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TheCollector
How to Become an Immortal in Greek Mythology (6 Myths) Greek mythology focused on the deeds of gods and semi-divine heroes, with most of the humans who got...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
Greek mythology focused on the deeds of gods and semi-divine heroes, with most of the humans who got caught up in their escapades coming to a bad end. But some mortals made such an impression during their short lives that they were given a place in the heavens and made immortal....
TheCollector
10 Must-Visit Museums in Texas Texas preserves its past in ways that reflect the scale and complexity of the state itself. From the...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Texas preserves its past in ways that reflect the scale and complexity of the state itself. From the borderlands to the Gulf, and from the Hill Country to the Panhandle, its history includes Indigenous nations, Spanish colonization, independence from Mexico, statehood, war,...
Flashbak
The Wrong Side and The Right Side (of History) – Albert Camus On Being ‘Human and Simple’ “I do not want to choose between the right and wrong sides of the world, and I do not like a choice...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
“I do not want to choose between the right and wrong sides of the world, and I do not like a choice to be made. People don’t want one to be lucid and ironic. They say: ‘It shows you’re not nice.’ I can’t see how this follows.” – Albert Camus, The Wrong and the Right … Continue...
TheCollector
The Roman Kings Who Ruled Rome Before the Republic Rome was famous for rejecting the idea of kingship. For almost 500 years, Rome was a staunch...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
Rome was famous for rejecting the idea of kingship. For almost 500 years, Rome was a staunch Republic, with rules in place to prevent any one man from gaining too much power. When Julius Caesar found himself king in all-but-name in 44 BCE, he was killed for it by his fellow...
Overcoming Bias
Should I Be Clearly Conservative? A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is...
4 months ago
32
4 months ago
A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it. ― William F.
Open Culture
When Neapolitans Used to Eat Pasta with Their Bare Hands: Watch Footage from 1903 Even if you don’t speak Italian, you can make a decent guess at the meaning of the word...
7 months ago
40
7 months ago
Even if you don’t speak Italian, you can make a decent guess at the meaning of the word mangiamaccheroni. The tricky bit is that maccheroni refers not to the pasta English-speakers today call macaroni, tubular and cut into small curved sections, but to pasta in general. Or at...
TheCollector
4 Infamous Rulers of the Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire dominated the landscape of the ancient Near East from 911 BCE until its fall...
a month ago
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a month ago
The Neo-Assyrian Empire dominated the landscape of the ancient Near East from 911 BCE until its fall in 609 BCE. The Old Assyrian period saw the Assyrian city-state become somewhat independent around 2025 BCE, and it gradually increased in strength until its penultimate period,...
Overcoming Bias
Who You Are Vs. What You Control If people can't think clearly about anything that has become part of their identity, then all other...
10 months ago
19
10 months ago
If people can't think clearly about anything that has become part of their identity, then all other things being equal, the best plan is to let as few things into your identity as possible.
TheCollector
7 Warrior Women (Onna-Bugeisha) of Feudal Japan Medieval Japanese culture, influenced by Confucian ideals, imposed strict gender roles. While...
5 months ago
19
5 months ago
Medieval Japanese culture, influenced by Confucian ideals, imposed strict gender roles. While Japanese women had more power than their European counterparts, they were still expected to be homemakers, subservient to men. Although soldiering was a predominately male profession,...
Global Inequality...
New capitalism III: Capital Why is capital so concentrated and why so few have it?
a month ago
Wrong Side of...
The great 2024 vibe shift (and other stories) Wrong Side of History Newsletter #58
9 months ago
TheCollector
The Mind-Body Problem & Consciousness: Dualism vs. Materialism Dualism is the idea that while the body is made of physical material, the mind is made of something...
6 months ago
40
6 months ago
Dualism is the idea that while the body is made of physical material, the mind is made of something immaterial. The counterpart to this is materialism, which posits that both the mind and body are composed of the same material, physical substance. There is much more to each...
