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This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and Nov. 24 marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, the landmark work in which Darwin laid forth his theory of natural selection. While celebrations have emphasized the British naturalist's giant role in the advancement of human progress, British political journalist Dennis Sewell is not convinced. In a new book, The Political Gene: How Darwin's Ideas Changed Politics, he highlights how often - and how easily - Darwin's big idea has been harnessed for sinister political ends. According to Sewell, evolution...
...sport to the “nerd” bin with the likes of “Dungeons and Dragons” and “Magic: The Gathering.” It is true that the sport, founded in 2005 at Middlebury College in Vermont (and the origin of the modern 200-plus-team Intercollegiate Quidditch League), incorporates the rules of the fictional game as literally as possible...
Since his beginnings as a self-taught musician, Ho has been pushing the boundaries of jazz, which he calls “quote-unquote jazz,” referencing the term’s origin as a racial slur. He merges African American music with Chinese opera and uses Duke Ellington-style swing in musicals and operas featuring female vampires, mythical monkeys, and now, green earth monsters. His music is arresting, indefinable, and unquestionably dramatic, aggressive in its motifs but always expansive in tone...
...Pacquiao has a myth of origin equal to that of any Greek or Roman hero. Aban-doned by his father and brought up by a tough-as-nails mother, the poor boy who loves to box is rejected by a local squad but then journeys many islands away, to the country's metropolis, Manila, to make it big. Then he leaves the Philippines to make it even bigger, conquering the world again and again to bring back riches to share with his family and friends. Now, in his hometown of General Santos City on the island of Mindanao...
...call them HRSFA (they’ll laugh at you if you try the whole thing). The group’s Web site proudly claims that they “do bizarre things and confuse people” and the annual fall Wyld Hunt is no exception. Though its origin is disputed (some members claim it originated from a traditional boozer that fell out of favor and needed to be transformed into a more family-friendly activity; others contest it is based on a Union protest against the Confederates in 1864) the hunt itself has changed very little...