Category: Aggregated

When the English clergyman Thomas Fuller used the word unfriended in a letter dating from 1659, we can be pretty sure he wasn’t talking about his Facebook page. Instead, Fuller used the word to mean something like “estranged” or “fallen out,” a straightforward literal meaning that has long since “fallen out” of the language. It’s to be expected that the words we use will change and develop over time as they begin to be used in original and innovative new contexts. But in some instances, these developments can lead to words gaining new meanings entirely different from their original implications—and … Continue reading →

The arrival of summer — and along with it all sorts of outdoors activities — also ushers in the arrival of ticks. This guide covers what to do in the event that you find a tick that has already bitten you and embedded itself in your skin. However, the best thing to do is to take a few precautions that’ll increase your chances of not having to extricate a tick from your person to begin with: Wear long-sleeved clothing — especially pants, as it’s often our legs that are most exposed to the grass and plants that we brush up against when outdoors. … Continue reading →

I confess: I am probably a bad neighbor. No, we don’t blare dubstep or dancehall or ghettoslam (or whatever the current sonic terror may be) at 200 decibels… And we don’t burn piles of tires and carpeting in the front yard… And, most certainly, we’re not dumping diesel into the local creek… However, we have – oh, the horror! – utterly given up on maintaining the front lawn on our semi-rural piece of the South; instead, it’s been replaced with a nascent food-generation machine. Out with the lawnmower – in with a food forest. The idea of a “food forest” … Continue reading →

Some people think of chickenpox as a dangerous health condition, especially among children. But it is not life-threatening. In fact, it is actually nature’s elegant design to defend you against a more problematic disease – shingles. According to the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC),1 shingles is more common in individuals over age 50, although those who are immunocompromised are also at risk. Fortunately, exposing yourself to the chickenpox virus in your childhood years—as well as developing it early on—may significantly lower your risk of developing shingles. Shingles: A Reactivation of the Chickenpox Infection Chickenpox and shingles are caused by similar … Continue reading →

METZ,  FRANCE –  The dramatic seaborne rescue of 328,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk in June, 1940 is well known. But the tragic effort of almost 300,000 French troops to  break out of encirclement in eastern France  along the Maginot Line is almost totally unknown. On 10 May, 1940, Germany unleashed a new form of mobile warfare known as “blitzkrieg” against the combined armies of France, Britain, Holland and Belgium.  At the time, France had Europe’s most powerful, battle-hardened army with more tanks, artillery and warplanes than Germany possessed. France and her British allies were prepared to re-fight the same static battles … Continue reading →

Do you have what it takes to scheme your way to the top with the brutal force of Frank Underwood in House of Cards? Now a 15-minute test could help you find out by measuring your dark, Machiavellian qualities against other personality traits. The test provides 100 simple statements such as ‘I would be quite bored by a visit to an art gallery’ and ‘I feel reasonably satisfied with myself overall.’ Take the test below or click here You then have to rate how much you agree with each statement from a scale of ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. Along … Continue reading →

One week ago we reported that, according to Greek sources, Greece had suffered a “massive” deposit outflow to the tune of €700 million just last Friday, culminating a week of €3.4 billion in total outflows following the acrimonious failure by the Greek government to reach a deal with the Troika. This was confirmed by Wednesday’s news that Greek banks had received another weekly boost in their ELA allottment, the biggest since February, amounting to €2.3 billion and bringing the total to a record €83 billion. … even as deposits continued to slide inexorably toward parity with the ECB’s funding of … Continue reading →

The time is 360 BC, the dawn of Western civilization. Athens, the cradle of democracy, is the epicenter of the ancient world. In his dialogues of Timaeus and Critias, Plato introduces a tale of an advanced prehistoric civilization, which since has captivated the imagination of every generation that followed. This was the story of Atlantis, an idyllic island paradise of skillful navigators who often crossed the Atlantic to explore. Atlantis, according to Plato, was ultimately lost to the sea. Its memory, though, was not soon forgotten. For two millennia, people unsuccessfully kept on searching for the legendary island, making Atlantis … Continue reading →

Riyadh’s increasingly destructive war in Yemen has sparked overripe discussion in Western capitals about Iran’s use of “proxies” to subvert otherwise “legitimate” Middle Eastern governments. Driving such discussion is a self-serving narrative, promoted by Israel as well as by Saudi Arabia, about Tehran’s purported quest to “destabilize” and, ultimately, “take over” the region. Assessments of this sort have, of course, been invoked to justify — and elicit Western support for — Saudi intervention in Yemen. More broadly, the Israeli-Saudi narrative about Iranian ambitions is framed to prevent the United States from concluding a nuclear deal with Tehran — or, failing that, to … Continue reading →

In an interview with ET Now, Jim Rogers, commodity expert, shares his views on the currency market. Edited excerpts: ET Now: What is your sense on the US dollar versus most currencies? Where do you see the currency market headed towards? Jim Rogers: I own the US dollar. It is my largest single currency. I do not have any confidence in the US dollar as a sound currency. It is one of the most flawed currencies in the world. US is the largest debtor nation in world history and it is getting even worse. I own it because there is … Continue reading →

Veteran investigative journalist Jefferson Morley observes concerning the American Deep State: “America is ruled by a parallel system of power that operates above and in some ways below our system of democratic governance,” says David Talbot in this engaging conversation with University of California-Berkeley professor/poet/diplomat Peter Dale Scott. Scott’s provocative conception of a “deep politics” and a “deep state” within the American democratic system, first articulated in the 1990s, has gained credibility over the years. After the revelations of Wikileaks and Edward Snowden, everyone who wants to can see that U.S. national security agencies have the latitude to pursue their chosen … Continue reading →