Life

Five Levels of Ruin — And Where Our Civilization Ranks — One of the things that I find interesting these days, in a kind of sardonic way, is this. “Doom” has gone mainstream. You can read articles about it in the august pages of the New York Times. And those articles always have the same slant: “We’re not doomed!! Stop being…

Some say it’s 2008 all over — Financial markets are too complicated for many. Yet if you don’t understand the basics, it’s hard to make money, invest it, and stay ahead of the rising cost of living. So you’re forced to understand. Let me explain the big picture of the US economy over the last 4 years…

Fact-check your thoughts. — I’ve never been to a better museum than the Louvre in Paris. The MET gives it a run — but Louvre still edges it out. It’s the full package. What surprised me most was how underwhelming the Mona Lisa was. A far more impressive painting by Da Vinci is “The…

Scientists excavating an archaeological site in western Peru have found a mural depicting mysterious men with two faces. Researchers say they have never seen anything like it before. Peru is the cradle of many ancient cultures and civilizations that developed hundreds of years before Europeans arrived in South America. It…

If You Don’t Think the Future of Human Civilization Is at Risk, Think Again — It was just yesterday that I wrote about whether or not we’re “doomed.” As if right on cue, today, the UN released its “final warning” on climate change. And if you think I’m a “doomer,” well, it turns out I’ve got nothing on…the world’s best scientists, who wrote much of…

And it was a good thing. — My husband and I got into an argument the other night. The hows, whats, and whys don’t matter so much. What stood out to me about twenty minutes later when I was stewing on the couch, rage-eating peanut butter like the feral woman I am, and watching Parks and Rec…