Category Archives: History

The Oklahoma City Thunder have had some of the most talented players of all time play for their franchise, including an incredible young core of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and Serge Ibaka. With a talented young core, the Thunder made it to the NBA Finals in 2012. Of course, a lot of other talented players have played for the franchise after that core was broken up due to trades and free agency. But before the franchise became known as the Oklahoma City Thunder, the franchise was known as the Seattle SuperSonics.

In Seattle, the SuperSonics team also had some iconic talent including Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp that led the team to the Finals in 1996. But throughout their history, the SuperSonics had a lot more All-Star talents that were proficient at scoring the ball. It is time to discover the ten greatest scorers in SuperSonics history, starting with 4-time All-Star Tom Chambers.

Before making 3 All-Star Teams as a member of the Phoenix Suns, Tom Chambers was drafted No. 8 overall in the 1981 NBA Draft. The big man was a solid contributor for them, but he blossomed into a star with the Seattle SuperSonics. Chambers averaged 18.1 PPG in his first season with Seattle, following that up with seasons averaging 21.5 PPG and 18.5 PPG. In his 4th season, Chambers had the best season of his SuperSonics career.

Chambers would average 23.3 PPG and 6.6 RPG in 1987, making his first All-Star Team. The big man would average 20.4 PPG the following season, marking the last year he would appear with Seattle. Tom Chambers would go on to have 3 more All-Star seasons with the Suns, but his time with Seattle will be remembered for him reaching star status.

A 67 forward, Xavier McDaniel is one of the most talented scorers in Seattle SuperSonics history. The former No. 4 overall pick had a solid rookie season, putting up 17.1 PPG while making the All-Rookie Team. The following season, McDaniel would average a career-high 23.0 PPG and 8.6 RPG at only 23 years old. The next year, McDaniel would make his first All-Star Team by averaging 21.4 PPG and 6.6 RPG.

McDaniel would complete the next 3 seasons with the SuperSonics by averaging over 20 PPG, showcasing his ability to score around the rim and also get to the line efficiently. Xavier McDaniel would have his best years with the SuperSonics and experienced his only All-Star season with the franchise. As a result, the forward is one of the top ten scorers in the franchises history.

Known as the Silent Assassin, Dale Ellis was a 67 small forward who was also effective at scoring the ball no matter the circumstances. Ellis would win Most Improved Player of the Year as soon as he got to Seattle, as he averaged 24.9 PPG after 3 seasons of averaging under 10 PPG with the Dallas Mavericks. In his second season with the SuperSonics, Ellis averaged 25.8 PPG, following that up with 27.5 PPG and 23.5 PPG seasons.

His scoring was incredible to watch, especially when Ellis proved to be nothing spectacular after getting drafted with the No. 9 overall pick. The small forward/shooting guard was clearly a proficient scorer, but his 15.0 PPG average in the final season of his career with the SuperSonics took his average down to just under 21 PPG. As an effective scorer, Dale Ellis was still one of the most impactful offensive players for the franchise.

The current franchise player for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Shai Gigeous-Alexander is one of the most consistent scorers in the history of the franchise. While it is much too soon to consider him an all-time great, Gilgeous-Alexander is on the right track to becoming a perennial All-Star guard. While he might not reach the heights that Russell Westbrook reached, he is certainly improving his game.

In his first season with the Thunder, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 19.0 PPG followed by 23.7 PPG the following season. This season, the 66 guard is putting up 22.7 PPG through 30 games despite struggling from the field. The former No. 11 overall pick is an incredible talent, and he is off to a great start with OKC.

Drafted No. 19th overall in the 1967 NBA Draft, Bob Rule made the most of his time with the Seattle SuperSonics. The 69 center averaged 18.1 PPG and 9.5 RPG in his rookie season, making the All-NBA Team before blossoming as an All-Star. Rule would put up 24.0 PPG and 11.5 RPG the following season, and 24.6 PPG next year in his first and only All-Star season. The big man was proficient around the rim and was automatic when he had space to use his soft touch.

Rule would have the best start to his career in the 1971 season when he averaged 29.8 PPG through only 4 games because he tore his Achilles during the 4th game. Rule was on his way to becoming a perennial All-Star for years to come, but his injury is known to be one of the most severe in NBA history. Nonetheless, the center does appear in the top-10 list of OKC scorers due to his offensive exploits through 5 seasons.

Quite possibly the greatest player in Oklahoma City Thunder history, Russell Westbrook played 11 seasons while making 8 All-Star Teams. A man who dedicated his heart and soul to Oklahoma City, there is no denying that Westbrook gave his all for the franchise. He went from a No. 4 overall pick averaging 15.3 PPG in his rookie season, to a future MVP and the first player since Oscar Robertson to average a triple-double in a single season. Of course, Russ would average a triple-double 3 total times with the Thunder.

Despite only averaging 43.4% from the field and 30.8% from three, Westbrook still averaged 23.0 PPG over his 11 seasons with OKC with his career-high coming in his MVP season (31.6 PPG). Winning 2 scoring titles with the Thunder, Russell Westbrook had his greatest success on an individual and team level with the team that drafted him.

Before Ray Allen would act as a secondary offensive option who won 2 NBA championships with the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat, he was an offensive superstar with the Seattle SuperSonics. He was also a part of a nice duo with Rashard Lewis (19.6 PPG between 2003-2007). Ray Allen averaged 24.6 PPG over 5 seasons, making the All-Star Team 4 times.

Allens highest-scoring season came in 2007 when he averaged 26.4 PPG (career-high) before departing for the Boston Celtics the following season. A sharpshooter who was also explosive when attacking the rim, Allen shot 38.6% from three and 44.0% from the field during his time with Seattle.

