"Sirius" is the brightest star in the nighttime sky.  It is also known as the "dog star."  From early July to early September, it rises and shines right along with the sun.  This is also the hottest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  So that's just how those hottest days of the season […]

1.    John D. Rockefeller     (1839-1937)    $ 200 billion 2.    Andrew Carnegie        (1835-1919)    $ 110 billion 3.    Cornelius Vanderbilt    (1794-1877)    $ 100 billion 4.    John Jacob Astor        (1763-1848)    $  85 billion 5.    William Gates III                              $  60 billion 6.    Lawrence J. Ellison                           $  55 billion 7.    King Fahd Bin Abdul Azziz Alsaud       $  30 billion 8.    Warren Buffett                                $   28 billion 9.    Paul Allen                                        $   25 billion 10.  Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan    $   23 billion Newsletter, June 2008 […]

Australia boasts some of the world's best beaches, night life entertainment and friendliest people.  Drivers from around the globe flock to the Northeast coast to experience The Great Barrier Reef -  extending for approximately 1,245 miles. Did you know that our neighbor to the south has a land area about equal to the contiguous United […]

Many cities claim that they are good retirement locations.  In his book Retire in Style, Warren Bland, PhD., gives his opinion: Bolder, Colorado.  He says it has the best combination of landscape, climate, quality of life and health care. Among his other favorites: Portland, OR; Asheville, NC; Austin, TX; Boca Raton, FL; Chapel Hill, NC; […]

Summer can mean a lot of barbecues and fair food, but it is possible to make healthy food choices if you put your mind to it!  For example, instead of buying that ice cream cone try putting a bag of fresh snap peas into your bag – that way it's ready when you have the […]

Typewriters may be a machine from the past, but one thing remains the same with the computers of today – the key layout.  The first-ever typewriters had keys that were laid out alphabetically, but this caused the metal bars to get tangled when used quickly.  A newspaper editor in Wisconsin came up with keyboard layout […]

Part of the excitement of the baseball season is the atmosphere of the crowd and the songs sung during and after the game. Jack Norworth wrote the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in 15 minutes, but it was thirty-two years later when he attended his first baseball game!  Alabama's 1993 hit called, "Cheap […]

The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia had to be cast three times.  The last cast worked, but it cracked 82 years later during a memorial service for jurist John Marshall.  It's made up of 70% copper and 25% tin.  The other 5% is made up of gold, silver, zinc, lead and arsenic.  It originally weighted about […]

July 4, 2008 marks 232 years since the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Before the Declaration, 13 colonies existed under the rule of England's King George III.  There had been growing unrest particularly because the King levied taxes on the colonists, who had no political representation to the King or parliament. In 1774, […]

During Thomas Jefferson's presidency he and a group of travelers were crossing a river that had overflowed its banks. Each man crossed on horseback fighting for his life. A lone traveler watched the group traverse the treacherous river and then asked President Jefferson to take him across. The president agreed without hesitation, the man climbed […]