Latest news with #MarkTwain
Wall Street Journal
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Johannes Gutenberg' Review: Print the Legend
The Gutenberg Bible ranks among the most prized of rare books, but within three centuries of its printing around 1455, its version of Scripture was considered obsolete and its creator, Johannes Gutenberg, was largely forgotten. Some 15 Gutenberg Bibles were even cut into pieces, their leaves recycled as wrappers for newer titles. According to Eric Marshall White's 'Johannes Gutenberg: A Biography in Books,' not until the 18th century did scholars rediscover the German printer's pre-eminent role in creating Europe's first movable-type printing press. From there, his reputation soared. In 1900, in a letter commemorating the opening of a museum named for Gutenberg in his hometown of Mainz, Mark Twain wrote that 'Gutenberg's invention is incomparably the mightiest event that has ever happened in profane history.' One hundred years later, Gutenberg was declared the 'Man of the Millennium' by a number of media outlets. Mr. White, the Scheide librarian at Princeton University, suggests that the pendulum swung too far. For one thing, it's well established that printing innovations in China and Korea long predated Gutenberg. Moreover, given that only a couple hundred different books had likely been published in Europe by the time of Gutenberg's 1468 death, the author is uncomfortable crediting him, as if he were more prophet than printer, with the media revolution that followed. Mr. White wryly notes that in Gutenberg's time the plague spread a lot faster than the printing press. In this slim, authoritative volume, Mr. White centers his narrative on the works Gutenberg is known to have printed, including broadsides and indulgences that were used, in the author's words, to 'broadcast religious intolerance' and 'underwrite sectarian warfare.' Hagiography this is not.
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Mark Twain was wrong. Travel is not as fatal to prejudice as hoped
Mark Twain, in his bestseller The Innocents Abroad, commented on travel as the great unifier: 'Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.' Advertisement A Hong Kong government investing heavily in tourism promotion to charm its way back into the good books of communities worldwide after our 2019 street riots and clumsy management of the Covid-19 shutdown would earnestly endorse the sentiment. But the evidence suggests Twain's intuitively persuasive argument is tragically wrong. Despite global travel at record levels – an estimated 1.4 billion international tourists were recorded last year, with 357 million jobs or 10 per cent of all jobs globally being connected to the travel and tourism sector – bigotry, prejudice and narrow-mindedness seem alive and well. Two centuries of increasingly intensive international travel ought to have driven steady progress towards peace and international cooperation. Instead, we see ruinous wars and conflict , a rising tide of nationalism and opposition to immigration , as well as a surge in protectionism. US President Donald Trump's tariff assault on a world he claims has been 'ripping off' the United States for decades shows that not only tourism but also international trade provided little inoculation against bigotry, prejudice and narrow-mindedness. Advertisement Why have we been so spectacularly wrong? First, many international tourists are poor ambassadors against prejudice. A family taking a limousine from Bali's airport to their exclusive resort is unlikely to notice or wish to note the poverty they drive through.
CBS News
3 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Hikers' report of companion's death turns out to be greatly exaggerated
North Elba, N.Y. — Mark Twain is widely thought to have said that reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated, though the quote itself may have been greatly exaggerated. The same can certainly be said about the fate of a hiker in upstate New York. Two hikers in New York's Adirondack Mountains called 911 to report a third member of their party had died, but it turned out they had taken hallucinogenic mushrooms and were mistaken, officials said Wednesday. A state forest ranger responded to a call Saturday about a hiker who had reportedly died on Cascade Mountain, a popular summit in the Adirondack High Peaks, the Department of Environmental Conservation said in a news release. The two hikers who called 911 also told a steward on the mountain's summit that they were lost. The steward "determined the hikers were in an altered mental state," according to the agency. The supposedly dead person called and was not injured. The ranger escorted the two hikers down to an ambulance, which took them to a hospital, and brought the third to the group's campsite, where they all later met up, officials said.
CBS News
3 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Hikers' report of companion's death turn out to be greatly exaggerated
North Elba, N.Y. — Mark Twain is widely thought to have said that reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated, though the quote itself may have been greatly exaggerated. The same can certainly be said about the fate of a hiker in upstate New York. Two hikers in New York's Adirondack Mountains called 911 to report a third member of their party had died, but it turned out they had taken hallucinogenic mushrooms and were mistaken, officials said Wednesday. A state forest ranger responded to a call Saturday about a hiker who had reportedly died on Cascade Mountain, a popular summit in the Adirondack High Peaks, the Department of Environmental Conservation said in a news release. The two hikers who called 911 also told a steward on the mountain's summit that they were lost. The steward "determined the hikers were in an altered mental state," according to the agency. The supposedly dead person called and was not injured. The ranger escorted the two hikers down to an ambulance, which took them to a hospital, and brought the third to the group's campsite, where they all later met up, officials said.
