MATA HARI…..an exotic dancer and courtesan….was significant for her alleged espionage during World War I…..she was accused of being a double agent…..for France and Germany…..her execution in 1917 remains one of the most notorious spy scandals.

THE HUMAN RACE IS OF AFRICAN ORIGIN…..The oldest known skeletal remains of anatomically modern humans…..also known as homo sapiens…..were excavated at sites in East Africa….at a place called Omo in Ethiopia…..that were dated at 195,000 years old….the oldest known in the world.

SINCE HER DEATH IN 1979……The woman who unveiled the fundamental composition of the universe has remained largely unrecognized……her legacy is marked only by a commemorative plaque on a university wall, with her groundbreaking discovery scarcely mentioned in her obituary……every high school student knows that Isaac Newton discovered gravity, Charles Darwin explained evolution……and Albert Einstein formulated the theory of relativity….yet, when it comes to the composition of the universe…..textbooks merely state that hydrogen is the most abundant atom…..without acknowledging the person behind this crucial discovery…..that person was Cecilia Payne……Cecilia Payne authored what is considered one of the most brilliant doctoral theses ever written in the field of astronomy…..ironically, her journey in science began with opposition from her own mother……who deemed it a waste of money for a woman to pursue higher education…..undeterred, Payne earned a scholarship to Cambridge…..where she completed her studies……however, because she was a woman…..Cambridge refused to grant her a degree……determined to continue her work, she moved to the United States and joined Harvard……where she became the first person to earn a doctorate in astronomy from Radcliffe College……Otto Strauve, a respected astronomer, described her thesis as “the most brilliant doctoral thesis ever written in astronomy”……Cecilia Payne not only discovered the composition of the sun but also laid the foundation for the study of variable stars…..her contributions to astronomy were monumental…..yet she is not celebrated with the respect and recognition she deserves…..she was the first woman to be promoted to professor at Harvard…..a remarkable achievement that, even today, is often overlooked…..this brief text serves as a tribute to Cecilia Payne…..the woman who discovered what stars are made of…..and whose legacy should be remembered with the honor and respect befitting her contributions to science.

DID YOU KNOW COFFEE ORGINATED IN ETHOPIA?……Coffee grown worldwide can trace its heritage back centuries to the ancient coffee forests on the Ethiopian plateau…..there, legend says the goat herder Kaldi first discovered the potential of these beloved beans…..the story goes that that Kaldi discovered coffee after he noticed that after eating the berries from a certain tree……his goats became so energetic that they did not want to sleep at night……Kaldi reported his findings to the abbot of the local monastery…..who made a drink with the berries and found that it kept him alert through the long hours of evening prayer. ….the abbot shared his discovery with the other monks at the monastery…..and knowledge of the energizing berries began to spread…..as word moved east and coffee reached the Arabian peninsula…..it began a journey which would bring these beans across the globe.

VIVIAN MAIER…….(February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American street photographer born in New York City. Although born in the U.S……it was in France that Maier spent most of her youth……Maier returned to the U.S. in 1951 where she took up work as a nanny and caregiver for the rest of her life…..in her leisure however, Maier had begun to venture into the art of photography…..consistently taking photos over the course of five decades…..she would ultimately leave over 100,000 negatives……most of them shot in Chicago and New York City…..Vivian would further indulge in her passionate devotion to documenting the world around her through homemade films, recordings and collections…..assembling one of the most fascinating windows into American life in the second half of the twentieth century.

UNCLE TOM….Most people have heard or used the term when we refer to a sell-out, but did you know that the inference is totally wrong……the real Uncle Tom was a hero….Josiah Henson, was an abolitionist who helped slaves escape among other great things……Josiah Henson was born into slavery in 1789 in Charles County, Maryland…..growing up he watched his father receive beatings for standing up to his slave owner…..and also witnessed his father’s ear being severed as part of the punishment and also his father being sold off…..upon the death of his owner…..Henson was also separated from his family in an estate sale…..he remained on his new owner’s farm in Montgomery County, Maryland, until he was an adult…..as he aged he rose to become a trusted enslaved and supervised other enslaved people on the farm…..however, he used his new position to make his escape from slavery…..following the Underground Railroad, Henson escaped from Maryland to the Province of Upper Canada (Ontario), Canada with his wife and four children by way of the Niagara River in 1830……..Henson worked on farms in his first years in Canada to support his family……in 1834 founded a black settlement on rented land….he purchased 200 acres of land in Kent County and founded a settlement and laborer’s school for other fugitive slaves…….Henson later became a Methodist preacher and a conductor on the Underground Railroad between Tennessee and Ontario…..helping the enslaved escape from slavery…..he also served as a military officer in the British Army in Canada…..so stop calling these sell-outs Uncle Tom….that’s a compliment…..Its Sambo that was the sell-out….who would do anything for his slave masters’ approval….Uncle Tom is a man to be respected…not associated with Sambo.