The Economist Think of the solitude felt by Marie Smith before she died earlier this year in her native Alaska, at 89. She was the last person who knew the language of the Eyak people as a mother-tongue. Or imagine Ned Mandrell, who died in 1974-he was the last native speaker of Manx, similar to [...]

By *Sara Hall The murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya on 7 October 2006 has been remembered all over the world during the last week. Amnesty International believes that Politkovskaya was killed because of her work as a journalist. The trial of three men accused of her murder is set to start on 15 October [...]

ScienceDaily Oct. 10, 2008 A culture of neglect and, at some age levels, outright social ostracism, is derailing a generation of students, especially girls, deemed the very best in mathematics, according to a new study. In a report published Oct. 10 in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, a comprehensive analysis of decades of [...]

by Joe Palmer TS Admin : Off the beaten track. From an epithet of Demeter, the earth-goddess [Thesmo-]: casting pigs into chasms, and mixing their decaying flesh with earth to insure fertility My office mate wore a bow tie with electric bulbs connected to a battery in his pocket so that he could turn them [...]

TS Admin : Life does seem to have its lighter side….or does it? Feel free to add or comment. 1. The 2 most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. 2. If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you. 3. Money can’t buy happiness. But it sure makes misery easier [...]