Reading Time: 25 minutesHISTORY OF JAMES BOND: DR. NO – 64 YEARS AGO our years ago, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the premiere of the first James Bond film, Dr. No” (1962), I wrote the following article on the history of the Bond film franchise. I discuss each film in the series, including its iconic music. Since I originally wrote the article, I’ve visited the filming location of one of the films, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. Enjoy the following history, with an updated “What’s Next for James Bond?” section.
Reading Time: 7 minutesHistory of St. Francis of Assisi he man we know as St. Francis was born in Assisi, Italy, in 1181 or 1182, and died on October 3, 1226. His feast day is October 4. In October 2025, the Italian Parliament restored October 4th as a national feast, previously dropped in 1977, to take effect this year, the 800th anniversary of his death. Ironically, it falls on a Sunday this year, so Italians won’t get an actual day off until 2027. Who was Francis, what did he do, and why is he remarkable?
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF OCTOBER: THE PUMPKIN SPICE SAGA ctober, the tenth month of the year in both the older Julian and the current Gregorian calendar, was the eighth month (Latin octo) in the ancient Roman calendar, but with the addition of January and February, it got bumped to Number 10. The way it actually played out is that the months January and February were added under the Roman King Numa (c. 713 BC), but at first they sat at the end of the year. October only became Month 10 when the civil year moved its start to January 1 (153 BC).…
Reading Time: 10 minutes HISTORY OF COFFEE: INTERNATIONAL COFFEE DAY esterday, September 29, was National Coffee Day in the US and 16 other countries. But tomorrow, October 1, is International Coffee Day, also known as National Coffee Day in 12 countries. Whether percolated, filtered, steeped in a French press, poured over, or made with high-pressure steam in an espresso maker – at 10 to 15 times the quantity of coffee-to-water as gravity-brewing – 90% of humans ingest this caffeinated beverage regularly, making it the most widely used psychoactive drug and capturing the imagination of people the world over. The world drinks a little…
Reading Time: 9 minutesHISTORY OF MICHAELMAS eptember 29 is Michaelmas, meaning “Michael’s Mass” or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels. It’s known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels, in the Roman Catholic Church, or as the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels in the Anglican Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church, instead, celebrates the Feast of the Archangels on November 8. Americans may not be familiar with it, but you may hear the name in British period costume dramas. Jane Austen mentioned Michaelmas 12 times in five books, almost as much as Christmas and Easter. Indeed,…
Reading Time: 5 minutesIs AI Conscious? arlier this year, Dario Amodei, CEO of the AI company Anthropic, said that he was open to the idea that his Claude AI model could be conscious. “We don’t know if the models are conscious. We are not even sure that we know what it would mean for a model to be conscious or whether a model can be conscious… But we’re open to the idea that it could be.” He also said he wasn’t sure he wanted to use the word “conscious” at all. This was on Ross Douthat‘s New York Times podcast, Interesting Times,…
Reading Time: 3 minutesScience of the Harvest Moon his year, the Harvest Moon rises on September 26, 2026, with peak illumination at 12:49 PM EDT. It will be visible near the planet Saturn in the evening sky. While last October’s Harvest Moon was a “Supermoon,” this year’s is not. We did have a Supermoon in January, and we’ll see one in both November and December. Next year, in 2027, we’ll have two, in January and February. When we talk about a Supermoon, we’re not referring to Clark Kent’s secret identity. A “super” moon occurs when a full moon coincides with the Moon’s closest…
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF SUKKOT: FESTIVAL OF BOOTHS Tonight, at sunset on September 25, begins the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, also known as the Festival of Booths or the Festival of Tabernacles. We’ve talked about the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; Sukkot, which follows five days later, differs in that it is one of the three pilgrimage festivals. The Old Testament Book of Leviticus commands the commemoration of the Exodus of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. They were to commemorate it by living in temporary booths for a week “… that your generations may know that…
Reading Time: 10 minutesAI: Noise and Confusion Podcast ecent news has been filled with stories about the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the potential existential threat it poses to humanity, voiced by smart people in the AI industry and echoed across the press and government. Last Thursday (Sept. 17), the New York Times front page ran “OpenAI Discloses 6 New Incidents of ‘Concerning’ AI Behavior.” Do we hit the brakes or step on the accelerator? The expression P(doom) is the probability of existentially catastrophic outcomes, or “doomsday scenarios,” from AI. Is it imminent? Is it inevitable? Amidst all the noise and…
