The Search Is On

LightGrams October 1, 2020 Volume 24, Number 35 Darren Mayfield is on a mission. He and his wife run an online antiques business (“The Plastic Pendulum”) from their West Virginia home, and he has come across something quite intriguing to him: An approximately 100-year-old photo of a bridal party. Nine women of varying ages are…

Signal Interrupted

LightGrams September 24, 2020 Volume 24, Number 34 The village of Aberhosan, Wales was completely frustrated. The residents had watched helplessly every morning for 18 months as their Internet signals went down. It happened each day at the same time: 7:00 a.m. What in the world was happening?! Engineers from Openreach, the company that maintains…

Personal Care Robots

LightGrams September 17, 2020 Volume 24, Number 33 CARESSES, a study that is jointly funded by the European Union and the Japanese government, has been ongoing for the past three years. The acronym stands for “Culture-Aware Robots and Environmental Sensory Systems for Elderly Care”. Robots are being tested to provide emotional support to seniors in…

An Unexpected Appearance

LightGrams September 10, 2020 Volume 24, Number 32 It was the fourth day since the hiker had been seen. There was great concern for the safety of Harry Harvey. He was, after all, 80 years old, and there had been a hailstorm when he went missing in England’s Yorkshire Dales. Royal Air Force members and…

Ghost Ship Tours

LightGrams September 3, 2020 Volume 24, Number 31 “Ghost ship” conjures up images of “The Flying Dutchman”, a mythical ship that was doomed to sail the seas forever. The ghosts who man that ship can never find rest, but are forever battling the elements. If you’ve seen any of the “Pirates Of The Caribbean” movie…

If You Can Open This …

LightGrams August 27, 2020 Volume 24, Number 30 Kirk Mathes had to call deputies to his farm in Barre, New York. A crowd had gathered in a field where a safe had been found. The safe was locked, and a note attached to it said, “If you can open this, you can have what’s inside.”…

More Than A Wishing Well

LightGrams August 13, 2020 Volume 24, Number 28 Visitors to the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores quickly come to a beautiful display: a 30-foot high Smoky Mountain Waterfall. One can stand by the handrail and look down into the chasm below, imagining they are deep in the forests of Appalachia. Officials at the…

Blessed By The Virus

LightGrams August 6, 2020 Volume 24, Number 27 Doris Crippen couldn’t have felt good about testing positive for the COVID-19 virus. At age 73 she was in a high-risk category. While dealing with some of the virus’s difficult symptoms she fell and broke her arm. After spending more than a month in the hospital, she…

Theirs For The Taking

LightGrams July 30, 2020 Volume 24, Number 26 There was a heist at an art gallery in Tokyo, Japan earlier this month. Everything on display was taken; not an item was left. All this happened as police stood outside to monitor the large crowd that had gathered. What we’re describing was the “Stealable Art Exhibition”.…

Is IT Real?

LightGrams July 23, 2020 Volume 24, Number 25 The video from 1969 is grainy but powerful. President Richard Nixon’s address to the nation to announce the catastrophic end of man’s first mission to the moon was brief but emotional. Though his voice was shaking, he kept his composure. Wait a minute – what?! That mission…