Due to a regional drought in 2007, a previously-unexplored portion of the ancient Greek city of Bathonea, situated on the shore of Lake Kucukcekmece in modern-day Turkey, was exposed, and is now accessible for archaeologists to excavate. One of the major finds made through the dig at Bathonea was the verification of a previously-unsubstantiated story of an invasion from the Avar Empire in 646 A.D. But, wars long forgotten aside, the site also yielded evidence of far more beneficial activities: the large-scale production of medicines, including some that are still in use today.
read more

FBI Director James Comey’s recent disclosure that more Hillary Clinton emails had been discovered on the computer of Anthony Weiner was a clear violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity by Justice Department employees during election periods. As is generally the case close to an election, on March 10, the Deputy Attorney General sent all affected Justice Department employees, including Director Comey, a memorandum reminding them of their responsibilities and obligations under the act. It stated, "activity director toward the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office or partisan political group" is prohibited under the act.read more

After 16 consecutive months of record-breaking global average temperatures, the month of September, 2016, came in merely as the second-highest in the 137-year record, 0.04°C (0.07°F) cooler than the current record holder, September 2015.

While we might congratulate last September for not being quite as ambitious as the sixteen months that preceded it, second place still means that the month came in at 0.86°C (1.55°F) above the 20th century average of 15.0°C (59.0°F). This is slightly down from August’s monthly record, of which marked a departure of 0.92°C (1.66°F) above the 20th century average of 15.6°C (60.1°F). read more