Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. Walk into a crowded coffee shop or scroll through social media, and you will quickly spot a familiar ritual. A heavy paperbound volume of James Joyce’s Ulysses or David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest lies open on…

Cliser, flanked by Sheriff E L Lucas (left) and Deputy Claude Shaver (Photos: clisereviction/blogspot) In 1935, Melanchton Cliser and his family were forced out of their 46-acre property in Virginia as the state pushed ahead with plans for what would become Shenandoah National Park. Cliser owned the land along US 211 and also operated a…

58-year-old postal worker Umeshkumar Thakkar dies in Little Elm, Texas A 58-year-old man who was delivering mail in Little Elm, Texas, collapsed during his shift and died on July 20. Umeshkumar Thakkar was found unresponsive in his truck and was pronounced dead. The death triggered an investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as…

In a remote corner of Southcentral Alaska, state biologists carried out a dramatic restoration: they treated an entire lake with rotenone, a plant-derived piscicide, to wipe out an invasive population of northern pike. After the treatment, post-surveys confirmed the pike were gone. The next step was rebuilding what had been lost. In June 2013, the…