The History channel says it will give a free DVD copy of its sprawling 12-hour series on American history to any school in the country that wants one.

The History channel says it will give a free DVD copy of its new 12-hour series on American history to every school in the country that wants one.

The History channel says it will give a free DVD copy of its sprawling 12-hour series on American history to any school in the country that wants one.

NEW YORK -- The History channel says it will give a free DVD copy of its sprawling 12-hour series on American history to any school in the country that wants one.

In honor of Pi Day (March 14), we bring you a brief history of everyone's favorite irrational constant.

Dear Texas Board of Education,

The state of Texas is one of our nation's largest -- and thus, is one of the largest buyers of textbooks. Therefore, the standards set by the Texas Board of Education may very well dictate the content of all textbooks available for the entire US market. This year, this very board held their once-a-decade revision of standards for their textbooks -- and we have many reasons to be worried.

James McKinley Jr. at the NYT has done an excellent job of covering the facts of the proposed changes to the Texas standards, and I invite you to read his piece, however, the facts do not appropriately outline the danger presented by the board's decisions.

The danger is beyond left or right political leaning -- it lies between fact and fiction. As a former high school teacher, I can tell you that biased interpretation masquerading as fact is the most detrimental to a young child's education. While teachers frequently use interpretive analysis as secondary source material, it is to their textbooks that students retreat for their analytical 'north' when beginning their analysis of those more biased essays. Perhaps, after the Texas' board decision, they will not have that opportunity."We are adding balance," said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. "History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left."Mr. McLeroy's solution? Swing the pendulum back -- past the center -- to the right. The Texas board has decided that the past needs a reinterpretation in its textbooks -- a bit of conservative revisionist history. The outcome?

1. A questioning of whether the founding fathers sought a separation of Church and State in the US Constitution.

From the NYT:"I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state," said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. "I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution." Mr. Bradley, with all due respect, the separation of church and state can be found in Article 6, and the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution.

From Article Six:"no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States"From the First Amendment:"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"Sure Mr. Bradley -- the words "separation of church and state" aren't there -- but lets think, just for a second, about this. If religion cannot be a precursor to public office, or to citizenship -- and Congress cannot pass laws on the establishment of a state religion, or stop people from worshiping freely -- where can religion and state not be separated?

Maybe we should let Mr. Madison -- the original author of the document -- say his piece.Having always regarded thepractical distinction between Religion and Civil Governmentas essential to the purity of both, and as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, I could not have otherwise discharged my duty on the occasion which presented itself (Letter to Baptist Churches in North Carolina, June 3, 1811).Not enough for you sir? Perhaps here:Every new and successful example, therefore, of aperfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together (Letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822). You see, Mr. Bradley, I got out of school before you textbooks could hit my desk. You can contact me at demagoguesanddictators@gmail.com, and we can hash out what charity you can make the check out to. Simply title your email "eating crow". 2. The teaching of sexual identity, eating disorders, and rape as a result "choice"."The topic of sociology tends to blame society for everything," Ms. Cargill [a conservative board member] said.Dear Ms. Cargill -- I, and I think all of my readers, are very happy that you never made the decision to be raped. We are glad that you never made the choice to be afflicted with mental illness (as far as we can tell). We feel sorry if one of your family or friends lost connection after the "chose" to become homosexual. But mostly, we are sorry that somehow you got to decide what can be defined as "choice". I can say that I will happily contribute to anyone willing to challenge you in your next election.