After dominating the ABA in his rookie season by winning MVP and averaging 30.0 PPG and 19.5 RPG, Spencer Haywood would go on to have a legendary career with the Seattle SuperSonics. His first season in the NBA with the SuperSonics was solid, as he put up 20.6 PPG and 12.0 RPG. But the following year, Spencer Haywood averaged 26.2 PPG and 12.7 RPG en route to his first All-Star season. The big man was just getting started, however, because he had an ability to shoot the ball from mid-range and also score at the rim with ease.

His third season in the league resulted in 29.2 PPG and 12.9 RPG, and the final two seasons of his career with Seattle would result in scoring averages of over 22 PPG. Spencer Haywood would never rekindle his All-Star form when he left Seattle, and his 5-year stint with the team was enough for him to be a top-3 scorer in the franchises history along with becoming a Hall of Famer.

After Kevin Durant left Russell Westbrook and the Thunder high and dry, the organization did not endure a talentless team for too long. By bringing in Paul George to pair with Russell Westbrook, OKC knew they had one of the best duos in the league. As expected, that would remain true. George would average 21.9 PPG in his first season with the Thunder, solid but unspectacular numbers for a player of his caliber.

But the following season, George would have the best season of his career. The superstar forward averaged career-highs 28.0 PPG, 8.2 RPG, and 2.2 SPG. George was unstoppable on the offensive end, averaging 43.8% from the field and 38.6% from the three-point line. Even if George only lasted 2 seasons with the Thunder, his second season would be one of the best scoring seasons of the franchises history.

Hoops Habit

Coming into the NBA as the No. 2 overall pick, Kevin Durant was always destined for greatness. The lengthy forward was a superstar with the University of Texas, and nobody doubted his ability to bring his unstoppable scoring power into the league. In his rookie season with the Seattle SuperSonics, Durant averaged 20.3 PPG while winning Rookie of the Year. Of course, Durant would go on to have 8 more seasons at an elite level while making 7 All-Star Teams.

Durant is a 4-time scoring champion, leading the league in scoring with averages of 30.1 PPG, 27.7 PPG, 28.0 PPG, and 32.0 PPG. The superstar forward only averaged under 25 PPG once with the SuperSonics/Thunder, and that happened in his rookie year. Quite frankly, Durant is the greatest scorer in the history of the Thunder and it isnt very close.

Here are the ten players with the most total points in Oklahoma City Thunder history:

1. Russell Westbrook - 18,859

2. Gary Payton - 18,207

3. Kevin Durant - 17,556

4. Fred Brown - 14,019

5. Jack Sikma - 12,034

6. Rashard Lewis - 10,251

7. Shawn Kemp - 10,148

8. Gus Williams - 9,676

9. Dale Ellis - 9,405

10. Xavier McDaniel - 8,438

The rest is here:

10 Best Scorers In Oklahoma City Thunder History: Kevin Durant Is One Of The Best Scorers Ever - Fadeaway World

CASCADE, Colo. This year, the nearly 100-year-old AdAmAn "add a man" Club added its fourth woman to guide the group on its annual trek to set off New Year's fireworks on the top of Pikes Peak.

Priscilla Clayton, AdAmAn Club's newest member, will lead the charge of about 30 people up America's Mountain.

Thursday and Friday will mark the 99th climb. New Year's Eve in December 2022 will mark the club's 100th anniversary.

Since 1922, members of the Pikes Peak AdAmAn Club have hiked up Barr Trail to the 14,115-foot peak on Dec. 30 and 31 to ignite fireworks from the summit for the Colorado Springs area and beyond. The club started with five men nicknamed the Frozen Five who decided that each year, they'd add one new member to the club from a group of applicants. They'd add one man, hence the club name AdAmAn, or "add a man."

Sue Graham broke that mold in 1997 when she became the first female member added to the club. She was followed by Cindy Bowles in 2004, and Ann Nichols in 2011.

And now Clayton will become the fourth woman to do so.

AdAmAn Club

"On the mountain, you're not a man or woman, you're a mountain climber and the mountain treats you the same, no matter what," she said.

Now, living in Cascade, she has a view of Pikes Peak from her home. A trailhead just half a mile away leads to an overlook of the mountain, which a hiker must earn after a 1,000-foot climb. Her family has dubbed it Inspiration Point.

"So, a little bit of effort, but it's worth it. And it's a beautiful trail up there," Clayton said.

To date, she's hiked more than 30 of Colorado's fourteeners, or mountains that stretch higher than 14,000 feet above sea level. That doesn't count the repeats she estimates she's hiked Pikes Peak 12 or 13 times alone. Clayton has also completed the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada Range.

READ MORE: The history, origin behind the name of every Colorado 14er

Her interest in summiting the mountains sprouted while she was still living out of state, and she'd spend long weekends in Colorado climbing with her husband before heading back home. In 2012, after living in Texas, Florida and Georgia, they moved to Cascade.

She was greeted by almost immediate evacuations due to the 18,000-acre Waldo Canyon Fire, she said. But after a few days, they were allowed to return to their new home and began to settle in.

"When we moved here, the people that we bought our home from kept telling me about this group. 'You've got to go watch the fireworks on New Year's Eve,'" she said she remembered them saying.

The more she learned about the AdAmAn Club, the more she was drawn to it. It was special and unique, she said. So, she started looking into ways to become a guest climber and participated in that way for a few years. She befriended Cindy Bowles, who was the second woman to be added as a member.

AdAmAn Club

After five years as a guest climber, she was surprised to learn at the club's annual club dinner that she had been selected as the one new added member for 2021.

"When they announced my name, I just couldn't believe it," she said. "Then I turned around and saw my daughter and granddaughter. They had come down from Denver to surprise me... It's pretty incredible. I'm following some incredible women."

Each year, the new member will lead the 30-person group up the mountain.

