LightGrams (Page 12)
LightGrams March 19, 2020 Volume 24, Number 10 China has been hit hard by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). A recent report shows that over 3,200 have died from its effects. What is more alarming, perhaps, is that in Italy the number of those who have succumbed to COVID-19 is only slightly less, almost 3,000. Italy’s…
LightGrams March 12, 2020 Volume 24, Number 9 The World Health Organization yesterday officially declared that there is a pandemic. COVID-19 (the coronavirus), which started in China late last year, has now spread into communities in the United States. Many measures have been announced which are aimed at containing the virus, to keep it from…
LightGrams March 5, 2020 Volume 24, Number 8 As we focus on the coronavirus, some are reminding us of similar events in the recent past. One such event was the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus that broke out in southern China in 2002. The story of Dr. Joanna Tse emerges from that dark time…
LightGrams February 20, 2020 Volume 24, Number 7 A man in England was recently walking his dog on the beach when he came across a bottle that had washed ashore. Inside was a message from 1938 from John Stapleford, asking whoever found the bottle to write to him in Hertfordshire, England. Attempts to locate this…
LightGrams February 6, 2020 Volume 24, Number 5 If your job is to run a web site to attract tourists to your city, what do you highlight? Highly-rated restaurants? Beautiful local scenery? High crime rates? Lots of things to do? Wait – rewind a bit – “high crime rates”?! Is that any way to attract…
LightGrams January 30, 2020 Volume 24, Number 4 “Prosthesis” is the name given to the world’s largest “tetrapod exoskeleton” (officially recognized by Guinness World Records). “Tetrapod” means it has four legs; “exoskeleton” refers to the fact that a person inside it pilots the movement of this robot. It stands just over twelve feet high, and…
LightGrams January 23, 2020 Volume 24, Number 3 About 14,000 residents of the German city of Dortmund were evacuated over the weekend, according to a story on Yahoo News. The reason for this disruption was bombs; not bombs that were about to be dropped on the town, but bombs dropped by the Allies during World…
LightGrams January 9, 2020 Volume 24, Number 2 Often on any given day I hear the sound of sirens. I know what it means: someone is in distress, and trained professionals are speeding down the road to their rescue. I’m thankful for all who give their lives to this work, whether professionals or volunteers. We…
LightGrams January 2, 2020 Volume 24, Number 1 Every day my web browser presents a variety of articles it thinks I might be interested in. When I have a few extra minutes I’ll look through these, and occasionally find pieces that are worthwhile reads. That’s how I found the article entitled “’They’re abysmal students’: Are…
LightGrams December 19, 2019 Volume 23, Number 40 Gingerbread houses are edible and visual treats that we commonly see around the holidays. Popularized by the fairy tale “Hansel And Gretel”, millions of children have had the thrill of building their own version of these delicious houses. And so has Canadian researcher Travis Casagrande; he has…