Aaron Burr (1756) Before he shot and mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton in the famous duel, Burr was a well-regarded lawyer and politician, having served in the American Revolution and held various offices, including that of senator. But after Hamilton used his influence to thwart more than one of his political aspirations, Burr—then vice president—challenged him to a duel and won. Later, he was tried for and acquitted of treason for a plan to seize what areas of North America, possibly to create a new country? Discuss
Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (1934) Aaron was the first US baseball player to hit more career home runs than Babe Ruth. After playing briefly in the Negro leagues and then in the minor leagues, Aaron moved up to the majors as an outfielder with the Milwaukee—later Atlanta—Braves in 1954 and was National League MVP in 1957. Upon breaking Ruth's record in 1974, he was besieged by the media and badgered by racist letter-writers, and retired just two years later. Aaron's home run record remained unbroken until when?
Charles Lindbergh (1902) In 1927, Lindbergh, an American aviator, made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic in 33.5 hours, landing in Paris to a hero's welcome. He returned to the US a celebrity but moved to England in 1932 to escape the media frenzy surrounding the kidnapping and murder of his son. Returning to the US in 1940, he faced criticism for opposing US entry into WWII. Still, he flew combat missions for the US during the war. He helped invent what device that made open-heart surgery possible?
Smash Premiere: Save It or Sink It? Confession: we're crying. Don't worry! It's happy crying!
What's making us happy cry, you ask? Oh, just the fact that we finally get to discuss the delicious awesomeness...
Malaria Deaths May Be Double WHO Estimates A new study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation suggests that the number of malaria deaths in 2010 was twice as high as the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate of 655,000. The discrepancy stems largely from the fact that previous studies, operating on the faulty assumption that malaria mainly kills the very young, overlooked hundreds of thousands of deaths. Data compiled in the new study indicate that 42 percent of malaria deaths occur in older children and adults. Still, both the new study and the WHO agree that malaria deaths overall are on the decline. Discuss
Nature and Nurture Both Active in Addictions Brain scans of pairs of siblings, only one of whom is a cocaine addict, show that both have brain abnormalities that make it difficult for them to exercise self-control. The findings show that these brain abnormalities are not caused by drug use and help explain why some people are more likely to develop an addiction to drugs than others. Still, researchers do not yet understand why it is that some with this brain abnormality are able to overcome their predisposition to abuse drugs and others are not.
More Than 100 Missing in Ferry Sinking Some 246 people were rescued following the sinking of a passenger ferry off of the east coast of Papua New Guinea, but scores are still unaccounted for and feared dead. About 350 people, many of them students, were aboard the MV Rabaul Queen when it sank on Thursday. It is possible that many of the missing were trapped inside the ferry when it went under, but rescuers are still searching in the hopes of locating more survivors.