Welcome to December, the 12th month of the year. Of course, it used to be the tenth month – hence the “dec” prefix – until about 700 BC, when the Romans added January and February, so that the calendar covered a standard…
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Fans of the 1989 BBC comedy series “Blackadder Goes Forth”, may remember that when asked by Private Baldrick how did the war start, Captain Blackadder explained that it was simply too much effort NOT to have a war. With Remembrance Day (aka…
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Just as a stopped clock is correct twice a day, there is the odd separatist movement that defies the odds and succeeds. In fact, so far this century there have been 3. Though the human and financial cost were significant, in the…
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It’s not just in the visually spectacular, but poorly dialogued, Star Wars prequels where politically motivated shadow groups formulate plans to break away from a larger sovereign body. They exist all over our world as well. At the time of writing, there…
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In 1865, the United States of America descended into civil war, between the Union Army in the north and the Confederate Army in the south. Naturally, there were many different reasons for the conflict, but the predominant issue was the institution of…
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