IT Insights Blog — certification

William Shakespeare is still celebrated today, more than 400 years after his death, because he wrote some of history's most enduring dramatic works. Also because he knew that people like puns. Shakespeare's plays are loaded with puns. He's not the only one, either. The ancient Romans — who, incidentally, feature prominently in a handful of plays by one W. Shakespeare — also loved a good pun.

There are different answers to the question of which human has dived deepest beneath the surface of the ocean. Almost four years ago, longtime scuba instructor Ahmed Gabr dove to a depth of 1,089 feet in a coastal region of the Red Sea near Dahab, Egypt. Gabr took 12 minutes to reach his record-setting depth, and 14 hours (assisted by nine oxygen tanks) to return to the surface.

Once upon a time, you could only subscribe to magazines, newspapers, comic books, and seed catalogs. In the 1980s and 1990s, the model was expanded to cassette tapes, then CDs, and eventually other media like cable television, books and, after Netflix came along, movies. Now it's starting to seem like subscription is going to end up being the way that everyone pays for everything.

On Friday, but really tomorrow, fans of Marvel Comics and casual moviegoers alike will finally find out what happens when a purple alien monster gets control of literal fistful of magical doodads. (Remember when a Friday opening date used to mean that you couldn't see the movie until Friday? Thursday night has been the new Friday for a while now. Look out, Wednesday, you're next.)

For people who are not independently wealthy, retirement is no sure thing. Not the way that, say, death and taxes are. It's like you can't quit your job before you die because you had to pay so much in taxes that you never managed to save anything for retirement. This upbeat outlook brought to you by the Center for Positivity, Optimism, and Hopeful Platitudes.