks, and the…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Speaking of economics…
JS sent in two fun rap battles on two great debates. * To watch “Top Down or Bottom Up Economics” (Keynes vs. Hayek), click here. * To watch “March of History” (Marx vs. Mises), click here. And for a slightly…
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Fun and/or Interesting
World’s Most and Least Livable Cities
In the US, people are moving out of the major cities like New York, Chicago, and Baltimore. But in the world generally, the urban population continues to grow. In 2021, 51% of the world’s population lived in…
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Sense or Sacrilege?
Often, if my glass of Cabernet is half empty and the bottle of wine I poured it from is completely empty, I open a different bottle and mix the two together in my glass. The object is to see if I like my own…
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Fun and/or Interesting
10 Chess Hacks
I’ve never been very good at chess. But I think, probably due to an exaggerated sense of my intelligence, that I should be. I’ve been training on a few apps, and there are many. The better ones allow you to…
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Fun and/or Interesting
The True Cost of Going Electric
In the July 5 issue, I linked to a video that explained the true cost to the global economy of electric vehicles – both in dollar terms and in terms of the use of natural resources. EVs, it turns out, are not…
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Fun and/or Interesting
If Gender Is Not in Our Private Parts, Is It in Our Brains?
Here’s a TED Talk about transgenderism that is worth a look. It’s given by a transgender woman who is also a neurobiologist with very impressive credentials. In her presentation, which she is obviously…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Do I Really Have to Sell My Florida Beach House?
We’ve all been told that global warming will raise ocean water levels dramatically along coastal areas everywhere because of the melting of the polar ice caps. Right? That’s what I was told, and for many…
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California Wines Explained For The Amateur Drinker
I’ve told you about these videos from “The Wine Explorers Letter.” (Disclosure: I have a small interest in the company that publishes it: the Bonner Private Wine Partnership.) I enjoy them immensely. They are…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Leonard Bernstein Weighs In On The Beatles
Leonard Bernstein was, without a doubt, the most famous American conductor in the second half of the 20th century. In addition to conducting the New York Philharmonic, he was a composer, a pianist, a Harvard…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Why Humans Help Strangers They'll Never Meet Again
Click here to read a fascinating essay that suggests why humans help and cooperate with strangers. And click here for eight feel-good stories about strangers helping people they didn’t know.
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Fun and/or Interesting
The Right Way To Reheat Your Leftover Pizza
I usually eat my unfinished pizza the next day. Cold. I don’t heat it up because, whenever I did, it didn’t taste very good. I didn’t know that there was a correct way to do it. (Also, a worst way.) Click here.
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John Maynard Keynes on the Destructive Power of Inflation
From his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace “Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation…
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Tokyo Sushi Etiquette: What I Did Wrong
The last time I was in Tokyo, I had a sushi meal with two of my business partners there. It was a good, working lunch. And the sushi was excellent. One thing that I suspect was NOT good was my table manners. I…
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Understanding Gravity in Five Lessons
I have always wanted to understand post-Newtonian physics, which is probably the most important area of scientific thought of the last 100 years. Not seriously. I’m too old to attempt that. But at least enough…
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The Amazing Story of the Smiley Face
Nearly 50 years ago, one man “invented” the smiley face. Then another man halfway across the world made it into a $500 million cash cow. Click here.
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The Mathematical Power of Three Random Words
At first I thought this was going to be a simple tip on how to create strong passwords that are easy to remember. It turned out to be a fascinating read on statistics and probabilities. Click here.
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Fun and/or Interesting
The Swastika’s Original Meaning
The swastika is an ancient religious symbol. It has been used by Buddhists, Jains, Hindus, as well as many indigenous peoples to represent the sun and its life-giving energy. In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler…
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The Difference Between a Democracy and a Republic
The Difference Between a Democracy and a Republic There’s a lot of talk about “losing our democracy.” From the left and the right. But did you know that our country was established as a republic, a democratic…
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Vigilante Hackers Turn The Tables On Phone Scammers
It’s good to know, I think, that there are computer geniuses out there hacking into and F-ing up telephone scammers that prey on trusting old folks like me. Many of these operations are headquartered in India…
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Fun and/or Interesting
American Wine
I never wanted to become an expert on wine. I just wanted to know a little more than my wine snob friends. Recently, I became a customer of my partner’s wine biz: The Bonner Private Wine Partnership. It…
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Fun and/or Interesting
Drink coffee…and live longer!
Really? Click here.
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Fun and/or Interesting
Last Spix's Macaw Finds Hope Through Captive Breeding
In the mid-1990s, the wild population of the world’s rarest bird, a blue-gray parrot called the Spix’s macaw, dwindled to just one. Two decades later, conservationists are attempting to release Spix’s macaws…
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COVID and “Chemosensory Disruption”: Answers Begin to Emerge
As I mentioned on June 3, if I ever suffered any loss of smell from my bout with COVID, it was minor. My sense of smell was never great to begin with. Loss of smell was a very common symptom back then, when…
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Five Amusing Things Worth Your Time
Maybe “good to know” is taking it too far. Here are five things I was amused by recently. * Johns Hopkins students design edible tape to keep your burrito wrapped. Click here. * US weddings are at their lowest…
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How common are false accusations of rape?
Although it’s impossible to know how many rape accusations are false, an oft-cited 2010 study put the frequency at between 2% and 10%, with an average of about 6%. An FBI study put the frequency at 8%…
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The latest review of Rancho Santana…
Click here to read about Amanda Blakely’s “Five Fun-filled Beach Days in Nicaragua.”
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About Fox News
About Fox News: Contrary to popular belief, Fox’s audience is far from ideologically homogeneous. A Morning Consult survey found that more independents watch Fox News than any other network. And according to…
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On Timing the Stock Market
Timing the market – i.e., buying in and selling off according to what you think will happen in the future – is difficult. But if you like the idea, I know of two ways that have, at least, some logical…
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Bill Maher on how we spent the COVID trillions
More evidence to support the fact that America attracts brainpower from all over the world: * 35% of the Nobel Prizes won by Americans in chemistry, medicine, and physics have gone to immigrants. Click here…
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What is conceptual art?
Conceptual art is art for which the idea (concept) behind the work is more important than the finished object. It emerged as a movement in the 1960s, and most commonly applies to pieces made from the mid-1960s…
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The Dean’s Interest List at Harvard
Nearly half of white students admitted to Harvard between 2009 and 2014 were recruited athletes, legacy students, children of faculty and staff, or on the dean’s interest list (applicants whose parents or…
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Five Fascinating Numbers From Around The World
Five numbers I came across recently that may interest you: * 9,827 – the number of cow-related items in a Minnesotan’s personal “Mooseum” * $17,000 – the cost of a first-class suite on Singapore Airlines * 85%…
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The Two Effects of Inflationary Psychology
Inflationary psychology describes the behavior of consumers when they get accustomed to prices rising month after month. In such economic times, two subconscious behaviors become common. People buy more…
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About Noah Webster
Noah Webster was born in Hartford, CT, in 1758. He died in New Haven, CT, in 1843. He had a successful career as a teacher. And a secondary career as a politician. But the great thing he did was his work as a…
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How Political Ideology Influences Philanthropy
Many issues seem to divide Democrats and Republicans, and new research has found one more: philanthropy. According to a study I saw in The New York Times (of all places!), red counties, which are…
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