In these times, the term sustainable development is being applied to nearly everything from energy, clean water, construction, to economic growth. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to question either the basic assumptions behind sustainable development or the way these assumptions are being put to use.
This is no more evident than in […]
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Summer in Vienna is hot and humid. As July, 1683 began, Hapsburg Archduke Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, had retreated to his estate at Perchtoldsdorf to escape the oppressive heat of the city. There, Leopold received disturbing news: the war with the Ottoman Empire had taken an alarming turn. The Austrian Hapsburg army of […]
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Wildlife needs to be protected throughout the world. We need to leave enough of nature to pass along to the next generation. Going to the zoo to observe wildlife has its’ place but the animals are not in their natural setting, living their natural lives. Leaving enough land and the wildlife that inhabit that […]
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I was recently watching the news about the 26 November 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. Several terrorists had entered Mumbai, India from the sea route and had attacked the Taj Hotel, Oberoi, Trident and a building called Nariman House at Colaba. My spouse who was also watching with me said “I just don’t understand […]
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Lately, the news has come in flooding waves for me. The election, bailouts, and endlessly horrible employment news have washed over me, and left a sort of numb feeling in place of my usual optimism. Capitalism seems to have died a death at the hands of worldwide greed, and I am left shaking my […]
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For the most part when it comes to commemorative coins the United States Congress authorizes commemorative pieces that lionize and honor American individuals, places, events, and institutions. Although these coins are legitimate tender, they are not coined for common circulation instead they are merely coined as “art”. Each commemorative coin is produced by the […]
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She was not born a countess. On the contrary she came from solid bourgeois stock. One of six children, Marion was never spoiled, but the family believed in a good education for girls no less than boys. So she was sent to the most progressive and only co-educational school in Berlin, where she was […]
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Philipp Baron von Boeselager made no claim to be a hero – despite his Knight’s Cross and other lesser decorations for bravery he had received during the war. Others have begged to differ. Philipp von Boeselager is possibly the only recipient of Hitler’s Knight’s Cross, who is also an Officer of the French Legion […]
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She was a quiet, unassuming woman, apparently the perfect “Hausfrau” – housewife – to a famous man. Her husband Eberhard Bethge was famous because he had been Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s closest friend, his confidant and his disciple. Eberhard Bethge had willingly and passionately taken up the burden of publishing Bonhoeffer’s papers, of explaining and […]
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“The survivors of a failed coup are never its heroes,” Axel Baron von dem Bussche told me the first time we met, but by most standards Bussche was a hero. At the age of 24, while a captain in the German Army, Bussche agreed to carry out a suicide-bombing against Adolf Hitler.
The time […]
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