Clipmarks | Kore7's History collection

The Bush Tragedy

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 19:54:56 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: Jacob Weisberg uncovers the twisted, storied (and thoroughly American) histories behind the pedigreed, genteel Bush and the brash, opulent Walker clans, whose 1921 marriage-merger generated unparalleled political fame and fortune, producing an "exploding blob" of successful, well-heeled, multi-named white men—culminating, of course, in the 41st and 43rd presidents of the United States.

A product of his Ivy League upbringing, academic and corporate shortcomings, and unseemly familial wranglings, Weisberg traces the root cause of W.'s presidential failings to his life-long jealousy of his father's successes and petulant opposition to everything the reserved, prudent, self-deprecating patriarch represented.

It's a fascinating character study as well as a sad tale of hubris, backstabbing, and inescapable downfall, magnified by his position as leader of the free world.

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Excerpt: 'The Bush Tragedy'

by Jacob Weisberg

Having an ordinary three names instead of a pretentious four helps to answer the implication George W. Bush most resents, that he arrived in the White House with the help of such un-American principles as primogeniture, dynasty, and aristocracy.

Though he can hardly cultivate a log cabin myth, this Bush has long thought of himself as a Texan rather than a New Englander, an entrepreneur rather than a beneficiary of inherited wealth, and the opposite of any kind of snob.

Distinctions he draws with his preppie father are central to his personal and political identity.

Through his manners, tastes, and beliefs, George W. Bush places himself about as far as it is possible to get from his New England patrimony. He shows no sign of thinking or caring much about his ancestry, never discusses it in public, and seems not even to know much about it.

Tags: bush, george bush, president, tragedy, failure, history, america, politics, family, father

Why America Will Survive George W. Bush

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 14:53:01 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

Otto von Bismarck saw how American blunders led to American power and allegedly said that God has a special providence for drunks, fools, and the United States of America.

Walter Russell Mead (of the Council on Foreign Relations) puts Bush's 8-year stint in the White House into proper perspective.

America's foreign policy has been short-sighted and often self-defeating from the get-go, alternately collaborative, passive, and interventionist. And, yet, miraculously, we always come out ahead.

With the unstoppable rise of a global capitalist economy, Mead makes the case that America, for all its past and current faults, will continue to be the inevitable leader of this new international buoyancy. Not even our latest mistakes (unprecedented though they may be) can derail such a powerful incentive that is the modern American world trade system.

Which means, more than ever, we're literally all in this together.

Clip Source: www.tnr.com

Failing Upward

Nothing in the field of international affairs is as scandalous and as perplexing as the fact of American power. From Revolutionary times to the present, virtually all observers foreign and domestic have agreed that Americans don't do foreign policy well.

Moralistic, uninformed, unsubtle, alternately isolationist and hyperactive, hamstrung by a clumsy constitutional process and a public that oscillates between fatuous idealism and ignorant bellicosity, U.S. foreign policy has been shocking the world for more than 200 years.

And, worse still, we win. For two centuries, the United States has astounded critics with its bad foreign policy--and, for two centuries, the United States has steadily risen to an unprecedented level of power and influence in the international system.

The spectacle is often surreal. The United States seems to wander nearsightedly but relatively unscathed past one hazard after another

like a version of the chronically oblivious cartoon character Mr. Magoo.

Tags: america, usa, bush, foreign policy, world, history, war, empire, trade, economy

A Tragic Legacy

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:01:48 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

And the president who vowed to lead the war for freedom and democracy has made torture, rendition, abductions, lawless detentions of even our own citizens, secret "black site" prisons, Abu Ghraib dog leashes, and orange Guantánamo jumpsuits the strange, new symbols of America around the world.

New essay by Glenn Greenwald on the future legacy of America's reaction to 9/11.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

A tragic legacy

How a good vs. evil mentality destroyed the Bush presidency.

One who believes himself to be leading a supreme war against Evil on behalf of Good will be incapable of understanding any claims that he himself is acting immorally.

These principles illuminate a central, and tragic, paradox at the heart of the Bush presidency.

The president who vowed to lead America in a moral crusade to win hearts and minds around the world has so inflamed anti-American sentiment that America's moral standing in the world is at an all-time low.

The president who vowed to undertake a war in defense of American values and freedoms has presided over such radical departures from the defining values and liberties of this country that many Americans find their country and its government unrecognizable.

