Janey Cotton's recent and riveting book "The Austerity Olympics" describes a country and a sports culture that would seem primitive not only to Jessica Ennis, Britain's 2012 heptathlete hopeful, but also to Milo of Croton, who won six titles at consecutive Olympics in the sixth century BC.

WSJ: Social Media

The researchers showed that it could be used to grow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), a kind of primitive cell derived from bone marrow that can be easily grown in culture.

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Professor ROBIN MOORE (Author, Music and Revolution): The revolution was trying to sort of create the most educated population they possibly could, and people associated hand-drumming and African traditions with kind of crass, primitive, somewhat barbaric forms of expression that just weren't the highest kinds of culture around.

NPR: Pianist Returns to Cuba's Forbidden Music