Hamburg, Germany, is in the news as the site of tomorrow's G-20 summit. Hamburg is Germany's second largest city, but it has a long history as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, a major trading port of the Hanseatic League, and a free city-state prior to German unification in 1871. Hamburg's importance comes from its geographic location on the Elbe River, just before the Elbe empties into the North Sea. Hamburg's position at the base of the Jutland Peninsula makes it a key gateway between Scandinavia and continental Europe. media1.britannica.com/eb-media/43/64643-004-60A2BE85.gif
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It was reported yesterday that North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching Alaska, to say nothing of U.S. allies Japan and South Korea and virtually all of China. This month's Atlantic has an excellent, if discouraging, article on the leadership choices -- previously tried and on the table -- for addressing the issue of a nuclear-armed, ICBM-capable North Korea. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/the-worst-problem-on-earth/528717/
There's a new island in North Carolina's Outer Banks. But it's not going to be a tourist destination any time soon. The Outer Banks are barrier islands that change in shape and number as sand is rearranged by storms, waves, and ocean currents. The new island is nearly a mile long, surrounded by rough seas and covered with shells and bits of old shipwrecks (reflecting the area's nickname, "Graveyard of the Atlantic"). Because of the unstable nature of the Outer Banks, no one knows for sure if this new island will be bigger or gone completely by next Independence Day. news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/new-shelly-island-appears-cape-hatteras-north-carolina-coast
Yesterday was Canada's sesquicentennial! While Canada, the country, is 150 years old, Canada also has one of the world's oldest populations, with a median age of roughly 42. (The median age in both Japan and Germany is nearly 47; the median age in the U.S. is about 38.) This map, from the Canadian magazine Maclean's, compares Canada's over-55 population with its under-25 population. www.macleans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/MAP-300dpi-old_young.jpg
You've heard the term "existentialism," but what exactly does it mean? This short article from New Philosopher (Australia) looks to Søren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir to explain existentialism: http://www.newphilosopher.com/articles/you-are-your-life-and-nothing-else
"Standing on a cliff, a sense of disorientation and confusion cloud you. Not only are you afraid of falling, you also fear succumbing to the impulse of throwing yourself off. Nothing is holding you back. Dread, anxiety and anguish rise to the surface. "Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard describes this as a case of “existential angst” because here, at the cliff face, you are experiencing your own freedom first-hand. You can do whatever you please – move forward into the yawning abyss or remain where you are. It’s up to you. The realisation that you have absolute freedom to decide the course of your life – jump or don’t jump – is as dizzying as vertigo, explains Kierkegaard, who suggests that we face the same anxiety in all of life’s choices. Every action we take is a choice, decided upon by us and no one else. "Kierkegaard’s argument that life is a series of choices – and that these choices bring meaning (or not) to our life – is a cornerstone of existentialism. Rather than offloading the responsibility onto society or religion, each individual is solely responsible for making their life meaningful and living it authentically." Tomorrow is the 80th anniversary of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Earhart and her navigator were attempting to fly around the world when their plane went missing. On July 2, 1937, they left Lae, eastern New Guinea (then a British possession governed by Australia), heading east towards Howland Island (a tiny uninhabited coral island administered by the U.S.), where they intended to refuel. They never arrived and are generally assumed to have missed the island -- it's only about 1.75 square miles -- and run out of fuel somewhere in the Pacific. See if you can find Howland Island! www.jarvisisland.info/maps/oceania.gif
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