Every mine safety law is written in a miner’s blood. —Phil Smith, United Mine Workers Initially, I could not find a connection between the 40-year decline in coal consumption and Christmas, and then suddenly it came to me: there will…
The 100th anniversary of the end of World War I
Their minds were numbed by the shock of peace. —Colonel Thomas Gowenlock, U.S. intelligence officer At 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, the guns fell silent on the battlefields of Europe. Four million soldiers died, 6 million civilians were killed,…
Psychedelic Drugs and Mystical Experiences
Not a month goes by that I don’t run across yet another misuse of the word “mystical.” I just finished Walter Isaacson’s biography of Leonardo da Vinci, and I cringed when he described Mona Lisa’s smile as “mystical.” The right…