Natural selection was Darwin’s key insight, the idea that truly made him famous. The idea of evolution existed before he was born, but there was no credible mechanism. Darwin, and Alfred Russell Wallace, uncovered that mechanism. Natural selection has been defined as “the non-random survival of randomly varying replicators.” Before…
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I’m not a big fan of the Obama Administration’s financial team. Too many are the products of Wall Street and have twisted the old “What’s good for GM is good for America” phrase into “what’s good for Wall Street is good for America.” Back in the early 1990s when banks…
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The NYT today has an article about artists and creative entrepreneurs working to inject vitality back into Detroit, which has become the default example of a failed Rust-Belt city. Read the story here, and consider buying a copy of the New York Times if you appreciate the reporting.
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Today Senator Kerry announced that he would delay the Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote on the new START Treaty. It appears that several Republican senators are on the verge of committing to vote for it, but have submitted several questions to the Obama Administration that they want answered before they…
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From the Moses Greeley Parker Lectures schedule, 2010-11 (a selected list of early fall programs): Sunday, Aug 29, 4 pm Boarding House Park, Lowell “Twelfe Night” performed by the New England Shakespeare Festival . Saturday, Oct 2, 1 pm Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center, 246 Market St, Lowell “Jack Kerouac…
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In these times when immigration is still a hot button issue, the tea party movement and protests have emerged and questions continue about the rights, agenda and activism of unions, it is important to pay attention to this reminder from Mass Moments that on this day – August 3 – in 1923 upon…
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Dick’s tweets and postings from Charles Cowley’s “Illustrated History of Lowell” (1868) raise the following questions: When is the next general history of Lowell due and what form will it take? In the 19th century, an illustrated history was “high-tech” in its own way. On top of that, Cowley gave us a…
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I’ve been documenting the results of recent state elections on our “Elections” page (see the upper right corner of this page for the link). Here’s what happened in 2002: After twelve years of Republican governors, Democrats were anxious to win the state’s highest office in 2002. Paul Cellucci had resigned…
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Middlesex Community College is working to help small businesses grow and succeed. Throughout the months of August and September the college is offering four inexpensive courses designed specifically to help the small business owner and his/her employees. And I mean inexpensive… course cost only $29 or $39 and will be…
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For months now I’ve checking the daily postings on the “Vast Public Indifference” blog – here. It’s a blog where Caitlin GD Hopkins indulges her fascination with history and old graveyard tombstones by posting a photo and description of her “Gravestone of the Day” with an emphasis on the names of the…
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