Author: Saliya Weerakoon

Going to a nativity play, carol concert or church service this Christmas? Then you can almost guarantee that O Little Town of Bethlehem will be scheduled for lusty congregational singing. Its tune feels as old as time, and in many ways it is, but we might never have known it – and a host of other seasonal melodies – without the dedicated research of early-20th century folk-song collectors such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Cecil Sharp and Ella Mary Leather. It was urgent work. The sweeping social changes caused by the industrial revolution in the 19th century had decimated the folk culture of the British…

How does one man consistently get it right in Earth’s most unpredictable political stage play? Meet Allan J. Lichtman, a historian with a seemingly magical Midas touch who has been calling US Presidential Elections with eerie accuracy since 1984. While most political pundits and pollsters scramble to keep up with the tides of public opinion, Lichtman calmly unveils the future, his predictions as steady as a seasoned fortune teller’s gaze into a crystal ball. But how does he do it? Is he a modern-day Nostradamus, gifted with supernatural foresight, or is something deeper at play here? Lichtman’s method Lichtman’s method,…