I'm squeezed into the very last window seat on this American Airlines jet, ready to taxi away from the Frank Pais Holguin international airport in Cuba on our flight back to Miami, Chicago, and home. The lady beside can't speak a word of English, and after ten days in Cuba my Espanol has only increased by a dozen formal you-can-say-this-from-the-pulpit sentences.

Humans have been fascinated for millennia with the thought that there are other intelligent alien life forms in our universe. Most recently from the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project decades ago to the $100 million ten year Breakthrough Listen Initiative today, science continues to act on this numinous sense that “somewhere out there” are intelligent creatures with whom we might yet communicate.

When the news first broke, my reaction was a they’ll-never-get-Apple-to-buckle dismissal. True, the FBI possessed a cell phone belonging to one of the San Bernardino terrorist-killers. And yes, government law enforcement agencies have significant cause to seek information encrypted inside that Apple cell phone. But isn’t this a matter of free speech, civil liberty, and customer privacy? Tech giants Google/Alphabet, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Twitter all agree with Apple’s refusal to comply with either the FBI or the court order to unlock potential incriminating evidence inside the phone.

I read a fascinating piece from the Wall Street Journal this week (thank you, Don Wilson)—“ISIS Is Guilty of Anti-Christian Genocide” (2-12-16 A11). Written by Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, the essay is a one-year anniversary reflection of the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians by Islamic State terrorists. “These Coptic Christian hostages were executed for no other reason than their faith in Jesus Christ.

5,700 feet underground is enough to stir up anybody’s latent claustrophobia. Although I suppose that if you’re used to being that far down and are doing it for a living (as miners do), it’s pretty much old hat to you. Unless, of course, your way back up to the surface has been blocked, as was the case with South African miners in the Harmony Gold mine west of Johannesburg.

Poor Flint, Michigan. But then, maybe that’s their problem. They are poor. An African American majority. No money. No lobbyists. No political power. So nobody pays attention—until recently, that is.

Feeling a bit bugged out about life this soon into the New Year? No need to feel bad. Turns out you're surrounded by them—bugs, that is!

Thanks to their new study published in the scientific journal Peer J, entomologist Matt Bertone and his colleagues have announced we aren't alone when we're "home alone” any longer. We've always suspected we lived with a few anthropods, but who knew we had this many house guests!

Nothing like a Powerball jackpot frenzy to warm a frigid winter’s night! Americans (and Canadians) are still queuing up by the tens of  thousands for a chance to win a record $1.5 billion-plus at tonight’s 10:59 Powerball drawing. Chances of winning the grand prize? One in 229,000,000. And yet by Monday this week Michiganders were spending $156,000 per hour on lottery tickets!

Have we all become curators? You know who they are—directors at museums who skillfully arrange the contents of the gallery to be as attractive and appealing as possible to visitors. Curators decide what eye-catching exhibit gets prominent display, and which collections with less pizzazz need to be pushed to the back. Do we do the same?