20% of U.S. high school graduates learn a second language, compared to 92% of Europeans. The data reported from Eurostat and the American Councils for Internal Education should beg a few questions in the mind of the average American: Are Western European children smarter than our American children? (No) Do they spend more time studying? more »
We live in a society where economic prowess dictates political and societal power. The United States is the most powerful nation in the world, not due to sheer size of it’s land, population or military, but due to it’s ability to govern international trade, to subdue “disobedient” nations through economic sanctions and to derive favorable more »
I originally set up my personal site back in 2013, with the first post announcing it’s arrival: My website CMS (content management system) tool uses WordPress, the most common CMS on the internet. A WordPress site can use different themes, the theme above is one I customized from Surfurama. Surfurama is a great theme. I more »
My friend Tyler and I just arrived in Page, AZ (home of the Horseshoe Bend) after a long drive from Death Valley. Death Valley is a low valley in the northern Mojave desert just east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Unlike many of the National Parks in the United States, Death Valley is remarkable more »
I’ve previously written about my travels and goals to see each of the fifty United States. I’ve developed a travel map that documents my travels within the country. The map can be easily reused by creating your own spreadsheet and saving it off as a .tsv. I’ve not made the same gesture for international travel. more »
My friend Stephen left his canoe at my house after he moved away from downtown. His canoe, Sandy, laid under our front porch for almost three years, occasionally being taken out by me on a date or two :). In preparation to move from my house, I wanted to restore the canoe before returning it. more »
The American Chestnut tree was once one of the most populous trees in the eastern half of the United States. It was a canopy tree in the Appalachian mountains and was the single most important source of food for the surrounding wildlife as it produced mast every year (unlike Oaks). The tree was a fast more »
I spent considerable time in the Middle East in 2018. I traveled to four different countries in the region, Isreal, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia (with Egypt technically being in northern Africa). I learned a lot. I’m writing this to share my experiences in the Middle East, the good and the bad, so that if the more »