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I grew up watching the "Karate Kid" trilogy, so those movies have always held a special place in my heart. My dad used to quote Mr. Miyagi to me and my older brother, whether it was a smirking "wax on, wax off" or "beginner's luck!" with a scoff, or something more profound like "Never put passion in front of principle — even if you win, you lose," "No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher," or "When you feel life out of focus, always return to basic of life — breathing."The man was endlessly quotable for a reason — he was the heart and soul of the franchise.So how does "Cobra Kai" manage to maintain that same heart without...

Did you ever compete in an Egg Drop Competition for a high school science class? It’s a science experiment where you drop an egg from a certain height—maybe 30 feet—in some protective device. There is only one rule: Don’t break the egg. My parenting style is a LOT like an egg drop experiment. I don’t know exactly which device will adequately protect my children, now ages seven and eleven, but I know my aunt Maureen’s back-in-my-day approach doesn’t quite fit my vision for success. Do I take the egg crate approach and try to buffer my children from all sides? Do I try a simple parachute that softens the blow but allows some impact? There are lots of parenting books,...

A few miles from our house a celebrated independent bookstore carries a large collection of new books and old classics. What books do the store’s well-educated clients buy? Roughly half the top sellers are nonfiction. On the nonfiction list, usually, at most, one book focuses on science. In national science best-seller lists, books in the top twenty rarely explain mechanisms, arguably the core product of science. Instead, we find biographies and self-help guides. Highly ranked “science” books often turn out to be attacks on science, branding research as deceitful, racist, misogynist, and corrupt. In October 2019 the ten bestselling “science and math” books on such lists included a diet regime, an analysis of how media falsely slandered the US president,...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 1, 2022   Remarks of President Joe Biden State of the Union Address As Delivered The United States Capitol    Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President, our First Lady and Second Gentleman. Members of Congress and the Cabinet. Justices of the Supreme Court. My fellow Americans.     Last year COVID-19 kept us apart. This year we are finally together again.     Tonight, we meet as Democrats Republicans and Independents. But most importantly as Americans.     With a duty to one another to the American people to the Constitution.     And with an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny.    Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the foundations of the free world thinking he could make it bend to...

Ivan Reitman died February 12, 2022, at 75 years old, leaving a half-century legacy of filmmaking that transformed cinema.Reitman logged close to 70 movie and TV credits as a producer, not counting nearly half a dozen in pre-production when he died, and 17 feature films as a director, not counting four short films, a music video, and an unsold pilot that aired as a TV movie.Reitman directed some of cinema's most classic comedies, making "Saturday Night Live" alum Bill Murray the comedic lead everyone believed he could be, and musclebound action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger the comedic lead no one believed he could be. Reitman's oeuvre also explored sci-fi, horror, legal thrillers, sports dramas, romance, and even politics.Reitman's first short film,...