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A quote from one of President Obama’s former girlfriends, whose impressions of the young Obama are detailed in new book called Barack Obama: The Story
How TV shows deal with abortion: A timeline
It’s been 40 years since Bea Arthur’s outspoken liberal Maude Findlay was the first television character to have an abortion in a 1972 episode of Maude, but televising the divisive issue still courts controversy. On Sunday night’s episode of Girls, Jemima Kirke’s free-spirited global nomad made an abortion appointment, but conflicted feelings kept her from showing up for it. Indeed, while the hot-button issue surfaces frequently on TV these days, says Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon, characters rarely go through with abortions.
“Four decades after Roe v. Wade, are we ever going to able to talk about abortion on television and have more to say than, ‘Maude had one?’”
Here, a history of how TV series have dealt with the issue, from Maude to Girls
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Why ‘Space Madness’ Fears Haunted NASA’s Past
When astronauts first began flying in space, NASA worried about “space madness,” a mental malady they thought might arise from humans experiencing microgravity and claustrophobic isolation inside of a cramped spacecraft high above the Earth. Such fears have since faded, but humanity continues to see spaceflight as having the power to transform people for either better or for worse.
Such early concerns of NASA psychiatrists led to careful screening of the first astronauts drawn from U.S. Air Force test pilots. The astronauts proved highly professional and level-headed in even the most life-threatening scenarios — a reality that did not stop reporters and science fiction writers from imagining astronauts going crazy or becoming spiritually changed by spaceflight.
Photo: The Mercury 7 are the first group of NASA’s astronauts. Back row: Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper; front row: Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter in 1960. Wikimedia Commons
Are there human remains at the Titanic wreck site?
Most of the Titanic’s 1,500 passengers were never recovered, but new photographs suggest there may still be remains to be found. The most discussed photo captures leather boots and what appears to be a coat buried in the mud near the Titanic’s stern. The way the boots are laid out, says James Delgado, the director of maritime heritage at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), strongly suggests that they landed there while still on the feet and back of a person. ”This is clearly where someone came to rest on the bottom,” Delgado tells The New York Times. “I, as an archaeologist, would say those are human remains.”
For your entertainment, we created the Bad Opinion Generator, so you can view history’s worst predictions and opinions. Have fun!
The new 3-D version of Titanic isn’t the only way folks are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the R.M.S. Titanic sinking. On March 10, the History Press started tweeting about events aboard the ship as they unfolded in real-time 100 years ago (@TitanicRealTime). Once the ship sets sail on April 10, expect “action-filled tweets leading up the Titanic’s infamous encounter with an iceberg,” says Jeremy Cabalona at Mashable.
Here, some other ways people will mark the 100th anniversary of Titanic’s sinking:
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