“What do we do with a hero who has done something less than heroic?” Wiesel asked.
In 2009, I was in the 7th grade, and I had a music teacher first period who was a little…Republican. We were interrupted by a morning announcement to congratulate President Barack Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. There was applause heard around the main office, and most of us nodded in agreement.
My music teacher, however, snapped. He went on a rant over how we were not at peace, how Obama was only in office for nine months, how we were still at war in Afghanistan. …
How a “good old boy” from Missouri went from the halls of the Senate to the Oval Office
“I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.” ~ Harry Truman on Becoming President in 1945
Harry Truman was known around the halls of the Senate as being a persistent man. By 1940, he had held his Senate seat for five years, but he remained scarcely known in the town full of brash and ambitious men. When World War II broke-out in Europe, Truman saw its arrival as the perfect opportunity to change that.
In 1940, a year into the war, Congress authorized $10 billion in defense contracts in a short six months. In his office, Senator Truman soon began receiving numerous claims of fraud and waste mismanagement across the country. Deciding to investigate the claims himself, he hopped into his old Dodge and maneuvered across the South, stopping at army camps along the way. What he saw astounded him; he witnessed men standing around wasting time and piles of lumber sitting unused. …
Following the history of Kudzu in the United States.
I have heard about Kudzu all my life. Growing up in rural North Carolina, everyone was taught to hate the stuff. We were told that it would eventually eat up all the forests and starve them of light until there was nothing left.
And, it made sense. I lived right next to the Pisgah National Forest and from what I could see, the stuff was taking over. The stands of trees became what looked like dark green billowing hills, only these were in the air. The properties near the forests were encroached on by the slender tendrils that seemed to be looking for their next victim. …
Andrei Chikatilo was sentenced to death for 52 murders
His nicknames were the Butcher of Rostov, the Red Ripper, and the Rostov Ripper. His name was Andrei Chikatilo, and he killed, sexually assaulted, and mutilated at least 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990 in the USSR. He would eventually confess to 56 murders but would be sentenced to death for his 52 murders in October 1992, and then executed in 1994.
What made Chikatilo’s story unique was not what he did, but where he did it — the Soviet Union maintained that serial murder couldn’t possibly happen in a communist society, leading Chikatilo to get away with his crimes and not be held accountable for a very long time. …
Andrew Johnson skipped his successor’s swearing-in for political reasons.
An impeached and embattled president fighting with everyone to get his way. A man who believed the United States citizens gave him the mandate to change the course of the country. And he was ill-prepared to tackle the job in a way that worked for most people.
That man was Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States.
Mr. Johnson didn’t have a formal education. He learned how to play politics by jumping into the deep end and running for office. Many noted that despite his bad temper, constituents found him charming and well-spoken.
His fiery temperament was noted by many. Experts of the day believed it would keep him from ascending to the highest office. As would his flip-flopping on the social issues of the day, like slavery. …
Biden’s swearing in will not be the only ceremony of note.
“This will be an Inaugural like no other, in large part because of COVID. But we are going to get sworn in and we’re going to do the job we were hired to do.” Kamala Harris, Vice President Elect
Madame Vice President Elect is correct in saying that the swearing-in ceremony of herself and Joe Biden, our 46th President, will be atypical in comparison to other contemporary Presidential Inaugurations. Thousands of National Guard troops will be present in Washington to beef up security following the January 6th Capitol Building insurrection. There will be no Inaugural Ball for the first time since 1949. …
It would only be used for large transfers between banks
I’ve only had $100 bills at a couple of points in my life. Each time I have had them, I was very nervous — I just didn’t like carrying that much cash around. However, I didn’t realize that once upon a time, there was a $100,000 bill.
According to Rob Wile at Business Insider, the initial intent of printing the $100,000 bill was to help the economy. In 1933, the United States was still devastated by the Great Depression. …
The famous French general, Napoleon Bonaparte, was cuckolded and ghosted by his first wife Joséphine, but his love for her never died.
Joséphine de Beauharnais went by Rose before she met Napoleon. Her first husband was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. She had two children with her deceased husband. Napoleon, who was six years younger, could not resist her.
In one letter to Joséphine, highlighted by Kate Williams in Ambition and Desire, Napoleon wrote, “I awake full of you. Your image and the memory of last night’s intoxicating pleasures has left no rest to my senses.”
She had affairs with a few other French political elite before meeting Napoleon, but he did not waste any time marrying her once she became his mistress. …
Two-minutes-long and $266 million
When you think of an expensive short video, a music video might come to mind. It’s an obvious choice. A pop artist with a record label behind them has more than enough cash to blow on a lavish display of video decadence. These displays even created a television network named MTV. Yes, it did show music videos at one point before reality television appeared.
Madonna herself is responsible for 3 of the most expensive music videos ever made: “Bedtime Stories” and “Express Yourself” each at $5 million and “Die Another Day” at $6 million. However, Michael Jackson has the title of the most expensive music video ever created. …
What contribution did Mileva Maric make to Einstein’s work?
The idea that a female helped write Einstein’s papers has been growing in strength. It is a concept that some of the greatest minds today find hard to contemplate.
Recently, I read The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict and it made me think. I know the book is a novel and many parts are not factual. However, there was enough for me to research further.
Mileva Maric was the first wife of Albert Einstein. It is suggested she was a contributory writer for some of his biggest theories. Did Einstein plagiarise his wife’s work to reach success?
Who is Mileva Maric?
Maric was a Serbian physicist and mathematician. She was also the only woman at the Zurich Polytechnic, the same year as Einstein. She was only the fifth woman ever to be accepted to the Mathematics and Physics department. …
