Joel Achenbach
Joel LeRoy Achenbach (; born December 31, 1960) is an American staff writer for ''The Washington Post'' and the author of seven books, including '' A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea'', ''The Grand Idea'', ''Captured by Aliens'', ''It Looks Like a President only Smaller'', and three compilations of his former syndicated newspaper column "Why Things Are". He is a contributor to many publications, including ''Slate'' and ''National Geographic'', where he is a former monthly columnist. Achenbach has been a commentator on National Public Radio's ''Morning Edition'', and does occasional lectures and other speaking engagements. In addition to his work in the print version of ''The Washington Post'', Achenbach was one of the first ''Post'' writers to have a significant presence on the Internet and formerly wrote the popular ''Post'' blog, "The Achenblog," which ended in March 2017. Background and education Achenbach is a native of Gainesville, Florida. He graduated with an A.B. in politics f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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:Template:Infobox Writer/doc
Infobox writer may be used to summarize information about a person who is a writer/author (includes screenwriters). If the writer-specific fields here are not needed, consider using the more general ; other infoboxes there can be found in :People and person infobox templates. This template may also be used as a module (or sub-template) of ; see WikiProject Infoboxes/embed for guidance on such usage. Syntax The infobox may be added by pasting the template as shown below into an article. All fields are optional. Any unused parameter names can be left blank or omitted. Parameters Please remove any parameters from an article's infobox that are unlikely to be used. All parameters are optional. Unless otherwise specified, if a parameter has multiple values, they should be comma-separated using the template: : which produces: : , language= If any of the individual values contain commas already, add to use semi-colons as separators: : which produces: : , pseu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Presidential Election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The president of Chile is elected by the Chilean people for a four-year term. Sitting presidents are not allowed to run for reelection, but former presidents may do so. China The president and vice president of China, are elected by the National People's Congress (NPC) on the nomination of the NPC Presidium. In practice, the presidential candidate is chosen through an informal process within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is headed by the CCP general secretary. The power of the presidency is largely ceremonial and has no real power in China's political system, the vast majority of power stems from the president's position as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and commander-in-chief of the military. Czech Republic T ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1960 Births
It is also known as the " Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * January 1 – Cameroon becomes independent from France. * January 9– 11 – Aswan Dam construction begins in Egypt. * January 10 – British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan makes the "Wind of Change" speech for the first time, to little publicity, in Accra, Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana). * January 19 – A revised version of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan ("U.S.-Japan Security Treaty" or "''Anpo (jōyaku)''"), which allows U.S. troops to be based on Japanese soil, is signed in Washington, D.C. by Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The new treaty is opposed by the massive Anpo protests in Japan. * January 21 ** Coalbrook mining disaster: A coal mine ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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BloggingHeads
Bloggingheads.tv (sometimes abbreviated "bhtv") was a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers. The site was started by the journalist and author Robert Wright and the blogger and journalist Mickey Kaus on November 1, 2005. Kaus has since dropped out of operational duties of the site as he didn't want his frequent linking to be seen as a conflict of interest. Most of the earlier discussions posted to the site involved one or both of those individuals, but since has grown to include a total of over one thousand individual contributors, mostly journalists, academics, scientists, authors, well known political bloggers, and other notable individuals. Unregistered users are able to view all of the videos which are contained on the site, while free registration is required to comment on the individual discussions, or part ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2011 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2011. Events *June 7 – Ransom Riggs publishes his young-adult novel ''Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children'', which pins its narrative around a series of earlier vernacular photography, private photographs he had collected. It remains top of ''The New York Times'' Children's Chapter Books list for 45 weeks and founds a series of five novels. *July – J. K. Rowling ends her relationship with her long-standing agent Christopher Little Literary Agency, Christopher Little and joins his rival, Neil Blair (agent), Neil Blair. *September 24 – The first 100 Thousand Poets for Change Day takes place, the organization having been founded by Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion in March. *November 12 – The Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar Literature Museum Library opens in Istanbul, Turkey. New books Fiction *Chris Adrian – ''The Great Night (novel), The Great Night'' *David Almond – ''The True Tale ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2005 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2005. Events *February 25 – Canada Reads selects '' Rockbound'' by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation. *March 26 – The classic U.K. science fiction series ''Doctor Who'' returns to television with a