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The "Grand Design" The "Grand Design" was a European confederation project that was progressively drawn up by the duc de Sully between the end of Henri IV's reign in 1610 and Sully's own death in 1641. Sully stated on several occasions that it was Henri IV's concept, and although it is likely that Sully and the king discussed the major points, the evidence seems to indicate that the lion's share of the work was done after 1610. On 26 January 1611, Maximilien de Béthune , the duc de Sully, submitted his resignation to Marie de Médicis, who was acting as...

National Geographic Explorer’s Hall in Washington D.C. has hosted some of the most prestigious exhibits in America. Previous exhibits have included the Chinese terracotta warriors, as well as the James Caird, the lifeboat Sir Ernest Shackleton miraculously sailed from Antarctica to South Georgia Island in 1916. Currently it is hosting a curious exhibit through February 2013 entitled “1001 Inventions: Discover the Golden Age of Muslim Civilization.” This high tech, slickly produced exhibit explicitly seeks to debunk the “myth” that the dark ages were dark. The exhibit purports to provide examples of innovations from Muslim civilization, and some of the...

Archaeologist Alex Joffe on how Western empowerment of Islamists threatens precious antiquities. Preserving the past has costs. Much of the world shares the belief that the past has intrinsic value, which is encoded into laws and regulations that imperfectly protect, preserve and study historical and archaeological remains. Contributions, admission fees and taxes pay for the upkeep of monuments from the Parthenon to the Liberty Bell. When highways are constructed they are diverted around historical landmarks, or the landmarks are moved. Archaeological excavations slow construction everywhere. But are we willing to kill or die for the past? The question is not...

ISAAC ASIMOVAssuming we haven't destroyed ourselves in a nuclear war, there will be 8-10 billion of us on this planet—and widespread hunger. These troubles can be traced back to President Ronald Reagan who smiled and waved too much. GREGORY BENFORD YOUR FUTURE AND WELCOME TO IT … 25 years from now. World population stands at nearly 8 billion. The Dow-Jones Industrial Average stands at 8,400, but the dollar is worth a third of today's. Oil is running out, but shale-extracted oil is getting cheaper. The real shortage in much of the world is…water. Most Americans are barely literate, think in...

The Arab line following the creation of the state of Israel was that Israel was a colonialist foreign entity plopped down in the Arab Middle East. Nothing exposes the fallacy of such an argument as powerfully as archaeological finds that literally lay bare the Jewish presence here from ancient times. It must have been thrilling for the early Zionists who made their way to Israel in the late 19th century and early 20th to see newly uncovered archaeological finds attesting to Jewish life here 1,500 to 2,000 years earlier. One of my favorite spots is the ancient mosaic synagogue floor...

The Nikola Tesla Monument within Queen Victoria Park, Niagara Falls (Canadian Side) will be unveiled on July 9, 2006 at 12 noon celebrating the 150th birthday of Nikola Tesla.

Study offers evidence that long countries give better protection to languages than those that are wide. One reason that Eurasian civilizations dominated the globe is because they came from a continent that was broader in an east–west direction than north–south, claimed geographer Jared Diamond in his famous 1997 book Guns, Germs and Steel. Now, a modelling study has found evidence to support this 'continental axis theory'.Continents that span narrower bands of latitude have less variation in climate, which means a set of plants and animals that are adapted to more similar conditions. That is an advantage, says Diamond, because it means...

Magazine Content Preview Racial prejudice apparently stems from deep evolutionary roots and a universal tendency to form coalitions and favor our own side. And yet what makes a "group" is mercurial: In experiments, people easily form coalitions based on meaningless traits or preferences—and then favor others in their "group." Researchers have explored these innate biases and begun to ask why such biases exist. What factors in our evolutionary past have shaped our coalitionary present—and what, if anything, can we do about it now? Several avenues of research are probing the origins of what many psychologists call in-group love and out-group...

History is not simply dates, events and results. Instead, it's people's lives, their hopes and dreams, their situation and their outcomes based on their and other people's actions. While history is learned by looking backward, knowing the outcome, life is lived marching forward, unsure of what might happen. To understand history, it helps to understand the circumstances of the time. How did people live, who was in charge, who had rights, power and money? What is commonplace in one time and place would be unthinkable in another. For example, most Americans understand that by law, they have individual rights....

Today I ask the question- and answer it: Do Liberals fact-check anything? There is lots of Sarah-hate this week to wade through, plus we tackle Austan Goolsbee- and who doesn’t want to do that? -Paul Revere, investment and tax theory explained for liberals (we’ll use very simple arguments with gratuitous references to green jobs just to keep them interested), plus we’ll give out a gold star for the comment of the week.  Melech Ha Olam wrote: In God We Trust was inserted in our banknotes and in the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 by a Republican Congress during the McCarthy...

Sun Tzu's 2,500-Year-Old 'Art of War' Guides China's Strategy Today Lev Navrozov Friday, Sept. 8, 2006 On June 19, the Daily of the Chinese People's Liberation Army reported that "in the past few days" the Seventh (!) Symposium on Sun Tzu's "Art of War" was held. The report said: "Sun Tzu's ‘Art of War' advocates winning ‘without fighting.'" Hitler, the last major Western European conqueror, and his top officers, some of whom had fought World War I for four years without winning, had possibly never read Sun Tzu's "Art of War." Many Westerners still regard themselves as supermen (the word...