Articles by James Fite

Whether it’s the every-four-year presidential election or the so-called “midterms” that fall every two years between them, or even odd-year elections that barely make the news, the general election in November is usually the one most of the nation pays… Read More

If Sumerian was the language of the first civilizations and Akkadian of the first empire, then Aramaic can best be described as the first worldwide language. It may not get quite the same amount of attention as Greek or Latin… Read More

The first fully developed writing system appeared in history along with the oldest known spoken language – but it lasted much longer. The earliest known language is Sumerian, and the wedge-like characters the Sumerian people scratched onto clay tablets were… Read More

What was the first language? The answer to that question is difficult at best and perhaps impossible at worst. But historians have some good guesses. We simply can’t know or really describe any spoken language before writing started – no… Read More

Have you ever wondered why we say cows and pigs roam the pastures, but they’re beef and pork on the plate? How about why we treat various animals differently when it comes to plurals – three birds, two fish, and… Read More

Just after 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 25, a private tutor from California who had traveled to Washington, DC, tried to kill President Donald Trump and members of his administration. This year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner was the first… Read More

Unlike chemistry and astronomy, archaeology isn’t a physical science. It’s considered one of the humanities. In many ways, it’s more of an art, though it does require the use of techniques spanning multiple hard sciences. Archaeologists excavate (a fancy word… Read More

On April 1, 2026, the Artemis II mission – the first manned trip to the moon since 1972 – launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, FL. There won’t be any landing on the lunar surface until the… Read More

Today, astronomy is one of the core branches of physical science, focusing on the study of objects in space and the vast universe beyond Earth. But long before human eyes ever peered through the first telescope lenses, they gazed upward… Read More

Today, chemistry is one of the core branches of physical science, the segment of natural science that doesn’t focus on living organisms. Like the other sciences, it relies upon tested observations and experiments, aims for unbiased analysis to get at… Read More

How many planets are in our solar system, and what is the one farthest out? The answers  may reveal your age, because things changed after Aug. 24, 2006. On that day, the answers became eight – and Neptune is the… Read More

The eighth planet from our sun, Neptune, is a giant swirly ball of ice and wind, unlike any other world in our solar system. So much remains unknown about what is now considered the most distant planet in our system…. Read More