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TheCollector
Who Was Rudolf Steiner? (Life and Philosophy) undefined
5 hours ago
Flashbak
Christy Rupp: Rat Patrol in New York City, 1979 In 1979, American artist Christy Rupp (born 1949) created a street poster of a prowling, life-sized...
7 hours ago
2
7 hours ago
In 1979, American artist Christy Rupp (born 1949) created a street poster of a prowling, life-sized rat. With a keen interest in animal behaviour and habitat, Rupp’s popster coincided with a three-week strike by NYC sanitation workers. As the rubbish bags piled up on the city’s...
TheCollector
What Is the Difference Between Sunni and Shia Islam? undefined
7 hours ago
Wrong Side of...
Democracy vs liberalism in the heart of Europe ‘All state authority is derived from the people’
9 hours ago
TheCollector
10 Must-Visit Historic Towns in Mississippi undefined
9 hours ago
TheCollector
Aristotle’s Unexplored Discovery: Being as Implication undefined
11 hours ago
Dreams of Space -...
Die Mondexpedition (1966) Die Mondexpedition is the original  German book that was translated into English in 1969 as The Log...
17 hours ago
4
17 hours ago
Die Mondexpedition is the original  German book that was translated into English in 1969 as The Log of a Moon Expedition. It's full title at the time was Die Mondexpedition: 14 Mal 24 Stunden auf dem Mond roughly translated as The Lunar Expedition: 14 times on the moon for 24...
Global Inequality...
Poison for the soul Review of David Lay Williams’s “The Greatest of All Plagues”
18 hours ago
TheCollector
Why European Militaries Collectively Downsized After the Cold War undefined
21 hours ago
TheCollector
North America to Get its First Leonardo da Vinci Museum undefined
23 hours ago
A Collection of...
Collections: The Siege of Eregion, Part I: What Logistics? This is the first part of our [I don’t know; a few?] part series looking at the Siege of Eregion...
yesterday
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yesterday
This is the first part of our [I don’t know; a few?] part series looking at the Siege of Eregion sequence from the second season of Amazon’s Rings of Power and what we can learn by pointing out its missteps. And I’m not going to bury the lede here: this entire sequence is a mess....
TheCollector
Leahy Law: Context, Overview, & History undefined
yesterday
Classical Wisdom
The Colosseum Rome's Iconic Arena
yesterday
TheCollector
Bodhidharma: The Legendary Founder of Kung Fu & Zen (Myth vs Facts) undefined
yesterday
CrimethInc.
Become an Anarchist or Forever Hold Your Peace As Donald Trump and Elon Musk subordinate the United States government to their pursuit of...
yesterday
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yesterday
As Donald Trump and Elon Musk subordinate the United States government to their pursuit of totalitarian power, Democrats remain in a defensive posture, accusing them of lawlessness. But neither courts nor laws will suffice to halt the descent into autocracy. Massive numbers of...
TheCollector
How Did the Arrival of Europeans Change North America? undefined
yesterday
Open Culture
How Do You Use AI in Your Daily Life? Share the Applications That Have Made a Big Difference Image by Jernej Furman, via Wikimedia Commons It would be difficult to imagine the last couple of...
yesterday
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yesterday
Image by Jernej Furman, via Wikimedia Commons It would be difficult to imagine the last couple of years without artificial intelligence, even if you don’t use it. Can you recall the last day without some AI-related news item or social-media post — or indeed, a time when the hype...
Open Culture
A Behind-the-Scenes Tour of Saturday Night Live’s Iconic Studio To help celebrate SNL’s 50th anniversary, Architectural Digest has released a new video featuring...
yesterday
3
yesterday
To help celebrate SNL’s 50th anniversary, Architectural Digest has released a new video featuring Heidi Gardner, Chloe Fineman, and Ego Nwodim giving a tour of the Saturday Night Live set. The show has been broadcasting live from Studio 8H, located at 30 Rockefeller, since SNL...
TheCollector
10 Historic Towns in Germany You Should Visit undefined
yesterday
History Today Feed
Curbing the Power of the Popes Curbing the Power of the Popes JamesHoare Fri, 02/21/2025 - 07:00
yesterday
TheCollector
Don Quixote: Was the First Modern Novel Born in Captivity? undefined
yesterday
The Scholar's Stage
The Euro-American Split (I): Dread Possibility THERE ARE DECADES WHEN possibility is constrained in a narrow frame. The terrain has been surveyed,...
yesterday
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yesterday
THERE ARE DECADES WHEN possibility is constrained in a narrow frame. The terrain has been surveyed, boundaries have been laid, and rules have been established. In such an age there is still room for high drama: The decisive round of a boxing match draws the eye despite the...
TheCollector
El Greco Altarpieces Reunited For First Time in 200 Years undefined
2 days ago
TheCollector
The Battle of Shiloh: A Battle in Two Parts undefined
2 days ago
Patterns in Humanity
Sub-replacement fertility in pre-baby boom Europe Past perspectives on fertility decline
2 days ago
Flashbak
The International Atlas of Clouds and of States of the Sky by the Office National Météorologique,... “Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I go To heal my heart and drown my woe Rain may fall, and wind may blow...
2 days ago
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2 days ago
“Ho! Ho! Ho! To the bottle I go To heal my heart and drown my woe Rain may fall, and wind may blow And many miles be still to go But under a tall tree will I lie And let the clouds go sailing by” — J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring     … Continue reading "The...
TheCollector
What We Know About Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ So Far undefined
2 days ago
TheCollector
7 of the Most Inhospitable Places on Earth undefined
2 days ago
TheCollector
The Complex and Contentious History of Crimea undefined
2 days ago
TheCollector
Connecting the Wrong Dots: What Is Apophenia? undefined
2 days ago
Open Culture
The Architectural History of the Louvre: 800 Years in Three Minutes Setting aside just one day for the Louvre is a classic first-time Paris visitor’s mistake. The place...
2 days ago
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2 days ago
Setting aside just one day for the Louvre is a classic first-time Paris visitor’s mistake. The place is simply too big to comprehend on one visit, or indeed on ten visits. To grow so vast has taken eight centuries, a process explained in under three minutes by the official video...
History Today Feed
How Have Cults Shaped American History? How Have Cults Shaped American History? JamesHoare Thu, 02/20/2025 - 08:36
2 days ago
TheCollector
10 Locations from the Odyssey and Their Real-Life Counterparts undefined
2 days ago
History Today Feed
Delivering the Chinese Post Office Delivering the Chinese Post Office JamesHoare Thu, 02/20/2025 - 07:00
2 days ago
Open Culture
Optical Poems by Oskar Fischinger: Discover the Avant-Garde Animator Despised by Hitler & Dissed by... At a time when much of animation was consumed with little anthropomorphized animals sporting white...
