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Uranus and Neptune may be rocky…but who cares?
The evidence that Uranus and Neptune must be icy is “all indirect, it’s all circumstantial,” says Jonathan Fortney, a planetary astrophysicist at the University of California (UC), Santa Cruz. “This was always in the back of people’s minds: that the planets could be more complicated.” https://www.science.org/content/article/uranus-and-neptune-may-not-be-ice-giants-after-all But all the claims are based on computer models, […]
The Broken Valley: The Hidden German Civil War of the American Revolution
This is the third of a series of posts introducing the five-part historical fiction novel Unbowed, which will be published in November 2026. All five parts are based on true events and real people – my ancestors. The first post described the outcome of the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 and one of its survivors, […]
Mind your own business!
If you had to sum up your life philosophy in one sentence, what would it be? As my Anglo-Irish immigrant ancestor Thomas Bushell wrote in his Will and Testament: “Live and let live.” Far too many people want to know what’s happening in other people’s bedrooms. You do want you want to do, and leave […]
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© Matthew Apple and Taking Leave, 2009-2020. Duplication of this material without express and written permission is strictly prohibited. If you would like to post or copy brief excerpts from the blog, please provide a link to the original URL along with an author’s credit.
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Treed
(This was originally meant to be posted before New Year’s, but was delayed due to holiday-associated craziness. It will be presented in two parts: Christmas and New Year’s) We put up the Christmas tree just before the beginning of Advent … Continue reading
Posted in baby toys, holidays, parenting, Uncategorized
Tagged baby toys, child care, child-raising, Christmas, family leave, fatherhood, holidays, Japan, Japanese, parental roles
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Half? Which half?
This weekend was a three-day weekend in Japan. Monday was “Coming of Age Day” (成人の日), which is when cities around the country hold ceremonies to inform those who have turned 20 years old of what it means to be a … Continue reading
Mother-daughter hand book
This past weekend, my wife and I took our daughter for her 7-month checkup. The check-up system in Japan varies depending on the city. A nearby city to ours has a checkup only at the 6th month, while ours does … Continue reading
