The 900-day Siege of Leningrad This was undoubtedly the most tragic period in the history of the city, a period full of suffering and heroism. For everyone who lives in St. Petersburg the Blokada (the Siege) of Leningrad is an important part of the city’s heritage and a painful memory for the population’s older generations. Less than two and a half months after the Soviet Union was attacked by Nazi Germany, German troops were already approaching Leningrad. The Red Army was outflanked and on September 8 1941 the Germans had fully encircled Leningrad and the siege began. The siege lasted for a total of 900 days, from September 8 1941…

March 26, 2011 By SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE London A REVOLUTION resembles the death of a fading star, an exhilarating Technicolor explosion that gives way not to an ordered new galaxy but to a nebula, a formless cloud of shifting energy. And though every revolution is different, because all revolutions are local, in this uncertain age of Arab uprisings and Western interventions, as American missiles bombard a defiant Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya, as the ruler of Yemen totters on the brink and Syrian troops fire on protesters, the history of revolution can still offer us some clues to the future. The German sociologist Max Weber cited three reasons for citizens to obey…

(CBS/AP) Last Updated 1:25 p.m. ET BOSTON – Geraldine Ferraro, the former New York Representative who became the first woman to run on a major party’s presidential ticket, has died. She was 75. Ferraro suffered complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for twelve years. She passed away just before 10 a.m. Saturday morning at Massachusetts General Hospital, surrounded by her family, said Amanda Fuchs Miller, a friend acting as a spokeswoman for the family. Ferraro was the first woman to run for U.S. vice president on a major party ticket, when the obscure New York City congresswoman was catapulted to national prominence at the 1984…

  A piece of the preserved Heslington brain after it was removed from the skull in which it was found. CREDIT: York Archaeological Trust  A 2,500-year-old human skull uncovered in England was less of a surprise than what was in it: the brain. The discovery of the yellowish, crinkly, shrunken brain prompted questions about how such a fragile organ could have survived so long and how frequently this strange type of preservation occurs. Except for the brain, all of the skull’s soft tissue was gone when the skull was pulled from a muddy Iron Age pit where the University of York was planning to expand its Heslington East campus. [Britain’s…

      http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2011/01/26/edward_lengel_provides_the_many_myths_of_washington/ In the Congressional Prayer Room at the Capitol there is a stained-glass window depicting George Washington on his knees, praying in the snow at Valley Forge. Similar images appeared on a 2-cent stamp in 1928 commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Valley Forge encampment, and on the 13-cent Christmas stamp in 1977. Despite those depictions, it is a story with “dubious origins,’’ writes Edward G. Lengel in “Inventing George Washington,’’ his account of the myths and legends that sprang up to breathe life into a symbolic figure. There is the chopping-down-the-cherry-tree fable, and the use of Grant Wood’s absurdist illustration on the book’s jacket alerts the…

Copyright 2011 The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/   MARCH 16, 2011, 1:47 PM Grant Hill’s Response to Jalen Rose By GRANT HILL Associated Press Grant Hill currently plays for the Phoenix Suns. “The Fab Five,” an ESPN film about the Michigan basketball careers of Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson from 1991 to 1993, was broadcast for the first time Sunday night. In the show, Rose, the show’s executive producer, stated that Duke recruited only black players he considered to be “Uncle Toms.” Grant Hill, a player on the Duke team that beat Michigan in the 1992 Final Four, reflected on Rose’s comments.…

  Fact Sheet: New UN Security Council Resolution on Libya Susan E. Rice U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations U.S. Mission to the United Nations New York, NY March 18, 2011   Responding to urgent pleas from the Arab League and Libya’s citizens, the UN Security Council has approved a significant resolution — the second in less than three weeks — to address the outrageous violence being perpetrated by Colonel Qadhafi on the Libyan people.   Resolution 1973 provides legal authority for the international community to use force to protect civilians.   To halt the violence, the Security Council:   1)      Authorizes states to take all necessary measures to protect civilians…