Word: inventors
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...Mafia has long fascinated the world with its mix of murder, mystery and Old World folklore. But the Mob is best understood as an organization constantly trying to consolidate its power in order to accumulate wealth. Considered the modern inventor of organized crime, the Sicilian Mob remains hugely powerful, even as its share of the international trafficking business has diminished and other syndicates have made headlines for their bloody turf wars. (Read a TIME cover story on the Mafia...
Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, was sure his creation would help bring about the end of war. "When two armies of equal strength can annihilate each other in an instant," he once wrote, "then all civilized nations will retreat and disband their troops." Things didn't quite go according to plan. What has worked out, however, is the annual set of awards, established in 1901, that bear his name. They remain the most prestigious intellectual awards in the world. On Dec. 11, 2009, President Obama will travel to Oslo to accept the 90th Nobel Peace Prize, an honor that...
...Puns I note that Peter Baron, the inventor of the straw that adds flavor to a drink, was forced to call it the Sippahh because his original name, Suckahh, did not go down well in the U.S. [Nov. 24]. It occurs to me that as an Australian, he was probably keen to call his new straw, containing friendly bacteria, the Buggahh. D.C. Cardwell, Langwarrin, Victoria
Peter Baron needed a catchy name for his latest invention, a new kind of straw that added flavor to a drink. He reckoned Suckahh was perfect. "We took it to the U.S. and we got slaughtered," admits the 58-year-old Australian inventor. "They said it was probably the worst name you could ever...
...mentions Princeton’s “Phantom of Fine Hall…an obscure, shadowy figure that would infest Fine Hall, home to the Mathematics Department, and write complex equations on blackboards.”Even if the phantom had turned out to be John Forbes Nash, inventor of the Nash equilibrium, I prefer complex math problems to mysteriously appear thanks to tough yet sensitive MIT janitors from Southie, thank you very much. Let’s see what Cornell’s got: “If a virgin crosses the Arts Quad at midnight, the statues...