Henry Thoreau was languishing in jail after he had refused to pay the Massachusetts poll tax in 1843 [to protest the Mexican-American War], Ralph Waldo Emerson came to visit him and asked him why he was there. “Waldo, why are you not here?” said Thoreau. – Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes
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“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” – Helen Keller
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New data suggests there may be two undiscovered planets lurking on the outer fringes of our solar system. Astronomers at the Complutense University of Madrid have detected curious abnormalities in the orbits of a belt of icy rocks at the edge of the solar system, far beyond the orbit of Neptune, the eighth and final known planet. (In 2006, Pluto […]
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Just before Christmas… November 1915, while camping on the thawing ice of the Weddell Sea, Shackleton and his men saw their ship, Endurance, going down into the waters of this sea. “She’s going, boys!” Shackleton shouted the evening of November 21, 1915. “She went down bows first, her stern raised in the air. She then gave one quick dive and […]
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Research shows there may be an entire world underneath Antarctica’s ice-free Dry Valleys, which on the surface may seem hostile to life. Below the surface lies rivers of liquid salt water which flow into subsurface lakes, every drop of which could be swarming with microbial life. One of Antarctica’s most unique features, the briny, rusty-red colored Blood Falls, could possibly […]
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Being a pessimist may be raising your blood sugars and blood pressure which may lead to heart disease. During an 11-year study of over 2000 men and women – some optimists and some pessimists – they found that the 121 people who died of heart disease were pessimists. The pessimists think that their lives are much gloomier, so they have […]
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Remaining creative throughout your life clearly offers mind health benefits. Not only can it minimize anxiety, depression, and cognitive problems, it can also enhance a person’s enjoyment of everyday experiences. In order to point your mind in a more creative direction, consider some of the following strategies: 1. Notice the world around you. You don’t need to be a writer, artist, or inventor to […]
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“Reason by degrees submits to absurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to darkness.” – Samuel Johnson
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Suddenly everyone wants to be low-caste, said Badri Narayan. It used to be considered an extreme disadvantage to be in one of India’s oppressed castes or indigenous tribes. But decades of affirmative action and quota systems have changed all that. Now, many lower-middle castes are agitating to be reclassified as “more backward,” in effect “struggling to move down the ladder […]
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