December 12, 2021

Park ranger Roy Sullivan suffered seven direct lightning strikes between 1942 and 1977 and earned more fame than he received.

One would have to live in the excesses of the Congo or the Amazon to escape the incessant bombardment of newly enhanced benefits of Medicare for 12 million elderly Americans.

In the controversy involving Putin and the Crimea allow me to play the devil’s advocate. Sevastopol, the main city, has for centuries been the main base for Russia’s Black Sea fleet. Most people living there speak Russian at home. It is one of the three federal cities. In WWII it earned the world’s admiration for holding out for nearly 300 days against the Nazis’ huge railroad gun.

When an innocent man serves decades in prison it seems to me he should be partially compensated by a significant government grant That is the case in several states when he is cleared by the DNA process.

An 8-centimeter venomous spider was recently donated to an Australian reptile park. The park identified it as a tunnel spider whose fangs can penetrate a human fingernail. (I think a centimeter is roughly an inch.) (TIME, DEC. 6-13, 21)

Hooray! We are about to turn the corner and we’re nearer the sun and that brings more warmth. Actually, the reverse is true. Because the earth’s axis tilts at about 23 degrees, that determines the amount of heat received in the northern hemisphere. (Wik, etc.)

Before WWII ended the U.S. government initiated a study known as the Minnesota Starvation Experiment in which a number of conscientious objectors volunteered to go without food for long periods of time to determine the physical and psychological effects on their bodies. The results were meant to help in treating European and Asian victims in the post-war period. (Churchill’s Secret War, etc by Madhusree Mukerjee and Wik)

Medical emergencies, unlike their human counterparts, do not take weekends off.

Robert Hall

Bellingham