The following two quotes are attributed to the late science fiction writer Isaac Asimov: "Education isn't something you can finish." "Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is." The prolific Asimov, who wrote or edited over 500 books and penned roughly 90,000 postcards and letters in his lifetime, was absolutely correct on both counts. It's a shame that in this age of rapid technological advancement, students leave education in the rear-view mirror, maintaining that their learning days are surely over. But who says that we have to dump our books in crates as soon as we snag our diploma? Why not continue delving into Shakespeare, Newton, or Lincoln even after we've left the Ivory Tower? What many people fail to realize is that schools, colleges, and universities merely scratch the surface of the course offerings they make available to students. You can't possibly expect more than a cursory look, for exa...

On this day in 2000, as part of the Out of the Blue Closets exhibit at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. the bones of President James Garfield’s spine were put on display one last day. The exhibit featured medical oddities from the museum’s archives. The display of President Garfield’s spinal column showed exactly where one out of two assassin’s bullets had passed through it on July 2, 1881. The first bullet grazed Garfield’s arm, while the second bullet lodged below his pancreas. Alexander Graham Bell, known for patenting the first practical telephone, was one of Garfield’s physicians at the time. He attempted to use an early version of a metal detector to locate the second bullet, but failed. Historical accounts vary slightly as to what exactly led to Garfield’s death. Physicians may have given him treatments that expedited his demise, including the administering of morphine, quinine, calomel, and brandy; he was also fed through the rectum. ...

If you were to pick a U.S. state you think people generally know little to nothing about, which one comes to mind?  If you're like me, Alaska, which became the 49th state in 1959, is a sure contender. Alaska is derived from the Aleut word "alyeska," which stands for "great land." On this day in 1867, the United States formally took possession of what became the largest state in the country after buying the territory from Russia for $7.2 million. Most people assume Texas is the largest U.S. state, but Alaska is roughly twice the size of the Lone Star State in area and about one-fifth the size of the contiguous 48 states combined. So why would Russia want to sell its Alaska territory in the first place? For starters, it was remote, sparsely populated, and hard to defend. Russia preferred selling it to the United States than risk losing it in battle with a rival like Great Britain. Negotiations between secretary of state William Seward and the Russian m...

Say it ain't so! It's flabbergasting how Kim Kardashian West's hijinks pass for news these days. Just yesterday, she tweeted a photo of herself in front of a mirror with no clothes on. A couple of black rectangles cover her privates, but other than that, little is left to the imagination. The photo was retweeted a whopping 15,000 times in the first two hours after she shared it. One can presume that, at this point, not too many people on the internet haven't seen or heard about the controversial picture. Can you imagine the backlash such a photo would have drawn, say, two or three decades ago? Apparently, baring it all is in style now even if you don't pose for Playboy. (Check that -- I just remembered that she posed for Playboy, too.) The internet -- and, more specifically, social media -- has made it simpler than ever to put out racy pictures and generate massive buzz. I've said it before: We're living in an age where people are far more like...