News about Benjamin Franklin

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I read a lot of advice columns. As in one or two a week, not a lot'. A lot as in: I used to read problem pages every day, often for half an hour at a time.' 'A lot' because I spend more time reading advice columns than I do reading actual books in a few weeks. However, I don't read them for the information. I loved them for the tiny glimpses into other people's lives. I started as a youth in the 1990s in Australia. I used to babysit for a family who wanted to watch The Spectator, a British newspaper. There were always copies lying around, and when I finally leafed through one of them, I discovered a 'Dear Mary', written by Mary Killen (from Gogglebox) and still running 25 years later.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: Your average market pig weighs about 300 lb (135 kg), while others may reach 900 lb (410 kg). They now fall within the range of the most common flying species, Quetzalcoatlus northropi. This is thought to have ranged from 300 lb to 500 kg (135 kg 225 kg). It had an estimated wingspan of 30 to 35 ft (9 m to 10.5 m). However, Q. northropi was physically different from a pig. It was hollow-boned, stood a little less than a giraffe, and acted like a giant heron. Perhaps a better bet would be to compare our pig to a light plane. Jim Bede, a small, single-seat home-built plane, was built in the Bede BD-5, a late 1960s, a U.S. aircraft designer.

Our lives are brimming with junk, from clothes we don't wear to overflowing diaries. And it's making us feel overwhelmed and overloaded like never before.

During Apple TV Plus' appearance at the TCA Winter Press Tour, Eva Longoria and Michael Douglas were among the celebrities promoting their projects. Longoria, 48, appeared on a panel with creator Ramon Campos to discuss their new mini-series Land of Women, which debuted on the streaming service this summer. Douglas, 79, appeared on a separate panel with co-star Noah Jupe to promote their mini-series Franklin, based on Benjamin Franklin's life, and debuted on April 12.

With a slide-show presentation on 'problematic' place names, the non-profit group Atlantic Black Box concluded its $132,000 contract with Maine's state government. The tuition was paid by taxpayers as part of the state's employment of the racial justice group, which claims to'engage the public in the collective rewriting of our regional history.' Meadow Dibble, ABB founder Meadow Dibble, pleaded with attendees to acknowledge the pain caused by 'white settler people' as she rattled off place names Maine residents should be offended by. 'You could say that reading Maine's place names is like reading a book,' Dibble said. 'And some people will tell you it's a joke.' However, this book will read more like a horror story when you examine these names through the lens of racial justice.' Among the names she refused to include was Maine's name, which she felt would be more appropriate to the Wabanaki tribe's name, 'Dawnland.' Certain place names were also thought to 'objectify or denigrate women, sexualize the landscape, or play on tropes of loose women and witches.' A Native American representative said she investigates names of places before traveling and consciously avoids anything that sounds'suspicious.'

Sally Snowman is America's last lighthouse keeper. She will step down on December 30th, marking the end of a three-century nautical era. Snowman, a mile from Boston Light, told DailyMail.com how she came to be keeper and what it's like to live near-isolation on the one-and-a-half acre Little Brewster Island on a bracing November morning. She also shared her emotional thoughts about what's next for her and Boston Light, which will be moved from the US Coast Guard to a new owner and loses its status as America's last manned (or womanned, as Snowman says) lighthouse.

OSCAR CAINER: The Virgo New Moon helps us get new insights into difficult situations. And as Mercury (communication) is nearing, here is a chance to reflect on what makes us fulfilled and happy, as well as resetting our lives so we can function better and play more. This weekend is the perfect time to start new ventures that open our minds to people and enrich our lives.

Virgo New Moon (Virgo): The Virgo New Moon helps us gain new insight into difficult situations. With Mercury (communication) turning direct, we have a chance to reflect on what makes us happy and healthy, as well as reorganizing our lives so we can do more and play more. This weekend is the ideal opportunity to launch new ventures that open our minds to others and enrich our lives.

Walter Isaacson (left), who spent two years watching Elon Musk (right)m, said the richest man in the world inherits many of his most characteristic features from his 77-year-old father Errol Musk (left). In September, Isaacson will unveil his Elon exposé, adding to his growing collection of big-name biographies he has written, including ones on Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Henry Kissinger. Musk, 52, told him "vivid and psychologically brutal stories" about his childhood and discovered "the scars they left," the writer said, while his father spent hours "giving his side forcefully." Isaacson compares Elon to his South African father, who the Tesla tsar considers to be 'evil' and a "terrible human being.' Maye, Elon's mother, as well as his wives Justine and Tallulah Riley, and girlfriend Claire Boucher, 'provide vivid examples of how Musk is still dealing with the injuries' in his book.

