Lucy Diggs Slowe was born on July 4th, 1885. She was the first Black woman to serve as the Dean of Women at any American University. She was also one of the founders of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the first sorority founded by Black women. Slowe also earned the national title of the American Tennis Association’s first tournament in 1917 and became the first Black person to win a national title in any sport. Mary Powell Burrill was……
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A new fire broke out Friday on Greece’s second largest island of Evia, south of the area where a massive wildfire has decimated forests and torched homes, and was still smoldering 10 days after it started. Greece’s fire department said four water-dropping aircraft and six helicopters were sent to control the fire that erupted in the morning in central Evia, along with 40 firefighters and 10 vehicles. By late afternoon, the fire had not been…
WASHINGTON — Matthew Redding, FEMA’s Deputy Director of Individual Assistance, says the agency has paid more than $1 billion to 150,000 people who have applied for help covering coronavirus funeral expenses. The government provides a maximum of $9,000 per deceased individual and up to $35,000 per application for U.S. citizens who can provide proof their family member died of COVID-19 and had qualified expenses not covered by some other source. Redding says the U.S. government has no projected end…
When Ben Jacobs was a child, his parents launched a business in downtown Denver, Colorado. Grayhorse: An American Indian Eatery, was the first of its kind. But two years into the venture, the family closed the restaurant and moved on. Decades later, the memories of Grayhorse’s mission inspired Jacobs and his business partner, Matt Chandra, to launch their own restaurant in Denver in 2008. Today, the duo runs Tocabe, the largest Native-American owned and operated restaurant chain in the……
As you approach the entrance to Cold Hollow Sculpture Park, it’s hard to imagine that a world-class sculpture exhibit could be hidden amid these remote Vermont dairy farms. But, when you turn up the dirt drive and crest the hill, you’ll know you’ve found the place: dozens of brightly colored, oversized sculptures seem to magically rise from the surrounding hayfields. Since the 1970s, artist David Stromeyer has worked on this land, fabricated sculptures from iron, stone, and steel. The……
Born a fancy hotel in the early 1900s, this building hosted parties, balls, Russian refugees, German Jews, Nazi elite, resistance fighters, and concentration camp survivors in the first few decades of its existence. Named for the old Roman Lutetia, this hotel now provides a more luxurious setting. The plaque outside reads: Hotel Lutetia “From April to August 1945, this hotel, which had become a reception center, received the greater part of the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, glad to……
Averara is a tiny village along the Via Mercatorum, a medieval route linking Bergamo to the rest of Europe. Being on this route meant influencing and being influenced by the cultural trends of the time. A confraternity of penitents called disciplinati (or disciplini) became particularly influential between the 13th and 15th centuries. Usually looked with suspicion because of their emphasis on the mortification of the flesh, the disciplinati were often branded as heretics, but theologian and preacher Venturino de Apibus popularised……
Open windows and a good heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system are starting points for keeping classrooms safe during the Covid-19 pandemic. But they are not the last word, according to a new study from researchers at MIT. The study shows how specific classroom configurations may affect air quality and necessitate additional measures, beyond HVAC use or open windows, to reduce the spread of aerosols — those tiny, potentially Covid-carrying particles that can stay suspended in the air……
What’s the best way to get K-12 students across the U.S. to bounce back from the pandemic? MIT’s Justin Reich has an idea: Ask them. Reich, an associate professor in MIT’s program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing and director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, has co-authored a new report on the return to the classroom in the 2021-22 school year, based on interviews with over 250 educators and 4,000 students, in addition to 10 charrettes involving students, teachers, parents,……
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for August 12, 2021. A few things to kick us off: First, the worlds of politics and technology are increasingly butting heads. We’re not talking about China or India (more here on the latter), though both countries have picked fights in recent months with tech firms foreign and domestic. This……
Based on what has been unearthed since 1748, life in the Roman city of Pompeii must have been pretty good—until its inhabitants were buried alive in white-hot volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The ancient city on the Bay of Naples boasted public thermal baths, palatial villas, and brothels sporting notoriously explicit frescoes. In 2019, archeologists discovered the remains of a thermopolium, literally translated as a “hot drinks counter,” as well as evidence that even the poorer……
When you’re frying something in a skillet and some droplets of water fall into the pan, you may have noticed those droplets skittering around on top of the film of hot oil. Now, that seemingly trivial phenomenon has been analyzed and understood for the first time by researchers at MIT — and may have important implications for microfluidic devices, heat transfer systems, and other useful functions. A droplet of boiling water on a hot surface will sometimes levitate on……
It starts with a cauldron, an open flame, and a good measure of raw honey. Then—double, double, toil and trouble—stir constantly until the honey spits black steam at you. Add water and stand back as it erupts, volcano-like. Throw in some yeast and spices and, after it ages a bit, behold: bochet, a mysterious and lost style of mead. My path to recreate this ancient and mysterious beverage would take me on a deep dive into the nitty-gritty of……
Beechworth Asylum is a decommissioned psychiatric hospital located on the outskirts of the rural Victorian town of Beechworth. First opened in 1867, it was one of a collection of large psychiatric hospitals that once serviced the state, and at its peak housed some 1,200 patients and 500 staff members. Following the royal commission into psychiatric care, the hospital was shut down in 1998 after running for 128 years. The grounds feature a unique architectural feature known as a “ha-ha wall.”……
The Industrial Revolution saw the proliferation of mills and factories, along with the draining and covering up of many natural waterways. Now, with a lot of industry gone various municipalities are looking to undo the damage by reopening these streams and rivers, though perhaps not as bold as the project in Downtown Yonkers. The Saw Mill River, originally called Nepeckamack (“fish trapping place”), was a boundary between groups of Lenape and a popular fishing spot. Eels were populous, and……
