Brit-Am Historical Reports (24 April 2017, 28 Nisan, 5777)
Contents:
1. Jews and France: 11 Interesting Facts by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller [Brief Extracts]
2. Britain is Still a World Power! by Kevin Bartlett
3. Left-Handed US Presidents
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1. Jews and France: 11 Interesting Facts by Dr. Yvette Alt Miller [Brief Extracts]
http://www.aish.com/jw/s/Jews-and-France-11-Interesting-Facts.html?s=mm
Extracts:
Following the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, and the introduction of the Inquisition into Portugal in 1536, some Jews fled to the French town of Bayonne [southwest france], near the Spanish-French border. There, they used their contacts with Jewish traders in the New World to import materials and know-how to process cocoa, a New World product which was just starting to take Europe by storm.
Bayonne Jews adapted cocoa recipes to European tastes, creating sweet versions of chocolate and using additives like milk, butter and nuts. Jews built the Bayonne area into a chocolate center, but their very success undid them: once local Christians learned how to make chocolates too, they petitioned local authorities to ban Jews from the chocolate industry....
Although Jews were banned from France for many years after the 14th Century, by the 1700s about 40,000 Jews lived in France, particularly in Bordeaux and Avignon, which never formally expelled their Jewish inhabitants.
These 40,000 Jews became the first Jews in European history to gain full and equal rights with the French Revolution. The decision wasn't easy: France's new rulers deliberated for over two years about whether they should extend their new regime's ideal of 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' to Jews. When they did, in 1791, it was seemingly with some regret: The Jews explained a leading revolutionary, "conscious of the error of their ways, have felt the need for a fatherland; we have offered them ours."
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2. Britain is Still a World Power! by Kevin Bartlett
What year did Great Britain effectively stop being a superpower?
https://www.quora.com/What-year-did-Great-Britain-effectively-stop-being-a-superpower
Kevin Bartlett, Associate Professor at Moscow State Linguistic University (2013-present)
Written Mar 27
Researchers claim the UK is the 'second most powerful country' in the world behind the United States - and could even win in war against China and Russia.
It has been named the world's only global power with the US named as the only super power by European Geostrategy.
The study will surprise many, with countries usually considered world giants, like China and Russia, only being given the label 'regional powers'.
They were joined by nations such as France, India and Germany.
European Geostrategy said being a global power meant the UK was: 'A country lacking the heft or comprehensive attributes of a superpower, but still with a wide international footprint and [military] means to reach most geopolitical theatres, particularly the Middle East, South-East Asia, East Asia, Africa and South America.'
It said the UK's military was 'comprehensive, advanced and diverse' and a major participant in NATO and other coalition operations.
Meanwhile, Britain continues to hold overseas defence bases at Ascension Island, Belize, Brunei, Canada, Diego Garcia, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Kenya, Bahrain and Cyprus.
Alongside that, the UK still maintains nuclear weapons and its defence budget ranks fifth or sixth in the world.
In briefing paper in 2011, Professor Malcolm Chalmers, director of UK Defence Policy Studies at the Royal United Services Institute said: "The UK will never again be a member of the select club of global superpowers.
"Indeed it has not been one for decades. But currently planned levels of defence spending should be enough for it to maintain its position as one of the world's five second-rank military powers (with only the US in the first rank), as well as being (with France) one of NATO-Europe's two leading military powers.
"Its edge, not least its qualitative edge, in relation to rising Asian powers seems set to erode, but will remain significant well into the 2020's, and possibly beyond."
Britain is also understood to score highly in the Chinese 'Comprehensive National Power' ranking system.CNP measures hard and soft - cultural - power as well as economic and military clout.
However the system is flawed as it does not take into account the fact that while China, for example, has a larger military force than the UK, it does not have the 'logistical capability to deploy, support and sustain those forces overseas in large numbers', wrote the UK Defence Journal .
It added that the UK has greater capability than China - which is focusing its defences more locally at present - for operating at range.
We may not be a Super power, but we are still the one and only Global power.
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3. Left-Handed US Presidents
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(a) The List
How many US Presidents were lefthanded? - Quora
https://www.quora.com/How-many-US-Presidents-were-lefthanded
James A. Garfield. Actually, Garfield was ambidexterous, and claimed he could write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other.
Herbert Hoover.
Harry S. Truman.
Gerald Ford.
Ronald Reagan.
George H.W. Bush.
Bill Clinton.
Barack Obama
Left-handed people are over-represented in politics, at least in the U.S., though why that's true remains a mystery.
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(b) Additional Points of Interest
Left-Hand Qualities?
Which Presidents Were Left Handed?
http://biography.yourdictionary.com/articles/which-presidents-were-left-handed.html#sbw2C8gSkvwO3HWs.99
While tracing the left handedness of presidents past the 20th century is rather difficult, in the recent years an overwhelming number of the country's leaders have been lefties.
Of the country's last 14 presidents, seven have been either left handed or ambidextrous, making for 50%. Estimates for the number of right handed people in the world range from 75% to 90%. In either case, the number of presidents who were lefties does not match those statistics.
According to geneticist Amar Klar, Ph.D., at the National Cancer Institute who studied the issue, many Nobel Prize winners, artists, and writers are left handed, thereby indicating that lefties may indeed have a broader ability of thought. He also states that people who are either ambidextrous or left-handed are generally able to engage in more intense and complicated thought.
Either Way a Lefite would Reign!
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/famous-lefties/
Interestingly enough, Senator John McCain is also left-handed. So either way the 2004 election had gone, a lefty would have been Commander-in-Chief.
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(c) Before you get Jealous!
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23988352
So the idea that left-handers die nine years earlier than right-handers is a myth....
"There is some evidence that left-handers are more likely to have minor accidents," says Chris McManus.
"But it's pretty insubstantial and I doubt if it's affecting the mortality rate very much at all."
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