1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
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New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
3.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
4.
Dean Acheson
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Dean Gooderham Acheson was an American statesman and lawyer. As United States Secretary of State in the administration of President Harry S. Truman from 1949 to 1953, Acheson helped design the Marshall Plan and was a key player in the development of the Truman Doctrine and creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Achesons most famous decision was convincing President Truman to intervene in the Korean War in June 1950 and he also persuaded Truman to dispatch aid and advisors to French forces in Indochina, though in 1968 he finally counseled President Lyndon B. Johnson to negotiate for peace with North Vietnam. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy called upon Acheson for advice, bringing him into the executive committee, Dean Gooderham Acheson was born in Middletown, Connecticut. Like his father, Acheson was a staunch Democrat and opponent of prohibition, Acheson attended Groton School and Yale College, where he joined Scroll and Key Society, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. At Groton and Yale he had the reputation of a partier and prankster, he was somewhat aloof, Achesons well-known, reputed arrogance—he disdained the curriculum at Yale as focusing on memorizing subjects already known or not worth knowing more about—was apparent early. At Harvard Law School from 1915 to 1918, however, he was swept away by the intellect of professor Felix Frankfurter, on May 15,1917, while serving in the National Guard, Acheson married Alice Caroline Stanley. She loved painting and politics and served as an influence throughout their enduring marriage. Frankfurter and Brandeis were close associates, and future Supreme Court Justice Frankfurter suggested that Brandeis take on Acheson, when Secretary William H. Woodin fell ill, Acheson suddenly found himself acting secretary despite his ignorance of finance. Because of his opposition to FDRs plan to deflate the dollar by controlling gold prices, he was forced to resign in November 1933, in 1939–1940 he headed a committee to study the operation of administrative bureaus in the federal government. Brought back as assistant secretary of state in 1941, Acheson implemented much of United States economic policy aiding Great Britain, Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets merely to disconcert them. He did not intend the flow of oil to Japan to cease, the president then departed Washington for Newfoundland to meet with Churchill. While he was gone Acheson used those frozen assets to deny Japan oil, upon the presidents return, he decided it would appear weak and appeasing to reverse the de facto oil embargo. In 1944, Acheson attended the Bretton Woods Conference as the delegate from the State department. At this conference the post-war international economic structure was designed, the conference was the birthplace of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the last of which would evolve into the World Trade Organization. And, as late as 1945 or 1946 Acheson sought détente with the Soviet Union, in 1946, as chairman of a special committee to prepare a plan for the international control of atomic energy, he wrote the Acheson–Lilienthal report. At first Acheson was conciliatory towards Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Unions attempts at regional hegemony in Eastern Europe and in Southwest Asia, however, changed Achesons thinking. From this point forward, one writes, Acheson was more than present at the creation of the Cold War
5.
Rita Dove
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Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and she is the first African-American to have been appointed since the position was created by an act of Congress in 1986 from the previous consultant in poetry position. Dove also received an appointment as special consultant in poetry for the Library of Congresss bicentennial year from 1999 to 2000. Dove is the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1987, in 1970 Dove graduated from Buchtel High School as a Presidential Scholar. Later, Dove graduated summa cum laude with a B. A. from Miami University in 1973, in 1974 she held a Fulbright Scholarship from Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1977, Dove taught creative writing at Arizona State University from 1981 to 1989. She received the 1987 Pulitzer Prize in poetry, in 1992 she was named United States Poet Laureate by the Librarian of Congress, an office she held from 1993 to 1995. At age 40, Dove was the youngest person to hold the position and is the first African American to hold the position since the title was changed to Poet Laureate. Early in her tenure as poet laureate, Dove was featured by Bill Moyers in an interview on his PBS prime-time program Bill Moyers Journal. Since 1989 she has been teaching at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Rita Dove also served as a Special Bicentennial Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1999/2000, along with Louise Glück and W. S. Merwin. In 2004 then-governor Mark Warner of Virginia appointed her to a position as Poet Laureate of Virginia. In her public posts, Dove concentrated on spreading the word about poetry, as United States Poet Laureate, for example, she brought together writers to explore the African diaspora through the eyes of its artists. Dove was on the board of the Associated Writing Programs from 1985 to 1988 and she led the organization as its president from 1986 to 1987. From 1994 to 2000 she was a senator of the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa. From 2006 to 2012 she served as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and she has published ten volumes of poetry, a book of short stories, a collection of essays, and a novel, Through the Ivory Gate. Her Collected Poems 1974-2004 was released by W. W, norton in 2016, it carries an excerpt from President Barack Obamas 2011 National Medal of Arts commendation on its back cover. In 1994 she published the play The Darker Face of the Earth and she collaborated with composer John Williams on the song cycle Seven for Luck. Doves most ambitious collection of poetry, Sonata Mulattica, was published in 2009, over its more than 200 pages, it has the sweep and vivid characters of a novel, as Mark Doty wrote in O, The Oprah Magazine
6.
