"Since the pandemic started, I've wanted to stay connected with our community. Through the form of a weekly blog, I share my insights and reflections on various topics."
Recently, I listened to an interview of Lant Pritchett. He is a developmental economist who worked for 20 years at The World Bank and is affiliated with Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. The topic for the interview was the news that the global population had declined. In the interview, he noted that “The reaction is often ‘ho hum’ as the rates are slow and hence the issue seems small and in the future.”
If you haven’t heard of Liquid Death, the image above might conjure thoughts of an alcoholic beverage or an energy drink. That’s what I thought when I saw my son with this can the first time. He laughed at me and explained that it’s just sparkling water. He explained he “likes the taste” which made me laugh at him. It’s water with no taste is what made me chuckle.
Why do people enjoy watching videos of dogs on a bus? I’m not quite sure but since some of these videos get millions of views, it’s clear that people do enjoy watching these videos. I find the story behind the videos even more interesting.
On January 3rd, astronaut Walt Cunningham died, and I’ll admit that I didn’t know anything about him. I suspect that most people know of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they were the first people to walk on the moon in 1969. I certainly remember Armstrong’s famous line of taking “one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.”
I imagine that everyone starts January thinking about goals that they want to accomplish in the new year and goals that were not fully accomplished in the prior year. We are inundated with messages about how to plan for better lives and techniques to help us accomplish those goals.
I thought it would be appropriate to end the year with a story from the Metropolitan Diary in the Sunday NYT. A woman has two tickets to see the Chicago Symphony at Carnegie Hall when the person who was supposed to join her cancels suddenly.