Random Learning #65
From the book Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World by Malcolm Harris I learned the etymology of the term redlining: In his acclaimed 2017 book, The…
Random Learnings #64
In 2016, the government of the Czech Republic declared that Czechia is the country's short name in English. Yes, Czech Republic remains the country's official name and yes, Czech Republic…
Unexpected Continuity
From the Brittanica Book of the Year 1968, p376: Another in a series of legislative measures designed to establish the separate statehood of East Germany was passed by the People's…
Oh What A Year: 1933
[Nothing like spending a Sunday reading undigitized, bound periodicals at your local university library...] Time Magazine began 1933 by declaring Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president-elect, as Man of the Year.…
BITE Model of Cults
In Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA, the author John Lisle describes the worldview and culture of the CIA that led to unstructured and…
Random Learnings #63
I happened upon this article in a 1949 issue of International Conciliation (sorry, didn't note which issue, the name of the article, the author): The North Atlantic Pact is a…
Random Learnings #62
Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World by Malcolm Harris tells the story of how California went from a Mexican/Mexican-influenced territory, extremely far away from the United…
When Poland Needed More Jews
World War I technically ended on November 11, 1918 with Germany agreeing to the Allies' terms for an armistice but did not conclusively end all fighting. The vacuum in Central…
Random Learnings #61
China's history of censorship and book burnings goes back over 2000 years, when Qin Shihuang, the first emperor, supposedly issued an edict to destroy works he deemed politically dangerous. Today's…
What Is Democracy?
The victorious allies met in Potsdam, Germany in July 1945 to discuss the substance and procedures of the peace settlements in Europe after V-E day. Stalin was the sole remaining…