Terrorism

Saving Civilization from Al-Qaeda (and the Weather)

May 21, 2013

Blog, Projects

Africa, Al Qaeda, Books, Civilization, History, Islam, Islamic History, Islamists, Mali, Manuscripts, Philosophy, Preserving History, Religion, Science, Terrorism, Timbuktu

You may have read the article in the New Republic last month about how 300,000 ancient books and manuscripts in the libraries of Timbuktu were evacuated in secret to protect them from Ansar Dine, an Al Qaeda cell. The manuscripts not only survived the burning of the Timbuktu library, but were smuggled in footlockers all…
How I Found out About 9/11

Sep 11, 2012

Blog

Hopkins, Memory, New Haven, New York City, Osama bin Laden, September 11, Terrorism

I found out about it three times before I actually knew about it, and that’s just one of those strange things about history. I was in eighth grade and in study hall in the DPH building at Hopkins. There was an advisor meeting that morning, it being a Tuesday, and it must have been third…