Tags: bush, legacy, 9/11, terrorism, iraq, war, liberty, torture, guantanamo, history

A Brief History of Economic Time

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 15:53:30 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

The underlying expectation -- that the present is supposed to be better than the past -- is a new phenomenon in history. No 18th-century politician would have asked "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" because it never would have occurred to anyone that they ought to be better off than they were four years ago.

(Also see Living in the Age of Abundance.)

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

A Brief History of Economic Time

Modern humans first emerged about 100,000 years ago. For the next 99,800 years or so, nothing happened. Well, not quite nothing. There were wars, political intrigue, the invention of agriculture -- but none of that stuff had much effect on the quality of people's lives. Almost everyone lived on the modern equivalent of $400 to $600 a year, just above the subsistence level. True, there were always tiny aristocracies who lived far better, but numerically they were quite insignificant.

Then -- just a couple of hundred years ago, maybe 10 generations -- people started getting richer. And richer and richer still. Per capita income, at least in the West, began to grow at the unprecedented rate of about three quarters of a percent per year. A couple of decades later, the same thing was happening around the world.

Tags: prosperity, progress, america, economics, income, money, poverty, capitalism, history

Living in the Age of Abundance

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:17:00 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: Puts the marvel of modern American life in perspective. Review by George F. Will of Brink Lindsey's new book, The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America’s Politics and Culture.

Ever since mass affluence, a phenomenon without precedent in the human story, exploded upon postwar America, social and political theorists have wondered, and worried, about the moral and even the spiritual consequences of material conditions. Putting scarcity behind us has been pleasant, but has it been good for us — meaning good for our souls?

(Also see How Rich are You?)

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Land of Plenty

By GEORGE F. WILL

Until very recently, he notes, when people prayed for their daily bread, they often were praying for just that. Not so long ago, many ordinary lives of quiet desperation ended especially dismally: about 10 percent of burials in New York City in 1889 were in potter’s fields.

In 1900, 1.75 million children between the ages of 10 and 15 — almost one-fifth of all children in that age cohort — were in the work force. Children provided one-fourth to one-third of the incomes for working-class families, which spent more than 90 percent of their household earnings on food, shelter and clothing.

In 1900, Americans spent nearly twice as much on funerals as on medicine, and less than 2 percent of Americans took vacations.

Tags: prosperity, children, income, money, culture, economy, materialism, america, capitalism, history

JFK, 1963, on peace

Sat, 12 May 2007 19:45:20 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: JFK's commencement address at American University in 1963, after the Cuban missile crisis. In it he remarks on Soviet propaganda claims that the U.S. is planning a "preventative war" -- which he describes as outlandish -- and declares, "The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war."

Clip Source: www.pbs.org

American University Speech
June 10, 1963

What kind of peace do I mean and what kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war, not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace -- the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living -- and the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women -- not merely peace in our time but peace in all time.

First: Examine our attitude towards peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable -- that mankind is doomed -- that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.

The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war.

Tags: politics, history, primary_source, war, peace, inspiration, post:tumblr

An Easter Sermon on Viral Marketing

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 20:10:28 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: By the inimitable Robert Wright.

The ultimate in viral marketing was Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. Deemed a threat to the social order, he was crucified under Roman auspices. But the Romans forgot one thing: If you face a small but growing movement that threatens the imperial order, you shouldn’t attack the men in ways that help the memes.

Clip Source: theunknowncandidate.blogspot.com

An Easter Sermon

Jesus knew viral marketing.

In the Gospel of Mark, the disciple John complains that nondisciples are selling bootlegged copies of Jesus’ miraculous powers. “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”

Jesus tells John to quit obsessing about the intellectual property and to focus on getting the brand out. “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.” Jesus adds, “Whoever is not against us is for us.”

Fast-forward two millennia. Weeks after 9/11, George Bush says roughly the opposite. His famous “You’re either with us or against us” means that those who don’t follow his lead will be considered enemies. The rest is history. Today, Jesus has more than a billion devoted followers. Mr. Bush has ... well, fewer than that.

Tags: marketing, viral, history, politics, empire, revenge, retribution, terrorism, terror, islam, jesus, christ, easter, religion, fundamentalism, america, abu ghraib, al qaeda, bush, war, meme, memes, bible

80-Year-Old Indian Math Mystery Solved

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:54:26 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: A few months into 2007 and already another long-standing mathematical mystery has been more-or-less put to rest. It will be hard to top Perelman's stunning proof of the legendary Poincaré Conjecture from last year, but in math and science, you never know when the next breakthrough will come.