Seamus Heaney
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Seamus Justin Heaney, MRIA was an Irish poet, playwright, translator and lecturer. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, born near Castledawson, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, the family moved to nearby Bellaghy when he was a boy. Heaney became a lecturer at St. Josephs College in Belfast in the early 1960s, after attending Queens University and he lived in Sandymount, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, from 1976 until his death. He also lived part-time in the United States from 1981 to 2006, Heaney was recognised as one of the principal contributors to poetry during his lifetime. Heaney was a professor at Harvard from 1981 to 1997, from 1989 to 1994, he was also the Professor of Poetry at Oxford. In 1996, was made a Commandeur de lOrdre des Arts et Lettres, in 2011, he was awarded the Griffin Poetry Prize and in 2012, a Lifetime Recognition Award from the Griffin Trust. His literary papers are held by the National Library of Ireland, American poet Robert Lowell described him as the most important Irish poet since Yeats, and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have said that he was the greatest poet of our age. Robert Pinsky has stated that with his gift of eye. Upon his death in 2013, The Independent described him as probably the best-known poet in the world, one of his best known works is Death of a Naturalist, published in 1966. His body is buried at the Cemetery of St. Marys Church, Bellaghy, County Londonderry, the headstone bears the epitaph WALK ON AIR AGAINST YOUR BETTER JUDGEMENT, from one of his poems. Heaney was born on 13 April 1939, at the farmhouse called Mossbawn. In 1953, his family moved to Bellaghy, a few miles away and his father, Patrick Heaney, was the eighth child of ten born to James and Sarah Heaney. Patrick was a farmer, but his commitment was to cattle dealing. Heaneys mother, Margaret Kathleen McCann, who bore nine children and her uncles and relations were employed in the local linen mill, and her aunt had worked as a maid for the mill owners family. Heaney initially attended Anahorish Primary School, when he was years old, he won a scholarship to St. Columbs College. Heaneys brother, Christopher, was killed in an accident at the age of four while Heaney was studying at St. Columbs. The poems Mid-Term Break and The Blackbird of Glanmore are related to his brothers death, in 1957, Heaney travelled to Belfast to study English Language and Literature at Queens University Belfast. During his time in Belfast, he found a copy of Ted Hughess Lupercal, suddenly, the matter of contemporary poetry was the material of my own life, he said
7.
