Posts by Tim Hall

Living Out Of Sight

LightGramsFebruary 20, 2025Volume 29, Number 8 Trail cameras have become popular for revealing wildlife that may live closer than we realize. Our son in Colorado has spotted a variety of animals in his yard, especially after dark: mule deer, turkeys, bobcats, racoons, skunks, a mountain lion, and even a bear or two. These were nearby…

Losing My “Land Legs”

LightGramsFebruary 13, 2025Volume 29, Number 7 Mario Salcedo is living what many consider to be a dream life. For the past 25 years he has lived on cruise ships; he’s not one of the crew, but a passenger. Recently he was recognized by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines for his 1,000th voyage with them. He spends…

The Heart Of Lincoln

LightGramsFebruary 6, 2025Volume 29, Number 6 Dan Martin’s job as a summer intern was simple: Go through the boxes of old movie reels that had been donated to Lauro’s Historic Films Archive, and catalog the various titles. We can imagine that is a tedious and somewhat boring job, but one day he struck gold! He…

The Doomsday Clock

LightGramsJanuary 30, 2025Volume 29, Number 5 In 1947 the world was introduced to “the Doomsday Clock”. It’s not an actual clock, but a vision of how close humanity is to “doomsday”. The end could come, according to the clock’s inventors (a group of atomic scientists), because of nuclear war, natural disasters, or pandemics. In 1947…

Foolproof

LightGramsJanuary 23, 2025Volume 29, Number 4 A video was recently released by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). It wasn’t a video designed to entertain as much as to warn. In it they showcase some items that travelers tried to smuggle onboard a flight in 2024. Among the attempted contraband were exotic snakes hidden inside a…

Don’t Eat The TRees

LightGramsJanuary 16, 2025Volume 29, Number 3 Some residents of Ghent, Belgium are like many others around the world; they are more conscious of environmental stewardship and try to recycle whatever products they don’t consume. The city’s website recently posted another way to recycle: Take the needles from your discarded Christmas tree, soak and dry them…

Don’t Call Us

LightGramsJanuary 9, 2025Volume 29, Number 2 Police in Saskatchewan, Canada are ready to help with emergencies that arise; that’s why they monitor the local 911 phone lines. But recently they posted a video to their Facebook page asking the public not to call with requests that aren’t truly emergencies. They gave 10 examples of calls…

The Be All, End All?

LightGramsJanuary 2, 2025Volume 29, Number 1 Neil Skallan of the United Kingdom has set the record again. His first Guinness World Record was set in 2016; in 2017 he broke that record, and again in 2018. The record he holds is for owning the most Monopoly sets. It’s official; staff members of GWR came to…

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…