(If you haven't already, read up on some of the incredible anecdotes about the life of the Indian genius, Ramanujan. He was truly one of a kind.)

Clip Source: www.sciencenews.org

A pair of mathematicians has solved a problem that had tantalized number-theory researchers for more than 8 decades. It is the so-called final problem of the legendary Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan.

"The mock theta functions are like beautiful butterflies that Ramanujan happened to find," says Freeman Dyson, an emeritus professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. "But if you're a scientist, you want more—you want a theory of evolution, a framework of ideas to fit the butterflies in."

"I didn't really hope to see someone actually do this," says George Andrews of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, who had called the description of the mock theta functions one of the hardest math problems for the new millennium. Ono and Bringmann's accomplishment is "absolutely stunning," he concludes.

Tags: ramanujan, srinivasa ramanujan, 1729, math, mathematics, number theory, problem, mystery, mock theta, function, science, indian

Math Behind Ancient Islamic Tile Patterns Decoded

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 15:15:32 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

When Peter J. Lu traveled to Uzbekistan, he had no idea of the mathematical journey that he was about to embark on as well.

See the full research article as published in Science. It's a wonderful example of original, multidisciplinary academic research bridging history and mathematics that happens to force us to re-think the sophistication of ancient geometrical knowledge.

When Lu looked at photographs of Islamic buildings, he found that he could break the patterns on their surfaces up into the same shapes, even though the shapes often weren't immediately visible. "I couldn't sleep for days," he said. "I skipped Christmas break to work on it."

Clip Source: www.sciencenews.org

Archway from the Darb-i Imam shrine in Isfahan, Iran, which was built in 1453 C.E. The larger pentagons outlined in pale blue were constructed using a large-scale girih tile pattern, and the small white pentagons were constructed using a small-scale girih tile pattern.
Image courtesy of K. Dudley and M. Elliff.

Kite and dart Penrose tiles.
Wikipedia

A Penrose tiling made up of fat and skinny diamonds.
Wikipedia

A 15th-century Timurid-Turkmen scroll now held by the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul. The faint reddish lines outline the shapes of the underlying tiles. One example of each shape has been shaded in the picture.
Peter J. Lu

The five decorated shapes.
Peter J. Lu

An archway in the Sultan's Lodge in the Green Mosque in Bursa, Turkey from 1424.
Image courtesy of W.B. Denny

Although the underlying shapes aren't obvious in the final design, this diagram shows how the pattern from the Sultan's Lodge archway was constructed using girih tiles.
Image courtesy of W.B. Denny

Tags: art, tile, tiles, tiling, shape, islamic, islam, turkey, uzbekistan, patterns, pattern, symmetry, geometry, math, mathematics, penrose, girih, history, ancient, research, discovery, science

George Washington's Rules of Civility

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 17:37:19 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: Insightful precepts of civil social behavior; as applicable now as ever.

As a young schoolboy in Virginia, George Washington took his first steps toward greatness by copying out by hand a list of 110 'Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.' Based on a 16th-century set of precepts compiled for young gentlemen by Jesuit instructors, the Rules of Civility were one of the earliest and most powerful forces to shape America's first president....

Most of the rules are concerned with details of etiquette, offering pointers on such issues as how to dress, walk, eat in public and address one's superiors. But in the introduction to the newly published Rules of Civility: The 110 Precepts That Guided Our First President in War and Peace, Brookhiser warns against dismissing the maxims as "mere" etiquette. "The rules address moral issues, but they address them indirectly," [he] writes. "They seek to form the inner man (or boy) by shaping the outer."
Clip Source: www.npr.org

1. Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present.
20. The gestures of the body must be suited to the discourse you are upon.
22. Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another though he were your enemy.
23. When you see a crime punished, you may be inwardly pleased; but always show pity to the suffering offender.
35. Let your discourse with men of business be short and comprehensive.
44. When a man does all he can, though it succeed not well, blame not him that did it.
47. Mock not nor jest at any thing of importance. Break no jests that are sharp, biting, and if you deliver any thing witty and pleasant, abstain from laughing thereat yourself.
48. Wherein you reprove another be unblameable yourself, for example is more prevalent than precepts.
56. Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company.
58. Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for 'tis a sign of a tractable and commendable nature, and in all causes of passion permit reason to govern.
61. Utter not base and frivolous things among grave and learned men, nor very difficult questions or subjects among the ignorant, or things hard to be believed; stuff not your discourse with sentences among your betters nor equals.
65. Speak not injurious words neither in jest nor earnest; scoff at none although they give occasion.
66. Be not froward but friendly and courteous, the first to salute, hear and answer; and be not pensive when it's a time to converse.
81. Be not curious to know the affairs of others, neither approach those that speak in private.
82. Undertake not what you cannot perform but be careful to keep your promise.
110. Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.