Carl Jung
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Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. His work has been not only in psychiatry but also in anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy. As a notable research scientist based at the famous Burghölzli hospital, under Eugen Bleuler, he came to the attention of the Viennese founder of psychoanalysis, the two men conducted a lengthy correspondence and collaborated on an initially joint vision of human psychology. Freud saw in the man the potential heir he had been seeking to carry on his new science of psychoanalysis. Jungs researches and personal vision, however, made it impossible for him to bend to his older colleagues dogma and this break was to have historic as well as painful personal repercussions that have lasted to this day. Jung was also an artist, craftsman and builder as well as a prolific writer, many of his works were not published until after his death and some are still awaiting publication. Among the central concepts of analytical psychology is individuation—the lifelong psychological process of differentiation of the out of each individuals conscious and unconscious elements. Jung considered it to be the task of human development. He created some of the best known psychological concepts, including synchronicity, archetypal phenomena, the unconscious, the psychological complex. Carl Gustav Jung was born in Kesswil, in the Swiss canton of Thurgau, on 26 July 1875 as the second and first surviving son of Paul Achilles Jung and their first child, born in 1873 was a boy named Paul who survived only a few days. Emilie was the youngest child of a distinguished Basel churchman and academic, Samuel Preiswerk, and his second wife. Preiswerk was antistes, the given to the head of the Reformed clergy in the city, as well as a Hebraist, author and editor. When Jung was six months old, his father was appointed to a prosperous parish in Laufen. Emilie Jung was an eccentric and depressed woman, she spent considerable time in her bedroom where she said that spirits visited her at night, although she was normal during the day, Jung recalled that at night his mother became strange and mysterious. He reported that one night he saw a luminous and indefinite figure coming from her room with a head detached from the neck. Jung had a relationship with his father. Jungs mother left Laufen for several months of hospitalization near Basel for a physical ailment. His father took the boy to be cared for by Emilie Jungs unmarried sister in Basel, Emilie Jungs continuing bouts of absence and often depressed mood influenced her sons attitude towards women — one of innate unreliability
8.
Sebastian Junger
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Junger was born in Belmont, Massachusetts, the son of Ellen Sinclair, a painter, and Miguel Chapero Junger, a physicist. His father was born in Dresden, Germany, of Russian, Austrian, Spanish, Junger grew up in the neighborhood of the Boston Strangler, a circumstance that later inspired his 2006 book A Death in Belmont. He graduated from Concord Academy in 1980 and received a bachelor of degree from Wesleyan University in cultural anthropology in 1984. In 1997, with the publication of his book, The Perfect Storm and his work stimulated renewed interest in adventure non-fiction. He received a National Magazine Award in 2000 for The Forensics of War, published in Vanity Fair, in early 2007 he reported from Nigeria on the subject of blood oil. His book War revolves around the time Junger spent with a United States Army platoon of the 173rd Airborne in Afghanistan, Junger, along with Hetherington, used material gathered in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan for the book and to create a documentary feature Restrepo. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, on April 27,2011, Junger was presented with the Leadership in Entertainment Award by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America for his work on Restrepo. His most recent book Tribe, On Homecoming and Belonging was published in May 2016, Junger married Daniela Petrova in 2002. He lives in New York City and Massachusetts, and co-owns a bar in New York called The Half-King and he found fame after writing the international bestseller The Perfect Storm, A True Story of Men Against the Sea. In 2000, Warner Brothers made the book into a film of the name, starring George Clooney. At the time of the storm, Junger was recovering from a wound to the leg that he suffered while working as an arborist in the Boston area. He claims that while recovering from injury, he was inspired to write about dangerous jobs. He planned to start with commercial fishing in Gloucester Massachusetts, a project that evolved into The Perfect Storm, Junger established The Perfect Storm Foundation to provide cultural and educational grants to children across the country whose parents make their living in the commercial fishing industry. A Death in Belmont centers on the rape and murder of Bessie Goldberg in Jungers hometown in the spring of 1963, from 1962 to 1964, the Boston area was gripped with fear as a result of the infamous Boston Strangler crimes. Junger received the 2007 PEN/Winship award for the book, although a different man was convicted, Junger raises the possibility that the real killer was Albert DeSalvo, who eventually confessed to committing several Strangler murders, but not Goldbergs. Goldbergs house was a mile and a quarter from the Junger family home, in fact, Junger stated in an interview that he grew up with a studio portrait of DeSalvo on his familys wall. The book includes a photograph that was one day after Goldbergs murder. Junger describes it thus, Al and I are the people looking directly at the camera
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Paul Krugman