2 days ago
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2 days ago
At a time when much of animation was consumed with little anthropomorphized animals sporting white gloves, Oskar Fischinger went in a completely different direction. His work is all about dancing geometric shapes and abstract forms spinning around a flat featureless background....
TheCollector
Satyrs in Greek Art: Rowdy Party Animals undefined
2 days ago
TheCollector
Attalid Kingdom of Pergamon: A Great Power of the Hellenistic World undefined
3 days ago
Classical Wisdom
The Top 10 Pre-Socratics, ahem, Natural Philosophers Time to Rename "the tyrants of the spirit"?
3 days ago
TheCollector
Egypt Announces First Royal Tomb Discovery Since King Tut undefined
3 days ago
Classical Wisdom
Who Were the "Pre-Socratics"? Classical Wisdom Litterae
3 days ago
TheCollector
5 Women in Epistemology You Should Know undefined
3 days ago
TheCollector
Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence: A Metaphor for Embracing Life undefined
3 days ago
Flashbak
Cover Stars of The Face Magazine – Photos 1980 – 2004 There’s a new exhibition of The Face, the glossy British magazine that through the 80s and 90s was...
3 days ago
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3 days ago
There’s a new exhibition of The Face, the glossy British magazine that through the 80s and 90s was the lightning rod of the progress of popular culture and styled a generation. The Face was well produced, designed and written monthly with music at its core but an expanded focus...
TheCollector
What Is Black History Month? undefined
3 days ago
Open Culture
Watch David Byrne Lead a Massive Choir in Singing David Bowie’s “Heroes” Throughout the years, we’ve featured performances of Choir!Choir!Choir!–a large amateur choir from...
3 days ago
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3 days ago
Throughout the years, we’ve featured performances of Choir!Choir!Choir!–a large amateur choir from Toronto that meets weekly and sings their hearts out. You’ve seen them sing Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” (to honor Chris Cornell) and Leonard Cohen’s...
Open Culture
Hear the Jazz-Funk Musical Adaptation of Dune by David Matthews (1977) Even if you’ve never read Frank Herbert’s Dune, you may well have encountered its adaptations to a...
3 days ago
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3 days ago
Even if you’ve never read Frank Herbert’s Dune, you may well have encountered its adaptations to a variety of other media: comic books, video games, board games, television series, and of course films, David Lynch’s 1984 version and Denis Villeneuve’s two-parter earlier this...
History Today Feed
‘The Great Siege of Malta’ by Marcus Bull review ‘The Great Siege of Malta’ by Marcus Bull review JamesHoare Wed, 02/19/2025 - 08:00
3 days ago
Trying to Understand...
What We Talk About, When We Talk About Talks. The End may be further away than you think.
3 days ago
History Today Feed
Pelayo: the Reluctant Visigoth and the Reconquista Pelayo: the Reluctant Visigoth and the Reconquista JamesHoare Wed, 02/19/2025 - 07:00
3 days ago
TheCollector
What Did Albert Camus Really Mean by the Absurd? undefined
3 days ago
TheCollector
Post-Modern Stoics? The Revival of Stoicism in the Late 20th Century undefined
4 days ago
TheCollector
Lost Camille Claudel Sculpture Sells for $3.8 Million undefined
4 days ago
Wrong Side of...
The lone wolves of Germany Why weak states resort to collective punishment of citizens
4 days ago
TheCollector
The Battle of Navarino: The Last Battle of the Age of Sail undefined
4 days ago
Hidden History
The Vigenere Cipher The Vigenere Cipher is an encryption system that was developed over 500 years ago, and a variant of...
4 days ago
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4 days ago
The Vigenere Cipher is an encryption system that was developed over 500 years ago, and a variant of it was still being used by Soviet KGB spies in the 1950s. Ever since people have been writing, they have been searching for ways to make their written messages secure. This has...
TheCollector
The Stono Rebellion: America’s Largest Slave Uprising undefined
4 days ago
TheCollector
What Was the Role of Judges in Ancient Israel Before It Became a Monarchy? undefined
4 days ago
Open Culture
Why Are the Names of British Towns & Cities So Hard to Pronounce?: A Humorous But Informative Primer When they make their first transoceanic voyage, more than a few Americans choose to go to England,...
4 days ago
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4 days ago
When they make their first transoceanic voyage, more than a few Americans choose to go to England, on the assumption that, whatever culture shock they might experience, at least none of the difficulties will be linguistic. Only when it’s too late do they discover the true meaning...
History Today Feed
Adolphe Sax’s Brass Wars Adolphe Sax’s Brass Wars JamesHoare Tue, 02/18/2025 - 08:00
4 days ago
History Today Feed
The Firebombing of Tokyo The Firebombing of Tokyo JamesHoare Tue, 02/18/2025 - 07:00
4 days ago
TheCollector
Who Was Ruby Bridges? undefined
4 days ago
Open Culture
When William S. Burroughs Appeared on Saturday Night Live: His First TV Appearance (1981) Though he never said so directly, we might expect that Situationist Guy Debord would have included...
4 days ago
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4 days ago
Though he never said so directly, we might expect that Situationist Guy Debord would have included Saturday Night Live in what he called the “Spectacle”—the mass media presentation of a totalizing reality, “the ruling order’s nonstop discourse about itself, its never-ending...
TheCollector
What Is Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom? undefined
5 days ago
Classical Wisdom
The American Cincinnatus Washington's Great Inspiration
5 days ago
TheCollector
Is Perfection a Real Thing? undefined
5 days ago
Overcoming Bias
Futarchy And Self-Dealing Governance Compared to divided government, a more central government has stronger incentives to help the polity...
5 days ago
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5 days ago
Compared to divided government, a more central government has stronger incentives to help the polity as a whole.
TheCollector
What Is the Earliest Evidence for King Arthur? undefined
5 days ago
Flashbak
Marvels of the Universe, 1912 – Curious Scientific Illustrations From A Compendium of Life First published in 1912, readers could learn all things about everything in Marvels of the Universe...
5 days ago
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5 days ago
First published in 1912, readers could learn all things about everything in Marvels of the Universe : a popular work on the marvels of the heavens, the earth, plant life, animal life, the mighty deep. It was published as a periodical in London by Hutchinson and Company, founded...
