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"There can be no doubt that the twentieth century is one of the most remarkable in human history for its previously unparalleled rate of technological advances and scientific discoveries, a rate that continues to this day. In fact, there were so many new gadgets invented and discoveries made in the last century that it's difficult to pare the list down to just the ten (which is why there will be a number of glaring omissions from my list). However, I think I have managed to whittle it down to those ten innovations or technologies that have had the greatest influence on humanity-both positively and the negatively. And so, without further ado and in no particular order, here are my nominees for the ten greatest inventions/discoveries of the twentieth century:"

"Top 10 Greatest Inventions of the 19th Century"

"Top 10 Inventions of the 21st Century"

"Alors que le débat sur le port du voile en France bat son plein, Leyla Belkaïd, designer spécialiste de la mode du monde méditerranéen, analyse le regard qu'on porte sur la burqa. Quelle est la place de la burqa dans l'islam? Le voile intégral correspond à une perception identitaire très forte mais erronée. La burqa telle qu'on la voit en France est la forme asiatique du voile intégral. Elle n'a jamais été portée au Maghreb avant aujourd'hui. Le voile intégral n'est pas islamique, le porter n'est donc pas un "retour aux sources", contrairement à ce que pensent les gens. Faire de la burqa un élément d'identité et un symbole de l'islam est très récent. C'est une invention contemporaine. "

Welcome to European History Primary Sources (EHPS), an index of scholarly websites that offer online access to digitised primary sources on the history of Europe. The websites listed on EHPS are not only meta-sources but also include invented archives and born digital sources. Each website that is listed in EHPS has a short description and is categorised according to country, language, period, subject and type of source. The portal can be searched in a variety of ways. The listed websites can be accessed for free, though sometimes a registration is required. EHPS is a work in progress and new content is regularly added. In order to stay updated on new entries or specific categories in which you are interested it is possible to subscribe to RSS feeds or to follow EHPS on Twitter.

"With the help of enhanced imagery and an expert in Elizabethan script, archaeologists are beginning to unravel the meaning of mysterious text and images etched into a rare 400-year-old slate tablet discovered this past summer at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America. Digitally enhanced images of the slate are helping to isolate inscriptions and illuminate fine details on the slate-the first with extensive inscriptions discovered at any early American colonial site, said William Kelso, director of research and interpretation at the 17th-century Historic Jamestowne site (Jamestown map). (Explore an interactive guide to colonial Jamestown.) The enhancements have helped researchers identify a 16th-century writing style used on the slate and discern new symbols, researchers announced last week. The characters may be from an obscure Algonquian Indian alphabet created by an English scientist to help explorers pronounce the language spoken by the Virginia Indians. "Just like finding the Rosetta Stone led to a better understanding of the Egyptians, this tablet is beginning to add significantly to our understanding of the earliest years at Jamestown," Kelso said. It conveys messages about literacy, art, symbols and signs personally communicated by the colonists who used it, he explained. "What other single artifact has been found that has so much to tell?" Both sides of the scratched and worn 5-by-8 inch (13-by-20 centimeter) tablet are covered with words, symbols, numbers, and drawings of people, plants, and birds that its owner or other users likely encountered in the New World. There are differences in the style of handwriting, which may mean that more than one person used the tablet as a sketch pad and possibly for writing rough drafts of documents, Kelso noted. Enhanced Images To help researchers decipher the inscriptions, curators at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum Conservation Institute recently produced enhanced images