3. The rejuvination of McCarthyism. Texas standards now require that Sen. McCarthy's story must now include"how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government." Don McLeroy, a school board member, recently sent a memo to curriculum writers with the following:"Read the latest on McCarthy -- He was basically vindicated." Ah, the Venona Papers are back! The papers detail the findings of the covert operation (code named Venona) to uncover Soviet spies in the United States. While they detail the (gasp) Soviet attempts to penetrate the US government, they fall far short of any McCarthy vindication. I'll let Prof. Harvey Klehr, the author of Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America cover this one for me:Virtually none of the people that McCarthy claimed or alleged were Soviet agents turn up in Venona. He did identify a few small fry who we now know were spies but only a few. And there is little evidence that those he fingered were among the unidentified spies of Venona. Many of his claims were wildly inaccurate; his charges filled with errors of fact, misjudgments of organizations and innuendos disguised as evidence. He failed to recognize or understand the differences among genuine liberals, fellow-traveling liberals, Communist dupes, Communists and spies -- distinctions that were important to make. The new information from Russian and American archives does not vindicate McCarthy. He remains a demagogue, whose wild charges actually made the fight against Communist subversion more difficult. Like Gresham's Law, McCarthy's allegations marginalized the accurate claims. Because his facts were so often wrong, real spies were able to hide behind the cover of being one of his victims and even persuade well-meaning but naïve people that the who led anti-communist cause was based on inaccuracies and hysteria. Have you no decency, Mr. McLeroy? 4. The emphasis of how Conservatives were responsible for Civil Rights legislation. Again, from the NYT:Dr. McLeroy, a dentist by training, pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the nonviolent approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also made sure that textbooks would mention the votes in Congress on civil rights legislation, which Republicans supported.

"Republicans need a little credit for that," he said. "I think it's going to surprise some students."

Shockingly, I actually agree with Dr. McLeroy here -- but only to a point. History should be studied in its exactness. Those Republicans who stood for de-segregation deserve our praise, and those few in the Black Panther movement who undertook violent actions deserve our criticism. But, it is important the the Republican party of Ida Wells is no more. Will the history books also mention that in the 109th Congress has 43 black Democrats -- and not a single black Republican? To make civil rights a partisan fight between democrat and republican is to do history a dishonor -- it was a fight between north and south, and any history book that ignores this does so at its own peril.

I could continue here, speaking about the board's vote against including more Latino figures in its historical texts, or its declaration that curriculum must subvert the Enlightenment as the motivator for the Atlantic Revolutions. I could talk about the dilemma of voting down a plank that would have students study the reasons that"the founding fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring the government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion above all others." but requiring the study of the unintended consequences of Title IX legislation.

The fact is, this is a troubling series of changes to the Texas Curriculum. I say that not as an offended liberal -- but as someone who values learning. Textbooks in this nation must be based on fact -- not opinion. If people feel that textbooks are too "liberal", then let us revise those sections to bring them closer to fact, not include more "conservative" talking points in an attempt to balance one type of falsehood with another. This kind of revisionism is merely slapping red BS onto blue. It serves no purpose other than the confusion or mis-education of our youth. As students seek to master the basic facts of history and sociology, they will now be forced into the very grown up world of propagandistic partisanship, without the information to analyse these opinions for themselves.

I fear times when bias gives way to propaganda -- and when that propaganda is taught as fact. In my textbooks I learned that "Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round"That is from Mein Kampf -- p. 376

AFP - Lin Dan, the World and Olympic champion, had his bid to achieve an open era record of five All-England titles shattered by his sixth-seeded compatriot Bao Chunlei on Friday.

--MARTY HORINE

The Canadian Press - ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Premier Danny Williams says it's a sad day in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador as people mark the first anniversary of a horrific helicopter crash.

It's said that if you remember the Sixties, you weren't actually there – a saying variously attributed to Grace Slick and Paul Kantner, both of Jefferson Airplane, and Dr Timothy Leary, so-called "Galileo of consciousness". Barry Miles was there throughout: present at the recording of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life", the climactic track of Sgt Pepper, and at the live recording of "All You Need is Love", which marked the first global television link.

Hollywood, you tricky dog. Just as I was getting sick of the constant remakes of classic films, the industry turns its attention elsewhere — ridiculous reinterpretations of historical figures.

Marco Polo is the new "Pirates of the Caribbean," Abraham Lincoln is fighting vampires, and now Leonardo da Vinci is trading in his paintbrush for a Glock 9MM (or at least the High Renaissance equivalent) in an action movie of his own. But why stop there? There are plenty of people throughout the pages of history who would look really cool walking away from explosions in Michael Bay-inspired slow motion.

After the jump, we've listed some historical figures that should arm up and join the fight in their very own action movies.