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Paul Robin Krugman is an American economist, Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for The New York Times. In 2008, Krugman was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to New Trade Theory, Krugman was a professor of economics at MIT and later at Princeton University. He retired from Princeton in June 2015 and holds the title of professor emeritus there and he is also Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics and was President of the Eastern Economic Association in 2010. As of 2016, Research Papers in Economics ranked him as the worlds 24th most influential economist based on citations of his work, Krugman is known in academia for his work on international economics, liquidity traps, and currency crisis. He has also several hundred columns on economic and political issues for The New York Times, Fortune. A2011 survey of economics professors named him their favorite living economist under the age of 60, followed by Greg Mankiw, as a commentator, Krugman has written on a wide range of economic issues including income distribution, taxation, macroeconomics, and international economics. Krugman considers himself a liberal, referring to his books, his blog on The New York Times. His popular commentary has attracted comments, both positive and negative, Krugman was born to a Jewish family, the son of Anita and David Krugman. In 1922, his grandparents immigrated to the United States from Brest, Belarus. He was born in Albany, New York, and grew up in Merrick and he graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore. Since present-day science fell far short of psychohistory, Krugman turned to economics as the next best thing and his first wife, Robin L. Bergman, is a designer. He is currently married to Robin Wells, an academic economist who has collaborated with Krugman on textbooks, Krugman reports that he is a distant relative of conservative journalist David Frum. He has described himself as a Loner and he lives in New York City. In 1978, Krugman presented a number of ideas to Dornbusch, encouraged, Krugman worked on it and later wrote, knew within a few hours that I had the key to my whole career in hand. In that same year, Krugman wrote The Theory of Interstellar Trade and he says he wrote it to cheer himself up when he was an oppressed assistant professor. Krugman joined the faculty of MIT in 1979, from 1982 to 1983, Krugman spent a year working at the Reagan White House as a staff member of the Council of Economic Advisers. He rejoined MIT as a professor in 1984. Krugman has also taught at Stanford, Yale, and the London School of Economics, in 2000, Krugman joined Princeton University as Professor of Economics and International Affairs
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Mary Roach
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Mary Roach is an American author, specializing in popular science and humor. Roach is noted for her curiosity and humor in addition to her research and her many humor-laced articles in various publications over the decades include her monthly humor column, My Planet, in Readers Digest. Mary Roach was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, to a 65-year-old father and her family later moved to Etna, New Hampshire, where Roach attended Hanover High School. She received a degree in psychology from Wesleyan University in 1981. After college, Roach moved to San Francisco, California, and she worked as a columnist, and also worked in public relations for a brief time. Her writing career began while working part-time at the San Francisco Zoological Society, on her days off from the SFZS, she wrote freelance articles for the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine. In 1986, she sold a piece about the IRS to the San Francisco Chronicle. She has also written articles for Salon. com and tech-gadget reviews for Inc. com, from 1996 to 2005, Roach was part of the Grotto, a San Francisco-based project and community of working writers and filmmakers. It was in this community that Roach got the push she needed to break into book writing, while being interviewed by Alex C. Telander of BookBanter, Roach answered the question of how she got started on her first book, A few of us every year would make predictions for other people, so someone made the prediction that, Mary will have a book contract. I forgot about it and when October came around I thought and this is what literally lit the fire under my butt. Although Roach writes primarily about science, she never intended to make it her career, I didn’t plan it like this, and I dont have a formal background in science, or any education in science journalism. Actually I have a degree in psychology. TV and radio shows have repeatedly asked Roach to appear as a guest so they could hear her opinions and she has appeared on programs like Coast to Coast AM, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. Roach has had monthly columns in Readers Digest and Sports Illustrated for Women, besides being a best-selling author, Roach is involved in many other projects. Roach reviews books for The New York Times, and was the guest editor of the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 edition. She also serves as a member of the Mars Institutes Advisory Board, as an ambassador for Mars One and was recently asked to join the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. While it is clear that Roach has a variety of what some might call unusual interests
