Eyam and “the last great visitation”

The last great apes?

F orty years ago, adolescent Figan set off confidently into the woods of Tanzania as though he knew of a food source even richer than the bananas near Jane Goodall's camp. Older and stronger chimpanzees would follow him away. Then he'd lose them and circle back to gorge himself on bananas. One day, a high-ranking male turned up in the meantime and sat eating, in full possession of the site. Whe...

Influenza: The Last Great Plague

This modest volume well accomplishes the objectives set out for it by its author in the preface, namely, "to interest and enlighten the general reader, and to provide the doctor, reseerch virologist, and public health authority with a panoramic view of the epidemic behavior of influenza from the earliest historical records to the latest research." The author is a distinguished veterinarian in i...

The last act of a great CEO.

No one is in a better position to get an incoming CEO up to speed than his or her predecessor, whose insights and accumulated wisdom are uniquely valuable during the transition and even beyond. The outgoing leader can provide information about the expectations of high-ranking employees; short-term opportunities ripe for harvesting; how the board and others perceive the newcomer's reputation or ...

The last great subsistence crisis in the Western world

The last illness of Herod the Great, king of Judaea.

NTRODUCTION FOR most of us living in the second half of the twentieth century, Herod the Great remains a shadowy figure who is recalled only at Christmas when we read of his massacre of the innocents (Matt. 2:16). He is even confused with Herod Agrippa who persecuted the Church and also died a miserable death (Acts 12:23). Our ancestors, however, were better informed since they often kept, on t...