Posts from 2024

His Guardian Angel?

LightGramsDecember 19, 2024Volume 28, Number 37 Eight years ago, Michael Black of Afton, Wyoming was diagnosed with dementia. In recent years he has sometimes wandered from his home but each time was located within a few hours a short distance away. Last month he was missing for more than two days. He’s back home now,…

Out Of His Element

LightGramsDecember 12, 2024Volume 28, Number 36 On January 24, 2025, Rudiger Koch plans to emerge from his “home”. If he succeeds in staying inside his dwelling that long, he will have set a new record for continuously living in an underwater fixed habitat. The old record is 100 days; his aim is to live underwater…

Out With The Old

LightGramsNovember 28, 2024Volume 28, Number 35 Bringing in the New Year is an event in many places. Most notably, Times Square in New York City welcomes the New Year annually with its famous ball drop. First observed in 1907, the ball on the roof of One Times Square begins dropping with one minute left in…

A Level Playing Field

LightGramsNovember 14, 2024Volume 28, Number 34 Bonnyrigg Rose is the name of a soccer club in Bonnyrigg, Scotland. Among its past members is someone you may have heard of: Sean Connery, one of the more famous actors to play the role of James Bond. Just that fact tells us that this club has a long…

Shots Out Of Nowhere

LightGramsNovember 7, 2024Volume 28, Number 33 The story out of Laurel County, Kentucky less than two months ago captured the nation’s attention. As cars traveled along busy Interstate 75 near London, shots began ringing out. When the shots stopped, 12 cars had been hit and five people had been injured. The manhunt focused on a…

Almost Too Late

LightGramsOctober 31, 2024Volume 28, Number 32 Bay Search & Rescue in England received the call about a sheep that was stuck in quicksand on the seashore. A second sheep was spotted in a similar dilemma a few hundred yards away. The animals had been in this condition long enough that the sand gripped them tightly,…

The Hunt Has Ended

LightGramsOctober 24, 2024Volume 28, Number 31 Earlier this month in Paris, “owlers” were told to stop digging; the replica of the fabled Golden Owl had been discovered. Finding the replica was the last key to claiming an owl made of gold and silver, and with diamond chips on its face. The search began in 1993…

Running In Place

LightGramsOctober 17, 2024Volume 28, Number 30 Sean Greasley struggled during the COVID pandemic, fighting mental health issues as well as the physical aspects of that virus. Now that he has recovered, he wants to give back to others who fight the same problems. That led to his plan to raise money for suicide prevention. His…

What We Thought Was Secure …

LightGramsOctober 10, 2024Volume 28, Number 29 “The safety of the mountains” is a thought many of us have embraced. Living in the Appalachian Mountains, we have enjoyed a relatively mild climate. Tornadoes have been rare, and snowstorms have been diverted in other directions by the mountains that surround us. The Appalachians are what I have…

Blindly Hitting The Mark

LightGramsSeptember 26, 2024Volume 28, Number 28 Osman Gurcu recently claimed his third Guinness World Record. He has long been interested in basketball trick shots and had previously set records for the longest behind-the-backboard shot and the longest bounce shot. This most recent record was for the longest basketball shot made while blindfolded. His shot from…