TheCollector
WWII Bombers: The Aircraft That Shaped the War undefined
5 days ago
Open Culture
Brian Eno Attempts to Figure Out What Art Does in a New Book Co-Written with Artist Bette A Brian Eno was thinking about the purpose of art a decade ago, as evidenced by his 2015 John Peel...
5 days ago
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5 days ago
Brian Eno was thinking about the purpose of art a decade ago, as evidenced by his 2015 John Peel Lecture (previously featured here on Open Culture). But he was also thinking about it three decades ago, as evidenced by A Year with Swollen Appendices, his diary of the year 1995...
Open Culture
Watch the Historic First Episode of Saturday Night Live with Host George Carlin (1975) 50 years of Saturday Night Live. It all started here with this first episode, aired on October 11,...
5 days ago
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5 days ago
50 years of Saturday Night Live. It all started here with this first episode, aired on October 11, 1975. George Carlin hosted the show. Billy Preston and Janis Ian served up the music. Jim Henson staged an elaborate puppet show. And “the Not Ready for Prime Time Players”...
History Today Feed
Diocletian’s Great Persecution Diocletian’s Great Persecution JamesHoare Mon, 02/17/2025 - 08:56
5 days ago
History Today Feed
The Great German Peasant’s War The Great German Peasant’s War JamesHoare Mon, 02/17/2025 - 08:55
5 days ago
Open Culture
Inside SNL: Al Franken Reveals How Saturday Night Live Is Crafted Every Week As Saturday Night Live celebrates its 50th anniversary, Al Franken takes you inside the making of an...
5 days ago
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5 days ago
As Saturday Night Live celebrates its 50th anniversary, Al Franken takes you inside the making of an SNL episode. He should know a thing or two about the subject. Part of the original SNL writing team, Franken spent 15 years writing and performing for the show. (Anyone remember...
TheCollector
The 54th Massachusetts: The Heroic Black Union Regiment undefined
5 days ago
TheCollector
Is This the Best of All Possible Worlds? Leibniz vs. Voltaire undefined
6 days ago
TheCollector
Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus”: How to Find Happiness undefined
6 days ago
Classical Wisdom
Weekend Quiz Lots and Lots of Love
6 days ago
African History...
Internal diasporas and the state in African history The Wangara chronicle, one of West Africa's oldest surviving historical texts composed around 1650,...
6 days ago
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6 days ago
The Wangara chronicle, one of West Africa's oldest surviving historical texts composed around 1650, contains an interesting account explaining the migration of a group of scholars from medieval Malī against the wishes of its ruler:
TheCollector
Behind the Bullet Holes: A Roadtrip Through Bosnia and Herzegovina undefined
6 days ago
TheCollector
An Unforgettable Journey: Who was Vera Brittain? undefined
6 days ago
TheCollector
Here’s What to Know About the World’s Oldest Republic undefined
6 days ago
TheCollector
10 Myths About the Greek God Apollo undefined
6 days ago
Overcoming Bias
Futarchy and the Transfer Problem I recently tweeted on the ineffectiveness of Medicine, and thus on waste we could cut by cutting...
6 days ago
Global Inequality...
Trump, the state and the revolution To say that Trump in his new incarnation is different from the Trump No.
a week ago
TheCollector
The Harlem Renaissance: Its Social and Cultural Impact undefined
a week ago
Flashbak
Grant Wood: America The Sensual Grant Wood’s most famous picture is American Gothic (1930), that painting stepped in storytelling...
a week ago
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a week ago
Grant Wood’s most famous picture is American Gothic (1930), that painting stepped in storytelling and subversive wit of two farmers looking lean, staid and weather-beaten as they stand guard before their lean and staid home. But there’s lot more to him that than hit. Wood was a...
TheCollector
Imperialism vs Colonialism: Key Differences Explained undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
The Manila Galleons & Trans-Pacific Trade: What Did They Carry? undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
Literary Genius: Who Was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? undefined
a week ago
Wrong Side of...
Rome’s miserable fate The Year of the Plague #3
a week ago
TheCollector
10 Must-Visit Historic Towns Near Houston, Texas undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
Harriet Ann Jacobs: An Enslaved Woman’s Journey to Freedom undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
1969: How the Troubles Started in Northern Ireland undefined
a week ago
A Collection of...
Fireside Friday, February 14, 2025 (On Grant Funding) Hey folks! Happy Valentine’s Day. Fireside this week and then hopefully next week we’ll start into...
a week ago
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a week ago
Hey folks! Happy Valentine’s Day. Fireside this week and then hopefully next week we’ll start into our look at the Siege of Eregion in Season 2 of Rings of Power and also the larger Tolkien legendarium. I confess, watching the show, my suspension of disbelief fell much faster...
TheCollector
Who Is the Morrigan in Celtic Mythology? undefined
a week ago
Classical Wisdom
Greek Mythology's Greatest Love Story Cupid and Psyche
a week ago
TheCollector
Darius III: The Persian King Who Fought Alexander the Great undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
What Are Wilkie Collins’ Contributions to Victorian Literature? undefined
a week ago
Open Culture
Meet Jesse Welles, the Folk Singer Who Turns News into Folk Music, Writing Songs on Elections, Plane... At first glance, Jesse Welles resembles nothing so much as a time traveler from the year 1968....
a week ago
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a week ago
At first glance, Jesse Welles resembles nothing so much as a time traveler from the year 1968. That’s how I would open a profile about him, but The New York Times’ David Peisner takes a different approach, describing him recording a song in his home studio. “Welles, a...
Open Culture
Flannery O’Connor: Friends Don’t Let Friends Read Ayn Rand In a letter dated May 31, 1960, Flannery O’Connor, the author best known for her classic story, “A...
a week ago
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a week ago
In a letter dated May 31, 1960, Flannery O’Connor, the author best known for her classic story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (listen to her read the story here) penned a letter to her friend, the playwright Maryat Lee. It begins rather abruptly, likely because it’s responding to...
TheCollector
10 Must-Visit Historic Towns Near Phoenix, Arizona undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
The History of Slavery in the United States From Beginning to End undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
Roman Basilica Remains Found Beneath London Office undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
Ancient Greek vs. Roman Religion: What’s the Difference? undefined
a week ago
Res Obscura
Happy Lupercalia A special discount on subscriptions in honor of the Roman wolf holiday
a week ago
Classical Wisdom
Fun Fact: The Other Types of Love Can you think of 30 meanings of “Love”?
a week ago
Overcoming Bias
Reenacting Trauma So far I’ve watched 34 episodes of Couples Therapy, wherein Dr.
a week ago
TheCollector
Heracles Captures Cerberus: The Hero’s Twelfth Labor undefined
a week ago
Wrong Side of...
