Despite her exotic name Mata Hari was a Dutch woman. Her real name was Margaretha (Gretha)Zelle and was born in Leeuwarden, in the province of Friesland in the North West of the Netherlands.. Today marks her 150th birthday. At 18, Zelle answered an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper placed by Dutch Colonial Army Captain Rudolf MacLeod (1 March 1856 – 9 January 1928), […]
It is five years today since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. On 15 August 2021, its forces entered Kabul as the Afghan government collapsed and the long Western intervention came to an ignominious end. Five years later, the consequences for Afghan women are appalling. The Taliban has issued more than 100 decrees restricting the […]
The Schutzstaffel (SS): The Engine of the Nazi State The Schutzstaffel, commonly referred to as the SS, played a pivotal role in the rise and implementation of the Nazi regime in Germany between 1925 and 1945. Originally formed as a paramilitary bodyguard unit for Adolf Hitler, the SS evolved into a multifaceted organization responsible for […]
Following the Hiroshima bombing on August 6, the Soviet declaration of war and the Nagasaki bombing on August 9, the Emperor’s speech was broadcast at noon Japan Standard Time on August 15, 1945, and did reference the atomic bombs as a reason for the surrender. The broadcast was recorded a day earlier but was broadcast […]
Hedy Lamarr, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in 1914 in Vienna, Austria, is best known for her work as a Hollywood actress during the Golden Age of cinema. However, her contributions to science and technology, particularly her co-invention of a technology that laid the groundwork for WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS, have garnered increasing recognition. Lamarr’s […]
The Flensburg Government refers to a short-lived, provisional government of Nazi Germany that existed in the final days of World War II, from May 2 to May 23, 1945. Named after the town of Flensburg in northern Germany, near the Danish border, where it was headquartered, this government represented the last vestiges of the Third […]
If you already think the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are bad, have a gander at this interview. An article in the Times of Israel (click screenshot below) summarizes a New Yorker interview, also on video (below), with Megan Romer, current co-chair of the DSA. As you know, DSA members or affiliates are winning important…
Who would have thought that someone could make a gripping movie about predicting the weather? Nevertheless, Pressure delivers. To be sure, it’s predicting the weather for D-Day. Excellent cast. Hews very close to the truth. The two camps really did divide on theory versus past prediction and the weather was as portrayed. After the war,…
On 9 August 1945, a B-29 named Bock’s Car lifted off from Tinian and headed toward the primary target: Kokura Arsenal, a massive collection of war industries adjacent to the city of Kokura. The primary target was the city of Kokura, where the Kokura Arsenal was located, and the secondary target was Nagasaki, where two […]
Of. course I’ll get raked for putting up this post, but I’m frankly sick of people denigrating others as “Zionists”, which in most cases is simply a euphemism for “people who are pro-Israel” or even “Jews”, so that “anti-Zionist” becomes a euphemism for “anti-Israel” or “antisemitic”. My contention, echoed by Natasha Hausdorff and Douglas Murray…
On August 6, 1945, the world witnessed the devastating power of nuclear warfare for the first time when the United States dropped an atomic bomb, code-named “Little Boy,” on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This event marked a significant turning point in World War II and had profound implications for international relations, warfare, and ethics. […]
On Aug. 3, 1943, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton slapped a soldier who was hospitalized for psychoneurosis, accusing him of cowardice. The incident nearly ended Patton’s career.. Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, commander of the Seventh U.S. Army, visited a military hospital in Sicily on Aug. 3, 1943. He traveled past the beds of wounded […]
“All armies get it wrong at the beginning; the question is who adapts fastest.” (British military historian Michael Howard quoted by Elliot Cohen, page 100) ‘All Americans make promises but nothing ever happens.’ Iraqi housewife complaining why there was still sewage in the street outside her house 5 years after the Americans invaded and promised […]
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
In Hume’s spirit, I will attempt to serve as an ambassador from my world of economics, and help in “finding topics of conversation fit for the entertainment of rational creatures.”
“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
Recent Comments