Indian Express
6 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
From Kargil to Operation Sindoor, India has scored its point — without escalation
'History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.' — Mark Twain No two operations are fought under similar circumstances, or fought alike. There would be many differences: the Geopolitical environment, the will of the leadership in power and new weapons and equipment, which give rise to new tactics, strategies and doctrines. India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in May 1998. The 'nuclear haves' of the world condemned it and called us 'irresponsible', 'rogue' nations. On February 21, 1999, the prime ministers of India and Pakistan signed the Lahore Declaration. They committed to 'peaceful co-existence', 'responsibility to avoid conflict keeping in view the nuclear dimension', and to 'refrain from intervention and interference in each other's internal affairs'. Three months later, even before new nuclear doctrines were evolved, Pakistan violated the LoC to occupy the heights in the Dras-Kargil-Siachen sectors. The Pakistan army used the 'jihadi façade', not its 'sponsored proxies'. Our intelligence and surveillance systems failed to detect the intrusion, which added to the political and military surprise. In Operation Vijay, the political mandate to the armed forces was to throw the enemy out of our territory, but not to cross the LoC or international border, primarily due to nuclear fears and international disapproval. In Operation Vijay, the armed forces were poorly equipped. There was no Chief of Defence Staff, nor any integrated systems like the Integrated Air Defence Command and Control System, which exist today. However, at the operational level, the Army, Navy and Air Force did manage to coordinate their activities. But when the armed forces were on top of the conflict situation, India's political leadership decided to accept Pakistan's offer of a ceasefire. Soon after Operation Vijay, I was invited to address a seminar organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. I made the following points. One, due to the nuclear factor, economic considerations, risk of high casualties and international pressure, there is a greater likelihood of limited conventional wars in the future. A limited conventional war would be limited in time, geographical area, utilisation of force levels or weaponry. There is space available below the nuclear threshold for such wars. Two, surprise and unpredictability are basic elements of a war. A limited conventional war does not mean limited capabilities. It refers to the use of those capabilities. Three, a war can be kept limited with credible deterrence. There is a linkage between credible deterrence, escalation dominance and escalation control. Four, in any future conflict, a synergised politico-military-diplomatic approach is essential for monitoring and continuous assessment. Ever since the Kargil War, there has been much discussion on the nature of conflicts below the nuclear and conventional war threshold. A new term, grey-zone warfare, has emerged — it is described as a form of conflict that operates below the threshold of traditional warfare, utilising a combination of military and non-military tools, including state-sponsored proxies, to achieve strategic objectives without triggering an open war. It is characterised by ambiguity, deniability, and the use of unconventional tactics like cyberattacks, economic coercion, and disinformation campaigns. Briefly, the key characteristics of grey-zone warfare are: One, aggressors employ non-military or less kinetic tools which may not justify a military response; two, actions may take years, thus reducing opportunities for decisive counter-responses; three, the aggressor evades accountability, making it difficult to pinpoint responsibility and formulate responses. In the past 25 years, Pakistan has avoided a conventional or limited conventional war. But it has continued to use its sponsored proxies (like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed) as an instrument of state policy. After the terror attack on Uri Camp in 2016, the Indian leadership, with superior kinetic capability at its disposal, dropped strategic restraint. The Army carried out a shallow 'surgical strike' across the LoC. In 2019, after the horrific incident in Pulwama, India took yet another step forward. The Air Force struck Jaish's training camp at Balakot deep inside Pakistan. As the targets were terrorist camps, these responses, although provocative, were pitched as non-escalatory. The Pahalgam attack of April 22 hurt the very soul of India. It was impossible for the Indian government not to respond. In addition to several non-military steps, Operation Sindoor, with strong political resolve and the latest defence capabilities, was launched on May 7 to destroy nine terror camps across Pakistan. India made it known that this was a measured, non-escalatory response. When Pakistan escalated the situation and targeted India's civil and military installations, Indian forces neutralised the Pakistani offensive and took the next step in escalation dominance. Eleven military installations utilised for escalation by Pakistan were destroyed with precision. And then Pakistan called for a ceasefire. It would be foolhardy to ignore the spectre of a nuclear war in the Subcontinent and assume that the nuclear factor plays no role in limited conventional or grey-zone operations. Nuclear weapons remain a significant escalatory cap that demands close monitoring of the escalatory ladder. The soldiers in us may not appreciate having to give up the opportunity to exploit and strike further when the forces are in an advantageous position. But responsible political leadership, understandably, is less prone to take a nuclear risk. Another problem here is Pakistan's nuclear bogey and attempt to blackmail. It makes the international community sit up and intervene. During Operation Vijay, US President Bill Clinton used the nuclear factor to arm-twist Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Sharif succumbed. Vajpayee did not. During Operation Sindoor, US Vice President J D Vance warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi about Pakistan's preparation for escalation. In both situations, India kept its cool, controlled escalation diplomatically and militarily, and achieved its political goal. Lesson: Escalation control requires a confident understanding of the adversary's escalation thresholds. The writer is a former Chief of Army Staff