Flashbak
Fernando’s Story – The life And Times of A Boy Growing Up In NYC’s East Village in the 1970s In the mid-1970s, Rich Allen began taking pictures of children playing truant and messing about in...
a year ago
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a year ago
In the mid-1970s, Rich Allen began taking pictures of children playing truant and messing about in the empty lot a New York City’s 76 E. 3rd St. The Hell’s Angels lived directly across the street. They wanted the lot for themselves. (You can read more about that here.) One of the...
The Universe of...
Proof by insufficient information Content warning: rambly Given the coordinates of the three vertices of a triangle, can we find the...
6 months ago
16
6 months ago
Content warning: rambly Given the coordinates of the three vertices of a triangle, can we find the area? Yes. If by no other method, we can use the Pythagorean theorem to find the lengths of the edges, and then Heron's formula to compute the area from that. Now, given the...
Trying to Understand...
Stop Making Sense. There are no "why"s in our world.
a year ago
Flashbak
Painting The Celestial Afterglow after Krakatoa, 1888 On the 27th August 1883, the Krakatoa (Krakatau) volcano exploded and the sky changed colour. Lying...
a year ago
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a year ago
On the 27th August 1883, the Krakatoa (Krakatau) volcano exploded and the sky changed colour. Lying on the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung, Krakatoa was hit by a series of four massive eruptions – the equivalent to 200...
Trying to Understand...
So Where Do We Go From Here? That's a good question.
over a year ago
Classical Wisdom
Quick Notification In Search of Homer
10 months ago
History Today Feed
Spain Was Different: Tourism Under Franco Spain Was Different: Tourism Under Franco JamesHoare Thu, 08/14/2025 - 08:58
2 weeks ago
TheCollector
What We Know About Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ So Far For his next historical blockbuster, award-winning filmmaker Christopher Nolan is taking on The...
6 months ago
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6 months ago
For his next historical blockbuster, award-winning filmmaker Christopher Nolan is taking on The Odyssey. The film, set to be released next year, will likely be the most ambitious—and the most expensive—adaptation of Homer’s epic Greek poem to date. Read on to discover newly...
TheCollector
The Qin: How One Dynasty United Ancient China Few dynasties have had the cultural or historical impact that the Qin Dynasty had. China has a rich,...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Few dynasties have had the cultural or historical impact that the Qin Dynasty had. China has a rich, varied, and sometimes complex history—but it all had to start somewhere. The Qin Dynasty was ancient China’s first imperial dynasty, and its legacy meant that China would be ruled...
Flashbak
Going Underground: gasping for life on the Tokyo Subway Tokyo is busy. The city’s subway caught the eye of photographer Michael Wolf. In ‘Tokyo...
a year ago
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a year ago
Tokyo is busy. The city’s subway caught the eye of photographer Michael Wolf. In ‘Tokyo Compression’, we see people riding the trains. As he writes: “The images create a sense of discomfort as his victims attempt to squirm out of view or simply close their eyes, wishing the...
TheCollector
What 1 & 2 Kings Reveal About Power and Faith First and Second Kings are one literary work that was divided into the two books we have today when...
a month ago
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a month ago
First and Second Kings are one literary work that was divided into the two books we have today when translators rendered the Hebrew text into the Greek Septuagint. That division was carried through to the Latin Vulgate and subsequently into modern Bible translations. The...
TheCollector
The 6 Empires That Shaped the Bible Story The events recorded in the Bible cover thousands of years with thousands of proper names. One way to...
a month ago
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a month ago
The events recorded in the Bible cover thousands of years with thousands of proper names. One way to impose order on such complex material is to classify it in terms of the empires that were dominant at the time in which the major events occurred. This is an especially useful...
TheCollector
How King Arthur Proved His Right to Rule The incident of the Sword in the Stone is one of the most famous stories in the Arthurian legends....
a week ago
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a week ago
The incident of the Sword in the Stone is one of the most famous stories in the Arthurian legends. This account tells how Arthur was accepted as the rightful king of the Britons. Arthur proved his right to rule by withdrawing a special sword that had been stuck in a stone. The...
