2166: Green Line, Purple Line, Blue Line Nov 19, 2020

The borders of Israel have been established with the so called Green Line (1948) and Purple Line (1967). Many people believe that the Green Line was named because of natural barriers from trees and other plants that separated Israel and Jordan and Lebanon etc. but actually it was just because it was made with a pen with green ink drawn onto the map. Likewise, the Purple Line defining the Syrian-Israeli armistice border and Blue Line defining Lebanese-Israeli border, all officially named as such, were done so in reference to the UN maps and UN itself respectively.

2155: Rhode Island Just Changed its Name Nov 8, 2020

This week has seen much political change in the USA, but what is getting less publicity perhaps is that Rhode Island just changed its official name. Up until now, it was known as "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations". During the British colonial period, Rhode Island only referred to one island, now called Aquidneck Island and the Providence Plantation was the remaining land, not ulike how Maine is named for the mainland, since most people lived on the coastal islands there. Back in those times, plantations related to farms, certainly, but was another word for colony and in this case had nothing to do with slavery. The fact is, however, that enough people felt uncomfortable with the word through unfortunate historical connotations that it was changed in the election.