By Jeffrey the Barak. As usual, I spent a few minutes today playing with my trusty vacuum cleaner and also a Swiffer duster. And as usual, the vacuum and the duster each had plenty of dust to pick up. Sometimes I cannot see dust without ... Read More

On July 1st 2001, Cherie Magnus’ short article, The Church of Tango was published here on the-vu. Now a full-length memoir with the same title is published and it’s the talk of the milongas around the world. Cherie writes on her blog: I started writing ... Read More

A Mibo Courage street scooter from the Czech Republic (c) Mibo By Jeffrey the Barak. As you may have gathered from visiting the-vu.com, I am very enthusiastic about the simple and wonderful human-powered vehicle that we call a scooter, and far less enamored with the ... Read More

By Jeffrey the Barak. A search for the word scooter on the-vu.com will reveal my passion and obsession for this type of vehicle. I much prefer scooters to bicycles, even though I have to admit I won’t be tackling a hundred mile charity ride on ... Read More

By Jeffrey the Barak. There was an old physical joke when I was younger. There would be a group of us lounging around in an altered state in someone’s living room. One person would leave to go to the bathroom and the rest of us ... Read More

On April 29th, I’ll be boarding a plane from Texas to Tennessee to visit my mother. It may very well be my last time to see her. In February, a fall in her home led to a hospital trip. The news? Extensive Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer. Extensive, meaning ... Read More

By Jeffrey the Barak. Ah, the humble kick scooter. Often maligned as inefficient, or silly looking, but to those of us who know, it is the ideal vehicle for short-distance, low to medium speed transportation. True, if you need to go ten miles, then a ... Read More

By Dr, Del Millers You might have read about trans fatty acids in the news recently. In fact, there has been a lot of concern lately about the link between trans fatty acids and heart disease. Trans fatty acids, also known as trans fats, are ... Read More

My first experiences with vocal compression left me a mite ambivalent. On one hand, the idea of a vocal already being recorded with very minimal volume fluctuations was so exciting that I’d lay awake all night anticipating the benefits I’d reap from purchasing my own ... Read More

By Jeffrey the Barak The sponge in your kitchen is not merely stinky, it may also kill you. Smell does not come from nowhere, it is produced by living organisms that appear and develop in sponges thanks to contact with the organic matter on your ... Read More