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1 Jan, 2010
4th Quarter 2009 - Apology
It was a time of political tensions, when the resilience, even the very existence, of democratic societyrnwas being severely tested, by external threats and internal dissentions. As democracy had flourished, the state and its citizens prospered...
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1 Oct, 2009
3rd Quarter 2009 - Wilberforce
BritainÃs rise as the dominant world power for over four centuries was propelled by two foremost, and complementary factors: its mercantilist economic policies and the preeminence of the Royal Navy. It is moot as to cause-and-effect of these two..
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1 Jul, 2009
2nd Quarter 2009 - Marathon
Hellespont, the ancient name for the Dardanelles, the narrow straight that connects the Sea of rn Marmara and the Black Sea with the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, has a strong claim as the true crossroads of the world.
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1 Apr, 2009
1st Quarter 2009 - Zugswang
In central India, approximately 1,500 years ago, there arose a unique game, called Chaturanga, or ÃÅ"four parts,ÃÂ referring to the four divisions of an army (elephants, chariots, cavalry and infantry). In the painting above, the deity Krishna is...rn
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1 Jan, 2009
4th Quarter 2008 - False Dawn
Islamic culture flourished, in music and literature (One Thousand and One Nights gave us the stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin, Scheherazade and Sinbad), astronomy and mathematics (aljabr, algebra, was invented here).
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1 Oct, 2008
3rd Quarter 2008 - Retreat
Michael Barclay de Tolly was neither French nor English, although his family traced its roots to the rnBarclay clan of Scotland. He was born in Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, to nobility, and as expected, joined the TsarÃs army when...
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1 Jul, 2008
2nd Quarter 2008 - La Chute ("The Fall")
Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm, Baron de Gabriac, seigneur de Saint-Veran, Candiac, Tournemine, Vestric, Saint-Julien, and Arpaon, was old French aristocracy on both sides of his family. For centuries, the family ruled lands throughout...
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1 Apr, 2008
1st Quarter 2008 - Panic
Butte is a gritty city on the continental divide in western Montana. Amidst the beauty of the Rockies, rn the town is surrounded by strip mines, and while not exactly impoverished, there is nothing about Butte that hints at the enormous wealth...
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1 Jan, 2008
4th Quarter 2007 - Despair
Northwest of Philadelphia runs the Schuykill (pronounced ÃÅ"Scoo-kulÃÂ) River. Before the Midwest was settled, before the San Joaquin Valley was irrigated, these rolling hills around this valley were among the most fertile ground in the world...
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1 Oct, 2007
3rd Quarter 2007 - Commedia
Easter Day in Florence, the year 1215: a woman flirted with a man, not her husband. He flirted rn back. The brothers of the offended husband declared a vendetta, thus beginning a nearly century-long feud. The Guelphs wore a red rose on the right...
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1 Jul, 2007
2nd Quarter 2007 - Capitalism
Joszi (pronounced yo-shee, a boyÃs nickname) was born in Triesch, about 75 miles south of Prague in 1883 to a family that had lived in that valley for 400 years. His father, who ran a textile mill,rndied in a hunting accident when Joszi was four...
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1 Apr, 2007
1st Quarter 2007 - Precession
In a fashionable arrondissement of Paris lived a well known publisher who had made his reputation with an excellent multi-volume collection of the history of France. He was in poor health, and died when his son, LeÃÂn...
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1 Oct, 2006
3rd Quarter 2006 - Dance!
Jerry Rabinowitz was born in 1918 to Polish immigrants who ran a deli on the East side of rn Manhattan. A few years later, his dad, Harry, and HarryÃs brother opened the Comfort Corset Company (a bit of an oxymoron), and the family moved...
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1 Jul, 2006
2nd Quarter 2006 - Breaking Wave
On the outskirts of the ancient capital of Edo (Tokyo) in 1760, a boy was born to the Kawamura family. His father worked as a mirror polisher for the Tokugawa Shogunate. The boyÃs given name was Tokitaro, but it was changed to Tetsuzo at the...
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1 Apr, 2006
1st Quarter 2006 - Duke
Teenage boys have been hanging out at beaches since, well, probably since there have been rn teenage girls and beaches. A hundred years ago, one such group of boys had dropped out of highrnschool to spend their days on the beaches of Waikiki...
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1 Jan, 2006
4th Quarter 2005 - Balance of Power
Consider the map of Europe in 1812. From the Atlantic to the Urals, from the Baltic to the rn Mediterranean, Europe was French. Consider, too, the amazing events that led to this. In July 1789, the Bastile was stormed and the French Revolution began.
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1 Jan, 2006
4th Quarter 2006 - Lion's Gate
Thomas Raffles was one of those extraordinary individuals who made the British Empire the BritishrnEmpire. He joined the British East India Company in 1805 as a clerk, but one with high ambitions for adventure.
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1 Oct, 2005
3rd Quarter 2005 - Conversion
William Fisher, recently promoted to the rank of captain in the British Army, set out in 1840 with his new bride for Ceylon, where he was to take up the assignment as aide-de-camp to the governor. The following year, the first of their eleven...
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1 Jul, 2005
2nd Quarter 2005 - Treasure Ships
Khubilai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, conquered China in 1279, thus creating the largest unified empire history has ever seen, stretching from eastern Europe to southeast Asia. It lasted barely a hundred years.
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1 Apr, 2005
1st Quarter 2005 - Smoke and Mirrors
Rabbi Mayer Weisz was the son of a respected rabbi, but his family was mired in poverty when a rn son, Erich, was born in Bucharest, 1874. Four years later, the family emigrated to Wisconsin, where Mayer was to lead a small congregation.
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1 Jan, 2005
4th Quarter 2004 - Crossroads
For millions of years, the Mississippi River, the longest river in the world as measured from the source of its tributary, the Missouri, has flooded its delta region with the detritus drained from 31 states, creating an alluvial plain with the...
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1 Oct, 2004
3rd Quarter 2004 - Sea Change
Joseph Rochefort had a perfectly uninspiring career. He enlisted in the navy in 1918, earned an rn ensignÃs commission, and was known principally as a lover of crossword puzzles. Stationed on the USS Arizona in 1925, he shared this love of crosswords.
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1 Jul, 2004
2nd Quarter 2004 - Fractals
Euclid was undoubtedly the greatest mathematician in history. His mathematical formulae and proofs define all the familiar shapes in one-, two- and three-dimensions: point, line and plane. Elements, rn written 2,300 years ago, remains...
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1 Apr, 2004
1st Quarter 2004 - Trust Me
Versailles is certainly a splendid monument to the glory of the Sun King, Louis XIV. Pictures cannot rn capture the magnitude of its magnificence, the overwhelming adornment of gold, silver and precious jewels on every wall, ceiling and piece...
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