Clayton said she feels ready.

"I've been climbing every chance I get hiking, spending a lot of time at elevation," she said. "The last few weeks, I've gone up to the summit and hiked down to A-frame (on Pikes Peak) to get that high elevation and try to get acclimated a little bit more to 14,000 feet."

She said as she leads the group, she will be in charge of breaking trail should the snow be deep enough. While she said she hopes to do that on her own, she knows she has others with her willing to help. The group will hike up to Barr Camp, which is about 6 miles up, on Thursday and will continue to the summit the following day.

READ MORE: After years of calling Barr Camp up Pikes Peak home, this elite ultrarunner is coming down for good

"The whole two days is it's just such a cool experience to see everyone helping each other," she said. "And it's fun. And there's laughter and you know, there's seriousness too. I've been checking the weather probably 10 times a day. Recently, I check the Pikes Peak mountain forecast and it changes almost every time I check it."

As of Thursday morning, conditions were looking brutal both Thursday and Friday. Wind gusts on the summit were expected to reach 60 mph Thursday afternoon with a wind chill of -25. Conditions improve slightly on Friday by the evening hours, the wind will have died down to about 30 mph, but temperatures, with wind chill, will plummet to -30 with light snow.

Because Clayton has joined as a club guest in previous years, she's enjoyed the "surreal" sight of fireworks above her at 14,000 feet, she said. This year, as the newest member, she's tasked with flipping the switches to shoot off the fireworks, meaning she won't get to enjoy the spectacle herself.

AdAmAn Club

The group will leave the summit around 12:30 a.m. Saturday and arrive at the Cog Railway Depot by 2 a.m.

Clayton is one of five women climbing this year, though she is the only member. Four other women will climb as guests.

As of this year, the club has 104 members, plus 401 guest climbers.

See more here:

Fourth woman in history to join AdAmAn Club up Pikes Peak on New Year's Eve - The Denver Channel

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ByVincentDelforge, special toKickinTheTires.net

This has not happened often in the history of the current ARCA Menards Series West, three times to be precise. But after drinking champagne on New Years Eve, the drivers had to come to their senses to participate in the opening race of the NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model championship.

Respectively on January 1, 1957, 1958 and 1961. Common to its three races, their location in Gardena, California. On the Gardena Stadium,a dirt quarter mile, in 1957 and 1958 and on the Gardena Ascot Park, a half-mile dirt track, in 1961.

On Tuesday January 1, 1957, the sky was clear, but it was cold when the start was given for a race of 150 laps. Chuck Meekins, the poleman takes advantage of his position to keep the leadership ahead of Eddie Gray. Bill Amick and Parnelli Jones leading the hunting party to a good distance.

Gray at the wheel of the Chevrolet engaged by Chuck Green is literally glued to Meekins rear bumper. He made several attempts to overtake him but in vain. Finally, he lost patience and on the 65th lap he forced the pass. The result is final, the two men finished in the barrier and were forced to give up.

Jim Reed, behind the wheel of a Ford, who started the race in the middle of the pack, didnt ask for so much! He inherited the first position and kept it until the end despite a right front tire whose outer side was badly damaged and which threatened to give up the ghost. He finally crossed the finish line three car lengths ahead of George Seegers Ford. One more lap and Seeger won the race! Amick, Bud Vaughn and Jones round out the top-five.

January 1, 1958 was a Wednesday and the 150-lap race began in the evening. Jones took pole position but missed out on his qualifying race and will have to start from 19th and final position in the main event.

He achieved a real feat by going up one by one his opponents. His Ford entered by Vel Miletich decked out with the famous No. 97 literally flies on the track. By wanting to resist it, several of its main competitors will force their mechanics or spun. This is the case of Scotty Cain, Meekins, Ron Hornaday or even Gray to name a few. Jones goes so fast that the flagman does not have time to wave the checkered flag at the end of the 150th lap Regardless, Jones crossed the finish line on the 151st lap with a lead of almost a half lap on Lloyd Dane.

In 1961, January 1 was a Sunday. The main 100-lap race takes place early in the afternoon in difficult conditions. The ground is still wet from the night when the 20 drivers take the start of the main race. Jim Cook took pole position with his No. 0 Dodge Dart 1960 entered by Floyd Johnson.

He also won the trophy dash with ease, aided by the track conditions which favor only one lane due to the ruts caused by the cars. He will not leave any hope for his opponents. Taking advantage of his first position, he will quickly flee, and it is with more than one lap in advance that he will cross the finish line ahead of Lloyd Dane.

2022 is the 62nd consecutive year without West Series running on January 1. That wont change tomorrow. Indeed, for many years, the season traditionally begins between the end of February and mid-March. For 2022, that is March 11 in Phoenix, AZ at Phoenix Raceway. There we meet for the start of the 69th season of the fabulous ARCA Menards Series West!

NASCAR and ARCA are not alone in having races take place on New Years Day once upon a time. Formula 1, the Winter Heat, and various Sprint Car races have also been held on January 1.

But, for now, I wish you all a Happy New Year in 2022!

Featured Photo Credit: Photo by Vincent Delforge / Racing-Reference.info

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A Brief History New Year's Eve NASCAR West Races - Kickin' the Tires

(The Conversation) Nothing says Christmas quite like a fruitcake or, at the very least, a fruitcake joke.

A quipattributed to former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson has it that There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.

Its certainly earned its reputation for longevity.

Two friends from Iowa have been exchanging the same fruitcake since the late 1950s. Even older isthe fruitcake left behind in Antarcticaby the explorer Robert Falcon Scott in 1910. But the honor for the oldest known existing fruitcake goes to one thatwas baked in 1878when Rutherford B. Hayes was president of the United States.

