Today Gabby and I got to visit the formerly secret bunker under the famous resort of Greenbrier, West Virginia! The 11,000 acres of this elite hotel/spa/golf course/plastic surgery/horseback riding (etc) resort was also a hidden cover for a nuclear fallout shelter designed to hold 1,000 members of Congress and their staff in case Washington DC […]
The Greenbriar Bunker Read More »
This is George H.W. Bush, U.S. president from 1989-1993, and in 1995 he publically revoked his membership from the N.R.A., stating that the group “deeply offends my own sense of decency and honor; and it offends my concept of service to my country. I resign as a lifetime member of the N.R.A.”. Context is relevant
George H. W. Bush and the NRA Read More »
This marble bust of the French philosopher Voltaire (né François-Marie Arouet 1694-1778) was crafted by the admiring artist Jean-Antoine Houdin, who rendered the famed thinker multiple times during his artistic career. This bust shows Voltaire vulnerable in his old age, yet with a wry expression of humor that speaks to his legendary intelligence and abrasive
This is as close an approximation to a long-dead historical figure as we are likely to get: this is “Amir Timur” aka Tamerlane, one of history’s most brutal killers, who conquered much of Central Asia, modern Iran and Afghanistan during his lifetime of 68 years (d 1405). The reconstruction was done by a well-known Soviet
The Casualties of Timur (aka Tamerlane) Read More »
This is a re-creation of the nomadic Seljuk Turkish dynasty’s tents, as they maybe looked in the late 11th century. The Seljuks are most well known for destroying the powerful armies of the Byzantines, inspiring their emperor to request military forces from Western Europe, and hence, kick-starting the Crusades. However, this is not the most
The Seljuk Turks and the “Plain of Testicles” Read More »
Oh, boo! Now I have to get walled off in a building surrounded by my own gold and given nothing to eat until I starve! — this might as well be the caption of the illumination here from the early 1400s, illustrating the death of the last ruler of the Abbasid Dynasty, often called the
The Death of the Last Abbasid Caliph, al-Musta Read More »
The effects of relentless (often religious-based) warfare in 16th-first half of 17th centuries brought horrifying new ways to suffer and die. Due to the widespread emergence of firearms and cannons, soldiers faced gunshot wounds, burns (often caused when the equipment blew up on the combatants intending to use their weapons), and loss of limbs. Although
Medical Advancements in Early Modern European Warfare Read More »
In the wake of the Protestant Reformation in Europe (c.a. 1500-1650), warfare changed dramatically. Shown by this illustration from 1535 with two men loading fieldguns (look how fancy these cannon-sized weapons are), firearms were a major feature. Cannons and handguns replaced pikes and plate-mail armored soldiers, resulting in combats that were less direct, but caused
Innovations in Early Modern Warfare Read More »
From the 1500s through the middle of the 1600s, near constant warfare beleagured Europe, taking on new horrifying expressions. This picture shows one moment where the fighting got so bad that people put aside their differences to ally themselves with one another in order to have a break from the violence — a brief episode
The Pacification of Ghent Read More »
My vote for the uttermost macabre U.S. state motto goes to Maryland. It comes from the original seal of the state dating to the early 1600s, which bears the words running across the horizontal banner below the two male figures, stating “FATTI MASCHII PAROLE FEMINE,” and we’re just gonna need a minute to process this.
Maryland’s State Motto Read More »
The Arthrashastra, an Ancient Indian text written in Sanskrit. Dating from as early as the 2nd century BCE, it is the first diplomatic text in India’s history. It has advice on things like taxation, governance, and warfare, and tells the reader that good governance is necessary to prevent society from following the “law of the
Trofim Lysenko, the Stalinist-era biologist who tailored his scientific ideas to suit the Soviet communist party. Denying natural selection and arguing that character traits developed in a parent’s lifetime could be passed onto offspring (like Lamarck), Lysenko put the study of biology in the Soviet Union back by decades. Many actual scientists he competed against
The Knights Templar built the magnificent Castle and Convent of Christ in Tomar, Portugal, in the 12th century. But when the military religious order was dissolved and its members routed and killed after 1319, the kings of Portugal made Tomar a refuge for the monastic knights, changing their name to the Order of Christ and
Tomar, the Castle and Convent Where the Knights Templar Survived Read More »
“Now all shame is exhausted. . . For in the weakened state of the [Roman] commonwealth, things came to such a pass that . . . A foreigner, Zenobia by name, proceeded to cast about her shoulders the imperial mantle, [and was] ruling longer than could be endured from one of the female sex .
Queen Zenobia of Rome Read More »
Here’s a late 14th-century illustration of the African trading route to Ghana, one of the world’s key areas of commerce and part of the Kingdom of Mali (of Mansa Musa fame). And this map is the closet pictorial representation I could find to document the constitution of the Medieval Mali Empire, because it is actually
Medieval Mali Manden Charter Read More »