11.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, and science communicator. Since 1996, he has been the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City. The center is part of the American Museum of Natural History, born and raised in New York City, Tyson became interested in astronomy at the age of nine after a visit to the Hayden Planetarium. After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, where he was editor-in-chief of the Physical Science Journal, after receiving a masters degree in astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin in 1983, he earned his masters and doctorate in astrophysics at Columbia University. For the next three years, he was a research associate at Princeton University. In 1994, he joined the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist, in 1996, he became director of the planetarium and oversaw its $210-million reconstruction project, which was completed in 2000. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson wrote monthly essays in the Universe column for Natural History magazine, during the same period, he wrote a monthly column in Star Date magazine, answering questions about the universe under the pen name Merlin. Material from the column appeared in his books Merlins Tour of the Universe, Tyson served on a 2001 government commission on the future of the U. S. aerospace industry, and on the 2004 Moon, Mars and Beyond commission. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal in the same year, from 2006 to 2011, he hosted the television show NOVA ScienceNow on PBS. Since 2009, Tyson hosted the weekly podcast StarTalk, a spin-off, also called StarTalk, began airing on National Geographic in 2015. In 2014, he hosted the television series Cosmos, A Spacetime Odyssey, the U. S. National Academy of Sciences awarded Tyson the Public Welfare Medal in 2015 for his extraordinary role in exciting the public about the wonders of science. Tyson was born as the second of three children in Manhattan, New York, into a living in the Bronx. His mother, Sunchita Maria Tyson, was a gerontologist for the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and is of Puerto Rican descent. His African-American father, Cyril deGrasse Tyson, was a sociologist, human resource commissioner for New York City mayor John Lindsay, Tyson has two siblings, Stephen Joseph Tyson and Lynn Antipas Tyson. Tysons middle name, deGrasse, is from the name of his paternal grandmother. Tyson grew up in the Castle Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, from kindergarten throughout high school, Tyson attended public schools in the Bronx, P. S. 81, the Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy, and The Bronx High School of Science where he was captain of the wrestling team and his interest in astronomy began at the age of nine after visiting the sky theater of the Hayden Planetarium. He recalled that so strong was that imprint that Im certain that I had no choice in the matter, that in fact, during high school, Tyson attended astronomy courses offered by the Hayden Planetarium, which he called the most formative period of his life
12.
Fareed Zakaria
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Fareed Rafiq Zakaria is an Indian-American journalist and author. He is the host of CNNs Fareed Zakaria GPS and writes a column for The Washington Post. He has been a columnist for Newsweek, editor of Newsweek International, and he is the author of five books, three of them international bestsellers, and the co-editor of one. Zakaria was born in India to a Konkani Muslim family and his father, Rafiq Zakaria, was a politician associated with the Indian National Congress and an Islamic theologian. His mother, Fatima Zakaria, was his fathers second wife and she was for a time the editor of the Sunday Times of India. Zakaria attended the Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay, after directing a research project on American foreign policy at Harvard, Zakaria became the managing editor of Foreign Affairs in 1992, at the age of 28. Under his guidance, the magazine was redesigned and moved from a quarterly to a bimonthly schedule and he served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, where he taught a seminar on international relations. In October 2000, he was named editor of Newsweek International, in August 2010 he moved to Time to serve as Editor-at-Large and columnist. He writes a column for the Washington Post and is a contributing editor for the Atlantic Media group. He has published on a variety of subjects for the New York Times, for a brief period, he was a wine columnist for the web magazine Slate. Zakaria is the author of From Wealth to Power, The Unusual Origins of Americas World Role, The Future of Freedom, The Post-American World and he co-edited The American Encounter, The United States and the Making of the Modern World with James F. Hoge, Jr. His last two books have both been New York Times bestsellers, and have translated into more than 25 languages. In 2011, an updated and expanded edition of The Post-American World was published, Zakaria was a news analyst with ABCs This Week with George Stephanopoulos where he was a member of the Sunday morning roundtable. He hosted the weekly TV news show, Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria on PBS and his weekly show, Fareed Zakaria GPS premiered on CNN in June 2008. It airs twice weekly in the United States and four times weekly on CNN International and it recently celebrated its 8th anniversary on June 5,2016 as announced on the weekly foreign affairs show on CNN. In 2013 he became one of the producers for the HBO series Vice, Zakaria self-identifies as a centrist, though he has been described variously as a political liberal, a conservative, a moderate, or a radical centrist. George Stephanopoulos said of him in 2003, Hes so well versed in politics, I cant be sure whenever I turn to him where hes going to be coming from or what hes going to say. He supported Barack Obama during the 2008 Democratic primary campaign and also for president, in January 2009 Forbes referred to Zakaria as one of the 25 most influential liberals in the American media
