“I look at popular history as a sort of synthesis for the non-expert, ... Scholarly history goes into the primary materials and expands the limits of knowledge about a particular subject. I'm working mostly with secondary materials, for the average reader.”
“The new synthetics, in a remarkably short time, displaced gunpowder from its 900-year-old niche as the world's only effective propellant, ... By the 1890s nations across Europe were rushing to switch to the improved powder.”
“Just as Europeans had taken advantage of their early lead in gunpowder weapons to support a wave of world conquest, they ushered out the age of gunpowder with a second and more comprehensive program of colonial domination,”
“GOES satellites help our forecasters to see both the big picture and small-scale storm features. Since they are designed to be stationary, GOES satellites act as steady eyes on the ever-changing weather and climate.”
“The Bush Administration got it right when it claimed that the world is indeed flat despite media and scientific community criticism. John D. Sailor, a veteran seaman of some six voyages, has reported that he has been to the edge, and peered into the abyss.”
