An American hallmark is that Americans take the initiative, creating for themselves whatever is necessary to get the job done.  Indeed, back in the late 19th century, when Thomas Alva Edison was a whirlwind of inventions, Americans began to view themselves as a nation of inventors.  The inspiration for Rube Goldberg's fantastic, crazy cartoon ideas was the fact that invention was in the air. People from all 50 states and every educational and ethnic background flooded the newspapers and the patent office with their ideas.  It was from that intellectual ferment that we got assembly lines, adding machines, shredded wheat, smoke-detectors, Ferris wheels, rotary dials, bottle caps, zippers, modern mousetraps, medical gloves, mufflers, ice cream scoops, and no end of other clever and useful things that are still part of our world today. American ingenuity may once again come to the fore with coronavirus.  One of the biggest concerns about...(Read Full Post)