Steven Allan Avery currently serves a life imprisonment sentence without the chance of parole in a correctional facility in Wisconsin.

He was convicted in 2007 and has spent 14 years in prison for the murder.

However, his total term spent in jail stands at about 32 years — 18 of which came from a wrongful conviction made in 1985. Around the time of his second arrest in 2007, he was the only one of the close to 200 exonerees of the Innocent Project to have been charged with a violent crime after their release.

However, the story isn’t as simple…

I am the guy that sees the glass half full every time and looks for the silver lining behind every cloud. There’s hardly any doubt that COVID-19 was by no means a “good” thing to happen to the world.

Yet, putting aside all the obvious negatives it has left behind — one thing it sure did was save thousands of dollars for the average household.

Data across Europe and UK suggests that the 2nd quarter of 2020 saw record levels of household savings higher than any time in the past few decades. While these savings were largely “forced savings” and…

When I was a teenager — probably 13 years old, I remember arguing in favor of the death penalty. However, at that point, my views on the topic were limited, and I was “assigned” to argue in favor of it. It was also my dad who helped me prepare the arguments in favor of capital punishment, and I remember winning the 2nd prize in the debate (with about 20 total participants).

However, there may have been a reason I finished 2nd best — and I’ll look to make amends by re-thinking the debate — and choosing to argue “against” the…

There’s something about that Harvard Law degree that makes you instantly change your perspective about a person. Well, none other than former President Obama went to Harvard Law, and boy wasn’t he one charismatic president, and arguably the best orator the White House has ever seen.

What about anything to do with science and engineering from MIT? Of course — talk about “rocket science” — Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon got his doctorate in astronautics at MIT back in 1963.

And well, how could I forget an MBA from Stanford? Well, there’s a long list…

You: Hey Doc, I’ve got a terrible headache, have you got any painkillers?

Doctor: Not at all, that won’t be necessary! I’ve got the best cure for it.

You: Oh, is it? What would that be?

Doctor: Come on in, that’s my operation theater, I’ll just quickly drill a hole into your skull, and you’ll be all set — no headache any more!

Shocked? Don’t be. Drilling a hole into the skull was a “medical procedure” quite prevalent in the ancient period spanning from around 12,000 years ago to about 4,000 years ago.

Trepanation, also known as trepanning or trephination…

Technology has quickly transformed from a convenience to a necessity in the space of a couple of decades.

Smartphones or mobiles in general were a novelty about 15–20 years ago — I remember owning my first phone (far from a smart one) back in 2007 when I went into a residential program at the age of 18.

Today, every 6–8 year old has their own phone — almost as a fundamental right and not really a luxury.

Adoption is probably one of the noblest acts of kindness and love in my mind. Being a mother or a father to a child who’s an orphan or for some reason doesn’t have parents for a suitable upbringing must be quite a courageous and deeply rewarding experience.

It is no surprise then that Amelia Dyer, a trained nurse, and a woman who was widowed early in her life, turned to care for orphans by adopting them and giving them the motherly love they lacked.

This, however, soon took a turn that no one could have foreseen — from a caring…

“Child prodigies, as a rule, are the children of parents with rich imagination. “
— Jean Cocteau

I couldn’t agree more with the above quote when it comes to the case of the publication Illumination. “Rich imagination” only begins to describe the man that Dr. Yildiz is. He’s a visionary who set out on a mission to create a democratic platform for writers on Medium.

Ironically, from my eight months or so on Medium, it seems quite clear to me that the goal of Medium itself was to be a democratic platform that provides value to readers and an opportunity…