Adam and Eve Behold, the story of how the world's first humans became the world's first action heroes. After stealing fruit from the Garden of Eden, both Eve and her husband find themselves hotly pursued by angelic warriors with holy retribution in their hearts. It's "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" set to a biblical backdrop — how does it get any better than that?

Benjamin Franklin Everybody knows the famous story of Benjamin Franklin flying his kite through a lightning storm, but the story of what happened next isn't quite as commonly told. Franklin's experiment is the perfect setup for a superhero origin, a story that would be explored in the founding father's own action movie. If there's anything better than Benjamin Franklin, it's Benjamin Franklin with the ability to shoot electricity out of his eyes.

Galileo Galilei By endorsing Copernicus' unpopular theory that the Earth was not in fact the center of the universe, Galileo Galilei made himself something of a target as well — a target of an alien empire that can't risk the possible exposure of the universe's greatest truths, that is. Abducted by intergalactic warriors and forced into slavery, Galileo must unite an oppressed people to rise up with him, fight for truth and spread the word to everyone back on Earth.

Mahatma Gandhi An unlikely action hero, even Gandhi knows that non-violent civil disobedience isn't going to work against a horde of ancient dragons that have been burrowing their way out from the center of the Earth since before the dawn of man. In light of this unexpected threat, Gandhi must inspire the people of Earth to defend themselves against a common enemy, even if that means rolling up the sleeves and taking out the trash.

Teddy Roosevelt "Speak softly and carry a big stick" takes on a whole new meaning in the action movie based around the 26th President of the United States. The possibilities are truly endless when it comes to Roosevelt as an action hero. Perhaps we'd follow his deadly exploits as a hunter on an African safari. Or perhaps we'd follow him as this guy.

Who else in history would you like to see get the action hero treatment? Tell us in the comments and on Twitter!

The actions of three Los Angeles teachers at the Wadsworth Avenue Elementary school who gave children photographs of O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul to hold during a parade honoring black history month as a prank earned a suspension for the educators, a rebuke from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and a public apology from school principal Lorraine Abner to the parents of schoolchildren.

The national response from pundits, readers and viewers of the story saying the children should have carried photographs of other figures in black history like Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, and Oprah Winfrey indicate this problem isn't limited only to Wadsworth Avenue Elementary school.

A photograph of Nelson Mandela in a black history parade is an improvement over RuPaul. But, if teachers must go outside the U.S. for African heroes, Major General Abram Petrovich Gannibal of the Russian Army would have been a better pick. The Ethiopian native was taken from Istanbul and raised in the court of Peter the Great of Russia. He became a major figure in Czarist Russia, was friends with Voltaire and the grandfather of Alexander Pushkin, who became the founding father of Russian literature. The point being the difference between modern role models and historical figures is a vast one.

Slavery, abolitionists and the Civil Rights Movement dominate black history in American classroom programs. While those eras most certainly should have a major role in official texts, it can't be at the expense of a legacy encompassing more than 375 years of North American history. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights pioneers fought to see their ancestors' contributions integrated into the mainstream story of this nation as well as obtain equal rights for themselves.

It isn't difficult for teachers to find figures in black American history young children can understand. The peanut butter sandwich wouldn't have been around without George Washington Carver - a man Time magazine in 1941 dubbed the "Black Leonardo" for his inventions, paintings and cultural contributions. Nor is it difficult to find the story of black chef and restaurateur George Crum who is credited with inventing the potato chip in 1853. It's an easy history lesson for a teacher with stage props found in many 4th grade lunchboxes and a theme easily continued with traffic light and gas mask inventor Garrett Morgan.

From colonial writer Benjamin Banneker to William Clark's black slave "York" in the Lewis and Clark expedition, United States history is riddled with black accomplishment deserving of classroom attention. The history of the American West wouldn't be complete without the stories of black cowboys like Nat Love and Pro Rodeo Hall of famer Bill Pickett or Buffalo soldiers Sgt. George Jordan and Lt. Henry Flipper, who was West Point's first black graduate. Achievement in the U.S. military notes men like Navy Medal of Honor recipient Robert Augustus Sweeney, who is the only black American to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor. He was one of 87 black soldiers and sailors to receive the nation's highest award and have done so in every war since the medal's creation. Only under the World War I and World War II administrations were Medals of Honor not directly presented and corrections later made to right the injustices.

