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Black and white headshot of author Matthew Wills

Matthew Wills

Matthew Wills has advanced degrees in library science and film studies and is lapsed in both fields. He has published in Poetry, Huffington Post, and Nature Conservancy Magazine, among other places, and blogs regularly about urban natural history at matthewwills.com.

Poet Claudie Rankine
Arts & Culture

Claudia Rankine Nominated for Poetry and Criticism Awards by National Book Critics Circle

Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric, was the first book to be nominated by the National Book Critics Circle for both poetry and criticism.
Statue of Alexander Wilson
Plants & Animals

Alexander Wilson’s Birds

Before Audubon (1785-1851), there was Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) the "father of American ornithology"
Eduardo Galeano
Verbatim

Eduardo Galeano 1940-2015

A historian of Latin America, and a victim of two dictatorships, Galeano was also inevitably a historian of the colossus to the north.
A landscape of dust with sparse patches of grass
Politics & History

Revising Dust Bowl Myths

Charles J. Shindo attempts to revise common myths about the "Dust Bowl"
Franz Mesmer
Politics & History

Mesmerizing Jonathan Miller

Read a 2001 Keynote Address from comedian and scholar Jonathan Miller from the Social Research conference on Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815).
Backgammon game in progress
Politics & History

The Erotics of Backgammon

James E. Doan reveals the sexual innuendoes and double-entendres based on Backgammon.
Civil War cannon
Politics & History

An End to All Hell: 150th Anniversary of the Civil War’s End

The 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.
Sketched concentric circles on a textured cream background
Plants & Animals

The Solar Origins of Dendrochronology

Historian George E. Webb recounts the intertwined relationship between solar physics and dendrochronology
Preserved corpse of Jeremy Bentham in a glass cabinet
Politics & History

No Foolin’: Jeremy Bentham’s Auto-Icon

There is a curious display in a glass-fronted cabinet at University College London. It's Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) .
Outhouse in the forest
Politics & History

Privies: Vaults of the Past

Privies were the standard urban and rural toilet right into the 20th century in the U.S.
A gloved hand reaches out for a falcon
Plants & Animals

F is for Falconry

Since so few do falconry in the U.S. today, and hawking hasn't made it to the wide world of TV sports, some background is probably in order here.
W.E.B. DuBois
Politics & History

W. E. B. Du Bois Sets The Stage

A brief communication is revealing window into the life of thinker W. E. B. Du Bois.
"Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00652, Richard Loeb und Nathan Leopold" by Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-00652 / CC-BY-SA. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 de via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00652,_Richard_Loeb_und_Nathan_Leopold.jpg#/media/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00652,_Richard_Loeb_und_Nathan_Leopold.jpg
Politics & History

Leopold and Loeb, Again

The defense in the trail of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for the Boston Marathon bombing is using Clarence Darrow's strategy in the Leopold and Loeb trial of 1924.
Landscape view of San Gimignano
Politics & History

San Gimignano’s Fascist Redesign

The politically-influenced redesign of the famed towers of San Gimigano.
Senate Building in Washington, D.C.
Politics & History

The Logan Act

An old American Law, The Logan Act, has suddenly been thrust into the news.
Archaeologist tools at the base of a stone
Education

Digging into Paleoindian History

Readings on the Paleoindian period.
A pinned map indicating Kaliningrad
Politics & History

Kaliningrad for Beginners

An introduction to the Kaliningrad Oblast, surrounded by Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea.
Black and white illustration of a chained elephant, titled Uganda, giving a side glance to the explorer and colonizer who are discussing it
Politics & History

The Original White Elephant

The unsettling story of Barnum's White Elephant.
Older black and white drawing of the presentation of the Magna Carta
Politics & History

Magna Carta at 800

The Magna Carta's 800th birthday is this year.
Horseshoe Crab
Plants & Animals

Horseshoe Crabs: Humans’ Surprising Health Ally

It turns out that Atlantic horseshoe crabs are vital to our health.
Close-up of the Vietnam Memorial
Politics & History

The Vietnam War: 50 Years (and More) Later

The fiftieth anniversary of the Vietnam War is somewhat misleading: The US had been involved in Vietnam for well over a decade already by 1965
Bank in Switzerland
Business

The Origins of Secret Swiss Bank Accounts

The uncovering the mystery and dispelling the myths of Swiss Bank Accounts
Globe showing area referred to as the Middle East
Politics & History

Making the Middle East

Two scholarly perspectives on the making of the Middle East.
A shiver of swimming in a circle
Plants & Animals

Eugenie Clark 1922-2015

Eugenie Clark, the oceanographer known as the "shark lady" has died at 92.
Construction site
Natural Science

Radiocarbon Dating at 75

Carbon-14, or radiocarbon, was discovered 75 years ago by Martin Kamen and Sam Rubin at the UC-Berkely Radiation Lab

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