The beautiful rebirth of Dresden (2) A city rises from the ashes
a week ago
Wrong Side of...
The beautiful rebirth of Dresden (1) The Florence on the Elbe
a week ago
TheCollector
Magic in Ancient Egypt: How Did It Influence Daily Life? undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
The London Beer Flood: How Did It Happen? undefined
a week ago
Open Culture
How the Fairlight CMI Synthesizer Revolutionized Music In the credits of Phil Collins’ No Jacket Required appears the disclaimer that “there is no...
a week ago
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a week ago
In the credits of Phil Collins’ No Jacket Required appears the disclaimer that “there is no Fairlight on this record.” Cryptic though it may have appeared to most of that album’s many buyers, technology-minded musicians would’ve got it. In the half-decades since its introduction,...
Flashbak
The Art of Erotic Ex Libris (NSFW) Ex Libris is a Latin phrase that translates as “from the books”. Also known as bookplates, Ex Libris...
a week ago
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a week ago
Ex Libris is a Latin phrase that translates as “from the books”. Also known as bookplates, Ex Libris were first used in Germany in the 15th Century. These designs are pasted into a book’s inside cover or endpaper as a sign of ownership. The first books were highly valuable and...
History Today Feed
Searching for the Soul of the Beaver Searching for the Soul of the Beaver JamesHoare Thu, 02/13/2025 - 09:28
a week ago
CrimethInc.
The Students Walk Out in Los Angeles : A Report from the Streets In the opening weeks of Donald Trump’s second presidency, some of the fiercest expressions of...
a week ago
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a week ago
In the opening weeks of Donald Trump’s second presidency, some of the fiercest expressions of defiance have come from the communities that Trump is threatening to attack. In Los Angeles, students have engaged in weeks of walkouts and other protests against the mass deportations...
TheCollector
10 Historic Sites in London You Should Visit undefined
a week ago
Open Culture
Jane Austen Used Pins to Edit Her Manuscripts: Before the Word Processor & White-Out Before the word processor, before White-Out, before Post-It Notes, there were straight pins. Or, at...
a week ago
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a week ago
Before the word processor, before White-Out, before Post-It Notes, there were straight pins. Or, at least that’s what Jane Austen used to make edits in one of her rare manuscripts. In 2011, Oxford’s Bodleian Library acquired the manuscript of Austen’s abandoned novel, The...
TheCollector
NAACP: A Century of Fighting for Civil Rights undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
Heracles Steals the Golden Apples: The Hero’s Eleventh Labor undefined
a week ago
Classical Wisdom
What is Love? Daphnis, Chloe and the Ancient Novel
a week ago
TheCollector
Art Institute of Chicago Acquires Over 2,000 French Artworks undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
The Mystery of Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved: 6 Possible Candidates undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
How & Why Did the Yuan Dynasty Restore Christianity in China? undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
Did the Convoy System Save Britain in World War I? undefined
a week ago
Open Culture
What It Was Like to Get a Meal at a Medieval Tavern At least since The Canterbury Tales, the setting of the medieval tavern has held out the promise of...
a week ago
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a week ago
At least since The Canterbury Tales, the setting of the medieval tavern has held out the promise of adventure. For their customer base during the actual Middle Ages, however, they had more utilitarian virtues. “If you ever find yourself in the late medieval period, and you are in...
History Today Feed
‘The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages’ by Shane Bobrycki review ‘The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages’ by Shane Bobrycki review JamesHoare Wed, 02/12/2025 - 09:25
a week ago
Open Culture
Watch 10 Great German Expressionist Films: Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari & More In 1913, Germany, flush with a new nation’s patriotic zeal, looked like it might become the dominant...
a week ago
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a week ago
In 1913, Germany, flush with a new nation’s patriotic zeal, looked like it might become the dominant nation of Europe and a real rival to that global superpower Great Britain. Then it hit the buzzsaw of World War I. After the German government collapsed in 1918 from the economic...
Trying to Understand...
Stories We Tell Each Other. Because contingency frightens us.
a week ago
TheCollector
Nike: The Greek Goddess of Victory Incarnate undefined
a week ago
CrimethInc.
Eight Things You Can Do to Stop ICE The Trump administration is paving the way for mass deportations by building new prison camps and...
a week ago
10
a week ago
The Trump administration is paving the way for mass deportations by building new prison camps and invoking the Alien Enemies Act, which was used to justify the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Motivated by nativism and white nationalism, Steven Miller and...
TheCollector
How Linda Nochlin Brought Feminism Into Art History undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
Mysterious Portrait Found Under Early Picasso Painting undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
Sotheby’s First Saudi Arabia Sale Brings in $17.3 Million undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
5 Infamous Pirates That You’ve Never Heard Of undefined
a week ago
Hidden History
The Sobibor Rebellion In October 1943, inmates at the Nazi extermination camp in Sobibor, in Poland, organized an uprising...
a week ago
9
a week ago
In October 1943, inmates at the Nazi extermination camp in Sobibor, in Poland, organized an uprising that destroyed the camp and led to the escape of hundreds of prisoners. In January 1942, a group of fifteen Nazi government officials met in the Wannsee suburb of Berlin with...
Wrong Side of...
The case against child voters Votes at 16 is the most cynical of politics
a week ago
TheCollector
Everything You Need to Know About Cryptography (History & Examples) undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
Could World War II Mines Still Be Active Today? undefined
a week ago
Open Culture
Horrifying 1906 Illustrations of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds: Discover the Art of Henrique Alvim... H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds has terrified and fascinated readers and writers for decades since its...
a week ago
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a week ago
H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds has terrified and fascinated readers and writers for decades since its 1898 publication and has inspired numerous adaptations. The most notorious use of Wells’ book was by Orson Welles, whom the author called “my little namesake,” and whose 1938 War...
Flashbak
Illustrations from Lorenz Oken’s Atlas of Living Things, 1833-1834 These wonderful illustrations of a broad variety of fora fauna are from German naturalist Lorenz...
a week ago
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a week ago
These wonderful illustrations of a broad variety of fora fauna are from German naturalist Lorenz Oken’s huge atlas of living things, the Allgemeine Naturgeschichte für alle Stände atlas (1833-1834) (General natural history for all classes). Published over seven instalments, its...