Teachers and textbooks instructing students on the Civil Rights movement can't ignore figures like the first black federal judge and Virgin Islands Governor William Henry Hastie and inventor Dr. Charles Drew, who created the first blood banks that saved thousands of World War II soldiers in the U.K. and the U.S. Both of these men share the unique honor of resigning from national positions during World War II in service to the cause of Civil Rights in America. Hastie resigned as a civilian aid for Secretary of War Henry Stimson to protest segregated units and Dr. Drew resigned as Director of the Red Cross blood banks to protest the War Department's ordered segregation and transfusion of blood by race.

Without question, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Isabella Baumfree, also known as, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. deserve their rightful place in U.S. history, but they should not eclipse the contributions of other noteworthy black Americans in the classroom.

The actions of these three Los Angeles teachers did have an upside to it. It clearly shows why the U.S. needs a black history month in the United States. Simply firing or suspending the teachers and moving forward passes up an opportunity for a school system to redress a national problem with the way black contributions are included in United States history. As a condition for reinstatement, the superintendent of the Los Angeles School system might consider taking slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, athletics, and entertainment off the table and assigning these educators to design an authentic black history program their school and maybe others can implement.

_{[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware that it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]}

_{Many videogames build upon the concepts and mechanics of its forerunners. Off-Brand Games examines those that draw just a little too much ... inspiration.}

I can't do fighting games. I just can't. How do you people manage this business? It's nuts!This clown over at NeoGAF argues that fighting games don't really require memorization. Well, I just played Killer Instinct Gold for the first time over at my local game store and would ask him to kindly lodge a fight stick up his cornhole. On a related note, I finally know where that badass Eurodance song from Storm's Adventures comes from!Not counting theSmash series, Street Fighter II is the only fighting game I've invested time into out of a genuine desire to develop my skills. Just roll the D-pad and push a button and BAM! Instant awesome. The only technique I could never pull off was Zangief's piledriver since it required you to do two full circles, file your tax returns, then sacrifice a goat.It must follow that any game that plays similarly to Street Fighter II should hold my attention, the key word here being "should." 

