Category: History
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Here are two stories about a couple of pioneers of astronomy, physics and space exploration – Clyde Tombaugh and James Van Allen, and their amazing journeys through life and death. Clyde Tombaugh WASHINGTON – In articles about his life, they always called Clyde Tombaugh "a Kansas farm boy," as if to draw sharp contrast with…
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Fidel Castro may be dead, ill or recuperating well from his recent intestinal surgery. We don’t know for sure. Reports out of Cuba are sketchy. What we do know is that nearly a week ago after his operation, for the first time in more than four decades of reign, Castro transferred power to his brother,…
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Today we celebrate the idea that is the United States of America – democratic, free and one would hope, fair. It is also an annual reminder of our fundamental values and patriotic spirit, an emotion which when taken to thoughtless extremes can leave in its wake hapless and helpless victims. When the nation’s stewardship is…
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Here is a quiz that will test your familiarity with fascist-speak. Don’t worry if you can not tell the difference between Ann Coulter and Adolph Hitler. The distinction is only temporal, not of essence. (via Neural Gourmet)
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Came across this extraordinary, prescient piece written by Rabindranath Tagore – Asia’s first Nobel laureate. Tagore’s observations came during his travels through the middle east in the 1930’s when he witnessed the bombing of an Iraqi village by British imperial forces. Tagore’s insightful humanity and intimate knowledge of imperialism ( which enables men to view…
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John Kenneth Galbraith, the leading US economist, scholar and diplomat died on Saturday at the age of ninety seven. I was a young girl in middle school when Galbraith was appointed the US Ambassador to India by President John F. Kennedy. I had no idea what his politics and scholarship were about. But I remember…
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A little over a month ago, Anna reminded us in her informative post " Day of Remembrance," of a piece of US history many of us know little about – the plight of early Asian Americans. The US has since then apologized to its own citizens of Japanese descent for the unfair and cruel treatment…
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And you thought your trip to the dentist was painful. The primitive man visited the dentist and had his teeth drilled. The procedure was done presumably without anesthesia, using drills made out of flint. This means that dentists were practising their trade as early as 7000 years ago if archaeological findings in Pakistan are to be…
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