Open Culture
Tracing English Back to Its Oldest Known Ancestor: An Introduction to Proto-Indo-European People understand evolution in all sorts of different ways. We’ve all heard a variety of folk...
a week ago
8
a week ago
People understand evolution in all sorts of different ways. We’ve all heard a variety of folk explanations of that all-important phenomenon, from “survival of the fittest” to “humans come from monkeys,” that run the spectrum from broadly correct to badly mangled. One less often...
History Today Feed
On the Spot: Geoffrey Parker On the Spot: Geoffrey Parker JamesHoare Tue, 02/11/2025 - 08:25
a week ago
TheCollector
Toussaint L’Ouverture: A Biography of the Haitian Revolutionary undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
Heracles Steals the Mares of Diomedes: The Hero’s Eighth Labor undefined
a week ago
TheCollector
7 Surprising Facts About the Coca Plant You Need to Know undefined
a week ago
Classical Wisdom
Why Do We Love Violence? The Tainted Glory of the Gladiator
a week ago
Flashbak
Painted Backgrounds for Early 20th Century Photographers, 1908 Before image filters and digital backdrops added depth and interest to photographs, placing subjects...
a week ago
8
a week ago
Before image filters and digital backdrops added depth and interest to photographs, placing subjects in exquisite settings, there were hand-painted backgrounds for photography studios. Beginning in the mid-1800s, decorative backgrounds worked at the intersection of traditional...
TheCollector
What Did the Ancient Egyptians Believe About the Afterlife? undefined
a week ago
History Today Feed
‘The Brothers Grimm: A Biography’ by Ann Schmiesing review ‘The Brothers Grimm: A Biography’ by Ann Schmiesing review JamesHoare Mon, 02/10/2025 - 11:03
a week ago
TheCollector
History of Travel: Who Invented the Passport? undefined
a week ago
Open Culture
Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Who Was the Greatest Scientific Mind in History Neil deGrasse Tyson has spent his career talking up not just science itself, but also its...
a week ago
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a week ago
Neil deGrasse Tyson has spent his career talking up not just science itself, but also its practitioners. If asked to name the greatest scientist of all time, one might expect him to need a minute to think about it — or even to find himself unable to choose. But that’s hardly...
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Hear an AI Chatbot, Masquerading as a Clueless Grandmother, Waste the Time of an Internet Scam... And now for a good use of AI. The UK-based telecom company O2 has developed a chatbot (“named...
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And now for a good use of AI. The UK-based telecom company O2 has developed a chatbot (“named Daisy”) that performs a noble task. Impersonating an elderly grandmother, the chatbot engages with internet fraudsters and then systematically frustrates them and wastes their time. As...
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On the history of the Bantu expansion: old misconceptions and new evidence The southern half of the African continent is populated by speakers of about 550 closely related...
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The southern half of the African continent is populated by speakers of about 550 closely related languages that are referred to as the Bantu languages.
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The Brilliant Paper Bag Hats Made by Self-Taught Artist moses of Hawaii Born Murray Odessky on October 16, 1931, the artist who would eventually change his name to “moses”...
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Born Murray Odessky on October 16, 1931, the artist who would eventually change his name to “moses” moved to the Big Island of Hawaii and began to create 255 brilliant paper bag hats – sculptures that he donated to the Mingei Museum in San Diego, CA. Until he died in 2015, moses...
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Our Defenders (1976) Even if a bit inappropriate, given politics, here is a cool Russian pop-up book. Not really space...
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Even if a bit inappropriate, given politics, here is a cool Russian pop-up book. Not really space flight oriented but still interesting. Our Defenders was a book illustrating the Russian military including battlefield rockets. The images are stereotypical of Soviet times and an...
A Collection of...
Collections: The Strange Armor of Dragon Age: The Veilguard This week we’re going to have a bit of fun looking at some of the interesting armor choices for the...
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This week we’re going to have a bit of fun looking at some of the interesting armor choices for the recent Dragon Age: The Veilguard. In a way, this is an extension of the post on “The Problem with Sci-Fi Body Armor,” because I think Veilguard provides a pretty exceptional...
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“Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible...
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Warner Bros. Lets You Watch 31 Films Free Online: David Byrne’s True Stories, Christopher Guest’s... It’s Friday, which means that tonight, many of us will sit down to watch a movie with our family,...
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It’s Friday, which means that tonight, many of us will sit down to watch a movie with our family, our friends, our significant other, or — for some cinephiles, best of all — by ourselves. If you haven’t yet lined up any home-cinematic experience in particular, consider taking a...
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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...
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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,...
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Behold Harry Clarke’s Hallucinatory Illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe’s Story Collection, Tales of... As you’ve probably noticed if you’re a regular reader of this site, we’re big fans of book...
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As you’ve probably noticed if you’re a regular reader of this site, we’re big fans of book illustration, particularly that from the form’s golden age—the late 18th and 19th century—before photography took over as the dominant visual medium. But while photographs largely...
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Knight of Faith: Kierkegaard on Abraham’s Sacrifice undefined
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The Day the Émigrés Struck Back : Remembering May Day 2006 In 2006, students around the United States engaged in spontaneous walkouts protesting the repression...
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In 2006, students around the United States engaged in spontaneous walkouts protesting the repression of undocumented people, culminating on May Day in the first great general strike to take place in the US in the 21st century. Today, as students are once again staging walkouts...
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How Japanese Masters Turn Sand Into Swords: The Art of Traditional Sword Making from Start to Finish We made sand think: this phrase is used from time to time to evoke the particular technological...
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We made sand think: this phrase is used from time to time to evoke the particular technological wonders of our age, especially since artificial intelligence seems to be back on the slate of possibilities. While there would be no Silicon Valley without silica sand, semiconductors...
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The Englishman Who Cried ‘Let Ireland Go’ The Englishman Who Cried ‘Let Ireland Go’ JamesHoare Wed, 02/05/2025 - 09:31
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“A photographer could be considered a kind of magician. As a trained observer he can foretell the potential movements of his subjects and perhaps even by some mental intimidation… actually cause them to happen.” – Arthur Tress   Arthur Tress (Nov. 24, 1940- ) was born in...
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When Charlie Chaplin Entered a Chaplin Look-Alike Contest & Came in 20th Place Charlie Chaplin started appearing in his first films in 1914—40 films, to be precise—and, by 1915,...