Offender: Fighter's History Developed by: Data EastPublished by: Data East Released on: Arcade, 1993 / SNES, 1994 Tastes like: Street Fighter II Why, hello there, Data East! Haven't seen you in a while! How have you been? Oh, that's right! You went bankrupt and sold your shit to a mobile gaming company! That must have slipped my mind last time. Fighting games were big quarter munchers in the early 90s, beacons for legions of pimply faced, Public Enemy-listening grade school punks. Companies that wanted to do fighting could go in one of two directions: theStreet Fighterroute or theMortal Kombatroute. Data East... Data East did both, actually. Maybe I'll discuss one day. So here we have Fighter's History, such a wonderful game. So wonderful, in fact, that Capcom couldn't wait to tell everyone in court how similar it was to its own wonderful Street Fighter II. The case ended in favor of Data East on the grounds that Fighter's History was too generic to be infringing on any copyrights. Is that really something to be proud of? What bothers me most about the game is the title itself, Fighter-apostrophe-s History. King of Fighters uses the plural form because it's about determining a single champion among many combatants. Despite having a multitude of characters in its sequels, the original Street Fighter, not plural, is named such because you could only play as one guy in story mode. As far as I can tell, there is no chief protagonist in the Fighter's History universe. It should be Fighters-apostrophe History, damn it. HOW SHAMELESS IS IT? I start the game and hear the title theme. Ya know, I swear it sounds familiar. Hear that layer of jingling bells under the main instrumentation? Isn't that the same jingle at the beginning of the Street Fighter II theme, just slowed down a bit? I'm convinced! Aren't you? Let's check out the "generic" cast, shall we? Hello, Mizoguchi, the Japanese master who throws fireballs and can pull off a mean flying kick barrage! Hey there, Feilin, you delicate Chinese flower! Then we have Ray, rough-and-tough American with a wheel kick! There's also Samchay, champion of Muay Thai! There's Marstorius, the wrestler... of fuck me, you're Zangief! All y'all can just blow me! "Generic," my ass! Almost every one of these cardboard cutouts has an analogue to a Street Fighter character. Even their selection screen profiles look like edited Street Fighter II portraits. Their movements, their attacks -- everything screams "rip-off." That shuffle, that little shuffle that Ryu does when he advances or retreats? Mizoguchi does the same thing! The stages are just dandy. Fighting Mizoguchi atop a wooden bridge as the sun sets, your mind returns to that fateful duel against Ryu, that nostalgic melody playing in the background. Wait... or is this the music? And who did I fight over the river in that quiet fishing village, Blanka or Samchay? Great. Now I'm confused. As my experiences bled into one giant pool, old and new swirling about, changing from a cornucopia of vibrant hues into one uniform shade of shit green, a funny thing happened. My fingers began to tingle as if to cue the resurgence of old muscle memory. Quarter-circle punch! Half-circle kick! Hold back then push forward plus heavy punch! Does it all work? Yes! Yes! It does! I remember now! My skills have returned! I've got this by the balls! ... ... Wait. No, I don't! What the hell is going on here!? Why are these CPU assholes blocking everything? I know I said I was bad at fighting games, but this is like the fuckin' Iron Curtain! What difficulty level is this? Medium? This is the normal mode? This is a prank, right? And what's that in the corner? A turbo setting? Yeah, I would in fact love to get my ass beat even faster! Fine. I'll swallow my pride and bump this down a notch. It's still a bear, but at least now I can make a little progress. This setting is actually the third from bottom even though it's called "easy." There are seven settings in total. I never understood why some games needed so many degrees of variance. What's wrong with just three? That seems to work out everywhere else. Anyway, so I decided to pick Ray for my playthrough 'cause he's all-American. This guy is so patriotic that he fights in front of the Washington, D.C. Capitol building. Funny thing about his stage is that over in the left corner, right by the main gate, is a lone trash can. The majesty of this historic landmark is marred by a single goofy waste basket. Why is it there? Must my mental image of the Capitol be forever tainted because some level designers just had to drop some destructible prop in the foreground? I'm really not having fun with all this. I can barely pull of the specials, but what's the point? My opponents are brick houses. On top of that, arm and leg reach is a total tossup! When I think they can't touch me, they can, yet I can't touch them! Your best bet is to do flying kicks and hope to smash their in. One odd thing that happens every so often is a piece of the characters' clothing begins to flash. If an attack connects with that spot, the character will become momentarily stunned. Big, honking weak spot, just like in Shadow of the Colossus. What doesn't make sense is that some characters, like Marstorius, have weak points on their legs. When was the last time in real life that someone got a concussion from having their shins kicked? Once you tear through the main nine fighters, you square off against the two bosses. As in the first version of Street Fighter II these guys aren't available for play (there is a code to unlock them, however). Who are these guys? First up is the threatening, malevolent... Clown. That's it. Clown. That's not a deceptive nickname, it's what he is. That's some brutal honesty, Fighter's History! You have a roster comprised of nothing but low-rent clowns and then you unveil a literal one! Classy. The ultimate villain is none other than... Karnov! You remember him, don't ya? From that one game? Awesome, right? For those not in the know, Karnov is this fire-breathing strongman who starred in his own arcade game, but most would have likely played the NES port. He was Data East's mascot, believe it or not. Not what you would consider typical mascot archetype, but you gotta admit he's pretty badass. As this game's big boss, he breathes fire and hops around and... Damn. Why is he so short? Now that I've taken a good look at him, who in the world thought he would be an iconic mascot? Think of other company mascots like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man, or Pac-Man. They are all lovable, cartoony scamps who are incredibly identifiable. Who's going to identify with a middle-aged Russian man who beats people up for a living? Popeye he is not! He's had cameos in several Data East games and always as a villain. Your mascot is a villain, Data East? That's fucked up. I'm not going to say that this specific decision landed the company on the road to financial oblivion, but I'm just putting the suggestion out there. Anyway, what happens when you beat the mighty midget Karnov? What's going on? You call this an ending? What a sweaty load! It's just... oh. Ohhhhhhh! So it's one of those games! Yeah, you know the ones! You can't see the true ending unless you beat it on one of the higher difficulties! So I tried medium once again, utilizing my newfound skills and knowledge. Guess what? Jack shit. I tried each character out but could never get past the first round. The first round! This is lunacy! There is no reason for such a huge spike in difficulty! Enough of this. Fighter's History is a miserable excuse at trying the copy the magic of Street Fighter II. If you are someone who has played and actually enjoy this game... no, you don't. Not deep down. You have tricked yourself into consuming garbage and should be ashamed of yourself! Your time is better spent with this. THE RAÚL JULIÁ SCALE OF WEEKDAY DALLIANCE: PREVIOUSLY, ON OFF-BRAND GAMES: 01 Power Blazer 02 Commando: Steel Disaster 03 Snood 04 Midnight Resistance 05 8 Eyes 06 Onimusha Blade Warriors 07 The Krion Conquest 08 Scurge: Hive 09 3-D WorldRunner 10 Alundra 11 Chex Quest 12 Giana Sisters DS 13 Run Saber 14 Crusader of Centy 15 DuLuDuBi Star