"Dias de vinho e rosas. Dias de cão. Dias de geada e de neve. Dias de-mentes. Dias sem fim. Em 1957 eu tinha a vida cheia. Cursava o segundo ano de engenharia, trabalhava na Gazeta do Povo, era correspondente da Associated Press, funcionário do Governo Lupion, fazia o serviço militar no CPOR (Centro de Pre­­paração de Oficiais da Reserva), estudava saxofone, alemão e japonês, já tendo concluído a Cultura Inglesa e a Aliança Fran­­cesa. Ainda sobrava tempo para audições de jazz, papos literários até alta madrugada, serenatas, bailes bem comportados com donzelas da sociedade e perversas paixões em inferninhos com damas da noite. A equipe da Gazeta do Povo, disposta em várias camadas etárias, era um corte transversal na sociedade curitibana. Um médico assinava a coluna social; um velho escritor era nosso gramático-mor ("Nunca escreva: 'João, morreu'. Com esta vírgula separando sujeito e predicado ele não vai morrer nunca!"); um cirurgião-dentista, na verdade protético, escrevia crôni­cas; havia um repórter policial que - elementar, meu caro - trabalhava na polícia; e um repórter esportivo cuja família fabricava aguardente. Mas a força da redação era um grupo de jovens estudantes de advocacia, brilhantes e competitivos; o Newton (Stadler de Sou­za), o Daquino Borges, o Nacim Bacila Neto, o Orlando Soares Carbonar, que ocuparia o Pa­­lazzo Doria Pamphili, na Piazza Navona, como embaixador do Brasil em Roma. Na ala caçula, éramos eu, o Carlos Au­­gusto Cavalcanti de Al­bu­quer­­que e colegas de outros jornais, o Adherbal Fortes de Sá Júnior e o Sylvio Back, que se tornaria o cineasta mais polêmico do Brasil. Munidos de armas mágicas como o lide e o sublide, íamos revolucionar a imprensa. Dias daltônicos. Ou melhor, noites. Ninguém costuma fazer hora ou puxar conversa num escritório de engenharia, numa agência de banco ou num consultório médico. Mas não há quem resista a uma redação. A da Gazeta e

10 invenções que você não sabia que existia

"O professor Anízio Alves da Silva, de 83 anos, gosta de se apresentar como um pioneiro. Ele integrou a primeira turma formada no ginasial de Londrina; esteve entre os formandos do primeiro grupo do colegial do atual Colégio Estadual do Paraná, em Curitiba; e foi o vendedor da primeira Frigidaire adquirida por dona Hilda - ou seria a primeira geladeira do Norte do estado, o que é difícil saber, já que a memória, por vezes, não ajuda mais. "

"Nombre de nations revendiquent l'invention du football : les Italiens et plus particulièrement les Florentins, avec le calcio, jeu traditionnel très violent, les Français avec la soule qui se jouait, là aussi avec brutalité, entre villages, mais c'est incontestablement l'Angleterre qui a vu naître le jeu, au moins sous sa forme moderne."

"Archaeologists excavate the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site in Israel in an undated photo. Photograph courtesy Gonen Sharon, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Mati Milstein in Tel Aviv, Israel for National Geographic News January 12, 2009 It's long been thought that so-called modern human behavior first arose during the middle Stone Age, in "modern" humans-Homo sapiens. But a new study suggests modern living may have originated roughly 500,000 years earlier-courtesy of one of our hairy, heavy-browed ancestor species. At the prehistoric Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site in northern Israel, researchers have found the earliest known evidence of social organization, communication, and divided living and working spaces-all considered hallmarks of modern human behavior. The former hunter-gatherer encampment dates back as far as 750,000 years ago, and must have been built by Homo erectus or another ancestral human species, archaeologists say. Homo sapiens-our own species-emerged only about a couple hundred thousand years ago, fossil record suggest. At the site, researchers found artifacts including hand axes, chopping tools, scrapers, hammers and awls, animal bones, and botanical remains buried in distinct areas. "Different tasks"-from nut processing to seafood preparation-"were taking place in different locations in the site," said archaeologist Naama Goren-Inbar, who led the excavation. "The modification of basalt tools was done in proximity to the fireplace but, on the other hand, flint [sharpening] was done on the other end of the site in association with where we found a lot of fish teeth," said Goren-Inbar, of Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology in Mount Scopus, Israel. Traditionally, the search for the earliest signs of modern human behavior has focused on Homo sapiens sites from the middle Stone Age (roughly 300,000 to 50,000 years ago), due to the preponderance of evidence found at them in the past. (Related: "Prehistoric Bones Point to F

"JD Salinger, Saul Bellow and Norman Mailer were all devotees of the orgone energy accumulator, nicknamed by Woody Allen the 'Orgasmatron'. Its inventor, Wilhelm Reich, claimed that better orgasms could cure society's ills"