THE BEALE CIPHERS
I had never heard of the Beale Ciphers until I recently read an article in, of all things, the Popular Mechanics magazine. The Beale Ciphers …
BRAIN DRAIN
The phrase “Brain Drain” usually refers to the migration of the intellectual elite of one place to another place. This is often driven by deteriorating …
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY’S STRESS TEST
American democracy’s stress test. American democracy is about to undergo a serious stress test, according to a former journalist who lived through the slow and …
LEWES
The town of Lewes, with its picturesque cottages and bustling high street full of antiquarian bookshops and artisanal bakeries, might seem the very model of …
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Trump has promised to eliminate the Department of Education. In 1786, Thomas Jefferson wrote to a colleague about public education: “NO OTHER SURE FOUNDATION …
PERU’S NEW MEGAPORT
Peru’s new megaport has been built by the Chinese. It is part of their worldwide strategy, called “Belt and Road” which pores millions of dollars …
HISPANIC HERITAGE
“I am an American with Hispanic heritage”. That was a response from someone living close to the border between the U.S. and Mexico, who was …
ELECTION PREDICTION
Election prediction is obviously not my forte. My gut had told me it might be a landslide, and I was right. The only problem was …
BEGINNING IN 1943
Beginning in 1943, the War Department published a series of pamphlets for U.S. Army personnel in the European theater of World War II. Titled Army Talks, …
DIRT DOESN’T BURN
Dirt doesn’t burn seems like an obvious comment but one that has been mostly abandoned by the U.S. construction industry. However, building homes with dirt …