Whats amazing about these old fruitcakes is that people have tasted them and lived, meaning they are still edible after all these years. The trifecta of sugar, low moisture ingredients and some high-proof spirits make fruitcakessome of the longest-lasting foods in the world.

Fruitcake is an ancient goody, with the oldest versionsa sort of energy barmade by the Romans to sustain their soldiers in battle.The Roman fruitcakewas a mash of barley, honey, wine and dried fruit, often pomegranate seeds.

What you might recognize as a modern-style fruitcake a moist, leavened dessert studded with fruits and nuts was probably first baked in the early Middle Ages in Europe. Cinnamon, cloves and nutmegwere symbols of culinary sophistication, and these sweet spices started appearing alongside fruit in many savory dishes especially breads, but also main courses.

Before long, most cuisineshad some sort of fruited breads or cakes that were early versions of the modern fruitcake.

Fruitcakes are different in Europe than they are in America. European fruitcakes are more like the medieval fruited bread than the versions made in Great Britain and the United States.The two most common stylesof fruitcake in Europe are the stollen and panettone.

British and American versions are much more cakelike. For over-the-top extravagance, honors have to go toa British versionthat crowns a rich fruitcake with a layer of marzipan icing.

Fruitcakes came to America with the European colonists, and the rising tide of emigration from Britain to New England closely mirroredan influx of cheap sugarfrom the Caribbean.

Sugar was the key to preserving fruit for use across the seasons. One of the favorite methods of preserving fruit was to candy it.Candied fruit sometimes known as crystallized fruit is fruit thats been cut into small pieces, boiled in sugar syrup, tossed in granulated sugar and allowed to dry.

Thanks to this technique, colonists were able to keep fruit from the summer harvest to use in their Christmas confections, and fruitcakes became one of the most popular seasonal desserts.

Fruitcakes were also popular due to their legendary shelf life, which, in an era before mechanical refrigeration, was extremely desirable.

Fruitcake aficionados will tell you that the best fruit cakes are matured or seasoned in fruitcake lingo for at least three months before they are cut. Seasoning not only improves the flavor of the fruitcake, but it makes it easier to slice.

Seasoning a fruitcake involves brushing your fruitcake periodically with your preferred distilled spirit before wrapping it tightly and letting it sit in a cool, dark place for up to two months. The traditional spirit of choice is brandy, but rum is also popular. In the American South, where fruitcake is extremely popular, bourbon is preferred. A well-seasoned fruitcakewill get several spirit bathsover the maturation period.

Credit for the fruitcakes popularity in America should at least partially go to the U.S. Post Office.

The institution of Rural Free Delivery in 1896 and the addition of the Parcel Post service in 1913caused an explosion of mail-order foods in America. Overnight, once rare delicacies were a mere mail-order envelope away for people anywhere who could afford them.

Given fruitcakes long shelf life and dense texture, it was a natural for a mail-order food business. Americas two most famous fruitcake companies,Claxtons of Claxton, Georgia, andCollin Streetof Corsicana, Texas, got their start in this heyday of mail-order food. By the early 1900s, U.S. mailrooms were full of the now ubiquitousfruitcake tins.

As late as the 1950s, fruitcakes were a widely esteemed part of the American holiday tradition. A 1953 Los Angeles Times article called fruitcake a holiday must, and in 1958, the Christian Science Monitor asked, What Could Be a Better Gift Than Fruitcake? But by 1989,a survey by Mastercardfound that fruitcake was the least favorite gift of 75% of those polled.

Haters and disrespect aside, fruitcake is still a robust American tradition: The website Serious Eatsreports that over 2 million fruitcakes are still sold each year.

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The magnificent history of the maligned and misunderstood fruitcake - WKRN News 2

When Rijul Kochhar arrived at MIT to begin his PhD studies, he was already certain about what he wanted to study. Coming from Delhi, where he earned master's and undergraduate degrees and had taught at the Delhi School of Economics, he was eager to begin doctoral studies in MITs multidisciplinary program in History/Anthropology/Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS).

Now on track to complete his PhD, Kochhar has been conducting ethnographic and historical research on the global story of antibiotic resistance over the last seven years. He has been especially interested in tracking how antibiotics have, gradually and globally, lost their efficacy over time, and what the consequences of this phenomenon portend for the contemporary world. The finite but miraculous life of antibiotics, as Kochhar phrases it, has had a good run for three-quarters of a century in the history of science. But what happens when their protection begins to fray?

Kochhars journey is also one of examining the nature of scientific thought as it transforms over many decades and centuries. The spirit that guides such exploration and discovery is central to his own philosophy in the classroom: pursuing greater understanding with inquisitiveness and openness in the face of new ideas.

Changing medical and microbial realities

Antibiotics play a fundamental role as infrastructures of modern human society. From food production to health care to biosecurity, antibiotics are integral to how we live. Mass meat production, for instance, has depended heavily on the use of antibiotics in avian livestock and cattle, explains Kochhar. To provide animal proteins to human populations at the scale weve come to expect has required the use of antibiotics at scale. Now were dealing with the legacies of that chemical regime.

Kochhar has been on the ground, doing fieldwork on this topic for over a decade. Antibiotics are increasingly losing efficacy less than a century after their development and mass deployment in human society. My job as an anthropologist is to track the ruination of antibiotics in cultural life, and to examine what is being done by various players who are involved in the story at this juncture whether they are doctors, scientists, biosecurity regulators, or patients. What does it mean to live in this time?

For Kochhar, part of the answer to that question is structural change in medicine and science: resurrecting neglected but successful techniques of the past in order to help control bacterial life in the present.

His work extends over three continents, with research in India, the United States, and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, each of which present distinctive-yet-connected evidence regarding how the crisis of antibiotics is articulated and grappled with.

