by david allan van nostrand | Jul 27, 2026 | Actively observing, Human Behavior, The Wayback Machine, The world around us
As the story goes, Jasper Maskelyne outfoxed the Germans by making the Suez Canal disappear. From my safe distance high atop Civilization’s Hill of Knowledge, built on all the things we’ve learned in the 85 years since 1941, I feel confident that the Suez Canal is...
by david allan van nostrand | Jul 6, 2026 | Actively observing, Items in the News, The world around us
Burmese pythons are ambush hunters that can grow to be as much as 19 feet long in the wild in the Florida Everglades. Females are five or six feet longer than males and may lay as many as a thousand eggs over a typical life span. Burmese pythons rarely move about,...
by david allan van nostrand | May 26, 2025 | Actively observing, Human Behavior, The world around us
Nearly 200 studies involving more than two million people conclude that one in ten humans are left-handed. In the U.S. alone, that’s more than 33 million left-handers living in our very right-handed world. Dogs and cats are left-handed, too – actually left-pawed...
by david allan van nostrand | Mar 24, 2025 | Actively observing, Human Behavior, The world around us
As it happens more often than not, while I’m taking a closer look at a particular topic or subject, I come across things I know nothing about. Zip, zero, zed, zilch. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to enter into one of those Charles Kuralt-style On the Road...
by david allan van nostrand | Dec 9, 2024 | Actively observing, Point of view
Half Full or Half Empty? Objectively speaking, the glass contains water up to the half-way point. The rest is a matter of interpretation. Half-fullers interpret the reality in a positive context. Half-emptiers interpret the reality in a negative context, focusing on...
by david allan van nostrand | Nov 18, 2024 | Actively observing, Americana, Human Behavior
The Pumpkin Pie Experiment In 1789, President George Washington proclaimed a “day of public thanksgiving.” In 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day that would be celebrated on the last Thursday in...