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Charlie Chaplin started appearing in his first films in 1914—40 films, to be precise—and, by 1915, the United States had a major case of “Chaplinitis.” Chaplin mustaches were suddenly popping up everywhere–as were Chaplin imitators and Chaplin look-alike contests. A young Bob...
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My Status Circles Most of us have circles of concern, where we care more about folks from our inner circles than our...
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Cloud Gate, Chicago’s “Bean” This futuristic sculpture in Millennium Park has become an icon of Chicago. In 1997, the city of...
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This futuristic sculpture in Millennium Park has become an icon of Chicago. In 1997, the city of Chicago was making plans for a patch of land near Grant Park on the shore of Lake Michigan that had previously been a parking lot and a railroad yard. At first, there was talk of...
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We can all remember seeing images of medieval Europeans wearing pointy shoes, but most of us have paid scant attention to the shoes themselves. That may be for the best, since the more we dwell on one fact of life in the Middle Ages or another, the more we imagine how...
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‘The Price of Victory’ by N.A.M. Rodger review ‘The Price of Victory’ by N.A.M. Rodger review JamesHoare Tue, 02/04/2025 - 09:31
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“These days, it’s, ‘Dude, what the fuck is that shit?’ Whereas back then, it was, ‘You are exploiting women, you filthy sexist pig!'” – Vince Collins on his shot animation Malice In Wonderland     When Vince Collins made Malice in Wonderland in 1982, his hallucinatory,...
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Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America: Unable to Know “What’s True,” We Will Slide, “Without... Image by Kenneth Zirkel, via Wikimedia Commons There have been many theories of how human history...
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10
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Image by Kenneth Zirkel, via Wikimedia Commons There have been many theories of how human history works. Some, like German thinker G.W.F. Hegel, have thought of progress as inevitable. Others have embraced a more static view, full of “Great Men” and an immutable natural...
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Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Drawings Make First U.S. Visit undefined
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The Will Eisner M-16 U.S. Army Rifle Maintenance Booklet, 1968 The M-16 U.S. Army Rifle Maintenance Booklet was distributed to every U.S. soldier from 1968-1972...
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The M-16 U.S. Army Rifle Maintenance Booklet was distributed to every U.S. soldier from 1968-1972 during the Vietnam war. Originally sealed in plastic to accommodate weather concerns, and for jungle distribution, the 32 page M-16 booklet featured art by Will Eisner Studios. The...
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Has SpaceX Done Anything NASA Hasn’t? Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains His “Feud” with Elon Musk One would count neither Elon Musk nor Neil deGrasse Tyson among the most reserved public figures of...
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9
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One would count neither Elon Musk nor Neil deGrasse Tyson among the most reserved public figures of the twenty-first century. Given the efforts Musk has been making to push into the business of outer space, which has long been Tyson’s intellectual domain, it’s only natural that...
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Watch the First 2+ Hours of MTV’s Inaugural Broadcast (August 1, 1981) Not everyone on August 1, 1981 had a VCR at their disposal, and not everybody stayed up until...
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9
2 weeks ago
Not everyone on August 1, 1981 had a VCR at their disposal, and not everybody stayed up until midnight. But fortunately at least one person did, in order to tape the first two hours of a new cable channel called MTV: Music Television. Did they know it would be historic? MTV...
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9 Architectural Wonders in Africa undefined
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On the spread of Traditional African religions during the pre-colonial period. Among the corpus of terracotta figurines discovered in the Greco-Egyptian city of Alexandria dating...
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13
2 weeks ago
Among the corpus of terracotta figurines discovered in the Greco-Egyptian city of Alexandria dating back to the 2nd century BC is a fine clay vessel in the form of a Nubian priestess of Isis of Philae, who is depicted in a kneeling position while performing a Greek-type mortuary...
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All Aboard for A Bus Tour of 1970s England “As a photographer, my principal subject was – and remains – the British people, I’m not interested...
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“As a photographer, my principal subject was – and remains – the British people, I’m not interested in celebrities, just ordinary folk” – Daniel Meadows   In 1973, Daniel Meadows toured Britain in his 1948 Leyland Titan PD1 double-decker bus. He met he met circus performers,...
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The Seven Deadly Sins Under Death’s Dominion by James Ensor, 1904 “…the eternal black night, death under the colourless earth” – James Ensor on his dread of death    ...
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“…the eternal black night, death under the colourless earth” – James Ensor on his dread of death     Belgian painter and printmaker James Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949) etched his Seven Deadly Sins in 1904. To hammer home the message of human foolishness, malice and the...
Hundred Rabbits
Summary of changes for January 2025 Hey everyone! This is the list of all the changes we've done to our projects during the month of...
3 weeks ago
15
3 weeks ago
Hey everyone! This is the list of all the changes we've done to our projects during the month of January. Summary Of Changes 100r.co, added a new page: tote. Added Week 8 and Week 9 of the Victoria to Sitka logbook. Tote, released the project on itch.io. Grimgrains, added a new...
Dreams of Space -...
My Weekly Reader and Gemini (1965,1966) As I got through boxes I found a couple of My Weekly Readers that I had not shared before. My Weekly...
3 weeks ago
3
3 weeks ago
As I got through boxes I found a couple of My Weekly Readers that I had not shared before. My Weekly Reader posts seem to be popular for their nostalgia effect and because as ephemera no one saved them from their youth. These particular ones are about the Gemini missions. At the...
A Collection of...
Collections: On the Gracchi, Part II: Gaius Gracchus Last time, we started our retrospective on the Gracchi looking at the elder brother Tiberius...
3 weeks ago
24
3 weeks ago
Last time, we started our retrospective on the Gracchi looking at the elder brother Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and his term as tribune of the plebs in 133 BCE; this week, we’ll wrap up this look by discussing Tiberius’ younger brother Gaius Sempronius Gracchus and his terms as...
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The Nature of Human Stupidity Explained by The 48 Laws of Power Author Robert Greene It’s practically guaranteed that we now have more stupid people on the planet than ever before. Of...
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11
3 weeks ago
It’s practically guaranteed that we now have more stupid people on the planet than ever before. Of course, we might be tempted to think; just look at how many of them disagree with my politics. But this unprecedented stupidity is primarily, if not entirely, a function of an...
Open Culture
Jean-Luc Godard Shoots Marianne Faithfull (RIP) Singing “As Tears Go By” in 1966 Note: Yesterday, Marianne Faithfull passed away at age 78. In her memory, we’re bringing back a...