In Georgia specifically, he has been interested in an alternative to antibiotics called phage therapy, which uses bacteriophages ecologically abundant viruses that infect bacteria to create a desirable bacterial ecosystem. That is to say, phages are found alongside bacteria, controlling bacterial populations via a predatory but balanced relationship.

This cycle of bacterial culling and rebirth takes place on a grand scale around us continually. Every day nearly 40 percent of the Earths oceanic bacterial cells are killed off by bacteriophages, Kochhar notes, and then bacterial life repopulates the Earths biosphere every day!

Why arent phages more widely used in biomedical treatments now? The answer is tangled in human political history. According to Kochhar, phages have had a split life in Western versus Soviet settings. In the West, they have tended to be used as model organisms to conduct basic biological research (for example, playing instrumental roles in the decoding of the genetic code). In the Soviet Union, on the other hand, they were accepted as therapeutic agents to combat bacterial infections.

Antibiotics, a product of World War II, became dominant in the West, where they could be produced at scale and deployed much more easily than phages. However, antibiotics lacked the precision of phages. Antibiotics clear bacterial life writ large, a broad and clunky weapon that nonetheless has remained necessary and popular for decades. Of course, times have changed, and modern science now tells us that not all bacteria are harmful. Todays scholarship also tells us that killing off bacteria indiscriminately can produce problems of their own. This is where research on phages as precision antimicrobials is generating widespread interest.

No prepackaged facts

The nature of scientific research in addition to the science itself has opened new vistas for Kochhar as a historically minded anthropologist. We have long imagined that we live in a unique time when the scientific community is connected across the globe, he reflects. But there is evidence that exactly that kind of collaborative work across continents took place through the late 19th and early 20th century without the internet. You can track that kind of scientific influence, culture, and collaborations all the way back to the Enlightenment, if not earlier, as well as to conversations amongst scientific audiences and subjects during the heyday of planetary-scale colonial enterprises."

"It is exactly this kind of interaction forged in colonial encounters and within a matrix of scientific rationality and religious belief that Ive been exploring in India," Kochhar says. "In order to understand the contexts in which bacteriophage discovery takes place means to chart the complex conditions in which knowledge emerges, and is transmitted transnationally. How does that history, further, influence the cultural uptake of antibiotics and phages today?

One illuminating truth that Kochhar returns to again and again in his research is that there are sociocultural processes through which prepackaged, fundamental facts are made to appear as stable. I often find that facts are actually constructed through the labors of many people, on many continents. We have respect for scientific work and fact, but its not only because such research is a means to an end. Its also because it reveals human collaborations across time and space," he says.

When teaching, I remind my students, who are budding scientists at MIT, of exactly that point; whatever their discipline might be, its important to think about the factual architecture of that knowledge domain. What is its foundation? Where do the nuggets of reliable, factual, trusted knowledge emerge from? Who are the players, and who are the players who arent awarded status in the process?

The future of phages

Kochhar is not only concerned with the history of bacteriophages but their future as well, in the face of decreasing antibiotic efficacy. Phages as therapeutic agents are now reemerging in the West, but only under a compassionate use regulatory policy. Yet here, too, worldly dynamics impinge on the process. For example, in the United States, insurance companies typically do not cover such lifesaving treatments a disjuncture that reflects both wider inequities in the health care system, as well as emerging mechanisms of research and funding that are fundamentally altering how future biomedical advances will be brought to the public.

At MIT, Kochhar is positioned at an epicenter for advances in phage technology. Work on phages as precision antimicrobials is occurring at many places within MIT, including research that might potentially lead to a therapeutic option for biotech startups.

Additionally, bacteriophages are centrally connected to the story of CRISPR. Bacteria deploy an adaptive immune system each time bacteriophages attempt to infect them. If that mechanism of defense can be used in the lab, scientists including at MIT and the Broad Institute, as well as in California and elsewhere have been able to find a mechanism to edit the human genome. CRISPR and other forms of such emergent biotechnologies are founded precisely on that relationship that bacteria and viruses share and emerge from a history of scientific work that is much older, and much more complex, than initially meets the eye.

A historians sensibility, an anthropologists gumption

When Covid-19 began to unfold around the world in early 2020, Kochhar was faced with the test of many research hypotheses that he had had in the works for years beforehand: pathogens do not acknowledge or obey national boundaries, and yet the human responses to the health crisis were still framed nation-by-nation. Like other planetary crises, including climate change and antibiotic resistance, Covid-19 highlighted how thinking in terms of national boundaries rather than in terms of planetary ecologies often falls short in adequately addressing urgent global challenges.

In the course of his academic journey, Kochhar has learned to navigate the roles of student and teacher. When I first arrived at MIT as a graduate student, I found myself in this liminal space. I was not an undergraduate, nor was I a faculty member. As a graduate student, I had to get comfortable with the idea that I was someone who was in training, a sort of an academic apprentice. Now as I prepare to graduate from MITs HASTS program, I have come to value life in this liminal space, one that afforded me a dizzying array of research opportunities and the luxury of constant curiosity. Such curiosity, Kochhar says, is ultimately vital to giving spirit and purpose to the pursuit of academic work in an imperiled world.

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Illuminating the history and global story of antibiotics - MIT News

He added about McCarthy: And he bears responsibility for that. I don't think history books are going to be kind to him.

Kinzinger is one of two Republicans serving on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. He was responding to McConnells statement last week about that panel: We're all going to be watching it. It was a horrendous event, and I think that what they're seeking to find out is something the public needs to know.

He obviously holds his cards very close, Kinzinger said of McConnell. I think that was a very powerful statement and I appreciate it.

McConnell has come under attack in recent months from Trump for the way he has interacted with the Biden administration and other Democrats on the Hill. Mitch McConnells a disaster, Trump said Sunday on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.

