Dive into the archives.
- Mt. Fuji in February
From a recent weekend trip to two areas near Mt. Fuji (Hayama/Zushi, and Hakone, for those of you who know the area)
- Nazi France
In research for my last post, I found this map on Wikipedia, a political demarcation of France from 1940-1944 under Nazi German occupation.
- Podcast Request
I spend a lot of time driving in my car for work (5 hours today, 6 hours yesterday). I am all alone and the radio sucks. So I listen to speeches, interviews and lectures on my iPod. I recently finished The Teaching Company’s History of Ancient Rome course, which was great. I am looking for [...]
- Cliches versus Reality
This isn’t something you’d expect out of Germany. It’s currently Carnival time in which people run around in costumes and various festivals and parades are held. Today is Rosenmontag. Parades, which are often political, featured a variety of politicians from America, Germany, France and Iran. In Düsseldorf, quite an uproar occurred because of the following [...]
- The Lives of Others
A Stasi officer with a heart of gold? For those interested in the Cold War, intelligence and East Germany, Das Leben der Anderen or The Lives of Others is a film to see. Already released and on dvd in Germany after much fanfare and many awards, it should be released in the United States this [...]
- Editors
Speaking of terrible headlines, I think this is truly an offer you can’t refuse.
- Lest I be criticized for being soft on Nazis…
...let me start by saying that I think Hitler, the German Nazi regime, and the ideology behind it was very, very evil.
With that disclosure, let’s move on to the subject of this post: Maurice Papon was born in 1910 and served in the French Vichy government, which collaborated with the Nazis after the surrender to [...]
- No Disconnectedness?
The idea if connectedness and disconnectedness is one important part of Thomas Barnett’s Core/Gap theory. According to the theory, the more disconnected a country is the more dangerous it is. Connectivity is measured in terms of flows of people, money, goods, energy and information. Therefore, the stronger the flow is, the less of a threat [...]
- History of Chili “Pepper”
In a follow-up to this post on history of salt, here’s a report from Smithsonian researchers and colleagues report on chili, which was first cultivated in 7500 BC, and traded as early as 6,000 years ago, making the chili trade older than pottery in some areas of hemisphere. What’s more, they were domesticated in [...]
- Venezuela allied with Al Qaeda?
Via superb Venezuela blog DE comes this, a response by Chavez General Staff member Rear Admiral Luis Cabrera to a question about a possible Al Qaeda threat against Venezuela’s oil facilities:
“It should be seen how truthful that information is….it sounds illogical that Al Qaeda, that is against the North American imperialism would go against a [...]