Tags: george washington, president, rules, advice, list, social, behavior, conversation, character, civility, etiquette, manners, respect, history

The AK-47: Weapon Of Mass Destruction

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 20:38:48 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: Historical overview of the cheap, mass-produced assault rifle that would permanently change the balance of power in conflicts the world over. By Larry Kahaner, the author of AK-47: The Weapon That Changed the Face of War:

Now 85, tiny, feeble, nearly deaf, his right hand losing control because of tremors, Kalashnikov is often haunted by the killing machine he has bestowed upon the world. "I wish I had invented a lawnmower," he told the Guardian in 2002.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Weapon Of Mass Destruction

By Larry Kahaner

Sunday, November 26, 2006; Page B01

The AK-47 has become the world's most prolific and effective combat weapon, a device so cheap and simple that it can be bought in many countries for less than the cost of a live chicken. Depicted on the flag and currency of several countries, waved by guerrillas and rebels everywhere, the AK is responsible for about a quarter-million deaths every year. It is the firearm of choice for at least 50 legitimate standing armies and countless fighting forces from Africa and the Middle East to Central America and Los Angeles. It has become a cultural icon, its signature form -- that banana-shaped magazine -- defining in our consciousness the contours of a deadly weapon.

This week, the U.S. military's presence in Iraq will surpass the length of time that American forces were engaged in World War II. And the AK-47 will forever link the two conflicts. The story of the gun itself, from inspiration in Bryansk to bloody insurgency in Iraq, is also the story of the transformation of modern warfare. The AK blew away old battlefield calculations of military superiority, of tactics and strategy, of who could be a soldier, of whose technology would triumph.

Tags: soldier, ak-47, gun, rifle, firearm, assault rifle, kalashnikov, war, warfare, combat, weapons, weapon, history, politics, geurilla, soviet, russia, communists, infantry, automatic

How modern evangelicals are ignoring their own history

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 02:01:00 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

Today's Christian conservatives often note that Jefferson's famous line declaring that the first amendment had created “a wall separating church and state” was not in the Constitution but in a private letter. But in that letter, Jefferson was responding to one sent to him by a group of Baptists in Danbury, Conn. We usually read Jefferson's side of that exchange. It's worth re-reading what the Danbury Baptists had to say because it reminds us that for the 18th-century evangelicals, the separation of church and state was not only required by the practicalities of their minority status, but was also demanded by God. “Religions is at all times and places a matter between God and individuals,” the Baptists wrote, warning that government “dare not assume the prerogatives of Jehova and make Laws to govern the Kingdom of Christ.” Government had no business meddling in the affairs of the soul, where there is only one Ruler.

Clip Source: www.washingtonmonthly.com

April 2006

The Framers and the Faithful
How modern evangelicals are ignoring their own history.

By Steven Waldman

It is ironic, then, that evangelicals—so focused on the “true” history—have neglected their own. Indeed, the one group that would almost certainly oppose the views of 21st-century evangelicals are the 18th-century evangelicals. John Leland was no anomaly. In state after state, when colonists and Americans met to debate the relationship between God and government, it was the proto-evangelica1s who pushed the more radical view that church and state should be kept far apart. Both secular liberals who sneer at the idea that evangelicals could ever be a positive influence in politics and Christian conservatives who want to knock down the “wall” should take note: It was the 18th-century evangelicals who provided the political shock troops for Jefferson and Madison in their efforts to keep government from strong involvement with religion. Modern evangelicals are certainly free to take a different course, but they should realize that in doing so they have dramatically departed from the tradition of their spiritual forefathers.