Kinzinger told host Jonathan Karl it was possible that some of his current colleagues in Congress could be subpoenaed as part of that investigation and didnt rule out the same for Trump.

Because Jan. 6 was a really bad day, he said,everything prior to that is the rot in the democracy or the rot in self-governance that we have to correct so we don't get another Jan. 6. So absolutely anybody nobody, member of Congress, former president, nobody in America is above the law.

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Kinzinger on McCarthy: I dont think history books are going to be kind to him - POLITICO

WASHINGTON

Thirty years ago this month, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Ukraine broke away from Moscows control.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has never gotten over it.

That, more than anything, underlies the current crisis in which Putin has moved nearly 100,000 troops to Ukraines frontier, raising fears of an invasion.

To us, the end of the Soviet Union is a done deal, but not to Putin, said historian Mary Sarotte. What he really wants to do is renegotiate the 1990s.

Last week, Russia sent the United States a list of its demands for defusing the crisis: a binding promise that Ukraine will never become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, plus the removal of all NATO troops and weapons from 14 Eastern European countries that have joined the alliance since 1997.

It was not an encouraging sign. The demands were so extreme that they appeared intended for rejection or, worse, as a pretext for invasion.

None of this should come as a surprise.

Putin has raged against NATOs steady expansion toward Russias borders for more than a decade. He appears to have decided that the alliances deepening relationship with Ukraine, which is not a NATO member, is the last straw.

Hes not wrong about how the alliances growth has affected Russias perception of its security. Thirty years ago, Russia had a buffer zone of satellite states to its west. Now it has only the unimpressive presence of Belarus.

Russias western border is NATOs eastern flank. American and British military advisors serve in Ukraine; U.S. missile defense systems sit in Poland and Romania; and NATO troops conduct exercises in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, once part of the Soviet Union.

Western officials, including the leaders of those new NATO countries, view all those measures as purely defensive. Putin, they note, is not the kind of leader who makes neighbors comfortable.

There is no threat to Russia here, Fiona Hill, who served on the National Security Council staff under President Trump, told me.

We are not a threat. Ukraine is most definitely not a threat. But Putin considers the regathering of Russian lands including, in his view, Ukraine to be part of his legacy.

Theres no obvious way to reconcile those opposing viewpoints. This is a problem that cant be solved only managed.

President Biden, thrown into the role of crisis manager, is trying a two-track approach: threats of devastating sanctions if Russia invades plus an offer to talk about Putins overall security concerns.

His position is weakened by the fact that neither the United States nor any of its allies are willing to go to war with Russia over Ukraine.

But it has been strengthened by a remarkable show of allied unity in support of future sanctions, including willingness from Germany to block completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is being built to sell more Russian natural gas to Europe.

One of the ironies of Putins belligerent approach is that far from weakening NATO, it has driven the 30 countries in the alliance closer together.

The U.S. position contains an irony too: NATO doesnt really want Ukraine as a member, but it doesnt want to give Putin veto power over who gets to apply. Allowing Russia to dictate limits to NATO defenses in member countries is even less palatable.

Still, not all of Russias arguments are unreasonable.

There are some concerns on the Russian side that are legitimate, Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told me.

Putin has complained about American offensive missiles on his border that could reach Moscow in five minutes. There are no such missiles there now, but we could certainly have a conversation about missiles.

We could talk about conventional forces too, Pifer added. But the conversation would have to cover both sides. Its not clear that the Russians would get what they want.

U.S. leaders have known since the Soviet collapse that Russias loss of empire would be traumatic. They may not have foreseen that the trauma would persist for 30 years.

Empires die a slow and painful death, Sarotte said.

In her suddenly relevant history of NATOs expansion, Not One Inch, she recounts how Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton both tried to make a place for Russia in European security institutions and even offered Moscow several forms of affiliation with NATO. But those efforts were overwhelmed by the zeal of former Soviet satellites to become full members of the alliance, beginning with Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in 1997, the date Putin cited last week as the point when (in his view) NATO became too big.

Predictably, Republican hawks have reflexively criticized Biden as insufficiently tough on Putin. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida even charged the president with taking a path of appeasement.

But some of Russias security concerns are real. Offering to discuss them doesnt qualify as appeasement. And the stakes are high: A Russian invasion of Ukraine could touch off the worst conflict in Europe since World War II.

Biden and his aides appear to be pursuing careful, hard-headed diplomacy. It may not succeed, but its worth a try.

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Russia feels threatened by NATO. There's history behind that - Los Angeles Times

Long before Santa Claus, caroling and light-strewn Christmas trees, people in medieval Europe celebrated the Christmas season with 12 full days of feasting and revelry culminating with Twelfth Night and the raucous crowning of a King of Misrule.

Christmas in the Middle Ages was preceded by the month-long fast of Advent, during which Christians avoided rich foods and overindulgence. But all bets were off starting on the morning of December 25, according toAnne Lawrence-Mathers, a historian at the University of Reading in the UK where she specializes in medieval England, a period that runs roughly from the 5th century A.D. to 1500 A.D.

Once Christmas Day came around, if you had the stamina, then you were expected to eat, drink, be merry, dress up, play games, go dancing around the neighborhood for 12 days solid before you collapsed in a heap, she says.

Watch Christmas documentaries on HISTORY Vault

In the Middle Ages, the holiday began in earnest before dawn on Christmas morning with a special Christmas mass that signaled the official end of Advent and the start of the feasting season, which ran from December 25 through January 5.

The degree of Christmas decadence depended on your social status, but Lawrence-Mathers says that most people would at least have a pig slaughtered in November and salted and smoked in preparation for Christmas bacon and hams.