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9
3 weeks ago
Note: Yesterday, Marianne Faithfull passed away at age 78. In her memory, we’re bringing back a favorite from deep in our archive. It originally appeared on our site in June 2012. When you want to learn a thing or two about Jean-Luc Godard, you turn to New Yorker film critic...
Open Culture
Google Unveils a Digital Marketing & E‑Commerce Certificate: 7 Courses Will Help Prepare Students... Several years ago, Google launched a series of Career Certificates that will “prepare learners for...
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11
3 weeks ago
Several years ago, Google launched a series of Career Certificates that will “prepare learners for an entry-level role in under six months.” Their first certificates focused on Project Management, Data Analytics, User Experience (UX) Design, IT Support and IT Automation. And they...
Open Culture
Explore a Digitized Edition of the Voynich Manuscript, “the World’s Most Mysterious Book” A 600-year-old manuscript—written in a script no one has ever decoded, filled with cryptic...
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9
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A 600-year-old manuscript—written in a script no one has ever decoded, filled with cryptic illustrations, its origins remaining to this day a mystery…. It’s not as satisfying a plot, say, of a National Treasure or Dan Brown thriller, certainly not as action-packed as...
History Today Feed
How Does History Judge Prime Ministers? How Does History Judge Prime Ministers? JamesHoare Thu, 01/30/2025 - 09:19
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How Robert Frost Wrote One of His Most Famous Poems, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” Several generations of American students have now had the experience of being told by an English...
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12
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Several generations of American students have now had the experience of being told by an English teacher that they’d been reading Robert Frost all wrong, even if they’d never read him at all. Most, at least, had seen his lines “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the...
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When the Sackler Brothers studied LSD One of the stranger episodes from the 1950s golden age of psychedelic therapy, and what it tells us...
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One of the stranger episodes from the 1950s golden age of psychedelic therapy, and what it tells us about the history of technology
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Mahatma Gandhi’s List of the Seven Social Sins; or Tips on How to Avoid Living the Bad Life Image via Wikimedia Commons In 590 AD, Pope Gregory I unveiled a list of the Seven Deadly Sins –...
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14
3 weeks ago
Image via Wikimedia Commons In 590 AD, Pope Gregory I unveiled a list of the Seven Deadly Sins – lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride – as a way to keep the flock from straying into the thorny fields of ungodliness. These days, though, for all but the most devout,...
History Today Feed
Following Threads to Colonial Barbados Following Threads to Colonial Barbados JamesHoare Wed, 01/29/2025 - 09:40
3 weeks ago
Flashbak
Loving Couples Posing For Studio Portraits in the 1970s Before the ubiquitous smart phone and achieving physical perfection through fillers and filters,...
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Before the ubiquitous smart phone and achieving physical perfection through fillers and filters, anyone seeking a professional look hired a studio photographer. These portraits of couples from the 1970s are a release from all that narcissism. The lovers paid for these pictures...
Open Culture
How Frank Lloyd Wright Became Frank Lloyd Wright: A Video Introduction Frank Lloyd Wright is unlikely to be displaced as the archetype of the genius architect anytime...
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12
3 weeks ago
Frank Lloyd Wright is unlikely to be displaced as the archetype of the genius architect anytime soon, at least in America, but even he had to start somewhere. At nine years old, as architecture YouTuber Stewart Hicks explains in the video above, Wright received a set of blocks...
Trying to Understand...
The Curse Of Zhou Bai Den. Or, masochism for fun and profit.
3 weeks ago
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It's Safer in the Front : Taking the Offensive against Tyranny Faced with intensifying repression and state violence, there is an understandable inclination to...
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Faced with intensifying repression and state violence, there is an understandable inclination to seek safety by avoiding confrontation. But this is not always the most effective strategy. “Counterintuitive though it is, in a confusing situation, often the best, if not safest,...
Classical Wisdom
One Spot Left: In Search of Homer Book Now to join me on Cephalonia
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The First Space Launch Everybody knows about the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and...
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13
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Everybody knows about the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 60s, which began with the Russian Sputnik and ended with the American moon landing. But in reality, the first man-made object to enter outer space was not Russian, and not...
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...
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10
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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...
Open Culture
Benedict Cumberbatch Reads a Letter to a Man Blow-Drying His Balls at the Gym We have featured Benedict Cumberbatch reading letters by Kurt Vonnegut, Alan Turing, Albert Camus,...
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15
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We have featured Benedict Cumberbatch reading letters by Kurt Vonnegut, Alan Turing, Albert Camus, and Nick Cave, along with passages from Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Melville’s Moby Dick. It’s all pretty heady stuff. And now it’s time for something completely different. Above, we...
History Today Feed
Forgeries, Fakes, and Phantom Time Forgeries, Fakes, and Phantom Time JamesHoare Tue, 01/28/2025 - 08:38
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Finding Ourselves on Ward 81, 1976 “They are the women we might have been or one day become” – Ward 81 by Dr Karen Jacobs and Mary Mark...
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“They are the women we might have been or one day become” – Ward 81 by Dr Karen Jacobs and Mary Mark Ellen   In 1976, photographer Mary Ellen Mark and her friend, the sociologist Dr. Karen Folger Jacobs, documented the lives of women living in the high-security, all-female wing...
Flashbak
Andy Warhol’s Life After Death: Cards, Posters And Other Post-Warhol Ephemera Andy Warhol’s star shone brighter after his death on February 22, 1987. The artist succumbed to...
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Andy Warhol’s star shone brighter after his death on February 22, 1987. The artist succumbed to cardiac arrest while in hospital for gall bladder surgery. Prolific, talented and successful in life, much of Warhol’s work only came to light after his unexpected death, such as early...
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Epicurus and The Pursuit of Happiness Tasting the Perfect Tomato
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Rats! The Year of the Plague #2
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‘The Grammar of Angels’ by Edward Wilson-Lee review ‘The Grammar of Angels’ by Edward Wilson-Lee review JamesHoare Mon, 01/27/2025 - 10:34
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How Erik Satie’s ‘Furniture Music’ Was Designed to Be Ignored and Paved the Way for Ambient Music Imagine how many times someone born in the eighteen-sixties could ever expect to hear music. The...
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13
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Imagine how many times someone born in the eighteen-sixties could ever expect to hear music. The number would vary, of course, depending on the individual’s class and family inclinations. Suffice it to say that each chance would have been more precious than those of us in the...
Open Culture
A 1933 Profile of Frida Kahlo: “Wife of the Master Mural Painter Gleefully Dabbles in Works of Art” Walter Keane—supposed painter of “Big Eyed Children” and subject of a 2014 Tim Burton film—made a...