For the third time, a stunning Los Angeles mansion could smash the nation's most expensive home. Casa Encantada in Bel-Air has been listed by its billionaire financier and his author Karen for $250 million, and it will become the country's most expensive home if sold. The 60-room historic home, which was last listed for $225 million in 2019, sits on 8.5 acres and spans about 40,000 square feet.

We allow the government to tell us 'when to go to sleep,' as we enter Daylight Saving Time,' says David Rooney, former timekeeper at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Rooney said that clocks are used by the state as an instrument of'moral discipline' in a talk hosted by the Royal Institute of Navigation last week in Edinburgh.

The opinion on inheritance tax differs. Some believe it should be abolished because it is a form of double taxation. Others claim that it is only paid by the wealthy who can afford it - and as a result, it is justified. However, opinions on how the tax is collected by His Majesty's Revenue & Customs differ. Anybody, whether tax experts or those in charge of coping with the estate of someone who has passed away, agrees that the current structure is unfair and ripe for reform. Why? It's because the tax is levied before the executor or person in charge of the estate is given permission (grant of probate) to sell the estate's assets that are part of it.

A giant laser beam could propel lightning away from airports and nuclear power stations. Lightning strikes the ground in the United Kingdom averaging 300,000 times per year, with 30 to 60 people killed by lightning and around three others dead. However, the greatest threat to power stations is the disruption lightning strikes can do to power plants, with one in 2019 causing the UK's worst blackout in a decade, killing off 1.1 million people. According to experts from the University of Geneva, a laser the size of a large vehicle could now shield these acts of god in the future by attracting bolts of lightning away from buildings.

Any politicians, mainly Conservatives, loathe it and believe it should be abolished. Others, including those from the Left of the political spectrum, believe that the tax should be reformed with the proceeds paid by those who receive the funds rather than those who inherit the estate of the deceased. Though thought of as paid solely by the wealthy, inheritance tax has increasingly become a revenue-raising tool. The nil-rate band has been stuck in deep mud since 2009, and it seems that it is likely to remain there until 2028, perhaps later this year, as this government and the next one attempt to restore the country's finances.

When he shot scenes for new biopic series Franklin in Paris on Wednesday, Michael Douglas brought a spitting picture of Benjamin Franklin. The Hollywood icon, 78, appeared nearly unrecognizable in film scenes for the film - which depicts the 18th century political philosopher's life - on the banks of the River Seine.

For the first time in 125 years, a unique first edition copy of the United States Constitution is expected to go on auction block in December 13 for the first time in 125 years, and could sell anywhere between $20 and $30 million. The historic document, which is one of only two known copies in private hands and one of only 13 copies known to exist, was unveiled by the auction house this week. Sotheby's said the other 11 are in public government collections.

'They have been the biggest killers of people,' the American author Jared Diamond once said, 'because diseases have been the most influential shapers of history.' Humanity has been ravaged by pandemics. The Justinian Plague of the 540s, named after the Byzantine emperor of the time, may have killed half of Europe's population. Hundreds of years ago, the Black Death claimed that only a quarter of the world's population died. Between 50 million and 100 million people were killed by the 1918 flu epidemic. Covid-19 has been less of a human tragedy by these appalling measures. It's difficult to determine the number of people killed. The new pandemic is also on us. According to some estimates of excess deaths as a result of the outbreak, it has increased to more than 18 million. In 2020, life expectancy in the United States dropped by almost two years. How will the world be changed by Covid-19? It's safe to say that the normality we knew before will not return, as Brian Michael Jenkins does in this troubling, but illuminating book.' But what will replace it?

The New York Mets used a viral moment to get in the heads of the rival Yankees prior to their final Subway Series game of the regular season. A fan was caught on camera with a hot dog and a beer being used in ways they weren't intended during Monday's enthralling game. The fan was shown with a piping hot dog being poured inside his beer, but not to be eaten or dunked.

There are inventions that are so revolutionary that they conquer the world, change the course of human history, and generally improve the lives of those people can't. A hot dog straw is not likely to be one of those. A fan was caught on camera with a hot dog and a beer being used in ways they weren't intended during Monday's enthralling edition of the Subway Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. The fan was shown with a hot dog embedded in his beer but not to be eaten or dunked.