In the countryside, wealthy lords of the manor were expected to give their tenant farmers at least 12 days off from their labors and also to serve them a festive meal. Its hard to know exactly what was on the menu, but in the "TheGoodman of Paris," a text written in 1393, the author outlines the required courses for a special feast. The meal began with a course of pasties, sausages and black pudding; then four courses of fish, fowl and roast meats; and a final course of custards, tarts, nuts and sweetmeats.

Medieval royalty took the art of Christmas feasting to a different level. For a Christmas dinner held at the Reading Abbey in 1226, King Henry III ordered 40 salmon, heaps of venison and boar meat, and as many lampreys as possible. Henry V, who ruled in the early 1400s, included even more exotic delicacies on his Christmas menu like crayfish, eels and porpoise.

One thing that comes out very clearly is that drinking was as important as eating, if not more so, says Lawrence-Mathers, noting that ale and spiced cider were the drink of choice for the commoners, while the lords and royalty gulped wine by the ton (literally). In just one year, Henry III ordered 60 tons of wine for Reading Abbey with one ton being equal to 1,272 bottles.

The Feast of Fools (La Fte des Fous) by Victor Hugo.

Album / Alamy Stock Photo

Maybe it was a byproduct of all the drinking, but dress-up games and role reversals were a surprisingly big part of medieval Christmas celebrations, some of which were holdovers from earlier pagan customs around the Winter solstice.

For example, mumming was a popular Christmas pastime in medieval English villages. Mummers would dress up in animal masks or disguise themselves as women, and then go door-to-door singing festive folk songs and telling jokes. Some mummers did it for fun, while others expected a few coins or small gifts in exchange.

The animal masks may have been related to another strange Christmas tradition practiced by the royalty, in which revelers would parade through the feasting hall wearing whole animals heads (cooked, thankfully) and singing special songs. The most common costume was a boars head, which Lawrence-Mathers says was replaced with a wooden boars mask in later periods.

In the middle of the 12-day party was the Feast of Fools, held on January 1, in which priests, deacons and other church officials were given a brief license to be silly. Role reversals were popular, in which the lowly subdeacons delivered sermons, and things sometimes got out of control. According to a 15th-century French account condemning the practice:

Priests and clerks may be seen wearing masks and monstrous visages at the hours of office They dance in the choir dressed as women, panders or minstrels. They sing wanton songs. They eat black puddings while the celebrant is saying mass. They play at dice They run and leap through the church, without a blush at their own shame.

Is there a bean in your fruitcake?

Lauri Patterson/Getty Images

Celebrated on the night of January 5, Twelfth Night or Twelfthtide was a holiday all its own in the Middle Ages and represented the culmination of 12 days of merrymaking and mischief. Shakespeare likely penned his famous comedy Twelfth Night as a play to be performed on Twelfth Night, hence the cross-dressing heroine and practical jokes.

The centerpiece of Twelfth Night was the bean cake, a rich fruit-filled cake in which a tiny dried bean was hidden.

Whoever got the slice of cake with the bean in it was king for the night and could give people silly forfeits [penalties] which they had to obey, says Lawrence-Mathers. Another term for the king was the Lord of Misrule, who had the power to upend social hierarchies and demand embarrassing tasks from authority figures like parents, schoolmasters and lords.

Twelfth Night was the climax of the nearly two weeks of feasting, drinking, dressing up and rule-breaking that characterized medieval Christmas.

Oddly enough, the 12 days of Christmas also held special significance for the medieval pseudo-science of prognostication, says Lawrence-Mathers.

Priests pored over texts called prognostics that explained the Bible-centered practice of interpreting signs from natureincluding storms, high winds and rainbowsto predict the weather for the coming year and also foretell important events.

The idea being that God sent signs for those who could read them, and that the 12 days of Christmas were a special time, says Lawrence-Mathers.

If it was sunny and clear on Christmas Day, for instance, that was a sign that the spring would be warm and mild, leading to successful crops and good overall health. However, strong winds on Christmas Day signaled a bad year for the rich and powerful.

READ MORE: 25 Christmas Traditions and Their Origins

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How Christmas Was Celebrated in the Middle Ages - History

Students informed school leaders Saturday night that the faces in the mural were painted over and covered up with the name of a white supremacist group

ST. LOUIS A Black history mural painted near a heavily trafficked walkway on the Danforth Campus of Washington University was covered with the logo of a known white supremacist group, a letter from university officials said Sunday.

The mural, entitled The Story That Never Ends, was painted in the South 40 underpass and displayed the faces of prominent Black figures, the letter from the university's chancellor, vice-chancellors and provost said. The letter stated students informed them Saturday night that the faces in the mural were painted over and covered up with the name of a white supremacist group.

"We appreciate the many students who contacted us late last night after this happened," the letter said. "As soon as we learned of this incident, we began to mobilize to remove the white supremacist name and symbols from the mural and found that students had already worked quickly to cover them."

The letter said a "small group of unknown individuals" vandalized the mural, and the Washington University Police Department is investigating the incident. According to the letter, there are cameras in the area. The leaders hope that evidence will help identify the vandals and result in the vandals being held responsible.

The South 40 underpass is a walkway that connects the main buildings of the Danforth Campus with most of the student housing.

According to an article in Student Life, the university's independent newspaper, the mural was created ahead of the 2020 school year by six St. Louis-area artists.

"The mural has been a source of pride and inspiration for our university community, and we will not let this act of cowardice deter us from celebrating our rich cultural histories, especially the outstanding contributions of people who have led the way toward greater equity and understanding," the letter said.

The letter also provided links to resources for students in need of support or assistance following the incident. Click here for more information.

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Black history mural at Washington University defaced in 'despicable act of vandalism' - KSDK.com

Linda Hall| Special to Wooster Daily Record

WOOSTER Ann Gasbarre'slong-runningBits and Pieces column stitches together a thread of anecdotes, memories andfast facts reaching back and recording people, places and events in Wooster's past.