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16
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Walter Keane—supposed painter of “Big Eyed Children” and subject of a 2014 Tim Burton film—made a killing, attaining almost Thomas Kinkade-like status in the middlebrow art market of the 1950s and 60s. As it turns out, his wife, Margaret was in fact the artist, “painting 16 hours...
African History...
The Nsibidi script ca. 600-1909 CE: a history of an African writing system Nsibidi is one of Africa's oldest independently invented writing systems.
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Weekend Roundup Leadership and the Ancients
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Manuel Orazi’s Occultist Magic Calendar Mil DCCCXCVI, 1895 This French occultist calendar illustrated in the Art Nouveau style by Italian artist and designer...
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This French occultist calendar illustrated in the Art Nouveau style by Italian artist and designer Manuel Orazi (1860 – 1934) was printed in an symbolic edition of 777 copies to commemorate magic for the coming year of 1896. Each double page uses the Christian calendar (name...
Wrong Side of...
Our philanthropists and their oligarchs Some foreign billionaires seem to be welcome in British politics
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A Collection of...
Gap Week (January 24, 2025) Hey, folks. As much as I hate doing it, I have to pull a ‘gap week’ this week, as the second part of...
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41
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Hey, folks. As much as I hate doing it, I have to pull a ‘gap week’ this week, as the second part of the Gracchi series (on the younger brother, Gaius Gracchus) isn’t done yet and I have some academic travel that I need to prepare for which is going to demand most of my …...
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Noam Chomsky Defines What It Means to Be a Truly Educated Person There may be no more contentious an issue at the level of local U.S. government than education. All...
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15
4 weeks ago
There may be no more contentious an issue at the level of local U.S. government than education. All of the socioeconomic and cultural fault lines communities would rather paper over become fully exposed in debates over funding, curriculum, districting, etc. But we rarely hear...
Flashbak
The Sun by Frans Masereel, A Story Without Words – 1919 “One discovers the light in darkness, that is what darkness is for; but everything in our lives...
4 weeks ago
65
4 weeks ago
“One discovers the light in darkness, that is what darkness is for; but everything in our lives depends on how we bear the light,” – James Baldwin, Nothing Personal      The Sun (1919) by Frans Masereel (1889–1972) opens with an artist resting his head on his desk beneath an open...
History Today Feed
The Mad Duchess Lives The Mad Duchess Lives JamesHoare Fri, 01/24/2025 - 09:10
4 weeks ago
Open Culture
Where Do You Put the Camera? Every Frame a Painting Presents Insights from Famous Directors Whether or not we believe in auteurhood, we each have our own mental image of what a film director...
4 weeks ago
12
4 weeks ago
Whether or not we believe in auteurhood, we each have our own mental image of what a film director does. But if we’ve never actually seen one at work, we’re liable not to understand what the actual experience of directing feels like: making decision after decision after decision,...
Open Culture
Coursera Offers $200 Off of Coursera Plus (Until January 27), Giving You Unlimited Access to Courses... A new deal to start a new year: Coursera is offering a $200 discount on its annual subscription plan...
4 weeks ago
16
4 weeks ago
A new deal to start a new year: Coursera is offering a $200 discount on its annual subscription plan called “Coursera Plus.” Normally priced at $399, Coursera Plus (now available for $199) gives you access to 90% of Coursera’s courses, Guided Projects, Specializations, and...
Overcoming Bias
Celebrity v CEO v Politician Why are celebrities, CEOs, and politicians three different types of people who don’t overlap much?
4 weeks ago
Classical Wisdom
How To Eat: An Ancient Guide to Healthy Living Registration *NOW* Open
4 weeks ago
Patterns in Humanity
Immigration and crime: Norway Are immigrants overrepresented in crime in Norway? And why?
4 weeks ago
Flashbak
How John Steinbeck Harnessed Desire and Self-Doubt To Write The Grapes of Wrath “This is the longest diary I ever kept. Not a diary of course but an attempt to map the actual...
a month ago
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a month ago
“This is the longest diary I ever kept. Not a diary of course but an attempt to map the actual working days and hours of a novel. If a day is skipped it will show glaringly on this record and there will be some reason given for the slip.” – John Steinbeck, Working Days, The …...
Open Culture
Revisit Pop-Up Video: The VH1 Series That Reinvented Music Videos & Pop Culture In the eighties, people lamented the attention-span-shortening “MTV-ization” of visual culture. By...
a month ago
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a month ago
In the eighties, people lamented the attention-span-shortening “MTV-ization” of visual culture. By the mid-nineties, networks were trying to figure out how to get viewers to sit through music videos at all. A solution arrived in the form of Pop-Up Video, a program pitched by...
History Today Feed
Who to Blame for Early Modern Climate Change? Who to Blame for Early Modern Climate Change? JamesHoare Thu, 01/23/2025 - 09:18
a month ago
History Today Feed
An Unreported Murder in East Germany An Unreported Murder in East Germany JamesHoare Thu, 01/23/2025 - 09:16
a month ago
Open Culture
The Oldest Beer Receipt (Circa 2050 BC) Above, we have the Alulu Beer Receipt. Written in cuneiform on an old clay tablet, the...
a month ago
18
a month ago
Above, we have the Alulu Beer Receipt. Written in cuneiform on an old clay tablet, the 4,000-year-old receipt documents a transaction. A brewer, named Alulu, delivered “the best” beer to a recipient named Ur-Amma, who apparently also served as the scribe. The Mesopotamians drank...
Res Obscura
The leading AI models are now very good historians Three case studies with GPT-4o, o1, and Claude Sonnet 3.5, and what they mean
a month ago
Wrong Side of...
Wandsworth Prison Blues It's certain that fine women eat/A crazy salad with their meat
a month ago
Trying to Understand...
The Sword Is Mightier... ...than the pen. In Ukraine anyway.
a month ago
Open Culture
Watch 950 Weather Reports Presented by David Lynch, Straight from His Los Angeles Home Los Angeles is hardly a city known for its varied weather, but if one lives there long enough, one...
a month ago
17
a month ago
Los Angeles is hardly a city known for its varied weather, but if one lives there long enough, one does become highly attuned to its many subtleties. (Granted, some of the local phenomena involved, like the notorious Santa Ana winds, can produce far-from-subtle effects.) The late...
History Today Feed
‘Man-Devil’ by John J. Callanan review ‘Man-Devil’ by John J. Callanan review JamesHoare Wed, 01/22/2025 - 09:21
a month ago