This month marks my tenth year of being vegan. It’s hard to believe that much time has passed, and I thought I’d take some time to write about it. In some ways, it seems extraordinarily unlikely that my family would be one to go vegan. My parents are very image-conscious, and when I was growing …
Author Archives: Søren
Dallas High Speed Train & Other High-Speed Rail Projects
This is the 300th week of this blog! I’ll return to the subject of the first blog I wrote on 28 April 2019, trains. After this week I’ll go to a posting schedule of less than once a week. It’s going to be a busy semester ahead and although I really enjoy writing about something …
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Hurricane Ernesto Wreaks Havoc in the Caribbean
On Wednesday of last week, Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Ernesto, a former tropical storm that strengthened to Category 1 status. The hurricane resulted in storm surge, heavy rainfall, and winds of up to 74 mph (119 kph) striking the US territory. On Wednesday night, 540,000 Puerto Ricans did not have electricity. By Friday …
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Scott Ritter, FBI Raids, & Freedom of Speech: A Reflection
Several days ago in the Land of the Free™, the FBI conducted a raid on the home of Scott Ritter. Ritter has served as a US Marine and as a weapons inspector for the UN, and is an anti-war voice with a long history of involvement in international affairs who is willing to call out …
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What Is AMPK?
AMP-activated Protein Kinase (AMPK) is an enzyme that is supposed to sense when your body’s fuel reserves are low. If the enzyme senses this lack of fuel, it will activate and issue the command to stop storing fat and start burning it for energy. The activity of this enzyme affects a person’s weight, but it …
American Astronauts Continue to Be Stranded in Space
This story has slipped under the radar with all the other chaos in the world. As of 26 July, US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams have been in space for 50 days. Sounds like a great adventure, but that is 42 days longer than they were supposed to be there. As of now, there …
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Origin & Development of the Word Nihilism
The word “nihilism” today refers to a belief that all values and existence itself is meaningless. It also refers to overwhelming cynicism towards the world or extreme skepticism towards everything. The word has been in the English language for a surprisingly short amount of time. The stem word of nihilism comes from the Latin word …
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Ants Clean Wounds & Amputate Limbs
A new paper published in the journal Current Biology has documented an interesting behavior of ants. These small creatures sometimes treat the wounded limbs of other ants from their anthill. The specific ants investigated by the researchers were Florida carpenter ants. Ants have an adaptation known as the metapleural gland that produces antibiotic fluid. The …
DOJ Gives Boeing Plea Deal
As Boeing has been in the news once again due to stranding astronauts on a space station after a failure of the company’s Starliner capsule, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has presented the aircraft manufacturer with a plea deal for a completely different matter. This deal will allow Boeing to avoid a trial involving the …
Julian Assange Free!
After twelve years of political prosecution, journalist Julian Assange is finally free. He has been released from deplorable conditions in the UK’s Belmarsh prison and been allowed to return to his home in Australia. Following five years of imprisonment at Belmarsh and a long trial of fighting against extradition to the US, Assange agreed to …
Green Humanist 