Tucker, Snake Hips (1905–1937), dancer, was born Earl Tucker, probably in Maryland. Little is known about Tucker’s parents and early life, and most of what is known of his later career is owed to the efforts of jazz scholars Marshall Stearns and Jean Stearns. Tucker is said to have arrived in New York City as a child. By the mid-1920s he was dancing regularly at Connie’s Inn, a Harlem nightclub that catered to whites. By that time Tucker had already begun to work out his signature dance style and had acquired the nickname “Snake Hips,” the name of an old hip-grinding dance. He was also renowned for making women in the audience scream and swoon with his steamy, erotic movements, which were wholly original and utterly inimitable....
James, Leon (27 April 1913–30 July 1970), and Albert Minns (01 January 1920–24 April 1985), dancers, were born in New York City and Newport News, Virginia, respectively. James was the son of West Indian parents. He lived in New Jersey from about 1924 to about 1929, when he moved to New York City and began dancing socially in Harlem at the dances for teenagers at the Alhambra Ballroom above the Alhambra Theatre. Around 1933 he began to dance at the Savoy Ballroom on Lenox Avenue, the citadel of Lindy Hopping in New York City. There he became a member of a social club called the Jolly Fellows, which included first-generation Lindy Hoppers Shorty Snowden and Herbert “Whitey” White. When the latter began organizing a team of youngsters to perform the Lindy Hop in local clubs, theaters, and talent contests, James was among the first and most agile....
Rector, Eddie (25 Dec. late 1890s–1962), dancer, was born in Orange, New Jersey, and moved to Philadelphia about age seven. His parents’ names are unknown. He never studied dancing but began performing while still a child behind Mayme Remington, a former French burlesque dancer turned headliner, as one of her “picks” (pickaninnies, or black children who sang and danced to accompany white stars). Rector first acquired a reputation in the stage show ...
Nugent, Pete (16 July 1909–1973), tap dancer, was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Richard Nugent, a Howard University graduate and Pullman porter who later ran an elevator in the White House, and Pauline (maiden name unknown), who had attended Miner Teachers’ College. Around 1920 the family moved to New York City, where he attended DeWitt Clinton High School. A poor student, Nugent was frequently tardy and truant; he quit school by the age of sixteen. He found work in the chorus of the TOBA circuit, the show-business circuit in the South and Midwest, headquartered in Nashville. This circuit was for black performers roughly what vaudeville houses were for whites, and it provided work for a number of black entertainers before it died out during the depression. The acronym stands for Theatre Owners’ Booking Association, but because of the pitiful pay scale it was universally said to stand for “Tough On Black Ass.” Many black acts got their starts on TOBA; if they were well received, they would move to Keith, another circuit, the peak of achievement for vaudeville performers, which did two or three shows a day in major cities....
This article, the second in a series about the Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765), traces his education from his arrival in Moscow in 1731 to study at the Slavo-Greco-Latin Academy, through his admission to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1736, to his trip abroad to complete his educational studies from 1736 to 1741. Lomonosov's story during this time opens a vista on the introduction of modern physics and modern science into Russia. Michael D. Gordin has argued that Peter the Great's plans to Westernize Russia were more broadly conceived than he is usually credited, with ambitions that exceeded mere utilitarian and pragmatic goals. Lomonosov's career trajectory is a good example, illustrating how different aspects of the Petrine vision intersected with and reinforced each other. The article ends with Lomonosov's return to Russia from Germany in 1741, an important landmark in the growth of the Academy and of Russian science. Comment: 48 pages, 14 figures
Literature/writing, Radiation, Background, and Background radiation
Abstract
MIDNIGHT IN CHERNOBYL The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster By Adam Higginbotham MANUAL FOR SURVIVAL A Chernobyl Guide to the Future By Kate Brown Catastrophes happen when […]
Arendt’s explorations of the dynamics of politics, facts, and truth in the public sphere contain important insights into the authority of science and science denial. This article reviews and contextualizes Arendt’s views on modern science and technology, discusses her views on authority, and identifies some insights that her writings provide on the dynamics of science denial. Arendt’s writings point to another possible source of authority besides Weber’s three categories (traditional, legal-rational, charismatic), based on a relationship between ruler and ruled that precedes the issuance of commands. Her writings help clarify what makes scientific findings vulnerable to denial, expose some of the specific tactics of science denial, and include some clues for what it would take to keep the public space open, and to nourish the compelling element that would have to underlie scientific authority.
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