NEWS HEADLINES
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South Carolina elects Democratic senator for first time in almost three decades
Annie Andrews is projected to defeat Darline Graham, who was handpicked by President Trump to take her brother's seat after his death. read more
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James Talarico becomes first Democrat to win Texas Senate seat since 1988
"This wasn't just a tsunami, not just a referendum, but this was a bloodbath," one expert told the BBC on Democrats' historic wins in Texas. read more
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Florida Republicans fend off Democrats as state elects first black governor
Republican Byron Donalds, who was backed by President Donald Trump, will be the first black governor of Florida. read more
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Delhi air quality worsens ahead of Diwali as firework restrictions enter force
On Wednesday morning, Delhi's air quality index reading stood at 377, in the "very poor" category. read more
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ANC under pressure to reverse South Africa decline
As South Africans vote in local elections, residents tell the BBC they are tired of the poor quality of services they get. read more
BIOGRAPHY
Stephen Jay Gould was born and raised in the community of Bayside, a neighborhood of the northeastern section of Queens in New York City. His father Leonard was a court stenographer, and his mother Eleanor was an artist whose parents were Jewish immigrants living and working in the city’s Garment District.[6] When Gould was five years old his father took him to the Hall of Dinosaurs in the American Museum of Natural History, where he first encountered Tyrannosaurus rex. “I had no idea there were such thingsāI was awestruck,” Gould once recalled.[7] It was in that moment that he decided to become a paleontologist.
Raised in a secular Jewish home, Gould did not formally practice religion and preferred to be called an agnostic. Biologist Jerry Coyne, who had Gould on his thesis committee, described him as a “diehard atheist if there ever was one.