Her final Dec. 17 column featured a flurry of Wooster remembrances and culminated Gasbarre'scareer at The Daily Record.

Shehas contributed to the history of Wooster as a five-decadeemployeeof the newspaper,beginning with an internship when she was a senior at Wooster High School.

Bits and Pieces: Wooster's Freedlander's had it all

"With the exception of the 12 or 13 years I stayed at home until all four of our children were in school, I've been employed by the paper since 1958, a total of 50 or more years,"Gasbarresaid.

Her earliest memories includeworking on a teletype machine, and progress from her original stint as a typist and proofreader through her roles as a feature writer, assistant family page editor and lifestyle editor.

During the course of her career, she received awards from the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association and Ohio Press Women.

Her Bits and Pieces column initially focused on community events, but evolved to encompass readers' memories and Wooster history,Gasbarresaid.

Former publisher Ray Dix had told her, "Names sell papers," she recalled. "That's why I always included as many names as possible in the column."

As it turns out, memories are equally popular.

More: It was the scandal that rocked Wooster

Over the years,Gasbarrehas been inundated with recollections fromreaders as well as newspaper clippings, restaurant placemats and menus, and other memorabilia.

"We all remember happy times," Gasbarresaid, adding,"In this day and age, it's a way of coping with the everyday. It's fun to look back."

Ninety- and 100-year-old people areespecially fun to talk to, she said, marveling at what they could recall.

"People really responded," she said. They "wanted to share their good memories."

She recounts her own special memories as well the former White Hut Drive-in across from the Wayne County Fairgrounds, where her late husband, Dominic Gasbarre, proposed to her; the smell of burning leaves in the fall when it was legal to incinerate them in town; and the museum above the old Carnegie Library.

Gasbarre especially credits Wooster historian HarryMcClarranfor fueling her columns with "a tote this big," she said, gesturing expansively. It holds manila envelopes packed with information about the past.

Christmas in Wooster: Popular Christmas tree lot in Wooster was manned by Bob Dush

Beyond McClarran's"innate interest in history," she said, he has also been able to pinpoint addresses from long ago and to work his way into iconic Wooster establishments, from the Wooster theater with its plush seats toFreedlander's, as those institutions packed up and dismantled, moving into the archives of local history.

She is also grateful to other "history buffs" who shared their knowledge.

Like them, Gasbarregot to know heradopted city over her tenure at The Daily Record.

A former board member of Main Street Wooster and the Wayne County Historical Society, she enjoyed learning about the history of Wooster and Wayne County and discovered, "We have a lot to be proud of."

Among its illustrious citizens are a United States Treasurer, John Sloane; a Nobel Prize winner, Arthur Compton; and the first documented Black professional football player in the United States, Charles Follis.

At one time, she said, Wooster was home to the "largest independent department store west of New York City" Freedlander's.

A Wayne County native, William Knight, was "one of the first 15 men to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism during the Civil War," Gasbarresaid.

Unfortunately, "There are negative milestones, too," she pointed out, citing a march in the 1920s through downtown by 1,000 white-robedKKK members and "several occasions" of burning crosses.

Overall, the history of Wooster is positive. "It is very unique," she said.

More Wooster history: 'World's Largest Sundaes' fed thousands in Wooster

Gasbarre has had a special connection to the Italian American community through her husband andWoosterianswhose progenitors emigrated to Wooster fromCollepietro, Italy.

"I was kind of adopted by the Italian community," she said, because of a trip she took to Italy with a group in 2000.

One of the members told then publisher Vic Dix she needed to go along to chronicle the journey of the 42 descendants "in search of their roots. Every day the paper published stories of (their) adventures as we traveled to the small ancestral hill towns."

She was invited into a home where Dominic Gasbarre'sfather and uncle were born.

"Even though I'm Irish/English, I always felt a connection to the Italian community," she said.

Although Gasbarreretired from her full-time position at the newspaper in 2006, she was asked to continue writing her column.

"I've met a lot of wonderful people through (it)," she said. "The readers made it so easy."

Gasbarre has kept readers' comments thanking her for "the wonderful way you write about the way things were years ago;" for revivingmemories of oldWooster; for "bring(ing) back so many memories of growing up in Wooster;" and for "thinking back to thegoodol'days."

Many refer to specific columns, such as the "President, Circus and Farm Dairies."

One reader's mother remembered President Harry Truman coming to Wooster and visiting the church next to the former BeesonHospital.

"Wooster is a special place with special memories for many," said another reader.

What is most special to Gasbarreis "the people," she said.

Her former colleague Paul Lochersaid local newspapers "have traditionally had the role of not only recording local history on a variety of fronts on aday-in-day-outbasis, but also of presenting stories that remind the readership of the areas past, including its growth, its successes, its failures and triumphs, and the people who were influential in all of those arenas.

"If we are not from time to time reminded of our history, the stories can simply become lost from one generation to the next," Lochersaid. "Ann has managed admirably for many years to keep those memories alive," he said, hoping "someone else will soon be able to pick up the torch she is laying down."

In the meantime, Gasbarre, whose career she said truly began with a poem she wrote called "My Guardian Angel," which won first place in a poetry contest almost 70 years ago while she was in elementary school in Cleveland, is "not finished writing."

She is working on a book for her grandchildren through StoryWorth, which "has allowed me to tell the story of my life in chapter form."

"I will add a chapter about Wooster history," she said. "I want people to appreciate why Wooster is a great community."

As Gasbarresigned off at the end of every column, "Thought you should know."

The rest is here:

Saying goodbye: Gasbarre's column becomes part of the Wooster history it has commemorated - Wooster Daily Record