The amazing Monument of Mayors displays Izmir’s civic pride and celebrates her history of public service — How many cities do you know that celebrate their 50-year's worth of mayors, going all the way back to the 1980s? Izmir, also known as the “Pearl of the Aegean” is the only one I know. Civic pride is one thing, but erecting a monument to ALL its mayors is…

Put some gas in your tank before starting the engine — Writer’s block… It happens to the best of us. It’s The Wall that all writers face from time to time. One reason why we suffer from writer’s block is due to our assumption of what it is. Misconceptions Usually, we think writer’s block is simply not knowing what to write about. Other times…

But you don't have to… — Never provide free help and assistance unless the other person asks for it; preferably for a second or a third time. (COMMENTARY— In case you feel this is cold-hearted advice, let me say this on the basis of my own experience: Every time I extended help without being asked for it…

The secret sauce of magnetic beauty takes years to develop — How many people have you met in your life, roughly? According to my back-of-the-envelope calculation, I probably have met around 20 million people during my seven decades. I did not know all of them in-depth of course, but I shared the same life moment temporarily, the way you would pass…

Go see the city of Homer while it’s still there — Troy, Troia, or Ilium, is a world-class site to visit that should be on your bucket list. For a good reason — Troy is a unique archeological site with a story (a 16,000 line epic, actually), a tale every child learns at school in the West: the story of Iliad…

Bayraktar’s armed drones continue their rise in the defense sector — Turkish Bayraktar TB2 armed drones manufactured by Baykar Technologies have made the news lately with their effective attack on Russian tanks and anti-air missile systems. Here are answers to some of the questions I’ve received from my readers since I published a review article on the Bayraktar drones. 1) “How cheap are Turkish drones?”

Imagine everything you read in any language translated automatically on the same page… — Here is a great new tool if you are learning a new language: A browser that automatically translates web pages in dozens of languages! It’s Vivaldi. Available for both Windows, Unix, and iOS. It’s very simple to use. Launch the Vivaldi as your new browser. Turn on the sidebar (click…

Use this powerful weapon once you get over your Ego — He was serious It was my turn to order a hamburger at my favorite fast-food joint. The menu included burritos as well. So, to bring a smile to the face of the dejected young girl at the counter, I said: “Well, I don’t know exactly what to order — a burgeritto, hamritos, or…

Misinterpretation of clues and signals can destroy us all — We are living through scary days when the use of nuclear weapons was brought up by Russia as a possible scenario in the Ukraine war. I’m scared because Russia almost did that back in 1983 when it misinterpreted a NATO exercise as a ruse to attack the Soviet Union with…