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Contrary to somewhat popular belief, Chinese characters aren’t just little pictures. In fact, most of them aren’t pictures at all. The very oldest, whose evolution can be traced back to the “oracle bone” script of thirteenth century BC etched directly onto the remains of turtles and oxen, do bear traces of their pictograph ancestors. But […]
5 days ago

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More from Open Culture

The Ark Before Noah: Discover the Ancient Flood Myths That Came Before the Bible

The Lord said to Noah, there’s going to be a floody, floody; then to get those children out of the muddy, muddy; then to build him an arky, arky. This much we heard while toasting marshmallows around the campfire, at least if we grew up in a certain modern Protestant tradition. As adults, we may […]

23 hours ago 2 votes
William Faulkner’s Review of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (1952)

Images via Wikimedia Commons In the mid-20th century, the two big dogs in the American literary scene were William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. Both were internationally revered, both were masters of the novel and the short story, and both won Nobel Prizes. Born in Mississippi, Faulkner wrote allegorical histories of the South in a style […]

yesterday 2 votes
What the World Will Look Like in 250 Million Years: Mapping the Distant Future

Most of us now accept the idea that all of Earth’s continents were once part of a single, enormous land mass. That wasn’t the case in the early nineteen-tens, when the geologist Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) first publicized his theory of not just the supercontinent Pangea, but also of the phenomenon of continental drift that caused […]

2 days ago 3 votes
What Was Smoot-Hawley, and Why Are We Doing It Again? Anyone? Anyone?

When most Americans think of the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs, they think of economic disaster. But if you ask why, most Americans may need a short refresher course. Below, you will find just that. Appearing on Derek Thompson’s Plain History podcast, Douglas Irwin (an economist and historian at Dartmouth) revisits the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised […]

2 days ago 3 votes

More in history

Submarine USS Dolphin

The submarine USS Dolphin was specially built as a test-bed for deep-diving designs. At the outbreak of the Second World War, a typical submarine or u-boat was capable of diving to a maximum depth of round 250 feet. By the time the war ended, advanced models like the American Tench class could reach depths of 450 … Continue reading Submarine USS Dolphin →

19 hours ago 3 votes
What Is This "War" Of Which You Speak?

Do we mean what they mean?

2 hours ago 2 votes
The Ark Before Noah: Discover the Ancient Flood Myths That Came Before the Bible

The Lord said to Noah, there’s going to be a floody, floody; then to get those children out of the muddy, muddy; then to build him an arky, arky. This much we heard while toasting marshmallows around the campfire, at least if we grew up in a certain modern Protestant tradition. As adults, we may […]

23 hours ago 2 votes
The Mercedes-Benz 190 SL Assembly Line, February 1958

In February 1958, production was underway on the Mercedes-Benz 190 SL open-topped sports car. Made between May 1955 and February 1963, and known by the company as W121, the 190 SL roadster made its debut at the 1954 New York Auto Show at Madison Square Garden (February 6 – 14, 1954). Production began a … Continue reading "The Mercedes-Benz 190 SL Assembly Line, February 1958" The post The Mercedes-Benz 190 SL Assembly Line, February 1958 appeared first on Flashbak.

18 hours ago 1 votes
The World of Homer

Classical Wisdom Litterae

19 hours ago 1 votes