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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...
7 months ago
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7 months 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...
Classical Wisdom
Why Do We Love Violence? The Tainted Glory of the Gladiator
7 months ago
Flashbak
Painted Backgrounds for Early 20th Century Photographers, 1908 Before image filters and digital backdrops added depth and interest to photographs, placing subjects...
7 months ago
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7 months 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...
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...
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7 months 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...
African History...
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.
Classical Wisdom
Weekend Quiz Plus Roundup of Resources
7 months ago
Flashbak
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”...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
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...
Overcoming Bias
When They Hear Less Than You Say Something must be done.
7 months ago
Wrong Side of...
‘I say the Americans really won the war’ Vietnam’s victory over communism
7 months ago
The Universe of...
A descriptive theory of seasons in the Mid-Atlantic [ I started thinking about this about twenty years ago, and then writing it down in 2019, but it...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
[ I started thinking about this about twenty years ago, and then writing it down in 2019, but it seems to be obsolete. I am publishing it anyway. ] The canonical division of the year into seasons in the northern temperate zone goes something like this: Spring: March 21 – June...
Dreams of Space -...
Our Defenders (1976) Even if a bit inappropriate, given politics, here is a cool Russian pop-up book. Not really space...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
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...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
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...
Classical Wisdom
The Goddess of Spring Flora and the Floralia Festival
7 months ago
Flashbak
Émile-Allain Séguy’s Insectes, 1925 – A Hymn To Nature In 20 Beautiful Illustrated Plates “Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no...
7 months ago
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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...
Open Culture
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,...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
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...
Wrong Side of...
Journey to the Imperial City Travels in Vietnam, Part 2
7 months ago
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...
7 months ago
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7 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,...
CrimethInc.
The Day the Émigrés Struck Back : Remembering May Day 2006 In 2006, students around the United States engaged in spontaneous walkouts protesting the repression...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
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...
Res Obscura
The familiar loneliness of the Kinetoscope One other way that the 2020s resemble the 1890s
7 months ago
Open Culture
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...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
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...
Flashbak
Magic Reality: The Eyes of Arthur Tress – in Pictures “A photographer could be considered a kind of magician. As a trained observer he can foretell the...
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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...
Trying to Understand...
Stone, Scissors, Paper. Or, Europe after Ukraine.
7 months ago
Open Culture
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,...
7 months ago
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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...
Overcoming Bias
My Status Circles Most of us have circles of concern, where we care more about folks from our inner circles than our...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Most of us have circles of concern, where we care more about folks from our inner circles than our outer circles.
Hidden History
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...
Open Culture
How Wearing Ridiculously Long Pointed Shoes Became a Medieval Fashion Trend We can all remember seeing images of medieval Europeans wearing pointy shoes, but most of us have...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
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...
Flashbak
Malice In Wonderland – the Trippy Cartoon Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Story, 1982 “These days, it’s, ‘Dude, what the fuck is that shit?’ Whereas back then, it was, ‘You are...
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7 months ago
“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,...
Wrong Side of...
Travels in Vietnam In my father's footsteps
7 months ago
Open Culture
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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7 months ago
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...
Global Inequality...
Gold, volk and IQs Hayek’s fatal conceit
7 months ago
Classical Wisdom
What’s in a name? Is Re-labeling a distraction or disruption?
7 months ago
Flashbak
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...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
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...
Open Culture
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...
7 months ago
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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...
Overcoming Bias
UFO As Aliens Odds, Spending The following are some (lognormal fit) median estimates from some X polls I just ran.
7 months ago
Classical Wisdom
Weekend Roundup Quiz Time!
7 months ago
African History...
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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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...
Flashbak
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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7 months ago
“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,...
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...
7 months ago
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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...
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7 months 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...
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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...
Classical Wisdom
Marcus Aurelius' Stoic Paradoxes Contradictions that Rewire Us
7 months ago
Wrong Side of...
What will become of the Sensitive Young Men? Wrong Side of History round-up #59
7 months ago
Open Culture
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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7 months 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...
Res Obscura
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
Patterns in Humanity
Are women better at jigsaw puzzles? An analysis of the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship
7 months ago
Wrong Side of...
Britain’s Project 2029 Can you just do things? We shall find out
7 months ago
Open Culture
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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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,...
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...
7 months ago
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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.
7 months ago