During the 1950’s the Tony Lama Boots Company became popular as innovator boot-makers. They made such boots that has low heels and were extremely stylish.

It's always exciting when a cable network announces that they're adding an a new night of programming. Or it can be exhausting, considering how much TV we all watch nowadays. With that in mind I think I'm glad that there's probably nothing at all that I'll want to watch on the fifth night of programming that Bravo is going to have later this year. I mean, seriously, look at the shows that the network will have to choose from for this fifth night of programming. 'Million Dollar Listing 4?' 'Tabatha's Salon Takeover 3?' 'The Fashion Show 2?' 'Real Housewives of Atlanta 3?' And those are just the returning shows. New shows include 'Pregnant in Heels' (a reality show about a boutique that caters to pregnant women), 'Miami Social Club,' a look at rich, fashionable people who enjoy the "hot Miami scene," and 'Million Dollar Decorators,' a reality show about the personal lives of interior designers who work on expensive homes.

Continue reading Bravo Announces Most Depressing Line-Up in TV History

 

Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Reality Shows, Programming

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He writes, The greatest achievement of early modern economic growth was not the Industrial Revolution itself, but the way in which the leading Western economies began to move away from highly parochial, narrow networks of personal exchange and came to rest instead on increasingly complex national and international commercial networks of impersonal exchange. ...In some ways, FDR did not so much break from normalcy as return to it. It helps to recall that large-scale systems based on anonymous exchange were a recent phenomenon. The system of orderly, global trade developed in the 19th century under the financial and political leadership of the United Kingdom, and backed by the gold standard, produced growth and prosperity. But it also produced plenty of social disruption and downward as well as upward mobility. It certainly never inspired the kind of devotion that nationalist and communal ideology more readily induce, as suggested by the rise of fascism during the interwar period. The world's experience with democracy and market capitalism was limited. The more common experience by far consisted of political systems that allowed limited access to property rights and trade, reserving the most exalted benefits for elites who treated control of the political economy as their reward for preserving peace. ...Just as an outbreak of incurable plague would lead to both a renewed search for sound cures and an atavistic appeal to folk remedies, so the Depression stimulated both productive thinking about the sources of business instability as well as destructive appeals to extreme nationalism, protectionism and military aggression. Read the whole thing. Thanks to Tyler Cowen for the pointer.

Nye shares, along with folks such as Douglass North, a view that open-access orders are rare and somewhat contrary to human nature. What is in fact more natural are societies based on principles of an extended family. It is more natural to live in a world of Mafia Godfathers than one with fair, open, competitive markets.

Reuters - On the heels of notching its best monthly ratings performance in 15 years, History showed no sign of slowing down as the calendar rolled over to March.

Jalopnik's gathered up the flying car covers from Popular Science's complete archives and come out with a brief 77-year history of our flying car fantasies, which shift from cautious to optimistic depending on the tone of the decade. [Jalopnik]

A short history of automobile recalls, it seems that companies learn from their mistakes.

AP - Kathryn Bigelow made Oscar history Sunday night, becoming the first woman to win best director at the Academy Awards for her gritty Iraq war saga "The Hurt Locker."