Wrong Side of...
40k Wrong Side of History Newsletter #61
4 months ago
TheCollector
Anubis: The Secrets of the Egyptian God of the Underworld Like most Egyptian deities, Anubis was a complex god with varied associations and whose importance...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
Like most Egyptian deities, Anubis was a complex god with varied associations and whose importance and domains evolved and changed from early dynastic to Greco-Roman times. Anubis was the original Egyptian god of the dead and one of the oldest known deities, but later...
The Scholar's Stage
Five Fundamentals of Chinese Grand Strategy Last month Civic Future invited me to join a panel at their annual policy forum. The topic: what the...
a year ago
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a year ago
Last month Civic Future invited me to join a panel at their annual policy forum. The topic: what the United Kingdom should do about China. As I am neither a British citizen nor an expert in British affairs, I thought it impolitic to lecture my hosts on how they should be...
TheCollector
The Innovative Methods That Allowed the Mongols to Create a Vast Empire During the 13th century, the Mongols stormed onto the world stage to create one of the largest...
a week ago
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a week ago
During the 13th century, the Mongols stormed onto the world stage to create one of the largest empires the world had ever seen. Despite their reputation for barbarity, the way they approached both warfare and governance was highly calculated and organized. The Mongols fostered a...
Open Culture
See Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Visualized in Colorfully Animated Scores Music is often described as the most abstract of all the arts, and arguably the least visual as...
6 months ago
48
6 months ago
Music is often described as the most abstract of all the arts, and arguably the least visual as well. But these qualities, which seem so basic to the nature of the form, have been challenged for at least three centuries, not least by composers themselves. Take Antonio Vivaldi,...
TheCollector
Sacred Stones: The Enduring Legacy of Ancient Greek Temples Despite initial impressions, ancient Greek temples were not built to impress 21st-century tourists;...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
Despite initial impressions, ancient Greek temples were not built to impress 21st-century tourists; they were made to house gods. Although the statues are gone and the ceremonies have long since ended, these places still hold a quiet kind of power. It’s not just the scale of the...
Flashbak
A Day In The Life Of C.S. Lewis – Author of The Chronicle of Narnia “I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstairs indoor silences, attics explored in...
a year ago
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a year ago
“I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstairs indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes, and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also, of endless books.” ― C.S. Lewis     In his 1955 book Surprised by joy : the...
TheCollector
10 Beautiful Libraries in the U.S. You Should Visit Libraries have long stood as pillars of knowledge and culture, evolving from ancient archives to...
6 months ago
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6 months ago
Libraries have long stood as pillars of knowledge and culture, evolving from ancient archives to modern public institutions. The earliest known libraries date back to the 7th century B.C., such as the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, which housed a vast collection of cuneiform...
Flashbak
Y Viva Espana: The Great British Package Holiday In Photos When in June 1987, Shirley Baker photographed passengers at England’s Manchester Airport, many of...
a year ago
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a year ago
When in June 1987, Shirley Baker photographed passengers at England’s Manchester Airport, many of them would have been on their way to sunny Spain as part of their package holiday. Jake Clark first arrived there in the late 1960s when his parents moved to a fishing village in...
Flashbak
Painting America’s Great Divide : Horace Pippin And Mr. Prejudice “The pictures which I have already painted come to me in my mind, and if to me it is a worth while...
a year ago
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a year ago
“The pictures which I have already painted come to me in my mind, and if to me it is a worth while picture, I paint it” – Horace Pippin   Winston Churchill waved his fingers in a V for Victory and the united British went to war against a common enemy. When the United States …...
TheCollector
Discover Caral-Supe: The Cradle of Civilization in the Americas Cradles of civilization are regions where humans developed complex social systems independently....
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Cradles of civilization are regions where humans developed complex social systems independently. There are six accepted cradles of civilization: Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, China, Olmec, and Caral-Supe. The first societies all formed around agriculture. The Caral-Supe, who emerged...