script by Russell T Davies, the executive producer. *April 23 – The Grande Bibliothèque at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec is officially opened. It actually opens on April 30. *June 13 – The poet Dannie Abse is injured and his wife Joan killed in an accident on the M4 in South Wales. * August 15 – An integrated National Library of Norway opens to readers in Oslo for the first time. New books Fiction *Tariq Ali – ''A Sultan in Palermo'' * Rajaa Alsanea – '' Girls of Riyadh'' (بنات الرياض, ''Banat al-Riyadh'') * Avi – ''Never Mind'' *Tash Aw – '' The Harmony Silk Factory'' *Steve Aylett – ''Lint'' * Doreen Baingana – '' Tro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2003 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2003. Events *February 12 – An invitation from the First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush, for some poets to attend a conference at the White House is postponed when one of them, Sam Hamill, organizes a "Poets Against the War" group for poetry readings across the United States on the same date. *February 15 – Anti-war protests occur in London. They are later used as the setting for Ian McEwan's 2005 novel ''Saturday''. *March – The University of Mosul library is damaged and looted during the Iraq War, but many volumes are removed for protection by staff. *April 14 – The Iraq National Library and Archive is burned down during the Battle of Baghdad. *April – Nicholas Hytner succeeds Sir Trevor Nunn as artistic director of London's Royal National Theatre. *November 7 – UNESCO places among the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity ''wayang kulit'', a shadow p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2001 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2001. Events *February 15 – The author Michael Crichton signs a new deal with HarperCollins Publishers that reportedly earns him $40 million for two books. *April 1 – The BookCrossing scheme for leaving books for strangers to find is launched. *April 13 – The film version of Helen Fielding's 1996 novel '' Bridget Jones's Diary'' has uncredited cameo roles as themselves for Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes and Jeffrey Archer, at a literary party. * July 19 – The English popular novelist and politician Jeffrey Archer, having been found guilty of perjury in a libel trial, is sentenced to imprisonment. * September 19 – Amiri Baraka reads his poem "Somebody Blew Up America?" at a poetry festival in New Jersey, eight days after the September 11 attacks. * November 4 – Film premiere of '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', first in the commercially successful ''Harry Potter'' film seri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1991 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1991. Events *February – Sisters Vanessa Redgrave (Olga) and Lynn Redgrave (Masha) make their first and only joint appearance on stage, with niece Jemma Redgrave as Irina, in the title rôles of Chekhov's '' Three Sisters'' at the Queen's Theatre, London. *July 11 – Hitoshi Igarashi (born 1947), Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel '' The Satanic Verses'', is stabbed to death at the University of Tsukuba during The Satanic Verses controversy, in accordance with a fatwa against those involved in circulating the book. *October – Irvine Welsh's first published fiction, the short story "The First Day of the Edinburgh Festival", appears in '' New Writing Scotland''. It is later incorporated into '' Trainspotting''. *November 4 – An archaeological expedition is launched, eventually resulting in the discovery of a mass grave and identification of the body of the novelist Alain-Fo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and estimated to be 8 to 31 percent larger in volume than the previous largest, the Ixtoc I oil spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico. Caused in the aftermath of a blowout and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, the United States federal government estimated the total discharge at . After Efforts to stem the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, several failed efforts to contain the flow, the well was declared sealed on 19 September 2010. Reports in early 2012 indicated that the well site was still leaking. The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill is regarded as one of the largest environmental disasters in world history. A massive response ensued to protect beaches, salt marsh, wetlands and Estuary, estuaries from the spreading oil util ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Climate Change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate. The current rise in global temperatures is Scientific consensus on climate change, driven by human activities, especially fossil fuel burning since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuel use, Deforestation and climate change, deforestation, and some Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, agricultural and Environmental impact of concrete, industrial practices release greenhouse gases. These gases greenhouse effect, absorb some of the heat that the Earth Thermal radiation, radiates after it warms from sunlight, warming the lower atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, the primary gas driving global warming, Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, has increased in concentratio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States's civil list of government space agencies, space program, aeronautics research and outer space, space research. National Aeronautics and Space Act, Established in 1958, it succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the American space development effort a distinct civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. It has since led most of America's space exploration programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968–1972 Apollo program missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA supports the International Space Station (ISS) along with the Commercial Crew Program and oversees the development of the Orion (spacecraft), Orion spacecraft and the Sp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |