John Brown's Notes and Essays

‘My beautiful radium,’ as she called it, became the focus of both public fascination and of entrepreneurial zeal. Image from article:  ‘The Most Mysterious Substance in Nature’ (1903) by Alfred Hugh Fisher. PHOTO: PRINT COLLECTOR/GETTY IMAGES By Andrew Crumey , The Wall Street Journal , July 30, 2021 11:16 am ET [ article contains an additional illustration;  jb: see the excellent Wikipedia entry on Curie ] Curie 1920 image from Wikipedia Marie Curie holds a special place in Nobel Prize history — not only the first woman to win the prize, but also one of very few people to have been awarded a second. Both were connected with the element radium that she discovered.  She was born Maria Sklodowska in Russian-controlled Poland in 1867. Unable to get a higher education in her native country, she studied in Paris and met fellow scientist Pierre Curie, whom she married in 1895. Pierre and his brother had discovered that when certain crystals were distorted they developed an ele...

David Brooks , The New York Times , July 29, 2021, 7:00 p.m. ET  unvareling image (not from article) from Excerpt: [C]hildren may be blaming their parents for the fact that they are not succeeding as they had hoped — it’s Mom and Dad who screwed me up.   I write about this phenomenon here because it feels like a piece of what seems to be the psychological unraveling of America, which has become an emerging theme of this column. Terrible trends are everywhere. Major depression rates among youths aged 12 to 17 rose by almost 63 percent between 2013 and 2016. American suicide rates increased by 33 percent between 1999 and 2019. The percentage of Americans who say they have no close friends has quadrupled since 1990, according to the Survey Center on American Life. Fifty-four percent of Americans report sometimes or always feeling that no one knows them well, according to a 2018 Ipsos survey. *** image (not from article) from

President Biden on Thursday sought to revive the nation’s stalled push to vaccinate Americans against the surging Delta variant of the coronavirus, announcing new requirements for federal workers to be vaccinated and urging local and state governments to offer $100 to anyone willing to get a shot voluntarily.   image (not from article) from Excerpt from: Michael D. Shear, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Annie Karni, "Biden Seeks to Revive Vaccine Effort With New Rules and Incentives,"  The New York Times , July 29, 2021 Updated 9:24 p.m. ET 

Who specifically in Africa (and why?) sold Africans to Americans/Europeans as slaves? Slave trade image from

Her coronation came at the conclusion of three surreal days that saw the greatest ever gymnast withdraw and completely upend expectations of how the event would unfold Image from article: Sunisa Lee poses with her gold medal after winning the women’s gymnastics all-around final.  MARTIN BUREAU/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/ By Louise Radnofsky and Andrew Beaton, The Wall Street Journal , Updated July 29, 2021 12:07 pm ET   Excerpt:  Lee, an 18-year-old from Little Canada, Minn., is believed to be the first Hmong-American on an Olympic gymnastics team. She had established herself in 2019 as the second-best all-around gymnast in the United States behind Biles—before the Games’ postponement cast doubt on all her hopes. Then she fought her way back all the way to the top of the Olympic podium, through a series of unthinkable events. *** From Wikipedia The  Hmong  people ( RPA :  Hmoob ,  Nyiakeng Puachue : Pahawh Hmong : Hmong pronunciation:   [m̥ɔ̃́] ) are ...

TornosNews.gr 23.07.2021 | 20:49 World Council of Epirotans Abroad President Chrysostomos Dimou will open the conference proceedings which include fascinating discussions on various topics The 5th Annual World Council of Epirotans Abroad takes place Saturday, July 24 via Zoom, 9 AM- 12 PM EDT/ 3-6 PM Greek time. The event is held under the auspices of the Speaker of the Greek Parliament and is organized by the World Council of Epirotans Abroad. Co-organizers for the event are the Epirus Region and the University of Ioannina. The Saturday session is open to the public. Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/98426082347 World Council of Epirotans Abroad President Chrysostomos Dimou will open the conference proceedings which include fascinating discussions on various topics such as the young entrepreneur in the pursuit of achieving a new business model, the Elevate Greece initiative with Christos Dimas, Deputy Minister of Research & Technology, and Epirus in the digital age: New development p...

Despite recently won rights at home, LGBTI+ members of the Foreign Service are not welcome in 70 countries. Last month, the U.S. Department of State flew the rainbow flag in front of its main building in Foggy Bottom for the first time. Photo courtesy of the Department of State. By  NICHOLAS KRALEV  and  LOUIS SAVOIA  | Diplomatic Academy , JULY 18, 2021 More than a decade ago, Victor (not his real name), a U.S. Foreign Service officer then in his 30s, started a tour in a Middle Eastern country. He wanted to bring along his partner, who wasn’t a U.S. citizen. Even though the U.S. government didn’t officially recognize same-sex relationships, the State Department tolerated them. The bigger problem was the host-country, which refused to grant Victor’s partner a visa. Eventually, the U.S. Embassy found a “workaround”: the only way for the couple to be together was for Victor to hire his partner as a “domestic employee.” So the embassy declared him as Victor’s driver to...