How did the sister of Machiavelli’s prince get so wealthy during an economic downturn? In popular legend, Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara (1480- 1519), stands falsely accused of poisoning her second husband. Victor Hugo portrayed her in thinly veiled fiction as a tragic femme fatale. Buffalo Bill named his gun after her. But new research by USC historian Diane Yvonne Ghirardo reveals that the only sister of Machiavelli’s Prince was less interested in political intrigue than in running a business, undertaking massive land development projects that ‘stand alone in the panorama of early sixteenth-century projects, not only those initiated by women,’ Ghirardo says. Forced by an economic downturn to cut expenses and become an entrepreneur, the illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander VI would control between 30,000 and 50,000 acres in northern Italy within six years. ‘This is a classic case of seeing only what you’re looking for and not getting the whole picture,’ Ghirardo says of the centuries-old mystery surrounding how Lucrezia accumulated her vast personal wealth. Ghirardo notes that historians have long dismissed Lucrezia as stupid because no record exists of her collecting art or antiquities. ‘The information was there in the archives, but […]
The first people to arrive in America traveled as at least two separate groups to arrive in their new home at about the same time, according to new genetic evidence published online on January 8th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. After the Last Glacial Maximum some 15,000 to 17,000 years ago, one group entered North America from Beringia following the ice-free Pacific coastline, while another traversed an open land corridor between two ice sheets to arrive directly into the region east of the Rocky Mountains. (Beringia is the landmass that connected northeast Siberia to Alaska during the last ice age.) Those first Americans later gave rise to almost all modern Native American groups of North, Central, and South America, with the important exceptions of the Na-Dene and the Eskimos-Aleuts of northern North America, the researchers said. ‘ Recent data based on archeological evidence and environmental records suggest that humans entered the Americas from Beringia as early as 15,000 years ago, and the dispersal occurred along the deglaciated Pacific coastline,’ said Antonio Torroni of Università di Pavia, Italy. ‘Our study now reveals a novel alternative scenario: Two almost concomitant paths of migration, both from Beringia about 15,000 […]
The Gannett Company, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, said on Wednesday that it would force thousands of its employees to take a week off without pay in an effort to avoid layoffs. Gannett, which owns 85 daily newspapers across the United States including its flagship USA Today, said it could not say exactly how many people would be required to take time off, or how much money the company would save. But it said it would require unpaid leave for most of its 31,000 employees in this country. Also on Wednesday, USA Today notified its staff of a one-year pay freeze for all employees. ‘Most of our U.S. employees – including myself and all other top executives – will be furloughed for the equivalent of one week in the first quarter, Craig A. Dubow, the chairman, president and chief executive, wrote in a memorandum to employees. ‘We sincerely hope this minimizes the need for any layoffs going forward, he added. The company cannot impose the measure unilaterally on employees covered by a union contract, but Mr. Dubow said Gannett was asking unions to participate voluntarily. Tara Connell, a company spokeswoman, said about 12 percent of […]
NEW YORK — U.S. foreclosure activity jumped 81 percent in 2008, with one in every 54 households getting at least one filing notice, suggesting various state laws and private programs to slow the process have been ineffective, RealtyTrac reported on Thursday. Nearly 3.2 million foreclosure filings on 2.3 million properties were made last year, the Irvine, California-based research firm said. Filings include notice of default, auction sale or bank repossession. ‘Clearly the foreclosure prevention programs implemented to date have not had any real success in slowing down this foreclosure tsunami,’ James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in the report. Foreclosure activity did slow in the fourth quarter overall, declining 4 percent from the third quarter, but jumped nearly 40 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007. And foreclosure activity last year was up 225 percent from 2006, the year home prices began a deep slump that prevented many homeowners from selling or refinancing. Home prices have plunged more than 20 percent from the summer of 2006, according to Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller measures. Filings leaped by 17 percent in December from November. ‘State legislation that slowed down the onset of new […]
An aide to Obama said Friday that the administration plans to add 20 gigawatts (GW) or more of wind power and 4 GW of geothermal and solar power by 2012 through loan guarantees and fast tracked national renewable energy requirements, like the Renewable Portfolio Standard. Last May the U.S. Energy Department estimated wind power could provide almost a quarter of U.S. electricity. Trade groups from the U.S. wind and solar industries were happy with the news, considering that the current economic environment for commercial credit has lowered all boats as it were, with all investment now endangered – not just investment in risky financial instruments, but even those investments in renewable energy that are essential to growing a stable economy. >>See Also: Obama Stimulus Package May Include B in Energy Tax Credits 4 votesBuzz up! No other country, in any single year, has added the volume of wind capacity that was added to the US electrical grid in 2007 with both wind and solar growing well over 40%, but with the credit crunch affecting all sectors of the economy, new projects could drop by as much as 50%, without help from the Federal government. In […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