Tags: government, steven waldman, evangelicals, christians, christianity, religion, church, state, framers, constitution, usa, america, rebellion, revolution, england, founding fathers, belief, faith, separation, rights, bill of rights, politics, history

25 Greatest Science Books of All Time

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 02:26:37 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

The Origin of Species (1859)

Darwin's masterwork is, undeniably, The Origin of Species, in which he introduced his theory of evolution by natural selection. Prior to its publication, the prevailing view was that each species had existed in its current form since the moment of divine creation and that humans were a privileged form of life, above and apart from nature. Darwin's theory knocked us from that pedestal. Wary of a religious backlash, he kept his ideas secret for almost two decades while bolstering them with additional observations and experiments. The result is an avalanche of detail—there seems to be no species he did not contemplate—thankfully delivered in accessible, conversational prose. A century and a half later, Darwin's paean to evolution still begs to be heard: "There is grandeur in this view of life," he wrote, that "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
Clip Source: discover.com

1. and 2. The Voyage of the Beagle (1845) and The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin [tie]

3. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) by Isaac Newton (1687)

4. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei (1632)

5. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus (1543)

6. Physica (Physics) by Aristotle (circa 330 B.C.)

7. De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius (1543)

8. Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein (1916)

Clip Source: discover.com
9. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976)
10. One Two Three . . . Infinity by George Gamow (1947)

11. The Double Helix by James D. Watson (1968)
12. What Is Life? by Erwin Schrödinger (1944)
13. The Cosmic Connection by Carl Sagan (1973)

14. The Insect Societies by Edward O. Wilson (1971)
15. The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg (1977)
16. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)
17. The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould (1981)

18. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks (1985)
Clip Source: discover.com
19. The Journals of Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (1814)
20. The Feynman Lectures on Physics by* Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, and Matthew Sands (1963)

21. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Alfred C. Kinsey et al. (1948)
22. Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey (1983)

23. Under a Lucky Star by Roy Chapman Andrews (1943)
24. Micrographia by Robert Hooke (1665)

25. Gaia by James Lovelock (1979)
Honorable Mentions

Tags: science, book, books, reading, best of, list, history, literature, discover, darwin, newton, galileo

What Did Descartes Really Know? (Book Review)

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 17:03:19 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks: Great review of two new Descartes biographies that set some of the records straight on the great naturalist's works.

Despite his current reputation, the man himself seems to have been less interested in metaphysics than in applying algebra to geometry and delving into the innards of cows. He turned to philosophy relatively late in life, and out of fear that the Catholic Church would condemn his science. He would have been surprised at how he is remembered.

Most of all, he would have been aghast at the way in which “I think, therefore I am” has been ripped from its context, inflated into a one-sentence summary of his ideas, and turned into something absurd. The rot set in at the start of the nineteenth century, when Hegel made heavy weather of “I think, therefore I am” and took it to mean that thought and being are fundamentally the same thing.

Clip Source: www.newyorker.com

THINK AGAIN

What did Descartes really know?

by ANTHONY GOTTLIEB

Issue of 2006-11-20

Posted 2006-11-13

In “Descartes: A Biography” (Cambridge; $40), Desmond Clarke, a leading Descartes scholar at the National University of Ireland, Cork, argues that Descartes’s philosophy is distorted if it is not seen in the context of his wider scientific enterprise. Descartes certainly played down his own purely philosophical writings. In a letter to his friend Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, in June, 1643, and again in a conversation with a theology student, Frans Burman, who interviewed him in April, 1648, Descartes warned against paying too much attention to his metaphysics. Read it once, he said, and move on. His “Discourse,” with the famous slogan, was published merely as a preface to a collection of treatises on optics, meteorology, and geometry. Clarke reminds us that Descartes’s philosophical works were intended to establish credentials for his system of nature, and to make it theologically acceptable. The “Meditations” originally bore the subtitle “in which are demonstrated the existence of God and the immortality of the soul.” Indeed, Clarke’s most distinctive claim is that Descartes’s account of the mind as an immaterial substance—his famous “dualism” of the mental and the physical, sometimes known as the doctrine of “the ghost in the machine”—is at best a provisional theory, aimed at providing support for the Catholic doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and sits uneasily with many other things that he wrote.

Tags: descartes, rene descartes, grayling, desmond clarke, philosophy, thinking, existence, metaphysics, science, nature, math, mathematics, history, biography, review, dualism, theology

Winston Churchill on America

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 15:19:55 GMT

clipped by: Kore7

Clip Source: time.blogs.com

"Americans will always do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the alternatives," - Winston Churchill.

Tags: churchill, winston churchill, america, usa, quote, history, right