Opinion

Obviously, I am in the information business but I submit to you that we now live in an era of information overload.

We have data at our fingertips. Our cellphones can access more data instantly than all the dictionaries, encyclopedias and other reference materials ever published.

Easy access to endless information can be both a blessing and a curse.

Sometimes we suffer under the onslaught of too much information. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

It was 1950, and some scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were walking to lunch.

Along the way, they talked about some recent reports of UFOs and a New Yorker cartoon that attributed the recent disappearances of New York City trash canisters to alien activity. [Full Story »] 

By Walter Geiger

I silently chafe when I hear Social Security referred to as an entitlement program though, technically, it is one.

That language originates from Social Security falling under Title II of the Social Security Act. Thus the root word ‘title’.

Once you meet all the qualifications to receive Social Security benefits (meeting the age and work credit requirements), you are ‘entitled’ to receive benefits. [Full Story »] 

By Mike Ruffin

I want to understand people. I want to understand why people – all people – are who they are, why they think the way they think, why they believe what they believe, why they say what they say, and why they do what they do. What would such understanding require?

It would require that I be Muslim. It would require that I be an immigrant. It would require that I be a woman. It would require that I be poor. It would require that I be black. It would require that I be Russian. It would require that I be Jewish. It would require that I be unemployed. It would require that I be a high school dropout. It would require that I be a factory worker. It would require that I be an inner city resident. [Full Story »]