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The French Revolution remains one of the most talked-about episodes in world history. A republic was declared after the overthrow of despot Louis the Sixteenth. To thwart counter-revolution, the new regime waged a Reign of Terror across France. Historian Marisa Linton says, “For the first time in history terror became … official government policy.”

Scotland was once a sovereign nation. How did they lose their independence? Because of a dumb idea.

Charles Darwin's evolution by natural selection is the unifying theory of biology, with powerful explanatory value. Unfortunately, it was coopted soon after its debut in 1859. The problem is called social Darwinism.

The fleecing of America: boondoggles, overbudget, behind schedule, cost over-runs. Government contractors wasting taxpayer money. A commonly-told folly is NASA’s million-dollar space pen. Have you heard this one? Author Gary Goodman says: “Astronauts didn't have a pen that could write [in zero-gravity.] NASA invested upward of $1 million to devise a pen that could. [The Russians] faced the same problem, but … solved it for less than a dollar. They decided to use a pencil.” But the million-dollar space pen is not today’s dumb idea. What’s dumb is that this entire story is a myth.