Classical Wisdom
Ancient Statism Classical Wisdom Litterae: Government
a month ago
TheCollector
The History of Georgia: Between Europe and Asia The country of Georgia is located in the southern Caucasus where Europe meets Asia. The region has...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
The country of Georgia is located in the southern Caucasus where Europe meets Asia. The region has often found itself at the crossroads of empires. After unification in the 11th century CE, the kingdom of Georgia experienced a Golden Age in the 12th century. Mongol invasion and...
TheCollector
15 Essential Art Terms You Should Know Navigating the art world can be tricky. Over centuries of existence, art theory and criticism have...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
Navigating the art world can be tricky. Over centuries of existence, art theory and criticism have amassed thousands of specific terms related to artworks, their makers, and the characteristics of both. Do you know what provenance, perspective, or proportion mean when we are...
Dreams of Space -...
Lift-off: The Story of Rocket Power (1963) A very nice 1963 book about rocket propulsion. It was written for the "little engineer" and has some...
a year ago
17
a year ago
A very nice 1963 book about rocket propulsion. It was written for the "little engineer" and has some very nice illustrations of the construction of rockets. Coombs, Charles. Illustrated by Foor, R. H. Lift-off: The Story of Rocket Power. New York: William Morrow and Co. (96 p.)...
TheCollector
How Did Queen Victoria’s Childhood Impact Her Reign? Queen Victoria is as well known for leading the second longest reign in England, as she is for her...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Queen Victoria is as well known for leading the second longest reign in England, as she is for her iron will. Her childhood, however, was a lonely one of solitude, dominated by her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and Sir John Conroy who wished to “help” Victoria, while also securing...
TheCollector
What Were Wizard Merlin’s Historical Origins? Merlin is one of the most famous figures from the Arthurian legends. He is the infamous wizard who...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
Merlin is one of the most famous figures from the Arthurian legends. He is the infamous wizard who served and guided King Arthur throughout his reign. In some versions of the tale, he was entrusted with raising Arthur as a youth. In reality, the development of this legendary...
TheCollector
What is Protestantism? Beliefs and Key Ideas of a Major Christian Branch The three major branches of Christianity are Roman Catholicism (approx. 50%), Protestantism (approx....
3 months ago
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3 months ago
The three major branches of Christianity are Roman Catholicism (approx. 50%), Protestantism (approx. 37%), and Eastern Orthodoxy (approx. 12%). Although Protestantism has a foothold across the globe, it seems strongest in North America, Northern Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa,...
History Today Feed
A Royal Skeleton in the Chapel A Royal Skeleton in the Chapel JamesHoare Thu, 06/12/2025 - 07:00
2 months ago
TheCollector
Women Surrealist Artists Set New Records at Auction Yesterday, the first evening of Christie’s May marquee week in New York began with the sale of 38...
3 months ago
24
3 months ago
Yesterday, the first evening of Christie’s May marquee week in New York began with the sale of 38 works from the collection of Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio and his wife Louise. The Riggio collection is the most valuable single-owner collection to hit the auction block in...
Trying to Understand...
The Long Run. The future belongs to them.
7 months ago
African History...
The ancient city of Meroe: the capital of Kush (ca. 950 BC-350 CE) Journal of African cities: chapter 15
10 months ago
Classical Wisdom
Antigone Storms and Tyrants
7 months ago
TheCollector
How Did the Minoan Octopus Vase Get Cracked? Valuable ancient artefacts provide a direct connection to human history by revealing details such as...
5 months ago
31
5 months ago
Valuable ancient artefacts provide a direct connection to human history by revealing details such as the old ways of life and the tools used at that time. They also provide valuable evolutionary insights that reveal how certain groups of people evolved from bygone eras. This is...
Flashbak
Harry Clarke’s 24 Sinsiter Illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination,... By the time Harry Clarke (17 March 1889 – 6 January 1931) came to illustrate Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
By the time Harry Clarke (17 March 1889 – 6 January 1931) came to illustrate Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination in 1919, the work first published in 1902 had already been illustrated by Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac and Gustave Doré. Those were tough acts to...