Can it be that the year of Our Lord 2019 has arrived so quickly? Here are some thoughts and observations for you to ponder:
Bits: Pomegranates, which are mentioned in Deuteronomy, are a sign of plenty throughout the Jewish High Holy Days.
Pieces: Partners at the bank Goldman Sachs earn a base salary of $950,000.
Bits: The prickly, obstinately clinging burrs of burdock, a thistle-like weed born in Siberia and northern Europe, were the template for Velcro.
Pieces: Users of Pinterest, a web service that allows individuals to save images to virtual pinboards, have pinned 175 Billion items on three Billion virtual pinboards.
Bits: Italian authorities are unveiling the epochal discovery of hundreds of Roman-era gold coins that were found during excavations to build a new apartment building in northern Italy. A small stone jar contained about 300 coins that date from 474 B.C.. Cultural minister Alberto Bonisoli said that the discovery “marks the course of history.”
Pieces: Only 15 of the 180 American medical school programs teach addiction as including alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, according to Dr. Kevin Kunz of the Addiction Medicine Foundation.
Bits: China controls the prices of many essential commodities. For pork it keeps several months’ worth frozen in what is called the strategic pork reserve.
Pieces: U.S. immigration judges grant asylum in only about two cases in 10.
Bits: Kuwait is a rare success story 28 years after the Iraqi invasion and the American-led response. It is now a haven of stability and prosperity in a turbulent region. Kuwait’s oil industry, like its government, is professional and meritocratic. The rule of law applies. Kuwait continues to take advantage of its strategic advantages of low-cost oil and good governance.
Pieces: A tiny sketch found in a South African cave is the oldest known drawing at 73,000 years old. This drawing was found in Blombos Cave approximately 190 miles east of Cape Town. It is evidence that early humans stored information outside the brain.
Bits: In a Wall Street Journal article on leadership and a profile on George Washington, the writer suggests that the source of Washington’s greatness was a function of the choices he made consistently, every day, in darkness or light. It is another way of saying character. Another way of saying personal responsibility. Another way of saying integrity. All essential characteristics of great leadership.
Pieces: As Winter recedes, here is a poem to enjoy written by Charles L. Prazak and entitled “Nature’s Christmas Tree.” “A tree in white woods decked with dots of ice gleaming red in the late sun. This fir stands as if small hands had strung it with tiny lights.”
Bits: In Lincolnshire, England the apple tree that helped inspire Sir Isaac Newton’s law of gravity was felled by a storm in 1820, but it remained rooted and regrew into the tree seen today at Woolsthorpe Manor, his childhood home.
Pieces: Architect Alfred Butts invented an early version of Scrabble in 1933. It was originally called Lexiko, a short variation of “lexicon” or “language.” No game manufacturers were interested in it. So he and his business partner, James Brunot, began producing the game and called it Scrabble which means “to grope frantically.” Now about 33% of American homes own a Scrabble game.
Do you think March is having miserable cold and rain and wind? Consider Yukutsk, Russia, the coldest city in the world, where temperatures can fall to -40 F. Where everything is ice, fog and shadows.
Wikipedia photo