Hernán(do) Cortés, Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca

Hernán(do) Cortés, Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca (1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish explorer, military commander, and colonizer whose daring conquest of the Aztec Empire in Mexico for Spain in 1521 led to the eventual subjugation and effective elimination of native American culture in Mesoamerica.

Cortés adopted methods in the conquest of Mexico like those of other Conquistadors, including torture, the capture of indigenous leaders, and large-scale destruction of lives and property in the quest for gold and other riches. Nevertheless, many argue that he dealt with the natives more humanely than did his successors. Cortes was an efficient soldier and administrator who demonstrated relative restraint during the conquest, sought to make peace with Indian tribes, resisted slavery, issued edicts against human sacrifice, and sought peaceful conversion of Indians to the Christian faith. Cortés hoped to acquire a productive province informed by Christian principles, not a slave state administered by rapacious overlords.

Sir Charles Lyell: The geological evidences of the antiquity of man : with remarks on theories of the origin of species by variation (1863)

It's impossible to overstate the significance of this classic of scientific literature. A necessary companion to Darwin's The Origin of Species, it springs from the ingenious mind of one of his closest friends, geologist Charles Lyell, whose theories were a critical influence on Darwin's landmark work. First published in 1863, this exploration of the implications of Darwin's "natural selection" for humans remains one of the clearest, most concise explanations of a foundational branch of modern biology. 

Eminently insightful, the books sings with a scientific poeticism -- chapter sections have such titles as: . "Works of Art in Danish Peat-Mosses" . "Curiosity awakened by the systematic Exploration of the Brixham Cave" . "Two Species of Elephant and Hippopotamus coexisting with Man in France" . "Extinct Mammalia in the Valley of the Oise" Readers in the sciences are sure to find this essential book a highly engaging one as well. 

I.D. Novikov: New analytic models of ”traversable” wormholes

Abstract

The analytic solution of the general relativity equations for spherically symmetricwormholes are given. We investigate the special case of a ”traversable” wormhole i.e., oneallowing the signal to pass through it. The energy-momentum tensor of wormhole matteris represented as a superposition of a spherically symmetric magnetic field and dust matterwith negative matter density. The dynamics of the model are investigated. We discussboth the solution of the equation with a Λ-term and without it. Superposing enough dustmatter, a magnetic field, and a Λ-term can produce a static solution, which turns out tobe a spherical Multiverse model with an infinite number of wormholes connected sphericaluniverses. Corresponding solution can be static and dynamic.

A.A. Vasiliev: History of the Byzantine empire

The cultural and religious crisis through which the Roman Empire was passing in thefourth century is one of the most significant events in the history of the world. The oldpagan culture came into collision with Christianity, which received official recognitionduring the reign of Constantine at the beginning of the fourth century and wasdeclared the dominant State religion by Theodosius the Great at the end of that samecentury. It might have seemed at first that these two clashing elements, representingtwo diametrically opposed points of view, would never find a basis for mutualagreement. But Christianity and pagan Hellenism did intermix gradually to form aChristian-Greco-Eastern culture subsequently known as Byzantine. Its center was thenew capital of the Roman Empire, Constantinople.

Мимо Земли пролетел астероид размером с небоскреб

В случае столкновения с Землей он мог уничтожить целый город

В ночь на воскресенье, 10 марта, около 00.30 мск мимо Земли пронесся астероид, который ученые NASA сравнили по размерам с небоскребом. Небесное тело, получившее название 2013ET, пролетело в 950 тысячах километров от Земли: это примерно два с половиной расстояния до Луны. Его скорость была 42 тысячи километров в час.